Fellowship
and Service
Giving
of yourself is the key. Consider one or more of the following.
- Pray for your neighbor.
- Show a general interest in them.
- Send them a small gift or otherwise take notice of
them on holidays or special occasions.
- Invite them to lunch.
- Keep in touch with them with occasional phone calls.
- Keep in touch with them by occasional email and
emailing digital photographs of friends and family.
- Ask about their spiritual journey and their ministry.
Offer to serve.
- Offer to pick up a few items at the store.
- Water the yard.
- Rake the yard.
- Clean car windows.
- Sweep the sidewalk and doorstep.
- Help them with their spiritual journey and ministry.
I
f your neighbor does not
respond to your offer right away, ask them two or three times in the first couple of
months, and assure them of your interest in serving. This is the process
by which people are encouraged. You wait on them and show the value you have
for them, and honor them for the price they pay in their spiritual
journey.
Offering is necessary. It precedes service. Waiting on other people requires
patience and humility – but works wonders in your life.
Use a colorful greeting card, one that is blank inside. In the
card, offer yourself in service. Commit yourself to work 30 minutes for your neighbor. Included a list of
suggested projects. Include a date and the following note: This offer expires
in 90 days.
The relationship of encouragement requires courage. Learn to give and
teach others how to give and receive. Spiritual fellowship includes giving
and receiving. Help your friend encourage a third neighbor. This receives
a special reward; it is hope and purpose and ministry together.
This is the promise we have:
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure,
pressed down, shaken together and running over
will be put into your bosom.
The
Book of Seasons describes a circle of friends who encourage each
other.
(kăs kā′
dă) n. 1
a circle of fellowship formed
by devotion to God and the passing
of gifts and acts of
service from friend to friend. Faith
flows in the cascada
as the kingdom draws near. 2 a symbol of Christian
community: the word of God at the center of a circle formed
by a chain of travails. [cacad(e)+a(rk)]
Syn: ark of the Spirit,
cascade circle.
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