What is fellowship?
Koinonia is the Greek word most closely related to New Testament fellowship. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament defines it as “fellowship, association, community, communion or joint participation.” Koinonia embraces the idea of a close knit community where people are invested in one another.
Christian fellowship usually occurs in a small group where people can openly share their thoughts, insights and concerns with one another. Fellowship could be an “official” meeting at a set time and place or it could be two friends eating lunch together.
True fellowship, however, involves being willing to be transparent.
Transparency – oh, that can be hard.
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As we talked, that young man was able to openly confess and release to the Lord years of hurts and regrets that he had suffered. The pain he carried from the wrongs he experienced as a boy contributed to addictions and emotional enslavement, which had been destroying his life. As he began to expose and gave them to the Lord, Jesus met him in a very personal way.
I love to work in my garden. Have you ever dug a large hole in hard clay to plant a bush? I think repentance requires many of the same steps.
The other day someone posted that through grace, God finds our sin acceptable. He thus no longer “deals” with sin in our lives – and we are free of sin – because it no long exists.
The Bible has been used as a club to beat us into conformity, so we reject its plenary authority.
On Tuesday evening, I understood how Jesus felt when his disciples finally “got it” and reported back, after He sent them out to minister on their own for the first time, that the sick were healed and darkness conquered. In His joy, the Lord said He saw Satan fall from Heaven because of them.
For example, instead of being healthy, integrated people, they numb out or otherwise retreat exclusively into the realm of their minds – i.e., their analytical logic and reason – to the exclusion of their heart and their spirit.
Crossroad Junction 