True Fellowship
John Fischer

Here’s a special greeting for Andrea and the Women of Purpose from Bayview Glen Church. Andrea forwards these devotionals every day to the 65 women in her group.

Hi ladies: Greetings in the name of the Lord!

Isn’t it great to belong? To be somebody in a group? To be missed when you’re not there and welcomed when you are? And fellowship has the added dimension of the Lord in the center. It is friendship with a purpose.

In his first letter, John wrote about fellowship and what makes it special. “We are telling you about what we ourselves have actually seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We write these things so that our joy will be complete” (1 John 1:3,4).

He’s referring to the fact that he and the other disciples have personally “seen and heard” Jesus, the Christ, and because of the reality of their relationship with Him, they now have a relationship with God, and a special relationship with each other. The only thing that would make this any greater would be if those to whom they are writing were to believe and join with them in a faith relationship. This would just finish off their joy.

You see, in a true relationship in Christ we are not just friends, we are joined as one, and we cannot help but care for each other because the love is not coming from us. Christ generates it in us. We are consciously experiencing Christ's unconditional love for us when we know there is not a thing about us worth caring about, and that makes us accepting of others beyond sin, beyond pride, and beyond prejudice.

Fellowship is the tangible _expression of faith. The disciples, who had touched Jesus, then touched these new believers, who touched somebody, who touched somebody, who touched somebody, who touched somebody, and on it went, all the way down to us. And it’s the same Jesus who started it all who is now the center of our fellowship.

He’s the center of the Bayview Glen women’s Bible study. This is not just a seminar, or a club, or a therapy group, it is a living, throbbing organism, made alive by the blood of Jesus flowing out from the wounds on the cross that paid the price for all of us, and made us all acceptable to God and equal to each other. This is no small thing. People have died for this. In some parts of the world right now, people are secretly sharing in this very same fellowship because to do so openly would mean certain imprisonment and possible death. Forget MasterCard, this is priceless.

Hold on to what you’ve got, women of Bayview Glen. It’s a good thing.

PDL