True fellowship..

Bible Study (5.6.2005)

^But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanse us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
If someone says, "I belong to God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and does not live in the truth. (1 John 2:4)

`So we walk in the light and obey God. Light here refers to God and his holiness lah. That means when we have fellowship with one another, God must be the centre or the foundation of it. We dont lead one another to sin with our conversations or actions. E.g. We shouldnt be gossiping about others nor putting one another down. Nor should we tempt others to do wrong. Basically nothing meany here : )

^If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
(1 John 1:8-9)

`So we must also recognise and admit our sins before one another. Why? Guo Yi shared about being accountable to one another with our weakness and going into the deep things of fellowship. Is it enough if we just play games and laugh and giggle all day during cell? I bet I can make you laugh till you cry lor. Hahha :P Are we going to be like the world out there? No lor, it doesnt only take a best friend to care, love and be there for us. Definitely we Christians are going to be best friends to one another. We shall share our weakness to each other and embrace it. This is humility, admitting our weaknesses openly is not weakness itself. To the world, we often want to show our strong side. Then we will be respected, admired and climb up the social ladder. Again, should we be like this world? Of course not lah. Perfect love expels all fear (1 John 4:18), if our love for each other is biblical, then why worry if we will be despised by our cell members?!?

So do not ignore or reject if someone out there cares enough about whether you are backsliding or not. It really hurts us lor even as we try to love our neighbour as ourselves. There is none other commandment greater than love. (Mark 12:31)

^Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ( 1 John 4 :11) Beloved, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. (1 John 3:18)

`Of course most importantly fellowship cant be complete without love for one another. If we see someone backsliding shouldnt we pray and go to minister to him with love and encouragement? If we see that someone is sick, shouldnt we give whatever medical advice we can or at least lay hands and pray? If we see someone struggling with certain subjects and we are competent at it, do we just gloat over it?...

^If a man say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar: for he that does not love his brother whom he can see, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (1 John 4:20)

`If we cant even love our brothers/sisters we can see, how much do we truly love God? Its proportional lor. And talk about the compassion for the lost souls?(Yesterday 9.7.2005 PL Wanping's sermon), if we dont even love the people we spend more God-centred time and eternity with.

So you see..thats true fellowship...

A side issue: "Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!"But you ask, `What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?'"You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it." (Malachi 3:8-10)

Tithes and offerings? Some dont even tithe, what more offerings? I feel such sorrow that so many Christians are being cursed by this powerful frightening verses. It shows that we can test God and also that all can be subject to His curse.

So what happens to those who cant come to church? They lose their fellowship? Being taught about His Word? Forget about tithing? Joint Worship? Holy Communion? Serving? Are we gonna disobey God? and be under His curse with just the issue of money?

Yet, God sees the heart. But what about some who can come but lose the desire so easily just because of "work" or "busy-ness"? Can we consider ourselves close to God in the first place; or even passionate for Him? For Singapore, persecution hasnt even truly begun. Give up so easily? Think again!! Do you not want to fight Satan?

Food for thought: PL Wanping mentioned about compassion for lost souls. Because the Bible says that we love is the greatest commandment, Apostle John says God is love and Apostle Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13- that love makes everything genuine, Compassion is more important than whether the person gets saved or not. We can even sacrifice our life to evangelise-something so noble, yet read>>"If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever." (1 Corinthians 13:3) NO VALUE WHATSOEVER!?! Yes, its true!

How important is love??? Love always bring 1 Cor 13 to my mind. It is God's standard of love, dont follow the world's! Amen?

You Sheng