Fellowship

I would have to say that Bible study definitely serves as good fellowship. It is an amazing blessing to be with like-minded people that are about the same age, studying God's word, praying, and singing together. It is such a refreshment after a not completely pleasant week (to put it mildly). We sang some Christmas songs tonight. I know, I know, it's not even Thanksgiving, but there are some incredible messages in Christmas songs. I tend to not like Christmas songs because a lot of them tend to be quite empty, but there are a lot of good ones too. I would encourage you to really think about what the Christmas songs are saying when you listen to and/or sing them in the coming month. It is easy to get in a pattern of just singing songs because that's what you do near Christmas time, but take the time to really think about what message is being communicated through the song.

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul lists out some ways in which God punished Israel for their disobedience. It is easy to look at the nation of Israel and think that we would never do such a thing, but look at Paul's warning to us.

6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.
11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

We must recognize that we are never so far up that we cannot fall. If you look at Biblical characters and commitment to Christ, I would say Paul is among the top. Look at all the things he suffered for the sake of Christ. It is incredible! If Paul is recognizing that he isn't beyond falling, we are definetely not beyond falling in a major way. We must pursue Christ daily. At the Bible study tonight, Joel said, "There are no big decisions, there are a lot of little one's that make up a big one." I really think he is right! We are making big decisions for our future by the little decisions we make now. It is vital that we live for Christ now!