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So what are we to look for when it comes to fellowship. My only associations in this respect have been with the Worldwide Church of God back around the early 1970's. Also went to a Catholic church as a child.
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When you look for fellowship you should realize that the others are created in His image and He is found everywhere. In different churches, different settings such as work, play or vacation and in nature.
‘With that in mind you will realize who is more edifying and who is not. God has a purpose for everyone and through our actions or in-actions things will be more clear to you when you keep this God-first directive.
‘With that in mind you will realize who is more edifying and who is not. God has a purpose for everyone and through our actions or in-actions things will be more clear to you when you keep this God-first directive.
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Sounds right to me. I have been living a very isolated way since before covid hit. And when I now look back it seems that I was so caught up in worldly things that I always gravitated toward the pathway of destruction. A line from a 60's song "I pushed my soul into a deep dark hole and then I followed it in" sums up my life, particularly till 4 Aug. 1989 when I at least quit drinking. And only in the last 4 or so years when I realized I better turn to Jesus have I really at least started to improve. Hard to really understand it myself. But this I know. A person can live well within the laws of the land and still be in total opposition to God's laws.
we should want high character fellowship people who reflect the nature of Christ none of us do that perfectly but most Christian’s have certain aspects of Christs. Store that they are strong in . As we relate to one another as family truly developing a love in Christ for others we tend to build each other up with our strengths and the areas were weak in they help strengthen us through fellowship and example
we don’t want to ever exclude people because we judge them unworthy for sure but we also want to remember that bad company corrupts good character and good company builds character
it’s not really in my own thinking about denomination but individuals who reflect the mirror of Christ we find in the scriptures when we really see ourselves
“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, ( the New Testament word ) which is able to save your souls.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, ( John 8:31-35) and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
James 1:21-25 KJV
this is the engrafted word the perfect law of liberty which we need to hear and start doing
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
John 8:31-32
when we’re looking into the gospel we’re seeing who Gods children are meant to be we want to believe and learn from and follow that doctrine Because that’s who we are and that’s where God offers to save us .
this law can’t save us
“and not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: but their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.”
2 Corinthians 3:13-15 KJV
The law of liberty is the gospel it can save our souls but this can’t save us or make us free
“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. ( the book ofnthe law has every ordinance and command Moses spoke to them ) But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
the law was meant to cease when Christ came
Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”
Galatians 3:10-12, 19
we need to accept the eternal covenant given to the world the gospel and let go of the book of Moses
we want people who reflect the gospel and not the eye for an eye book of Moses that also is important we don’t want to shape ourselves after the rebellious children of Israel
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Thanks for the input. I will be 70 this month and didn't respond to God calling me since maybe age 9 or 10 and now feel like the rat that I've been for most of my life. So it isn't real easy for me to be around people that have lived "respectfully" all their lives. I put respectfully in quotes knowing that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" as Paul mentions to the Romans. But recently I have been talking with a local group in Evergreen Park, Illinois and may attend. They are associated with The Assemblies of God, and call their local group Maranatha from 1 Cor.16:22. The current pastor doesn't know why the name and is rotating out to retire so I may wait till mid October when they get a new pastor. I don't know much about the Assemblies of God or any church organization or denomination. Still learning.
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Thanks for the input. I will be 70 this month and didn't respond to God calling me since maybe age 9 or 10 and now feel like the rat that I've been for most of my life. So it isn't real easy for me to be around people that have lived "respectfully" all their lives. I put respectfully in quotes knowing that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" as Paul mentions to the Romans. But recently I have been talking with a local group in Evergreen Park, Illinois and may attend. They are associated with The Assemblies of God, and call their local group Maranatha from 1 Cor.16:22. The current pastor doesn't know why the name and is rotating out to retire so I may wait till mid October when they get a new pastor. I don't know much about the Assemblies of God or any church organization or denomination. Still learning.
Sounds to me like a good lcms Lutheran Church is the place for you. It's a place for all of us rats who finally submitted to Christ
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Its not sufficient. This is at best a supplement and not a very good one.
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Lutheran Church Missouri synod.
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran synod or WELS is very good also. You may like WELS better, I myself am LCMS.
Avoid the ELCA they arent Lutheran or even Christian for that matter. They are posers imposters of Satan.
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I'm in Chicago and get a Lutheran telecast here that is from Wisconsin. I'll have to check into it. Thanks
The Greek word translated as "fellowship" is koinonia, which means communion, but includes union. Communion and union means being of one mind, one heart, and one spirit.
As you will note in Acts 2: 42 doctrine comes before fellowship. So unless a group of Christians is in full agreement on Bible doctrine, there can be no real fellowship. And fellowship begins first with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (1 John 1). So unless each person has been born again and has the indwelling Holy Spirit, there can be no fellowship. Therefore you should look around you to examine the Statements of Faith of evangelical churches in your city or county (preferably non-denominational). If they agree on these fundamentals and believe the true Gospel, then you can certainly have fellowship.
But if they do not believe that Jesus is God who became sinless Man to die for our sins and rise again for our justification, then they are NOT even Christians. They are cultists. And if they do not believe that sinners are justified by grace through faith + nothing, then they are not even evangelical.
There are Wels and Lcms churches in the Chicago land area. So you can visit both actually.
Statements of faith have become worthless. First Baptist Orlando's statement of beliefs (https://www.firstorlando.com/about/what-we-believe/) reads like a fundamental Christian list of beliefs; but FBO is anything but fundamental in it's practices. They welcome unrepentant gays with open arms, for example, and even let them hold certain positions.
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Growing up on the southside of Chicago I had a few gay acquaintances. But the first "really" gay person I talked with was a "friend" maybe of a older brother of my pretty good buddy. My good buddy because his mom would buy him a six pack and ask him not to take her vodka while she was at work. And of course he would share with his buddy beer and vodka. His older brother was a hype and his gay "friend" was complaining that he couldn't take being away from his lover and had to do something to get back in the joint to see him. Go figure. I'm 70 now and that scenario took place when I was 14 or 15. In AA we would say about something like that some are sicker than others. When I was maybe 21 and living in a non-running old school bus in central Indiana and associating with the Worldwide Church of God some guy showed up, I don't really know where he came from exactly, but he claimed he was from Illinois somewhere and had been in the navy and was gay. Any way he was living in a running step van and took up residence near my bus. The last I heard of him he "repented" and married some woman and found a new place to park his van and put up a picket fence. Go figure. When I moved to Pasadena, Ca. around 1975 and became "good" friends with my upstairs neighbor and her entire family, including two brothers who were LAPD and probably hoped that their sister and me would eventually hook up and probably the same with her mother and father and her father being kind of a snobby former sort of mission worker in Alaska was a pretty good buddy with me but she had a very nasty gay cousin that really seemed to be a man hater and nothing ever came of our relationship except that she probably caused me some problems, like stranding a car I would loan her and also personal problems by sticking her nose in my relationship life. Last I heard of her around 1990, when I was in AA she was telling me she had it figured out and just had to drink good scotch and everything would be o.k.. Go figure. I am so Blessed to have rescued by a Loving God. Go figure.
Look for a congregation that believes and teaches that God's word is the only guide for faith and practice. There are many who will tell you that scripture is good, even infallible; but then they say the only way it can truly be understood is within church tradition, usually theirs. This negates the sufficiency of scripture and subordinates it to some historical tradition that may or may not have any validity.
Just stick with God's word alone and then look for others who believe the same.