Today is Saturday, May 8, 1982. This is my day off from work... so I seek to plan things somewhat, in order to accomplish the many things that have to be done. It is springtime... and there is gardening to do shortly. Springtime comes late up here in Canada, at least where we live; and if we are going to profit from our short summers we have to be diligent when the weather is favorable. But today there is fresh snow on the ground. Not much, and it will soon go; but today it means I can work in the shop. I am a woodworker, and I have a pile of cedar wood cut up and sanded and ready to assemble. We have four daughters and three sons; and for each of the three daughters I have made a cedar chest. Now it is about time for our youngest daughter to graduate from high school, and the rumor is that she is expecting her cedar box. And so I will work on it today, and with the few hours I can spare here and there I should have it ready for her graduation day. I have a good workshop; the fire has been lit; and I am about ready to go. It stays rather cool in these parts till well on in May, nestled away as we are in the snowcapped and rugged mountains of southern British Columbia. Very beautiful country... a land filled with flowing streams and brooks... many of them you can just stoop down and take a drink any time you wish, without fear of pollution. There are beautiful mountains clothed with all manner of trees: tall stately cedars, pine, fir, and larch (commonly called tamarack by the locals). There are rich pasture lands, and fertile valleys. But most of the country is very rugged and mountainous--and as you drive through isolated areas and come across some old dilapidated log cabin you cannot help but admire the rugged pioneer spirit of the early settlers, who chose to settle in such challenging areas and set about the task of making a living off the land. Somehow you cannot help but feel that they had it better than we, despite the hardships they had to endure; caught up, as we are, in the vortex of this civilized life as we know it, where all you know is the monotonous routine of duty on the wheels of industry ...cogs in a crazy machine that would keep you whirling ...for what purpose you know not. But apparently it is all so very necessary and so very important ...and your success is rated for you ahead of time in terms of how big a cog you can become in how big a wheel. As Christians we have to be ever alert to the fact that we are "in this world" but are not intended to be a part of it. So today I have my plans. The fire is burning and I will finish, or at least make a good start on this cedar chest that I must build. But I can't seem to get at it. Last Sunday at our fellowship I ministered a little on the topic "The Hyssop that springeth out of the wall"--and afterward I felt inclined to put it in print. Perhaps this afternoon I will make a start. Maybe I can put a few hours each week on it and get it in print by early summer. So I will get at my work. But as I pace around my shop I have no peace. Many times I have discovered the will of God to be just as simple as this. I think our main problem with the will of God is the thought that God only cares about the great and the mighty happenings... everything else we fret and strive about ourselves. We have to come to that place when the will of God is like the air we breathe... it just comes naturally as we desire to serve Him and obey the still small voice of His Spirit, And so I walk back into the house and get settled down at my typewriter. We generally refer to ourselves as a "fellowship," for we are just a handful of people that the Lord seems to have joined together for some meaningful purpose. We are not particularly trying to "build" anything, for we have learned that Christ is building His Church, and except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. We do have a burden for God's people and we earnestly anticipate the day when each member of the Body will be fitly joined and knit together in the Spirit, and empowered to fulfill his role in a very meaningful way unto the edifying of the Body. We continually emphasize the fact that if there is to be true "fellowship," then there must be a mutual concern, a mutual sharing one with the other, and a mutual receiving one from the other. By this we are not referring to everyone giving their little sermon every time we come together. That is not fellowship. The sharing that is implied in true New Testament fellowship is a sharing with the other of what God has shared with us. And therefore to some extent we discourage talking, if God is not talking... and we discourage "doing," if God is not doing. At the same time we seek to keep a balance in our teaching lest some who have something from the Lord might hesitate to share it because they feel not quite confident whether or not it is truly from the Lord. We would not bring anyone into this kind of bondage. We profess that none of us have as yet come into the true mountain of the Lord's inheritance in any degree of fullness. We still see through a glass darkly. There are still many areas where we long for that greater clarity of vision and understanding in the ways of the Lord, that there might go forth a very positive and assured Word from His lips. And yet, even in our lack of understanding, and even in our weakness, we rejoice so many times when someone, perhaps falteringly, bares his or her heart concerning something that God has been dealing with them about... some way of the Lord that is new to them... some Word of the Lord that has come to mean much to them. And because it means so much to them, and they had the courage to share it with the rest, it means much to us also. For we have discovered a little of what Paul meant when he said: "That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus" (Philemon 6). The thought seems to be: "that as we truly fellowship together in the Spirit we are helping to bring one another into a deeper appreciation and understanding of the riches of His grace and blessing." Fellowship, therefore, can accomplish the purposes of God in the believer's life in a manner that no amount of sermon-tasting and church-going can do; for in fellowship there is a sharing of the Ways of the Lord one with another, thus enriching us with a deeper understanding of Truth, and a more meaningful appropriation of Life. For let us never forget that Jesus would have us to know Him who is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.