During my time in the Marine Corps, I had the opportunity to live in Hawaii and learned the meaning of a word called ohana there. When I now watch the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch with my kids, much of the emphasis is on that word and its meaning of family, "no one is forgotten or left behind."
As Christians, we have a similar word, drawn from the Greek and anglicized into koinonia or fellowship as it is used in Acts 2:42-44 (NIV) "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common."
At our last Saturday night's community group after worship. We talked alot about how our "community" was more like a family. The discussion had me thinking about Acts chapter 2 and the notion that the family of believers is just that, a family. During our times together on Saturday, we often sit in the pews together and worship alongside each other. We break bread together, both in the Lord's Supper during worship and with a meal after worship is over. We devote ourselves to the apostles teaching both during worship and in our further studies/discussions of the evening's lesson after our meal. We pray together both during worship and again as we conclude our time together each week, offering our petitions of thanksgiving and concern as a group. We enjoy our time together just as a family does and long for each Saturday to come. I think it is something that many churches and churchgoers today lack and even our group has had to work on this for close to two years now to get where we are. It truly is a blessing to us all that participate...from our oldest right down to our youngest infants & toddlers...we are more than a community, we are a family of believers.
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