CCOG Newsletter

As we prepare for the discipline of fellowship for the month of July, let's consider what fellowship is. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel were commanded to bring fellowship offerings to the Lord. When the people offered these sacrifices, it was to give thanks to Yahweh for His blessings and ask Him for reconciliation. In the New Testament, fellowship was a significant part of early church engagement. This type of fellowship - koinonia - was more than just shaking hands during a church service. It was serving together, eating together, and suffering together.

Both of these biblical aspects of fellowship involve the need for positive relationships. As we fellowship this month, let us not neglect to fellowship with the Lord, first of all. Be reconciled to Him. Spend time just thanking Him for what He has done for you rather than asking for anything. As well, let us seek to fellowship with one another in more significant ways than we have in the past. Let's also find ways to bring the poor and hurting into fellowship. That is the kind of fellowship that Jesus would approve of.

We are born into this world not knowing who we are but with a deep desire to become something more. We are like a toddler who doesn’t know their own age but pretends to be a great lion. We enter this world not knowing what we are, who we are meant to be, and how we got here, yet absolutely certain we were meant to become something more than we are by nature.

I don’t just mean we are born as infants who haven’t yet developed self-awareness. That’s true, but it isn’t truly the problem. Our ignorance isn’t fundamentally developmental; it goes deeper, all the way to our soul. We are born separated from who we were designed to be. And separated from the God who can transform us into that “something more.” It’s not just that we don’t know who we were created to be, it’s that we can’t know it. Our true identity as image-bearers of God is across a great chasm we cannot cross on our own.

Because we don’t know who we are, we have no clue as to what we can become. So we end up becoming the sum total of what hooks our love, desire, knowledge, and imagination. We end up looking like whatever we love. What we worship begins to work itself out in what we believe, why we think we are here, and the way we live.

As some have said: we become what we behold.

We are more changeable than we might believe. Even the most stubborn among us is constantly being shaped by who and what is around them, like a large boulder sitting in a riverbed. You may not see it over a matter of seconds but watch that boulder for one hundred years. Then watch it for a hundred more. Bit by bit, the river shapes the boulder, cutting it back, softening the edges, and re-forming the rock.

Formation is slow, but it is constant. It never stops. We are changing—being changed—in ways we are aware of and unaware of at all times. But contrary to what some have suggested, we don’t begin as blank slates. We are born into this world malformed, out of shape. We are in desperate need to be re-formed, to be re-aligned with the ways, words, and wonders of God. Why? Because God wants us to enjoy fellowship with Him, His people, and His world, but we can’t do this unless we are re-formed.

Before we can become what we were always intended to be, we must be born again. Made new. Made alive. To be re-formed we have to first be transformed. This is the journey of Christian formation: becoming what we were already declared to be; becoming who we already are in Christ.

The journey of Christian formation begins, ends, and is filled with God’s people beholding God.

And as we behold God, we become like Him.