Koinonia: God's love expressed

Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You, just as You gave Him authority over all flesh; so that He may give eternal life to all You have given Him. This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent--Jesus Christ.
(John 17:1-3)

If we say, "We have fellowship with Him," and walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
(1 John 1:6-7)

The greatest evidence that a person has been born again, is their love for one another within the family.

Koinonia is the practical expression of God's love toward His people. I want us to become well acquainted with this word, because it is where God's love is manifest in real life. Koinonia is agape love in action. It is how we experience the fullness of God's love for His people and in His people. In a real sense koinonia is the essence of God's great salvation.

True Koinonia, in its fullest expression, can only be found in one place--the local church.
God is honored when a church demonstrates to a watching world the love that comes from Him.
Eternal life is not based on religion, but it is based on a relationship with God.
God's great salvation frees us from sin in order that we might be free to know Him. Some think that we are freed from sin in order that we might act right, yet God's desire is that we be right. Being right speaks of the heart; it speaks of the core of our existence.

The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Deut. 6:5 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."
Matt. 22:37 "Jesus replied: "`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'"

I have found that many people are not sure what it means to be a Christian, not sure how to relate to God, and not sure how to relate to God's people. One of the most neglected aspects of God's great salvation is our fellowship with other believers. According to the Scriptures, it is spiritually impossible to have fellowship with God and, at the same time, be out of fellowship with God's people.

If a person claims to be in fellowship with God yet has broken relationships with other believers, what does the Bible call that person? A liar! Broken relationships with God's people are a symptom of a broken relationship with God. So if you see people at odds with one another, what is their problem? Their primary need is to be reconciled with God, and then God will help them to be reconciled with one another.

If a husband and wife have a broken relationship, what is their problem? Do they need marriage counseling? Possibly, but if you did marriage counseling, you better talk with them about their relationship to God. It is spiritually impossible to walk in the light as He is in the light and not have fellowship with one another.
The same is true between parents and children. How do you help a family member come back to God? You come back to God! When our relationship with him was strained, we had to get our lives right with God as the number one priority. But if your relationship to God is basically religious activity, you will drive people around you away. We confuse religious busyness with having fellowship with God, but they are not the same. In fact, our activity for God can often replace fellowship with God. And that will be reflected in the relationships we have with others.

Now that we have a small sample of what God's love has done for you, look at John 13:34-35: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Do you understand why we need to look at how God has loved us? It helps us understand how we should love one another.
God expects that we will forgive others in exactly the same way He forgives us.
"For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don't forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing" (Matt. 6:14-15).
And it is certainly true that our relationship with God will affect our relationship with one another in the church. If we refuse to forgive a brother/sister, the Lord will not forgive us.
I am convinced that much of the trouble among God's people today is they are still carrying years of sin on their shoulders when they thought they had been forgiven. Their unwillingness to forgive another has left them unforgiven and under the weight of their own sin. Futhermore, their growing accumulation of sin has created a barrier between them and God. That barrier has left them feeling distant from God, and that distance from God has brought deadness to their Spirit. That spiritual deadness has left them without hope and void of any real joy in life. That void has left them in despair and in the depths of depression--all because they were out of fellowship (koinonia) with another person in the family of God.
We must forgive as Christ has forgiven us.

Broken relationships with one another are a symptom of a previous broken relationship with God. It is our relationship with God that determines all other relationships in our life.
Love is the foundation of our relationships in the church.
As we grow in our relationship with God, we automatically grow in our relationship with other believers.
God's great salvation is best demonstrated when His love is being expressed among His people.
When Christ has a mature body of believers that is in fellowship with Him and one another, He can effectively do the work of the Father to touch a lost world.

When a church receives and distributes the love of God, they will experience above and beyond all that they could have imagined.
But when we are only busy doing things for God and yet we neglect time with God, the relationship falters. When our relationship with God falters, there is turbulence in the churches.
If our love for the Lord is neglected and we let the fire go out, it will soon be seen in our lives, especially our love relationships to others. This is true in every relationship in life.
When we lose koinonia in the church, we have lost our very life.
When we lose our love for God and one another, we no longer have a message of good news to give the world.

1 John 3:14 says, "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death."

What will you do to help others know the love of Christ? What will you risk because you love your brother? Do you want to see the love of God flowing through your church? Then begin to love others as God has first loved you. Do you want God to be generous to your church? Then demonstrate a generous attitude to others in your church. You don't have to make koinonia happen; you need to walk with God and let Him produce koinonia in and through you.

Study questions for reflection and response:
1. From God's perspective, why is it important that the local church express koinonia?
2. Can a church truly be a church without koinonia?
3. How does unforgiveness affect koinonia in the church?
4. What effect does koinonia in the church have on the community in which it is located?
5. What are some practical ways you can express koinonia with your church family?
6. How do you maintain koinonia in the church?

Here is this song by Jackie Chan that I want to change abit of the scenerio that is like us talking to Jesus, and Jesus talking to us...

