Where God Feels Welcome

This week we are discussing fellowship in our 40 days of purpose series. We can discuss the theology of fellowship, why it is important to our discipleship, our evangelism, our very soul, but today I just want to look at it from a very practical side.

"Now he is using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day by day - a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home." (Ephesians 2:21-22, The Message)

Sunday after the worship services several of us gathered in the foyer just talking. We were the last ones left in the building. It was Mothers' Day and none of us had any plans after church (most of my kids were gone for the day or the week) so we decided as a group to go out to lunch together. We sat, ate, told stories, laughed out loud (wondering if we were going to get kicked out of the restaurant) and just shared our lives together. But it didn't end there. The afternoon spilled over to a back porch where we sat in the sunshine just sharing about life and loves and hopes and dreams.

It was a marvelous day. It was true fellowship with some of our dearest friends in the whole world, brothers and sisters, "Moms"(as Peggy described them on Sunday). It was an atmosphere of hospitality, of mutual love and respect, it was fellowship in the way God wants us to share. It is as Paul described it, "a temple in which God is quite at home."

Without meaning to, a temple was built on Sunday afternoon and God resided there...among us. Over a Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza (which was really great by the way!), a glass of Snoqualmie, on a sunny May afternoon, fellowship broke out all over the place and we basked in it.

It may not happen right away, I mean that you may not discover the benefits of true fellowship right away because God is always there. I mean that it takes time to make friends, to trust each other fully, to be vulnerable to share lives to experience fellowship completely. But once we do, we can't help it. It just happens when we are with our church family. True fellowship is about developing true faith and true friendships.

And what happens when we discover and participate in true fellowship. God shows up.

Every time.

Peace ><>
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