Fellowship

Recently, the word 'fellowship' has come up in several conversations. (Link-'fellowship'- word study list in NT) I have run into a wonderful bunch of people who love to study the word. Each of them is committed to studying God's word in depth, but even more importantly they all seem to readily recognize things they know and things they don't know. Some of them write books or blogs, or have websites and some are involved in podcasts. I keep running into them in different places. Even though they are not interconnected by one specific organization, there seems to be a common spirit. 

Yesterday, I was really encouraged by a person's post on facebook, and then got excited when another person shared something on a verse I had been thinking about on a podcast. If that wasn't enough, the next facebook page I went to posted the same verse. Not bad for the 'virtual church'! Here's the verse:

Matthew 16:15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona (Simon, son of Jonah): for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Jesus addressed Peter as Simon, the son of Jonah (Barjonas ='bar' means son of, Jonas was Peter's father), right after Peter addressed Jesus as the son of the living God. The 'rock' Jesus was talking about was himself as 'the Christ, the Son of the Living God'. The church (community of believers) is built on the chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ. Peter recognized who Jesus was because God had showed it to him and Jesus was very blessed about that! We get excited when someone shares something that is obviously from God, so why wouldn't Jesus Christ! It is a great example of one person's relationship with another based on the Word of God.