One............

Good morning friends! Today is the first day of our annual Potter's House Pig Roast. It starts a 5pm and we will have food, 4 bounce houses / obsticle courses, waterslides, games, music, fishing, camping, and lots more too! God has been doing some amazing things through His church. We must be about our Fathers business. Isaiah was asked by God "Whom shal I send?" and these next words give me goose bumps and I pray I can echo them for eternity. Isaiah says "SEND ME"!!! I must share with you about a movement that I am seeing in our area. There have been approximately 20 youth groups from Roane and Morgan counties have came together 3 times over the summer. The emphasis on this event is unity. The name of the event is “ONE”. To be one body of believers coming together to worship God. To bring unity to our youth and to our churches. I looked up the definition for unity and it reads: The state or condition of being one. Something whole or complete. Wouldn’t that be awesome? What does the Bible say about unity? Well, let's dig into the good stuff and see.......

Bible verse: Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

Also in Ecclesiastes 4:12 God’s Word say’s“A threefold cord is not quickly broken. So, what helps us have unity? Fellowship is something that helps us have unity. But, this word fellowship has really lost its value. Let’s look at fellowship or the secret of fellowship. Three word come to mind from the new testament. These words are Agape, Philia, and Koinonia. Agape is that God love. It is unconditional love no matter what. Next, there is Philia. It is the love and care for fellow members of God’s family. And finally, there is Koinonia. It means partnership, fellow worker, or close friend that works by your side. Fellowship is sharing each others joys and sorrows. Rejoicing when one member succeeds and grieving when one member fails. This is fellowship. I can’t tell you how important fellowship is. You man be reading this and saying “brother Tony I am just fine on my own”, “I am a strong person”, “Heck, I am a strong Christian”. Here is why we need fellowship. I am going to shift gears a bit and share about persecution. As Christians if we follow Jesus, will be persecuted. We will be mistreated. Is that easier to deal with as the lone ranger? Or with brothers and sisters by your side. What about your actions when mistreated? Let's see how we are supposed to act. What the Bible saysand dig into the good stuff. In 1 Peter 3:8 Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. Check this out. Peter is a writing here to a group of Christians that are being or should I say about to be mistreated because they follow Jesus. He's about to give them some guidelines for how Christians can live in an honorable way even when we're going through hard times. He starts out with this: Treat each other right or have compassion for each other. No, that doesn't go far enough. He really says, "Treat each other as family, as brothers." It's easy when you're living through a bad time in your life to excuse meanness. It's easy to say to yourself, "Everyone will just have to understand how much I'm hurting, I don't have the energy to be nice." What Peter is saying is that's exactly opposite. God can make our suffering count for something, especially if we'll live like we're His in the middle of it. So keep getting together with believers. Look for ways to show sympathy to others not just yourself. Be compassionate and humble. Give them "family access" to your heart and look for "family access" to theirs too! I have to ask ya a question. Do you live in harmony with other Christians? When you're hurting, do you get closer or pull away from your Christian family? Why? Ask God to help you to treat the believers in your church the way this verse describes. Now do this for me. Look up the word "harmony" in the dictionary and write down the definition. Let's try to live that way. Have a great day, I love you, and God bless.