Better Together

As you are reading this, I am most likely on my way back to Fresno after celebrating my

mother’s 90th birthday. Thank you for graciously allowing me to be away. Thank you, Barbara, for preparing and delivering the message last week. Also, thank you to the rest of the staff for “holding down the fort.” I’m sure they managed everything so well that I was hardly missed.

I am looking forward to our Harvest Dinner this Sunday. I have heard so much about it that there is no way that I would miss it. I know that there is going to be some great food. But, as I have heard people talk about it, I know that it really isn’t about food. It’s about community, about giving, and about fellowship.

Fellowship isn’t a word you hear very often outside of a church. You might run across it in an academic or medical profession, but apart from that, it’s a church word. In the Bible, it is the translation of the word koinonia (koy-no-NEE- ah). It can mean sharing, partnership, joining together, giving, aid, or relief. It’s similar to hospitality, but it goes a little deeper.

For Christians, it has come to mean an incredibly special kind of relationship that only Christians can have with one another. Sure, we can have close friendships with non-Christians, just as two non-Christians can have a close relationship with each other. But real koinonia requires a spiritual component, one that only comes from the Holy Spirit actively working in our lives. Koinonia is what helps us be at peace with one another (Mark 9:34), serve one another (Galatians 5:13), forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18), pray for one another (James 5:16), and above all love one another (John 15:12).

After the holidays, we will start a few small groups for prayer and Bible study together. These groups are where we can best experience koinonia, and I hope you’ll keep them in mind as an opportunity to share in that fellowship.

Until then, dwell on this verse.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. –Philippians 2:3-4

See you Sunday,

Pastor Daryl