Practical Issues
Fellowship
A Full Share
Giving
Suffering
Separation
Blessing
Fellowship
by Graham Jones - The Church at Gun Hill"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Acts 2 v 42.In II Corinthians 9 v 13 we find other instruction. Now the whole chapter is about giving.
A Cheerful Giver
The Lord loves a cheerful giver; He will make all things abound to you as you give. There is no need to worry about the fact that if you give away you might not have enough for your own needs. The Lord will provide your every need. He does. Christians through the centuries have proved it again and again. So, in verse 13, he says, "Whiles by the experiment of this administration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them and unto all men." That liberal distribution is their liberal fellowship. People were rejoicing because others were meeting their needs. Everybody had a full share in the blessings of God. There is no blessing in money. That is where the world gets it wrong. The world thinks there is blessing in money but the Bible says that the love of money is a root of all evils. If money is your aim in life, then, when you have got it, what are you going to do with it? It buys nothing of lasting value. True, it buys you what you want, but it does not buy you what you really need. Many a person has gone to the grave a miserable person because they made money their aim. Take Paul Getty as an example - a multi-millionaire, rich beyond belief, yet miserable to the depths of misery. What good did his money do him? He left it to others. His son has been giving it away, so much so that he has been awarded a knighthood. If money makes you happy, then why does the son of Paul Getty not follow in his father's miserly footsteps? "Ah," you say, "but I'm not like that. I just want enough to pay the bills, to buy food and clothing and so on." Rubbish. Trusting the Lord and knowing His provision is all we need. In Him, we have every need provided. Certainly money can provide food and clothing that we need, but when we know this fellowship, then there is a distribution to the necessity, the needs of the saints. Then we enjoy the blessings of being part of the Lord's people, of being part of His provision.Provision for Needs
For poor people the provision of material needs can be very important and what I have just said may not sound too practical. In Romans 15 vv 26 and 27: "For it has pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. It has pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things." The carnal things are, of course, material things such as food, clothing and shelter. There was a wonderful provision. But some of you may still not be convinced over this issue of money. How can anyone get by without money? It is true that you need money to buy food, clothing and shelter, but the Lord has promised to provide all of those things. Let me tell you about a person who had no money. He was in the Temple one day and He said, "Show Me a coin!" Seemingly, He had none of His own. To pay the Temple tax, He sent Peter fishing, whereupon Peter found a coin in a fish's mouth. He had no money of His own so that He could dip into His own pocket and say, "There, pay out of this!" It was Jesus. Yet all needs were provided and supplied. Yes, the disciples used money: Judas held the bag. The disciples had some money available at the feeding of the five thousand. However, such money seems to have been distributed to the poor. That was their great cry when the woman broke open that alabaster box of ointment: "That could have been sold and the money given to the poor."Galatians 6 v 6: "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teaches in all good things." The word 'communicate' means to fellowship. We are encouraged to share material things that are necessary. In II Corinthians 8 vv 1 to 5, it shows to us there about receiving the gift, "...the fellowship of ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God." So in the giving, ministering to the needs of the saints, they gave themselves, wholly and completely. And then in Philippians 1 v 5, Paul speaks about all this as being a fellowship in the gospel.
Now if you have been saved and you are part of the people of God, baptised into that one body and yet you do not know this attitude of fellowship, of reaching out to the needs of other saints in the body of Christ, then there must be something wrong. There is no room for self here. In the Body of Christ we are one. Thus we must always reckon ourselves dead, crucified with Christ, that the self-life may have no place and that we might live unto Him. Then there will be this one-ness in Him. Now that is fellowship in the sense of provision for needs.
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