November 23
Complete Fellowship
When we were united by faith to Christ, we were brought into such complete fellowship with Him that we were made one with Him, and His interests and ours became mutual and identical.
We have fellowship with Christ in His love. What He loves we love. He loves the saints-so do we. He loves sinners-so do we. He loves the poor perishing race of man and longs to see earth's deserts transformed into the garden of the Lord-so do we.
We have fellowship with Him in His desires. He desires the glory of God-we also work for the same. He desires that the believers may be with Him where He is-we desire to be with Him there too. He desires to drive out sin-behold, we fight under His banner. He desires that His Father's name may be loved and adored by all His creatures-we pray daily, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
We have fellowship with Christ in His sufferings. We are not nailed to the cross, nor do we die a cruel death, but when He is reproached, we are reproached; and it is a very sweet thing to be blamed for His sake, to be despised for following the Master, to have the world against us.
The disciple should not be above His Lord. In our measure we fellowship with Him in His labors, ministering to men by the word of truth and by deeds of love.
Our meat and our drink, like His, is to do the will of Him who has sent us and to finish His work.
We also have fellowship with Christ in His joys. We are happy in His happiness; we rejoice in His exaltation. Have you ever tasted that joy, believer? There is no purer or more thrilling delight to be known this side of heaven than that of having Christ's joy fulfilled in us, that our joy may be full. His glory awaits us to complete our fellowship, for His Church will sit with Him upon His throne as His well-beloved bride and queen.
Family Bible reading plan
verse 1 1 Chronicles 18
verse 2 James 5
Honest Evangelism: How to Talk About Jesus Even When It’s Tough
The changes taking place in Western cultures are both discouraging to Christians and, ironically, encouraging. More precisely, most of the changes themselves are discouraging, but they are calling forth a different set of changes that are encouraging. The discouraging changes are easy to list. Rising biblical illiteracy means that there is less and less cultural consensus around things like the Ten Commandments. Honor is an old-fashioned word, easily mocked; truth is increasingly flexible; the lust for power, success, and money has become more and more transparent and unchecked; dignity is old-fashioned; cruelty and vengeance are sometimes depicted as virtues.
Short, clear, realistic and humorous, this book will challenge you to be honest in your conversations about Jesus, help you to know how to talk about him, and thrill you that God can and will use ordinary people to change eternal destinies.
Click here to learn more about Truth For Life
From Morning & Evening revised and edited by Alistair Begg copyright © 2003. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.
