What is dear to God, is dear to us. And because God is dear to us, we are dear to one another. Not sentimentalism!! Not obligation!! Not a sappy, gooey love, but a vibrant love and affection that truly flows from the headwaters of Heaven down to earth. How foreign this love is to the world!! And when the world observes this other worldly, foreign love, that endures the storms of life, it is more than curiosity that begins to prick their heart.
The Love of God moves people to respond. Respond to… not us, but to Him. I suppose that’s one of the governing principles of love: agape in all its expressions and responses belongs to God. Wow.
The very foundation of fellowship is love. If fellowship is not supplied by God’s love, it is human and temporary. Eventually it will fall short and turn bitter. So when we are talking true koinonia fellowship, we know first of all that the eagerness in our hearts is the Love of God at work within us. God’s Love cannot be faked or forged. Amen.
Before my eyes popped open this morning, I was thinking about discipleship. Then I was recalling how Jesus said, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” Then in Jesus’ conversation with Peter on the beach after His resurrection, He kept repeating “Do you love, Me? Tend My lambs. Do you love Me? Shepherd My sheep. Do you love, Me? Tend My lambs.” (* Deb shortened the conversation) But Jesus finishes with “Follow Me!” He repeats this twice in 19 and 22. There is no feeding or tending lambs without continuing to follow Jesus! If He’s still leading, we must be following!
Jesus is about to ascend into Heaven… still, Peter and the rest of the disciples are to continue following Jesus. Following Jesus is still their primary call. Now all their following will be by means of the Spirit! As long as His disciples are alive they are following… and in fellowship with one another. It’s where life flows! Real life and love flows here.
Before I crawled out of bed, I shouted out, “Followship flows into fellowship!” If I do not have ongoing followship (and fellowship) with Christ Jesus, fellowship with the saints will be anemic and cursory. Glory hallelujah! And then when we think about being “partakers” of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)… oh that whole section: “…seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” 2 Peter 1:3-4. Wow!!! He is everything!!
His Life is the SOURCE of our followship and fellowship!! Christ alone! Praise the Lord!
