This morning one of my devotionals had its readers read Acts 2: 41-47. (For people who do not recall that section it's about believers forming a community.) When I read that passage and meditated on it I recalled yesterday. A fellow sister-in-Christ had invited me and my mother over to her house for a New Year's dinner with her and her mom. It was just us four women. We laughed, we prayed, we cried, and we ate. It was awesome.
I am a believer in fellowship-ing with others believers as the Bible is constantly telling us to do. There are over 25 verses in the Bible that tells us to fellowship with one another, some are even in the Old Testament. It has been only in the past few years that I started practicing this fellowship. I have been saved since I was 15 but for years I used to think meeting for church service was sufficient, and fellowship with a Christian of a different denomination, you could just forget that. It wasn't happening. But in the last few years the Lord has open my eyes and heart to fellowship.
I have even discussed with my one aunt (my mom's sister) about one day coming to our house and having dinner and fellowship with one another. She is a Born Again Christian, of the Baptist branch in the Christian family. She's still my sister-in Christ; we just have slightly different beliefs in theology and worship slightly different. We are still sisters-in-Christ. The point I am trying to get to is she and I have never been all that close, hardly even spoke. I felt like we had nothing in common. (She didn't even know my mom was Saved until this year when my mom was diagnosed with cancer and she had called mom and asked her if she was Saved.) But a month ago the Lord put it on my heart that we had a lot more in common and that we should fellowship together as a family in Christ. So I spoke with her about sometime after we move (my mom and I will be moving in a few months) that I make a dinner and she can come over for said dinner and we can fellowship together as Christians. I told her we can pray, eat, talk about our Lord, and just enjoy each other's company as Christians. She loved the idea and we are planning on it.
Because I reached out to a fellow sister-in-Christ who happened to be my aunt biologically it brought us a step closer. We ended up talking at the family Christmas eve party more than we ever did because we had something in common. We were Born-Again Christians and in a home filled with non-believers we found ourselves talking about the Lord and prayer requests for one another, and looking forward to the dinner I will make in the coming months. "For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them," (Matt 18:20, NIV). My other aunt did not realize it but my mom, her sister, and I caused her home to be holy ground because the Lord was there with us. This is the power of fellowship.
All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching,
and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and
to prayer.
-Acts 2:42 (NLT)
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