Skip to main content

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, 
whom we have heard and seen.

We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands.

He is the Word of life.

This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. 

And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life.

He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.

We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. 
And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
1 John 1:1-4 NLT

"Koinonia" is the word here for "fellowship" which means "what is shared in common".
John's introduction is inviting his readers (or hearers) into a shared shared story, a shared experience, to hold things together with one another.
And in the same way be connected with God the Father, and with Jesus.
Our stories will join up.
Our story, connected, shared, held in common, with the Eternal.
Is there something here in John's words that give us hope today, courage today, strength today, invite us into rest today?
#lettersfromJohn
#testimony
#koinonia

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,  for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see - such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. Colossians 1:15-16 NLT OK so this is an English translation of a letter Paul wrote to a church 2,000 years ago, but does it feel like Paul is wrestling with words and ideas to try and capture all of who Jesus is, of who God is, of how does it work that the walking around Jesus was also there before the beginning of the beginning of everything we can see and touch and know. Not only that but Jesus was somehow the agent of everything that has been made in the physical, social, and spiritual.  Jesus is at the centre of it all.  Walking around Jesus. Cooking fish for breakfast Jesus. Heart aching as he ...
Now rescue your beloved people. Answer and save us by your power. ... Who will bring me into the fortified city?  Who will bring me victory over Edom? Have you rejected us, O God?  Will you no longer march with our armies?Oh, please help us against our enemies,  for all human help is useless. With God's help we will do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes. Psalm 108 6, 10-13 NLT After the most beautiful and uplifting worshipful first half to this song, David takes us somewhere completely different in the second half.  It's all about victory, power, winning, it's all about him. The "mighty things" he wants God to do are all on the outside, all about power, and David's writing sounds like he's a bit lost in his quest to win. And I do the same thing. Praise God and ask him to fix my problems. Fix the classroom/online/workplace bully, fix my finances, fix my relationships, fix my problems. So as I sit with this psalm of 2 halves, its a bit of a mir...
That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,  "No eye has seen,  no ear has heard,  and no mind has imagined  what God  has prepared  for those  who love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT Paul is explaining why the people who were running the world at the time were OK having Jesus put to death - because they didn't get it that there's more.  God is more. The future is more. More than we can grasp or imagine. Paul talks of the mystery of God, yet somehow we want God to be small enough to understand, to predict, to manage how we want or expect God to be.  But Paul reminds this church, and us, that He is More.  I wonder if Paul would ask us with all our wonderful technology if we're looking to that for answers to questions it cannot answer, that the "more" we need is found in the mystery of God and it's OK to not get it all, it's OK that He is beyond our grasp and understanding.  And. We have Jesus. Jesus is God confined and limited like ...