🌿BREATHE TRUTH🌿
Make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. —Philippians 2:2
🌿LIVE THE REAL TRUTH🌿
The Christian life is a co-mingling of histories. We have a co-mingling of horizontal history and vertical history. The two intersect in the person of Jesus Christ.
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Horizontal History
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from His love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? —Philippians 2:1
In our journey of faith, we have a co-mingling of horizontal histories with other people.
Our horizontal history interacts with non-believers whom we can witness and welcome into the family of God as they see how we live out our lives. Life evangelism makes Jesus real to those who have never met Him.
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Our horizontal history intertwines with other believers’ histories. This is where the co-mingling of community in Philippians 2:1 comes in.
Community of encouragement, to lift one another up when the enemy works to bring us down.
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Community of comfort, to lean upon one another when we can no longer lean on ourselves.
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Community of fellowship, to learn and lead one another closer to Jesus through the Word and worship.
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Community of compassion, to leave differences behind and love the body as Christ loves us through forgiveness and restoration.
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When our horizontal histories co-mingle well this results in a co-mingling of community, a physical and spiritual cooperation between communities.
Physically, the co-mingling of community enables us to do together what we couldn’t do separately. When Hurricane Harvey devastated the coastal areas of Texas, local churches connected with governing cities and relief organizations to rescue thousands of Houstonians, Galvestonians, and fellow Texans affected by this unprecedented crisis. To renovate and recover damaged homes. To resuscitate and re-start new lives. No lone institution could have accomplished this. The physical co-mingling of communities brings together believers and non-believers to care for a common cause.
Spiritually, the co-mingling of community works to weave the pieces of Philippians 2:1, encouragement, comfort, fellowship, and compassion, not as separate entities, but in relation to one another. In love and in loss, we can endeavor corporately with one mind and one purpose: to glorify God, as well as to give back what we have been given exceedingly and to grow our histories together extraordinarily.
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No man is a physical or spiritual island.
We can do more and do better when the co-mingling of our histories unify us, making the co-mingling of our community a reality as we share the Real Truth with the rest of the world.
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Copyright 2019