Fellowship. Community. Family. These are all groups of people. Mob. Crowd. Populace. These are also groups of people. What is the difference? Is there a difference? I think most people would say yes. In many ways the first groups listed are unnatural, or at least illogical to the world we live in. Well, what is natural and logical to the world? Selfishness more or less. Apart from the influence of those things we consider "good" our basic instincts are to look out for ourselves at the cost of all others. That is what makes the fellowship, the community and the family unnatural. They are based in looking out for others even when it means that doing so might not benefit us, might even hurt our interests.

One well-known writer of Christian literature states that the devil hates families, because they are imitations of God himself, distinct beings, yet somehow one. I think that is our main goal as the followers of Christ, to bring people to know Him, and thus bring them in to the family, the fellowship of God. Now how exactly God makes one body out of many persons, I don't know, but I can offer two things that are indispensable to a family; humility and truth. One look at the world around you will show that these qualities aren't exactly abundant, and are definitely not sought after by the world at large. Who doesn't know the pain of being lied to or the shame of being belittled? But that's not what we are called to! Jesus set an example so that we could know a better way! It is amazing how much difference just caring about someone can make. Valuing them enough to set their needs above your own.

Check out Philippians 2: 1-11 and 1 John 1:5-10 and 2:1-11 for more on humility and truth.

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Ephesians 2:19-22
Have you ever played with building blocks? Most of us have, even us adults. We know that some types of blocks make better buildings than others. For example, Legos interlock with one another and are harder to knock down than wooden blocks stacked one on top of the other. We also know that when stacking wooden blocks, an adult with more experience and a steady hand can make a tower that is more stable than a tower built by a child.
Consider now that you are a building block. You're not made of wood but of some high-grade polymer, and instead of a few interconnecting parts you have millions of clever little ways to connect with and cling to other blocks around you. Furthermore, the builder of this tower is not a child, an adult or even a world-class engineer but the Master Builder Himself, God.
Yet, unlike building blocks we can decide if we'll be part of the tower. We're not inanimate bits of plastic, but thinking, feeling beings. We can be part of the building one day, then rip ourselves out the next day. We have a choice.
Ask yourself this week if you will choose to be part of the community that God is building and accept his plan for your life or if you will choose to ignore the blueprints and go your own way. Pray that God will help you to choose to follow Him and pray that He will make you part of His master plan.

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My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father - just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me. (John 18:21)

Jesus prayed these words just moments before he was betrayed, arrested, and led off to be crucified. In a moment like that, whatever someone prays for must be incredibly important. With little time left - and knowing that this could be one of the last prayers prayed - the heart will cry out to God about whatever is most urgent. When Jesus was in that moment, he prayed for us.

He prayed often throughout his earthly life that people would come to know who he was and would come to live their lives for God, but this was slightly different. He actually prayed that you and I - those who would believe in him after his death and resurrection - would stand together as one. He was so concerned that we might not join together in our faith that he prayed that for us in some of the last moments of his life.

Why was Jesus so concerned about this? Why was this such a big deal to him? I think Jesus prayed this at the end of his life because he knew that if we didn't stick together to spread the Word and if we tried to live the Christian life standing alone, all that he did would be lost. That's right. I think that Jesus saw that no matter how much we might believe in him, we wouldn't be able to make it in this life without each other. We need the support and encouragement and prayers from each other, and we need to see Jesus in each other. It's easy to lose sight of the Lord and what we're living for, but when we're surrounded by people who reflect Him into our lives every day, things start looking up - literally. Jesus wanted us to stick together so that together we could be in Him, and together we could show the world what that was all about. That's what was so important to him.

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Psalm 57:9

Psalm 57 is kind of a crazy chapter in the Bible. If you start from the first verse, David (the author) is crying out to God for deliverance from his enemies. David literally had people trying to take his life, and he was often at war or on the run. In the first eight verses, he prays pretty hard to God for safety, and he expresses trust in the Lord to be his refuge. He has so much faith in God that verse nine is like his "when this is all said and done" verse. Isn't it interesting that David exclaims that he will thank the Lord "among the peoples" and that he will sing praises "among the nations?" It's almost like David is saying, "When you deliver me from my enemies, I'm going to sing your praises in the midst of a big congregation." David, as much as anyone, realized that this thing with God was not a journey to be traveled alone. He realized that the victory was to be celebrated with God's people and not by himself. He saw his identity not as an only child, but as one member in a much larger family. It is equally as important for us as believers today to understand our identity as one of many members of the body of Christ. How encouraging is that! We're not flying solo in this life journey. God has provided others to travel with us as we seek to go deeper in Him. I want to encourage you today to truly walk arm-in-arm with your brothers and sisters in God as we all run this race together.

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