Us: 解开我...最神秘的等待...星星坠落风在吹动....

Jesus: 终于再将你融入怀中.....两颗心颤抖...相信我...不变的真心...千年等待有我承诺....无论经过多少的寒冬, 我决不放手....

Jesus: 每一夜被心痛穿越.....思念永没有终点....

Us: 早习惯了孤独相随...我微笑面对... 相信我...祢选择等待...再多苦痛也不闪躲..只有你的温柔能解救...无边的冷漠....让爱成为祢我心中那永远盛开的花..穿越时空决不低头永不放弃的梦..

让爱成为你我心中那永远盛开的花..唯有真爱追随你我穿越无尽时空...

爱是心中唯一不变美丽的

The Family: God has no orphans

Here is something I'd like to share about the book I've read, "Experiencing God together", hoping that my sharings would at least help to improve our relationship with God.

Many accept the gifts of salvation because they want to go to heaven when they die, but they do not understand God's total plan and purpose in salvation and the unparalleled cost to God to grant it.
Our relationship with God is personal, but it was never meant to be private.
We cannot live our faith in isolation; that would run contrary to the purpose of God's salvation.
We can claim to love God all we want, but if we are not intimately connected to the people of God, we are deceiving ourselves.
Those who choose to stand aloof or refuse to be involved in a church have a serious heart problem.
Salvation brings believers into a relationship with God and His people, and both relationships are crucial.
Whereas sin leads to independence and self-centeredness, salvation leads to radical interdependence and Christ-centeredness.
The more we grow in our relationship to the Lord, the more intimate and loving we grow in our relationships to one another.
(Sanfu peeps, note this--->) If God's people are not practicing everything Christ has commanded, they will be ineffective in evangelism. But those who are walking in an obedient love relationship with their Lord will naturally share the good news of the gospel with convincing power.
Evangelism was a by-product of a people in love with their Lord.
When the people of God were taught how to practice the truth of God's Word in their lives, evangelism was explosive. Which is why we learn the Evangelism Explosion (Sanfu) for.
The key to this was the condition of God's people, not just a better church growth strategy (2 Chronicles 7:14) "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
The key to touching our world is for the people of God to walk in a right relationship with Him and one another. (John 17:20-23) "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
If all we work at is building our church to the neglect of the Kingdom, we are neglecting a major dimension of God's great salvation.

Study Question for Reflection and Response
1. What is the difference between being saved and living in God's great salvation?
2. How does God's great salvation relate to your involvement in a local church?
3. Can an individual experience the fullness of God's great salvation outside the fellowship of a church family?
4. How does the love between Christians impact the effectiveness of evangelism?
5. Have you been so focused on your church that you have neglected your responsibilities within the kingdom of God?

How can you refuse Him now....?

There's a story old...

That has often been told...

Of how our savior died.....

As they nailed his hands,

He cried they don't understand...

As the blood flowed from his side......

How can you refuse him now?

How can you refuse him now?

How can you turn away from his side...?

With tears in his eyes,

On the cross where he died,

How can you refuse Jesus now....?

As he hung there on the tree,

he prayed for you...prayed for me...

There was no one his pain to ease.....

Before he died, he faintly cried,

"Father, forgive them please..."

The second time I listen to this song...it moves me to tear.... I can't upload the video here...those who want to listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIgKcJDjWvk# It is a really meaningful song...

Still tired

The One-day Camp is overall not bad... I don't know about the sisters but we shared quite deeply among our brothers... I'm quite unset about the sharing I shared. Cause I've got no enough time to share my main point... But well, I know I still have a lot to learn. Anyway, got a sudden news from my father just now that he brought 2 puppy back home... Hmmm...I saw the puppys, quite cute! But I ain't gonna clean their shit.... Probably just bring them out for a scroll when I'm free. Well, this is what I wanna say now.

The Coming Trial

I guess what ever that will come, will eventually come...

The 3 months of NS next year will be a great test... Not much to the physical I guess...but the Spiritual... I pray to God that I will stay in a love relationship with Him cause I probably can't go to church for a whole 3 months, and I don't know if I could bring my Bible into the camp... But hopefully I could bring someone to Christ during the camp! This is what I aim for. For what I hope for...I certainly want things to go smoothly inside...I don't wanna beat up someone or letting someone beating me up inside... Pray to God that I will have the patience to endure, but better, the peace inside with those mates...

If you all are willing, please pray for me. Thank you.

What a meaningful date I had with her today.... She is sooooo nice la! And she really did gave me some good advice too! This is a really wonderful dinner I've had with her....... I'm really looking forward to the next dinner with her...













(Oh ya btw, did I gave you guys the wrong signal thinking it was some sort of dating with some girl? Hahaha! Too bad! She's married! And she'd already had a 4 years old daughter that is quite tall! She is my favorite teacher in school... Today is really a HAPPY TEACHER DAY I've ever had!)