Endurance for the Journey, Featured, Relationships
Our Community
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him,
“Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent!
For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you,
for many people in this city belong to me.”
ACTS 18:9-11 (NLT)
“That’s the great thing a Christian community can provide: the opportunity to establish a network of caring and compassion that can support you when you are in distress – the way Paul was in distress when he first came to Corinth. When the wind gets knocked out of you, and as you gasp and finally begin to get your breath, you find that people have gathered around you. Faces emerge from the blur. Individual faces. And they are there for you. That’s what the Body of Christ was meant to be. And that’s why we need it. Because at sometime or other, we’ll all be disoriented, discouraged and in distress!” EUGENE PETERSON
Wow! What powerful words for all of us! Not only did the Apostle Paul need a community of Christ followers to care and have compassion for him but we do too! When we find ourselves disoriented, discouraged or in distress we all need this kind of community Eugene Peterson speaks of.
In these difficult times we live in people continue to face the uncertainty of the future. Families find themselves facing a recently heard diagnosis of cancer, the ongoing battle with depression and anxiety, the loss of a loved one and so much more. The greatest travesty of all as we face all the uncertainties of life, is to find ourselves all alone!
If you know someone who finds themselves in that place – alone – invite them into your community. Your caring and compassion will be a gift to that person as they journey through the uncertainty of that situation.
The bottom line is – we need each other to endure this life until He returns!
Let us think of ways to motivate one another
to acts of love and good works.
And let us not neglect our meeting together,
as some people do, but encourage one another,
especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.
HEBREWS 10:24-25 (NLT)
On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky