Fellowship (A Message From Bill Bright)

A real friend sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24, NLT).


Dear friends:

Our two sons, Zac and Brad, now grown and serving our dear Lord in ministry, mean more to me than I could ever begin to put into words, and God has taught me much through them.

One day when they were small, as I was preparing a message, Zac suddenly appeared with a stack of books and sat down across the table from me. I sensed the warmth of his love, even though he didn't want to interrupt my study.

My heart melted, and I broke the silence: "Zac, I want you to know how much it means to me that you have come to sit with me."

He replied, "Daddy, that's the reason I've come. I just want to be with you."

Suddenly, for the first time in my life, I really understood how the great heart of our loving God longs for fellowship with man. If I delight in my sons and long to be with them and tell them that I love them and care for them, surely God's delight in us is infinitely greater because His capacity for love is so much greater.

One of the most amazing benefits of Christ's great sacrifice is that we, mere mortals, can actually have fellowship with Him. "God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful" (1 Corinthians 1:6, NIV).

Paul again speaks of this fellowship, along with grace and God's great love: "May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14, NIV).

Too often we think of God "way up there" and us "way down here" and forget that He is actually with us and in us, as He promised. We can literally have fellowship with Him!

One of the delights of my own life has been to fellowship and walk with the incomparable, peerless, holy Son of God representing Father, Son, Holy Spirit -- the Trinity -- and know that He is with me closer than my hands and feet and the air I'm breathing.