"Comm-unity............................."

There were only ten of us, teacher included, filling the ranks last night of Wednesday’s Bible study. There was a bit of a rain outside and our “fall back” time change doesn’t happen until this coming weekend, the darkness maybe another factor for our reduction in number. Truthfully, I, myself, arrived a few minutes late, having missed the last class and especially hungry for this one, but also having sat down in my recliner about six and then waking up with a jolt to realize the clock left me scrambling to get there at all. Yes; I did drive safely making the journey… We are in the Book of James, not one of my favorite reads, the half-brother of Jesus always making me think, for what ever reason, of legality set in cement. It’s not that within its verses one can’t find much good advice concerning the life of a believer, just that the author seems to me a preacher whose theology yet held the Jews distinct and elite. No matter; we all, in my opinion, stagger down the path, hopefully learning as we go, and we, within this class, anyway, are happy in recognizing such fact. Discussion, on this occasion, embraced: what actually happens to us in a “born-again” experience; are we “once in grass, always in grass”; and is sanctification a change in us as we go, a singular event pronounced upon us at some point, or a state into which we step when we occasionally step into a connection with the fullness of His reality within us. Deep stuff. Did we all agree? No. Did any of us have it all “nailed down”? Probably not, or at least not in any sense of absoluteness. We speak, knowing that, even with the Book, we are looking through a veil darkly, each of us from our own perspectives of distance already covered, the Gospel given us at our own particular point of entry, and our own individuality, as well, in having “ears to hear and a spirit thirsty for Him”. We take each other for equals and hope only to come way with a good meal to digest. For me, this is “fellowship”. Chicken dinners in the meeting hall are nice, but not vital……