Time flies by, doesn’t it? I can’t believe so much time has passed since my last post…..  I pray you are well and that you are growing closer to God each day and maturing in your faith.

The beginning of this series began exploring whether or not you have a personal relationship with Jesus and why it is important to have one. The second installment dealt with prayer; the third installment was about the Bible. This part is about fellowship with other Believers.

Fellowship with others who are also Believers in Jesus Christ is an important part of our lives. Why is that? Jesus Himself had a group of men and women with whom He spent a great deal of time. They were discipled by Jesus Himself; they learned from one another; they supported each other; they challenged each other; they were accountable to each other.

These are all important reasons for us to connect with a group of fellow Believers.  We need to learn from others and let others learn from us. We need support like we need to give back and support others. We grow and mature in our faith when we allow others to challenge us, especially when we are off base or heading in the wrong direction.  Most importantly, we need to be held accountable for our actions and our lifestyle and we need to do the same for our friends.

A fellowship group can be a home fellowship where friends gather to pray, to worship God, and to study the Bible; it can be a home or a church Bible study that has as its focus learning more about God and our faith through learning the Bible.  Fellowship with other Believers can also be through involvement with a local church, especially if it is a small church. Even in a large church, one can develop good friends but it takes more effort.

Because we are in the end times and we are now experiencing the fulfillment of the prophecies about heresy and false prophets and false teachers, the Bible gives us some words of caution.  This is very important!!!

I John 4:1-3: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

If any group, church, or individual picks and chooses Scriptures to accept or selectively throws out other Scriptures for ANY reason, DO NOT look to them as a person or group or church to teach you.

2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

“All Scripture” means simply that….. ALL!

Even in the days of the early Church, there were teachers of false doctrine, heretics, and false leaders.  The Apostle Paul warned those he knew to run from them.  Can we do any less?

2 Tim. 3:1-5: But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. 

My husband and I have had to make difficult decisions in this regard so we understand the emotional turmoil you might be in. We’ve even walked out of church (when visiting) because the pastor was preaching something completely unscriptural. We’ve had to challenge friends who we saw heading into a “movement” that wasn’t based on ALL the Bible. And sometimes those people chose to ignore us and break our friendship. It broke our hearts and our fellowship with them. We continue to pray for them but they are answerable to God in the end. Sometimes those friends listened and left the “movement” they were in.

Any time a group, person or religious organization takes a scripture passage out of context and builds a movement on it, you can write it down that a cult is being born.  We’ve seen this repeatedly over the years. Check it out for yourself. The history of the church is rife with breaks and new “denominations” or new “movements” being born either by adding to the Scriptures or by deleting certain Scriptures (or saying they no longer apply to us).

Revelation 1:3: Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

What this means is that you need to know the Scriptures for yourself. Read and study the Bible, not once, not twice, but multiple times. Get the Word of God deep in your spirit. Know what the Bible says and live by it.  Only by doing this can you protect yourself from false doctrine and heresy.

Even Jesus was tempted by Satan to skew the Scriptures and bow down to him (Satan). Jesus’ answer was to quote the Scriptures back to Satan and rebuke him. This tactic goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Satan appeared to Eve at the Tree of Life and tempted her to sin. Satan’s question then is the same question he asks today:  “Did God say…..?”  Nothing has changed and Satan has no new tactics. His purpose is to make you doubt the Word of God, to doubt God Himself, and thereby make you sin.

Revelation 22:18-19: I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

What if the church you now attend doesn’t believe in the whole Bible? What if you don’t?  Do you discount certain passages because you’ve been taught that they don’t apply to Believers today? Do you ignore other passages because it is inconvenient or too convicting? Are you a liberated woman who thinks the passages about obedience to your husband are out-dated? Are you a man who thinks it’s OK to sit under the preaching (authority) of a woman? Are you a practicing homosexual who thinks your lifestyle doesn’t offend God?

I’m pretty sure I’ve stepped on everyone’s toes by now……  Being offended by the Word of God is not unusual. Our challenge is to align our beliefs and our lives with the Word of God—-not the other way around. The solution to OUR sin is NOT to change what the Bible says. The solution is to change who we are and how we live. God doesn’t change and His Word doesn’t change. He loves us and He gave us the Bible to teach us the best way to live, to teach us how to find Him and how to know Him.  We are the problem!

Remember, God has a high standard–perfection! If you want an eternal relationship with Him, you’ll have to make the changes He requires. Every Believer has the same struggles and that is why fellowship with other Believers is so important. We need encouragement and correction when we sin; we need to be challenged to live up to God’s standard; we need to be reminded that God loves us even when we do slip and fall and that we should be quick to repent.

In a fellowship with other Believers, we can have the difficult conversations to help us grow and mature in our faith. We must be held accountable to God’s standard and not the standard set by society and we must make ourselves vulnerable with other trustworthy Believers who are probably going through the same things. A real fellowship is a place of worship, joy, praise, teaching and learning. It is a place where we can invest our time to find God, get to know Him better, and grow closer to Him and become more like Him.

It takes work to find a church or fellowship that believes in the whole Bible and teaches it in its entirety. Most large denominations (Protestant or Catholic) today really think the Bible is a fairy tale or a collection of ancient stories. The Apostle Paul’s teachings are discarded, the Book of Revelation is shunned, the Scriptures are considered allegory, the Old Testament is unknown.  As a result, church is no more than a social gathering where friends catch up on the latest gossip. God doesn’t show up, He isn’t worshiped, and the Holy Spirit is no where to be found.

If this describes your current church, then change might be in order. In short, it’s time to run! Sometimes it isn’t possible to find a church home that is in proper order. We live in San Francisco and still can’t find one even after 4 years. So, we use the internet to find churches and teachers who have sound teaching. We read and study on our own and challenge each other. Yes, we do long for fellowship with other believers but we cherish our time with God and look forward to His fellowship.

If you don’t want to leave your church, and if your church isn’t teaching the whole Bible, you’ll have some challenges. Make it a point of growth to reach out to your friends and challenge their beliefs. Start a Bible study at your own home and be an agent of the Holy Spirit to bring about change and revival. It only takes one person, inspired by God and led by the Holy Spirit, to reach out and start teaching others what the Word of God actually says.

It’s a joyous thing to watch someone’s understanding open and their lives change simply because they are challenged to believe that the whole Bible is for them, personally.

May God bless you abundantly as you serve Him and may your relationship with Jesus grow deeper every day!

In Christ’s Service,

Dottie