DAILY DEVOTIONALS BY PASTOR BILL MUIR
Translate this site into your preferred language, look for our Google translator in our home page: diningwithjesus.net
Traduce este sitio en tu idioma preferido, busca nuestro traductor de Google en nuestra página de inicio ve a: diningwithjesus.net
| In the church, we see a sense of individualism and disconnectedness. Many people “serially date” churches, never staying in one place very long. Some may stake a claim on a church but remain distant and on the margins, attending only when something better isn’t going on. And then there are those who may indeed have a committed relationship with a church, but they are not all in. They aren’t fully known by their community. They don’t rely on the Body when they are struggling, or in need. Instead, they wear masks, covering their lives’ pain, pretending that everything’s okay, even though it’s not. But individualism and doing life on our own is not part of God’s design. After all, God is a community in Himself. Existing for all of eternity past, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have enjoyed the love and fellowship of Their perfect triune community. In creating mankind, God desired for us to participate in that community, and know the perfect and joyous love the Godhead share. But God didn’t stop there. He didn’t create man to be in community with Him alone. After he created the world, and Adam, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18). God created man and woman to be in community together, to create families and live together, bearing the image of and reflecting the three-in-one God. Scripture is all about community. God chose the Israelites to be his people. “And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Leviticus 26:12). They lived and worshipped him together in community. Following the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, God then instituted the church, the Body of Christ as a community of believers. “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27). Paul Tripp says in his book, Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy: “We weren’t created to be independent, autonomous, or self-sufficient. We were made to live in a humble, worshipful, and loving dependency upon God and in a loving and humble interdependency with others. Our lives were designed to be community projects. Yet, the foolishness of sin tells us that we have all that we need within ourselves. So we settle for relationships that never go beneath the casual. We defend ourselves when the people around us point out a weakness or a wrong. We hold our struggles within, not taking advantage of the resources God has given us.” |
Table Rock Fellowship
3610 N Pacific Hwy
Medford, Oregon 97501
Copyright © 2022 Table Rock Fellowship, All rights reserved.
DINING WITH JESUS PRODUCTIONS 