October 12, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Micah

Weekly Memory Verse: Romans 12:5

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Moving has taken a toll on my family.  We are trying to squeeze ten pounds into a five pound bag, it gets a little tricky at times.  I appreciate your faithfulness in continuing the study even though it has been posted late during my move.  I packed and moved all day today, so the study will be abbreviated a bit, Please bear with me, and stay faithful to the study.  Read the notes at the back of the book on this chapter, if you can find the time, look up the references and get deeper and more serious about the forty days study.

Today’s chapter speaks to one of the really difficult problems to overcome as railroaders.  We work around the clock, and find it very difficult to get plugged into a church.  Yet that is what the Lord requires of us.  We have a few hundred excuses as to why we can’t make it to church or to fellowship, and most of the time, the Union Pacific is right up at the top.  It’s time to stop making excuses and start sharp-shooting for Sunday’s and other times that fellowship is going on. 

Ephesians 2:19 (NASB95)
¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,

1 Timothy 3:15 (NASB95)
¹⁵ but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.

Genesis 2:18 (NASB95)
¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” ^[1]

We are called to fellowship together, this goes deeper than church on Sunday’s though.  All of us desire and need relationships in our lives; God wired us that way.  He also wired us to be dependant upon other people for our needs.  Consider a community for a moment, everyone can’t fulfill the jobs of butcher, baker, and candlestick maker.  Everyone in the community searches out particular jobs that are unique to them and which makes them valuable in society.  If the local barber moved out of town on sudden notice, the community could be hurt severely, if he were the only one.  On the other hand, he will hardly be noticed in a large community.  The same is true in the Church, it is easier to become involved in a small church.  The big ones have a lot of people to minister to, but very few doing the actual ministering. 

1 Corinthians 12:12 (NASB95)
¹² For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Ephesians 2:21-22 (NASB95)
²¹ in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Ephesians 3:6 (NASB95)
⁶ to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,

Ephesians 4:16 (NASB95)
¹⁶ from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Colossians 2:19 (NASB95)
¹⁹ and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 (NASB95)
¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. ^[2]

Look at these verses and look at the admonition that we receive encouraging us to fellowship together, and to build relationships together.  The one thing that is significant from these verses is that there is no longer any room for lone rangers.  God calls each one of us to fellowship with Him and to spread the good news of the gospel while we are doing this.  Paul used the illustration of a body, it has many different parts, almost all of them have an exclusive role to play in the body which is vital for the growth and health of the body.  If for instance, a person elected to cut his arm off, he could still function in life, but he would do so at a greatly hampered state. 

One of the problems that face the church today is that believers are not staying in one body of believers, thereby making it possible for the person to go to church on a regular basis, but never to develop a fellowship deep enough to become part of the ministry team.  In order to be a functioning part of a local fellowship, a person should seek to fill the needs that they are capable of doing.  If it is in the act of helps, then perhaps they should show up for church a little early to help set up, or perhaps there are meals to be delivered to the infirm during the week.  Lots of stuff is going on at your local church, most of which you won’t hear about until you see in the budget that the Pastor had to spend money to have certain jobs taken care of.  This should be a shame to all of us because our body of believers should be self sufficient.

1 Corinthians 12:7 (NASB95)
⁷ But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1 Corinthians 12:26-27 (NASB95)
²⁶ And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. ²⁷ Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.

1 John 3:16 (NASB95)
¹⁶ We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Ephesians 4:16 (NASB95)
¹⁶ from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.^[3]

It is critical for believers to fellowship together, we help, build up and support other believers that are in our fellowships.  This can happen on a first come first serve basis, and cater to the church hoppers that can’t seem to stick to a single church.  But most of the time, it is a developed lifestyle.  Stick with your local church until either God directs you to move out of the situation, or He redirects your focus so that you can function within the bounds of the problem.

I am going to close here, again I would encourage each of you to read the book and to keep up with the daily chapters.  The excerpts that I take out are designed to help you by encouraging you to pick up Rick Warren’s book and read it.

Father, as we consider fellowship today, open the eyes of those taking this test, and give each of us a desire to join with other believers in the fellowship of your body.

In Him,

Joe Turner.