The theme of my thoughts recently has been community. Community is when a group of people live together in a culture of shared beliefs, values and goals. The concept of Community is laced throughout Scripture from the beginning in Genesis to Revelation. Genesis 1:26 reveals God in community with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit infused as One to create human beings in His likeness to be in community with Him and each other.
God created us to live together and be connected to one another in relationships.
That makes my heart skip a beat.
We get to make relationships with one another and we get to be a part of each others lives.
I love that.
This theme of community is carried throughout the Old Testament, when God gave the Israelites the 10 commandments they are mostly based on relationships...'have no other gods before me', 'do not bear false witness against your neighbour' etc. These rules are to ensure true and authentic community can grow. Then in the New Testament we see Jesus who is born and raised in community and who was surrounded by twelve close friends. Jesus' ministry is marked by relationships and sharing the gospel with communities.We then learn about the Acts of the Apostles of the community of believers who shared their possessions and all aspects of their lives with one another. I find these verses beautiful. They lived and breathed together, bearing one another's faults openly and endeavoured to support one another in anyway they possibly could. Although these verses are beautiful we are not experiencing community the way God originally intended. Humanity is still fallen but we have the unfailing hope (shown in Revelation) that God is outworking His plan to bring all people into community with Him and with each other that will break down all barriers, end all wars, end all suffering, end all loneliness.
That will be a beautiful beautiful community.
But until then God desires that we continue to live as a community of believers bearing one anothers failures, encouraging and loving one another and keeping Him at the center.
This past weekend I feel I have been able to experience living in true, authentic community, just like the community I described above. Three precious girls in my life celebrated their birthdays: Rose, Erin and Petra. We got to spend a lot of time together which was a lot of fun and such a blessing to my soul. I had the overwhelming feeling of love and encouragement. This was community. Even though there are tensions of life not being all that it's supposed to be, this weekend I found myself catching a glimpse of what it will be when God comes or calls. We could rest in each others prescence, we want what is best for each other and we lift one another up in prayer. I think these are beautiful charateristics of true community. It is exciting to belong to a community like this and I am thankful for everyone in First Saintfield Church and at BBC who I have experienced community with. I am so thankful for the relatioships God has blessed me with...the Czech team, the youth group, leaders, elders and dear friends. There are incredible people in this community who I know stand by me in prayer and would do anything to help me.
I am thankful to God that I get to live this life and I get to have relationships with amazing people.
"We're one, but we're not the same we get to carry each other..." ~Bono
