COMMUNITY (Part 3 of 4)

Alright so I'm FINALLY updating! I do have an excuse though, it would have been updated last week but I somehow lost all of my material when I clicked post...it was a sad & frustrating night. Well anyways, we're almost done with this 4-part series on Community. It has definitely taken a lot longer than I planned so I hope to be wrapping it up pretty soon. Well lets get to it...

COMMUNION

This is something that a lot of us never truly understand.

The kind of Communion I'm talking about is not the breaking of the bread (cardboard wafers) & drinking the tiny cups of grape juice, that type of Communion is the Eucharist. (By the way I'm in no way dulling down the Eucharist, but this just isn't the type of Communion that we're talking about) The type of Communion I'm talking about is unlike all of the other prior essentials, because Communion is taking place during Community, not before Community can begin.

There has to be Communion within our Community because Communion is a spiritual closeness with our brothers & sisters. We take our example of this spiritual closeness straight from Christ. Jesus had this kind of relationship with His disciples, one thing that I would like to point out is that this relationship wasn't evident with all of His disciples. I'm not trying to say that Jesus was picking favorites, but the reason it isn't evident with all of the disciples is because those select few were seeking Christ just as He was seeking them.

Jesus was continually seeking a closer relationship with them, it was their choice to either grow closer with Him or back away. Judas is one of those that backed away. This is the exact thing that we see within our own relationships, there are those that we will continually pursue and then there are those that we back away from. We have to be in continual pursuit of our brother's and sister's love and relationship. The stronger the relationships, the stronger the Community.

This is more than some give and take relationship. This is a mature kind of love and relationship, one that needs continual love and continual pursuit of Christ. This sounds very simple and it actually is, but we make it harder than it is. We have so many insecurities that we shy away from really connecting with other believers, this is the reason that I said that Communion is something we never truly understand. But I want to challenge all of us to throw out the insecurities and pursue Christ and relationships with other believers.

Don't get comfortable when you get through certain parts of Community, keep pushing yourself to develop and grow in Christ.

The final essential of Community that I'll get into next time (hopefully soon!) will be Unity...