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So many people have confused the idea of having a “personal relationship with Jesus” with keeping their relationship with Jesus personal. God never made us to live this life on our own. Ever since the beginning it’s been known that it wasn’t good to live life on our own.
In Genesis there’s the account of God creating the heavens and the earth. Everything that He creates he recognizes as good. Light, it’s good. Land, it’s good. Plants, trees, shrubs, vegetables, it’s good. Day and night, it’s good. Sea creatures, birds, animals, you guessed it, they were all good. Man made in His own image, good. When He was done He reflected on all that He created and said that it was very good. Nothing like a job done well.
In the midst of the perfection that existed in God’s creation, before sin ever showed up, before there was ever a separation between God and man, God realized there was one thing that wasn’t good at all. God even said that it wasn’t good for man to be alone (Gen 2.18).
There’s this idea that all we need is God. If we have a personal relationship with Jesus, if we are right before him, clean of sin and pure of heart that being in relationship with God is all we need for this life.
Interestingly enough God does not agree.
God knows that we were not meant to live this life alone. Everything was cool between Adam and God in Genesis 2, and still God said that Adam needed to be living this life with other humans, and so God provided Adam with a helper in Eve.
We are created in the image of God, and one of the most interesting aspects of God is that He exists in community with himself. While it’s nearly impossible to grasp how this is even possible, God exists in three parts, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the trinity. We even see Him conversing with the three parts during creation as he says, “let us make man in our image, in our likeness,” (Genesis 1.26).
So if the main point of living this life is to seek out God, to be reconciled to Him, to give him glory, and to live eternally with Him, it is important to note that God Himself thinks that it’s not good to try and do this without others around us.
At 707 we believe this to be true because we have experienced it in our own lives. We know what it’s like to try and follow Jesus by ourselves. To try and overcome sin in our lives with no one there to encourage us or push us onward. To seek out healing with no one to speak truth into our hearts. To try and change the world all by ourselves.
It’s not how we were meant to live.
We were made for community. Community that seeks God together. Community that serves the poor, the hurting, the sick. Community that cares for each other. Community that pushes each other and encourages each other. Community that worships together. We were made for community that lives LIFE together.
At 707 we believe that true, authentic life change happens in the context of this kind of community. When we live this life together there is no where to hide, and no reason to hide. We are united by Christ and find a picture of the way that things were always meant to be. It’s in this community that we find God together, and God finds us, and together we are changed more into the people we were made to be.
Without community we are alone. This is not good.
LifeGroups are an easy step into this kind of community.
Is everything perfect when you join a LifeGroup? Probably not. The most important thing for us to realize is that we are as much a part of the direction of the group as anyone else. Sure there’s a “leader,” but you’re just as important to the livelihood of your LifeGroup. We’re here to do this together, not just so that you have a place to go.
LifeGroups aren’t Bible studies. LifeGroups aren’t support groups. LifeGroups aren’t accountability groups. LifeGroups aren’t social clubs. They’re all these things and more. LifeGroups are a place where you find a place to belong and people to live life with, the life that God has made us for.
Don’t go it alone. Join a LifeGroup.
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