Encouraging Fellowship

Hebrews 10:24,25                                            Encouraging Fellowship

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing,  but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

This verse is often used to encourage people to attend their local church fellowship on a regular basis.  It’s certainly important to gather together with the entire local church body to praise and worship God and to hear the Word of God preached.  Pastors are trained and more importantly, anointed to open the Bible to us.  No, we don’t need to totally depend upon pastors to tell us what the word says, but we do often need guidance in digging out the gems in each verse of Scripture,  Some of Paul’s sentences can get quite long and involved.

I’d like to mention another time of meeting together—a time for intimate sharing in a smaller group setting.  I’m not saying that each church has to have regularly scheduled small group meetings, but I do think it is important for us to gather together periodically with a small group of friends for informal fellowship.  A small group of men in our church meets together twice a month (while our wives are meeting).  We go out for an extended breakfast time.  The group changes from month to month, and there are no rules or lists of members.  It’s just a bunch of guys getting together to talk about whatever is going on in our lives.  We always pray before we eat, and we’ve gotten positive comments by others in the restaurant about us taking time to pray before we eat.  At some time in our get-together, we will discuss something about our relationships with our Lord and how we are relating to Him.  There is always someone who has something to be thankful for, as there is always need for prayer.  We are a support for each other because we’ve gotten to know each other well enough to be able to discuss personal issues.  I thank God for this amorphous group, and I hope that you have a similar opportunity for fellowship.

P.S.  A plus from today’s breakfast is the picture above taken at the home of one of the guys.  Yes, even men appreciate God’s expression of beauty in flowers.