Blakeyblog

It has been two weeks now since I stopped working. I am really enjoying these days with more time to thoroughly care for our home, spend with friends, and prepare for the arrival of the baby. It has been windy and pouring rain for the whole last week so we’ve been doing a lot of reading! Our good friend Brad Smith is in town staying with us for the week. He and Bobby have spent numerous hours planning and executing an amazing new design for their site godsongmusic.com.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit this week about fellowship. Almost everyday we have people at our home for dinner, movies, a game, a long conversation…it always seems that someone is over. I am thankful that we can experience such blessing from the Lord in His provision of some of the most true and meaningful friendships I have ever had. Tonight I was talking with my friend Missy and was telling her that I’ve really enjoyed how we’ve had so much time to spend together these last couple of weeks. We both commented that it is nice to have the time to do so. As I thought about this I became convicted about my own interaction with others. Do I settle for surface conversation and distant interaction with others? I’m sure that I am not alone in my longing for and seeking out of true and godly fellowship, but I wonder if there are more reasons why we don’t have fulfilling fellowship than just time.

The lack of fellowship in people’s lives today is a problem. I know many people who do not have a close group of friends to share time with. In order to have dinner with these kinds of people they have to pencil you in a month and a half before the date. People like this always seem to me to be too busy and distant. And I think that if time were the only barrier to genuine and uplifting fellowship we would find a way to make it work. This leads me to see that maybe another part of this problem is that we don’t have a clear perspective from Scripture on what fellowship really is. I am sad that so many of us just try to get by in the busy rush of life and don’t take time for something that God has created to be a key area of the Christian life.

Maybe we’ve become so accustomed to the church-term “fellowship” that we have come to think it means the ten minutes before and after the Sunday service, an occasional potluck and mingling over food before Wednesday’s Bible study. But fellowship is meant to be much different. It is a companionship characterized by love and truthfulness, a partnership of edifying belonging. True fellowship happens when people come together in like-minded unity to selflessly and lovingly build others up. One of my college professors taught me that true fellowship embodies the New Testament’s one-another’s…confess your sins one to another, rebuke one another, exhort one another, edify one another, comfort one another, pray for one another, teach one another, admonish one another. True fellowship is not something that a group of acquaintancess do in the church family center over stale cookies and punch once a month. True fellowship is common unity and oneness of life in Christ and 1 John 1:5-7 is one of the most defining passages on this fellowship.

I just finished reading John MacArthur’s latest book, Twelve Extraordinary Women. This is a fascinating account of the lives of some of the more prominent women in Scripture. Unfolding the verses that tell their stories, MacArthur does a phenomenal job illuminating what is most interesting and inspiring about these women. The twelve he chose include: Eve, Sarah, Rahab, Ruth, Hannah, Mary (the mother of Jesus), Anna, the Samaritan woman, Martha and Mary (sisters of Lazarus), Mary Magdalene, and Lydia. I used to think that back in Bible times women were degraded and reduced to a lower status than men. But MacArthur explains well that Scripture never puts women on a secondary level, discounts their importance or gifts, but speaks of them in honor and commends the faithfulness of them who follow the Lord.

Each chapter of this book is dedicated to one of the twelve women. MacArthur briefly but deeply reveals what was extraordinary about their lives. What set these women apart was not anything they did or accomplished, but resoundingly God’s saving work in their lives. These women are all characterized by a deep love for God, their faithfulness to follow Him, and the hope they had either for the Savior to come, or in the saving work He accomplished for them on the cross.

Not knowing many details about them, I was fascinated by the chapters about Eve and Anna. I had a lot of preconceived conclusions about women like Ruth, Hannah and Rahab and this book really helped me see how God shaped their lives for His purpose. I was also interested to learn that so many of the women can be found in the genealogy of Jesus!

My favorite of the twelve was chapter eight, “The Samaritan Woman: Finding the Water of Life”. I am very familiar with this story, but never thought there was anything particularly remarkable about it. An outcast woman who meets Jesus at the well, He tells her facts about her life that convict her, and she tells others to come meet Him. In this chapter MacArthur unfolds details and background that I never knew before. The Jews considered the Samaritans to be unclean and had nothing to do with them. It was outrageous that Jesus would travel through their land let alone drink water from a strange woman. His encounter with this woman was intentional and had a marvelous impact. For some reason, Jesus chose to reveal to her His identity as the Messiah.

I find the conversation between Jesus and this woman to be very extraordinary. He approached her with tender truthfulness and she was never the same. He confronts her sin of adultery and in doing so her deep need for a Savior. She could not hide anything from Him, but her heart and life were exposed to Him. She is intrigued when Jesus tells her of the living water that He has to offer: “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The Holy Spirit was obviously working in her heart because by the end of this amazing conversation she had run back to her town to tell the people what Jesus had said. MacArthur says, “Her response was typical of new believers, one of the evidences of authentic faith. The person who has just had the burden of sin and guilt lifted always wants to share the good news with others.” This is a refreshing and inspiring story of the exuberance of faith, impact of freedom from sin and amazing revival that can be spurred on by proclamation of the Truth.

This is just a glimpse of one of twelve incredible women who were changed by the Holy Spirit from the inside out and dynamically used by God. These women were nothing special in and of themselves. Ultimately their lives bear testimony to the glorious work of salvation and of God “the truly extraordinary one…” In his introduction MacArthur prayerfully urges that as you read this book you will “share their faith, imitate their faithfulness, and learn to love the Savior…” By His grace we can be used extraordinarily too!