When it’s wise to be inhospitable

I grew up in a home where we often had others into our home for the purpose of fellowship and hospitality. In serving as a pastor for more than 20 years now, my wife and I have always sought opportunities to spend time with people inside and outside our church body to cultivate relationships and […]

“Come on in”

“Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,…let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb. 10:19, 22; NASB) Normally my office door stays wide open […]

Sunday Leftovers (10/2/11) — Relationships

Fifty years ago, Sam Rayburn was in his 17th year as the Speaker of the House when he discovered that he had terminal pancreatic cancer. He then surprised everyone by announcing that he was leaving Washington D.C. to return to his hometown, Bonham, Texas. Why would someone leave Washington with its fine hospitals for a […]

God moves in a mysterious way

In his book, The Hidden Smile of God, John Piper recounts the story of hymn writer William Cowper (pronounced “Cooper”). His is a sad tale including the death of his mother at age six, his abandonment by his father into boarding schools where it seems certain he was abused, and his constant battles with despair […]

Today’s Quote – Fellowship with God (Owen)

John Owen, in Contending For Our All: Christ is our best friend, and ere long will be our only friend, I pray God with all my heart that I may be weary of everything else but converse and communion with Him.

Today’s Quote – Fellowship (Packer)

John Piper, Contending For Our All: Packer says that Puritans differ from evangelicals today because with them “Communion with God was a great thing, to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way that we are not. The measure of our unconcern is the […]

Today’s Quote (9/24/08)

A. W. Tozer, The Radical Cross: The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world.

Today’s Quote (9/14/08)

Don Whitney, Simplify Your Spiritual Life: The easiest and most direct way to experience [the] blessings of koinonia [fellowship] is just to talk with another believer about the things of God. This includes anything related to knowing God, Christian living, understanding the Bible, and applying it to particular issues such as work or family or […]

Today’s Quote (9/13/08)

Jerry Bridges, Trusting God: The Christian life is not meant to be lived privately in isolation from other believers. It is to be lived as members of the Body of Christ. God wants to use our times of adversity to deepen our relationship with other members of the Body — to create a greater sense […]

Today’s Quote (9/12/08)

William Ham: There are many things which a person can do alone, but being a Christian is not one of them. As the Christian life is, above all things, a state of union with Christ, and of union of his followers with one another, love of the brethren is inseparable from love of God. Resentment […]

Today’s Quote (9/11/08)

David Hegg, in Reforming Pastoral Ministry: Those who take pride in their independence and self-sufficiency will not come to prize a fellowship of interdependence until the myth of their independence is reformed according to the truth of Christ. The fruit of true fellowship demonstrated through mutual dependence among believers, comes only as we acknowledge our […]

Today’s Quote (9/10/08)

David Hegg, in Reforming Pastoral Ministry: Fellowship among believers is the fruit of fellowship with Christ. To produce the first, you must fertilize the second. What elevates true fellowship far above what the world would call friendship and belonging is simply this: Our relationship with fellow believers is a demonstration of our union with Christ, […]

Today’s Quote (9/9/09)

David Hegg, in Reforming Pastoral Ministry: Fellowship is a mutual participation in a common life that gives rise to shared enjoyment and responsibility.…The relationship that exists between believers is one of shared life, not merely the sharing of the things that fill our lives. To be sure, this relationship of interdependence, of interlocking lives, necessarily […]

Fellowship – broken and reconciled

A number of years ago, one of my former seminary professors was preaching at a public event for men and exhorted us to expand our relationships by saying (and here I paraphrase): Every man needs three relationships: you need a Paul — someone walking ahead of you who will build into you, a Barnabas — […]