Years ago while I attending classes for pastors in California , we pastors were given the book Celebration of Discipline" copyright (c) 1978, by Richard J. Foster. This well known book, has been ,over the years, very helpful to many Christians both Laity and Clergy alike.Mr.Foster's work"Celebration of Discipline".
Mr. Foster's book speaks to believers about how Christians can avail ourselves of the "Spiritual Disciplines" and grow in the Christian life thru a relationship with Jesus Christ by way of the "Spiritual Disciplines"
With that acknowledgement I would like to offer in my own words, as best that I may, what I have gleaned from Mr,Foster's book.
Spiritual Opportunities
What the "Spiritual Discipline" are, are Spiritual Opportunities for each and all of us to have Communion with our God in times of deep personal intimacy which brings us to see that he is with us and wants us and loves us.
Availing our selves of the "Spiritual Disciplines" aids the Christin in growing in Christ likeness, this process over a life time , is what the ancient Church called "Deification".
The Value of the "Spiritual Disciplines" are that they bring the believer to experience what is true, that Jesus Christ is with us, that is his Spirit fills all time and eternity and out of his endless love for us he reached out to us and abides with us. We are able then to live out of a holy relationship with the great God, the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to participate is that relationship of mutually love and submission each honoring the other above self.
Aloneness
Many in the world round us feel alone and disenfranchised by the greater society as a whole, they many have acquaintances and people that they know but are not experiencing a deep and abiding connection with others.
This loneliness that some are living with in in many ways the result of humanities estrangement with and from the great God. Humanity was meant to have a Communal relationship with others that finds its' origin in and with our Lord.
When our first parents , in the Garden of Eden, chose the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, the made a choice to stand apart from their Creator. To be out of Communion with God. This choice not only placed estrangement between God and humanity but between humanity as a whole. This choice changed the relationship between each and all, it disrupted the fellowship which we area all meant to be apart of. With this choice came loneliness.
Restored Thru Jesus
Humanity was made to be relationally interdependent with in a greater community of God and others. Jesus came to remove the estrangement between humanity ,and himself, and others. God thru the incarnation of the Holy Son of God, the second person of the Holt Trinity took on our humanity so that the breach between we and our God is healed and our fellowship with him and one another is restored to what he had always intended it to be. In short Jesus came that we might have fellowship with God and each other in a broader community.
St. Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Greek believers in the city of Corinth about this reconciled state that God in Christ has wrought on each and all of our behalf
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:" 2Crth:5:18
God wanted each and all of us to be in a Communion with him for all eternity and thru his Holy Son Jesus he has accomplished this for each and all if they will but freely receive it.
St.Paul explains to us that it is the commission of the Church to announce this reconciliation to all the world.
"Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely,
that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting
their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of
reconciliation. Therefore,
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal
through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (18-20)
The Gospel of Fellowship
The whole message of the Gospel is an invitation to humanity to join the creator God in fellowship and communion. St. John in his first General Epistle to the Church tells us that Jesus came so we might have this abiding eternal fellowship and that it was the mission of of the Christian Church to invite others to experience this fellowship with God, the Holy Trinity , thru Jesus Christ.
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete."1Jhn:1:1-4
This was the whole reason for our Lord Jesus to come to us in the incarnation that he might reveal the Father and his heart for each and all of us and to know him and be in relationship with God. St.John's Epistle reveals much more than we might first perceive, we may , when we read what St.John has written assume that the sediment being expressed belong only to the Apostle, but they in truth show us how our God "feels" about his Children. It is our God's joy over us that is being spoken of, not just St. John's.
Fellowship For All Peoples
Under the Old Covenant, that national relationship that was enjoined between God and Israel, the Jewish people had a unique relationship with the creator God lived out thru the keeping of the Sabbaths, Holy Days, Ordinances, Judgments,the Ceremonial Sacraments all with a focus at the Temple of God which was ultimately built at Jerusalem.
This Covenant formed a "hedge" or "barrier" around the nation of Israel and limited their fellowship and relationship with others peoples and nations.
The Prophets of Israel saw that this "hedge" or "barrier" around the nation of Israel would, however , be surmounted at a time in their future, though they did not fully understand how God would accomplish this seeing it was their understanding that the right relationship with God was based upon that very "hedge" or "barrier" erected under the Old Covenant. Ps:80:8
"And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his place of rest shall be glorious."Isa:11:10
This surmounting of this "hedge" or "barrier" erected around Israel under the Old Covenant around and the admission of gentiles into fellowship with God was accomplished by God himself thru Jesus, that is Jesus came that any and all humanity, regardless of their national origins.
The word used to describe this "hedge or barrier" was "Phragmos" this is what separated Israel and the gentile nations around them.
In Jesus' parable of the wedding invitation Jesus confirms that all those Gentiles who are beyond the "hedge" , the " Phragmoi" , that is the "barrier" of the Covenant , who will accept his Messiah ship will be welcomed and brought into glorious fellowship of God in the fellowship of the wedding banquet .
"And the slave said, 'Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' "And the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 'For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner." Lk:14:21
Barrier in the Temple
St. Paul speaks of this inclusion of the Gentiles along with the people of Israel into the divine fellowship of our God thru and in Jesus in his Epistle to the Christians at the Asia Minor city of Ephesus two thousand years ago and to all believers thru out the ages.
This inclusion into fellowship of the Gentiles is described by St.Paul the Apostle as being accomplished thru the dismantling of the "Phragmos" ,that is, the "dividing wall" in the Temple which segregated the Gentiles to the "outer court" of the Temple and restricted their participation of the Worship and Fellowship of God.
"For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by
setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.
His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two,
thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit." Eph:2:14-18
Jesus has come that all might be apart of the fellowship of the great God and thru Jesus has given us access to this Holy fellowship of the Trinity .
Koinonia
This is what we can experience and is manifested in our times as Christians when we gather together in worship and other activities. This fellowship does not of itself arise out of human agreement or natural bounds, rather it arises out of the abiding presences of Lord among and within our lives thru the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; Jesus has given us union with the Holy Trinity thru his shared humanity in the incarnation and unites each and all of us into this holy union and communion.
This fellowship is given only thru our Lord and he so graciously shares it with each and all of us and in so doing we thru Jesus in and among the Church come into deeper relations and fellowship our Lord and one another.
This is why it is fitting for Christians to regularly join together in worship and social activities,as we do we grow in this fellowship and are strengthen together among the community of the Church assembly and other Christians associations.
Regular times of fellowship and worship are vital for the growth and maturing of the Christian life and growing into the image and likeness of our Lord, what the Ancient Church called "deification" .
Benediction: May we each and all be active and growing in that divine fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, today, tomorrow and forevermore Amen
Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor
The
Fountain of Life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion2101 Old National Pike.
Washington, Pennsylvania. www.gcfountainoflife.org
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