Travis said:


But if we all come into the service worn out, worn down, not having our identity in Christ, not having spent intimate time with Him, not having built ourselves up in His presence throughout the time when we are not together with our brothers and sisters, then we will have nothing to supply to them. But God wants us to supply one to another as we are anointed by Him. (Eph. 4).

Around 1986 I preached a Sunday morning service where this very thought was brought out. The issue being a lack of power in worship and a lack of edification from one another. Jesus meets our needs through one another, and he meets them even when we do not recognize we have them.
I have found this little piece of truth very significant in helping a congregation understand their life in Christ is appreciably increased when the whole week is looked upon as preparation for what can be done Sunday.

There, of course, is one tremendous difficulty, that being the service structure; the agenda and focus shifts from Pastor and worship leader meeting out what is to be received to Pastor and Worship leader making room for body-ministry. It's so rare now where I live, its tantamount to Urim and Thummin.

But all of this is off track.

God made us needy, our lives are one continuous need for dependence upon him in every area of life. The need for love is to be met by Jesus through the Church by the Spirit manifesting himself in various ways.

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Marvin

Marvin: I am not sure that God made us needy. I think neediness is a result of the fall. I believe God made us dependent upon Him and interdependent upon each other. If He created us to bear His image, if we are to be partakers of the divine nature, if we are to be Christlike, then that would imply that God is needy. He desires our love, our worship, and our good. He does not need us to fulfill something in Him. He desires us so that He might fulfill us in His love and presence. It is the same with us. My needs are met in Him. Because of this, I can now love others like He loved me...unconditionally, without reservation or qualification.

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Travis

@twayneb

Hmm... I think, I understand. Let me put it that way: the wrong way of "needing" is as if you are an ICU patient, whose vitality is supported by machines. If the machines stops, the patient would not have enough strength to live without that and he passes away.

The right way of "needing" fellowship is to have your source in Christ and be able to stand alone. But nevertheless when we gather and exhort each other because it is the will of God and His way of building up his Church.

"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." - 1 Peter 2:5

Even if I cannot explain it so well, I think, I get the spiritual meaning (and hopefully others who read too). I think, God wants me to learn something about loving other believers... but I am not sure that I have learned my lesson yet.

@Marvin

When I used deserve, I had in mind the "You owe me..." attitude; the attitude of "the elder brother". And I do not really want that to get into my heart - because the consequence is bitterness and offence, and separation.

To put it simple, my expectation of love from other believers (in a local church), is not based on my "deserving", or me being perfect, "having attained". But my expectation is based on the fact that, we as a family, having One Father are to love each other.

But even so... I think, I have to focus more on doing God's will, come what may. Disappointment comes when others don't live up to your 'appointment'. Is that important? Or shall we rather pray that other believers come to what God wants them to be and to do?

A song, we sung on Friday:

I worship the power of Love
that was revealed in Jesus
I surrender to the force
whereby, I worm, was loved
I want instead of thinking of myself
to lose myself in the sea of love.

(Ich bete an die Macht der Liebe,
die sich in Jesus offenbart;
ich geb mich hin dem freien Triebe,
wodurch ich Wurm geliebet ward;
ich will, anstatt an mich zu denken,
ins Meer der Liebe mich versenken.)

And perhaps that should be my attitude.

God bless you all!

Esther,

You asked an deep question: " How am I to respond when I do not feel loved by my fellow sisters/brothers in church?"

One could ask more questions like why does love appear to be lacking: is there sin in the brotherhood? like jealousy, covetousness? criticism? Fault-finding? Pride? Sin will erect barriers between people. Look at the list of sins as quoted in different places in the WORD. If you notice they are committed out of lack of love for others. So, do I deserve to be loved?

I would say "Yes" because we expect the brotherhood to be saints who are filled with the love of God and when this is lacking you have no brotherhood, just a social club that exists for personal pleasure, convenience. If it is lacking, how do I respond? Good question.

Now, there are people who just do not seem to care for whatever reason. Knowing this is the case one must be careful to not misjudge another. One can make an effort to learn to know them, do some act of unexpected kindness and see what happens.

In my case, I worked at a crises pregnancy center for 15 years. There were times I would get so upset with my clients - they loved to sin and had no motivation to repent....YIKES! I would get upset. Then, I had to ask the LORD for an infusion of love for these people and He always answered my prayer. Always.

My thoughts....does it make sense?

Sandra

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Sandra Miller

Travis,

After Jesus resurrected he asked Peter, "lovest thou me?" He asked him three times...

Got a comment on this?

Sandra

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Sandra Miller

Hi Travis:

I believe God is a necessary being, we are contingent.
Being contingent by the very nature of being created we are dependent upon a vast number of physical elements necessary to our physical life. Now specifically related to our humanity, we were originally created dependent upon God for his wisdom, his provision, his help-mates, his created world etc.
Our very humanity places us in direct need for God's sustaining and providing providences. Deep in our human nature ( now that we have fallen) our human needs seek to find alternative methods for fulfillment.
The human heart needed God, because man as man without God lived not better than beasts and when left to himself God's judgment was to destroy the world by flood.

I think you can see the foundation of my assertion, our "need" is intrinsic to our humanity and now because we are fallen our needs mixed with sinful human nature seeks an autonomous method to access the thing it needs.
The sinful man needs love...so he exploits the needs of a woman to satisfy a love that is primarily selfish.
The sinful man needs food...so he exploits the labors of others for his excess that is primarily selfish.
Those two examples are juxtaposed to God's original design, where man lives according to the word of God. This word prioritizes the function of natural desires, directs them into God-glorifying actions where our needs serve to highlight the love, beauty, joy, and greatness of a God who subjected the word unto himself so that he might be all in all.

Our whole world functions according to human need.
When we become Christians, our human needs are not in the slightest mitigated, they are re-directed and realigned with divine purposes.
God's intent has not changed because his original design in making man dependent upon him openly declares man's needs are God-designed. The need for sex, the need for food, the need for love, the need for joy, the need for intimacy with his fellow man are intended for fulfillment through Christ.

Specifically, when a godly man such as yourself finds joy, love, acceptance, and intimacy with his Lord Jesus this relationship is initiated by God because of love. He knows how much you need him, you are finding out how much you need him. Yet, the body of Christ is not designed as merely stand-alone recipients of grace. We are designed to link up with others, by grace and by design we are gifted, motivated, empowered and find joy through the members of Jesus corporate body. We are designed to need each other.

So, I hope by this explanation you can see where my assertions are formulated.

Marriage is the intended analogous representative of Jesus and his people with all that marriage entails by means of two becoming one. So we are in Christ, and Christ in us and we bond together by that same Spirit.

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Marvin

Esther: Yes. That is what I am talking about. My life, everything necessary for spiritual vitality, is found in Him. I do not need your love. I desire to love you because of the love of Christ that is in me. Yet I draw great strength from your love as we fellowship in Christ.

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Travis

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Travis

we love others, the brethren, because, He, Jesus Christ first loved us...

Apostle Peter said to us to fervently love one another from the heart in his letter in (1 Peter 1:22)...