COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY

As I stated in the last post, the next essential after Communication, that I would like for all of us to dwell on and get involved with is:

COMMITMENT

Nowadays, Commitment is a word that a lot of single guys try to shy away from. Lately there has been these ideas that Commitment is a bad thing, something that ties you down and keeps you from exploring or doing things that you want to do. I'd really like for you to get this idea out of your head, and instead implant the idea that Commitment is actually an act of God, an act that doesn't hold you down but releases you to do amazing things.

There are essentially 2 supreme examples of Commitment that I'd like to illustrate for you. All of these examples are coming from the Bible & they all feed off of one another (this actually amazed me when I started thinking about it). The first example is Stephen, the Scripture starts in Acts 6 & goes until the end of chapter 7, but to simplify things a little bit lets jump straight to the end of Acts 7 starting with verse 54...

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

This passage of Scripture makes me want to cry every time I read it, because I've never in my life had that kind of Commitment. I've never been persecuted for anything in my life, I've never been put into the position where I need to choose one way or the other & have my life hanging on my decision. I should have mentioned earlier that this stoning came about because Stephen was preaching that Jesus was the Righteous One who came to save all people. Stephen was so Committed, not just willing, but Committed to preaching the Truth to those who didn't believe, that he literally Committed his life to God. That is RADICAL! There is nothing more radical than being Committed to someone so much that you'll die for them! Stephen was so much out of the ordinary (radical) that he went against the grain of every Jew, and was martyred for the LORD.

Alright, so I don't know if you noticed or not but in that Acts 7 passage there was a guy named Saul, well here's a quick background on Saul. He was a persecutor of Christians (nice job title), he was a Jew who, in no way, believed that Jesus was the Son of God. Well one day, after receiving permission to persecute more Christians, Saul was walking down the road to a place called Damascus. Before Saul entered the city, a bright light blinded him & Jesus told him that he would receive a word on what he had to do when he entered the city. SO to wrap things up Saul received his word from Ananias that he will be a instrument of God and he received his sight. The major point I'm trying to make here is that the Scripture right after that says:

20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

IMMEDIATELY...not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, but immediately. Saul was so Committed that he immediately started proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God. You may be wondering what this has to do with Community, but the thing is that this has everything to do with Community!

These men, although they had absolutely no idea it would be this way, were in Community with each other because they made a Commitment to Jesus. It's an amazing thing to think that two men, one who helped kill the other, can be in Community with one another because they have a Commitment with the King. Commitment brings Community. If we're Committed to our brothers & sisters in Christ and we are Committed to loving them, helping them, and putting trust in them then it will help bring about a Community...

In the next post we'll hit on the 3rd essential for Community which is Communion...