"..fellowship .."

I was recently helping a friend move from a current home to a transition home. Eventually they will be moving to a renovated farmhouse and 180 acres farm. Of course it is natural to think back on the years we have known each other. We first met nearly 20 years ago and were involved in the same church and fellowship group.

You see the EMPTY room where we gathered many times for worship, study and hospitality! 

You think "How I am going to miss this place."

I then started thinking about the years-over 32, that we have been in various fellowship groups. So grateful for the years of care and fellowship.
Fellowship consists of many great times and some low times as well when at one time of another a couple or individual may be going through a difficult time.

We experience the high and celebrated times in life like picnics, marriage, weddings, birth of a child, baptism of family members, graduation of school then college.

We have also have experienced times of sadness when the death of family or friends happen, or news of cancer is shared, or long term illness is a factor.

We have experienced times of growth in friendships and relationships and have experienced on-going care from others and the loyal friendships. We have helped each other in our homes,farms,building projects and study.

We have also experienced times when you invest your lives into others and they may leave the group or church and you feel a little empty and saddened at the loss-you miss them so much.

So over his time you see care and answers to prayer. You also see funny things happen- like when praying for someone near a candle their shirt catches fire, or someone is so tired they fall asleep during the sharing time and someone calls on them to share what they may think :)

Many times people in your fellowship group are first to come to your help when it is needed most. First to the Fallen and you try not to leave anyone behind that is in need.

We have seen each other's children grow and mature and start their own careers and some their own families.

When we first met this individual's children they were 2 and 3 years old now they are in the early 20's. You look back with fond memories and times and are thankful and recall the blessings.

We have experienced Christian fellowship over the years and I was thinking today how can I put this in a nutshell.

We are called together, we serve, are built, grow, friend, and look to the future in faith!

CALLED
We are first called by God and then joined with others in faith. We study and apply the Bible to our lives.

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”      (1 Cor. 1:9 ESV)

SERVE 
 "So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." (Galatians 6:10 ESV)

BUILT
"For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone."(Eph. 2:18-20 ESV)

GROW

Fellowship enables growth and gratitude. We see how God has been faithful and we look forward.

“Gratitude exults in the past benefits of God and says to faith, ‘Embrace more of these benefits for the future, so that my happy work of looking back on God’s deliverance may continue.”

(Future Grace. 1995 – John Piper Page 38)

FRIENDSHIP

FUTURE
We pray for one another for grace and grow in faith.

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess.1:11-12 ESV)


"Grace, in the New Testament, as we have seen, is not only God’s disposition to do good for us when we don’t deserve it — undeserved favor. It is also a power from God that acts in our lives and makes good things happen in us and for us. Paul said that we fulfill our resolves for good “by his power” (verse 11). And then he adds at the end of verse 12, “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” That power that actually works in our lives to make Christ-exalting obedience possible is an extension of the grace of God.

Therefore this grace which moves in power from God to you at a point in time is both past and future. It has already done something for you or in you and therefore is past. And it is about to do something in you and for you, and so it is future — both five seconds away and five million years away.

God’s grace is ever cascading over the waterfall of the present from the inexhaustible river of grace coming to us from the future into the ever-increasing reservoir of grace in the past.

In the next five minutes, you will receive sustaining grace flowing to you from the future, and you will accumulate another five minutes’ worth of grace in the reservoir of the past. "(John Piper)

Sermon link

http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/living-by-faith-in-future-grace

VISION 

We look forward to fellowship. Soon we will looking back another 10 years and be grateful to see all that God has done. We must look up in hope and move forward in faith since life is brief.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jer. 29:11 ESV)

So lets move on, work hard, and look forward to fellowship with intention to study and apply God's word.

“At evening let not your hands be idle." (Ecclesiastes 11:6 NIV)

"The evening of life has also its calls. Life is so short that a morning of manhood’s vigour, and an evening of decay, make the whole of it.... Life is so brief that no man can afford to lose a day.  

......Some are spared to a long evening of green old age; if such be my case, let me use such talents as I still retain, and to the last hour serve my blessed and faithful Lord. By his grace I will die in harness, and lay down my charge only when I lay down my body. Age may instruct the young, cheer the faint, and encourage the desponding; if eventide has less of vigorous heat, it should have more of calm wisdom, therefore in the evening I will not withhold my hand." (Excerpt Charles Spurgeon- Evening Sept 20)
Evening September 20

We are called together, we serve, are built, grow, friend, and look to the future in faith and vigor!

Lane Peak- Zipper Couloir  The Tatoosh Range, Mount Rainier National Park

UPDATE- March 2016

The farm and farm house are nearly done and have provided great memories and fellowship already!

Video of me in a 10 row harvester

Harvesting with Boyd- Mennonite Harvest

We had care group at the home a few weeks ago. 

The restored entry hall now reflects the vision they had for their home. Many more memories and times of fellowship to come

 in the future with family and friends!