Authentic Christian Community Posted: 02 Nov 2014 10:01 PM PST Today’s Reflection SEVERAL YEARS AGO one of my dear friends lost both her husband and their only child in a horrible car accident. Not long after the tragedy, my friend had a conversation about church with a colleague at work. The coworker was not a believer; in fact, she was hostile to the idea of God and had no understanding of what it might mean to live as part of a vital faith community. She was trying hard to reconcile her own pain, anger, and frustration; and she felt she needed to make a statement about church and – by implication – God. “How can you possibly go back to a place like church?” she asked, almost accusingly, as if the God she did not believe in had betrayed then both, “especially after what happened to your family?” My friend Sandee dug deep into her well-used but overstretched repertoire of grace, and she answered with a conviction founded in real experience. “How could I possibly be anywhere else?” she said. My friend was immersed in authentic Christian community. That’s the power of covenant. That’s the reality of communion in and because of the blood of Jesus. “For he has said, ‘I will never leave or forsake you.’ So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6). - Derek Maul The Unmaking of a Part-Time Christian From pages 45-46 of The Unmaking of a Part-Time Christian by Derek Maul. Copyright © 2009 by Derek Maul. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book. Today’s Question Do you participate in a church? Why or why not? Share your thoughts.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 20:39:10 +0000
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