POINT TO PONDER:Community requires commitment
REFLECT: How did today's reading impact you?
Yesterday, we defined four aspects of real fellowship. Today, we add five more... with a pinpoint focus that community requires commitment. 
       "You can develop a healthy robust community that lives right 
   with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work
   of getting along with each other, treating each other with
   dignity and honor" (James 3:18 - The Message)
Only the Holy Spirit can create real fellowship between believers, but He cultivates it with the choices and commitments we make. When I think of cultivating, I think of farming- picking a plot of land and using a lot of my sweat and effort, with a prayerful watch of God's watering and shining on it, God brings the increase, and an amazing new living thing grows. Watch the comparison:
  1. Cultivating community takes honesty.

    2. We must not be afraid of conflict, but be willing to "speak the truth in love". I do not like conflict, but it is an inevitable fact that it will come. Wisdom understands that 'the tunnel of conflict' is the pathway to intimacy- true friendship.
  2. Cultivating community takes humility.

    3. Humility is not thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less. Pride builds walls between people, Humility builds bridges
  3. Cultivating community takes courtesy.

    4. Courtesy is respecting our differences, being considerate of each other's feelings, and being patient with people who irritate us.
  4. Cultivating community takes confidentiality.

    5. Confidentiality means that what is shared in your group needs to stay in your group. Only in the safe environment of warm acceptance and trusted confidentiality will people open up and share our deepest hurts, needs, and mistakes. Gossip kills community. There is no more destructive disease that can devastate a group.
  5. Cultivating community takes frequency..

    6. It requires an investment of my time. I must have regular, frequent contact with my group in order to build true fellowship. Community is not based on convenience ("when I feel like it") but rather on the conviction that I need it for spiritual health.
    When we reflect back on all these 9 characteristics over day 18 and 19, we can understand why this level of fellowship is so rare. It takes work... cultivating this commitment. What do you think is your greatest hindrance to developing new and significant relationships with others?
PRAYER:
"Gracious Father, I want and need true friends in my life. Help me to be honest, humble and considerate of others as I seek to build new relationships and strengthen existing ones. Who would You have me purposefully attempt to cultivate a better relationship with today? Amen
FOR MY CONSIDERATION:
    What can I do today to cultivate one of these characteristics of real community in my small group and church?
This week's Memory verse: 
 	"... so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member 
	belongs to all the others."	  Romans 12:15 (NIV)
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