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Thanks for visiting my diary. I've been journaling since 1984 and have chosen to share some of my entries online. They are not all positive thoughts, but I hope that reading them might be a blessing to someone who needs encouragement.
If you are just coming to my diary for the first time, please read my introductory entry, where I share some background that is important if you plan to follow this diary regularly.
Please also visit my music page, where you can hear samples from my debut CD, I Believe, which features songs written based on experiences shared in this journal.
God made people for fellowship. I have struggled with this concept for many years, wanting to believe it but wondering why I always had so much trouble fitting in. The purpose seemed to apply to everyone else but not to me. I wasn't "good enough" for His family. People love to talk to me about my dog guide or how amazed they are that I "do so well," but real fellowship was something I just would never have. The loneliness can be bitter at times.
But that isn't true. God's perfect will is that His creations love and have fellowship with Him and each other. So what is the real problem?
Most of the problem is the fact that we don't understand what fellowship really is. It isn't sitting around eating food and talking about the latest movie. Eating may certainly be a part of fellowship, but fellowship is about building each other up and sharing intimately in each other's joy and suffering. It is about knowing each other intimately so that we can encourage each other in specific ways and so that when we must correct each other, we can do it with authority and tenderness that carries the love and conviction of the Holy Spirit.
I was not created to worship or live privately at all times. Privacy is important. Private communion with God prevents me from making idols of the people with whom I fellowship. Public worship and action helps me avoid doing things in hiding that are not pleasing to God or are harmful or disrespectful to other people. I need fellowship, and there is nothing wrong with acknowledging that need. In fact, acknowledging that need is the key to entering into God's perfect will. It gets me started seeking what He has promised.
I will probably have a lot to say about fellowship in the coming days. It seems to be an important topic for me and an area where I have some strongholds to tear down.
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http://www.growingstrong.org
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