Fellowship with God
Fellowship with God
I Want You
If you really know God as your loving heavenly Father, you consider companionship with Him your greatest treasure. I've heard of a father who had to be away from home about seven months. On his return he took his family to a shopping center. Handing some money to his little girl, he said, "Lydia, take this money and buy anything you want." The child's eyes filled with tears as she clung more tightly to his hand. "What's the matter, Honey?" he asked. "I don't want money, Daddy," she said. "I want you!" Not Good if Detached
Man often loses much of his worth when he is detached from the world of persons and things about him. There are some forms of life that can live in relative isolation. A sponge, for instance, fastens itself to the bottom of the sea and completes its life cycle there. A lichen grows on the side of a rock and, while it spreads around slightly, never moves from its original location. But man isn't made to be like that. His power and usefulness come, not in isolation, but through union and cooperation with others. No life can be truly valuable in God's sight that isn't attached to Jesus Christ. We need Him, just as every member of our body needs to be attached to it, if it's going to be of any value. We also need fellowship with other believers who are attached to Christ. A soldier fighting a battle alone, or a single man working with pick and shovel trying to dig a Panama Canal, would scarcely be more effectual than a Christian trying to establish God's Kingdom all by himself. There are people in every community who are essentially Christian in spirit who have nothing to do with the Church. "Not good if detached" is the label we might put upon their lives.
Fellowship with the Father
A happy Christian met an Irish peddler one day and said to him, "It's a grand thing to be saved." "Aye," said the peddler, "It is. But I think something is equally as good as that." "What can you possibly think is equal to salvation?" "The companionship of the Man who has saved me," was the reply. When we know that, we can rejoice with John and say "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3).