have so few devoted souls laboring w ith in the inner circle of the church. Those th a t do labor, fre quen tly have a neurotic sense of dependence upon the pastor-god instead of Christ the Shepherd. T h e participation by the Chris tians of the ea rly church in the service of worship was most con ducive to th e fellow sh ip o f th e H oly Spirit. Even today the H o ly Sp irit u sually has complete freedom in the mid-week services of p rayer and testimony. Unless th e fellow sh ip o f th e H o ly Spirit pervades a Sunday school class there w ill not be much le a rn ing in the true sense o f the term . You can discount any sign ifican t insights on the part of the students. T h e teacher who loves to lecture the whole tim e w ithout en tertain ing discussion w ill do most of the learn ing himself. F a cts can be ab sorbed but the gathering of Chris tian in form ation does not in itself make fo r Christian growth. I t ’s im possible to la b o r this point. Someone is asking: “Do you mean to say I can ’t grow in grace by the power of the Sp irit unless I ’m regu larly m eeting w ith other Chris tian s?” Christian fellowship guided by God’s Sp irit of tru th is basic. Bu t when we are not d irectly in the presence of other Christians we are still in H is body and we m eet w ith each other frequen tly before the throne of grace in prayer. In its barest essentials there should be a fellow sh ip between you and the Holy Sp irit un til such tim e as you can m eet w ith other Christians. Bu t you must practice creative self-expression. T r y it w ith this article. Pu t in you r own words what we have been saying. Give addi tional examples. Read Ephesians 4 :1 -1 6 and Acts 2 :4 3 -4 7 and restate the meanings here in terms of fe l low ships to which you contribute. How can these fellow sh ip s be made more useful to God’s Spirit? W h a t do you do w ith a person who mo nopolizes the group w ith a compul sive need to talk too much? W h a t part should a leader p lay in any fellow sh ip o f th e H o ly Spirit? You • can th ink more and more upon this subject un til H is Sp irit uses you effectively to form or contribute to one or more fellow sh ip s in your church. END.
words to concrete pieces of the world he is fam ilia r w ith. And last, but not least, he identifies himself w ith a group of fellow , common, ord inary human beings like him self w h o d e r i v e satisfaction from a Christ-related world. T h e y build up his confidence and he senses that he is important in building up theirs. He is cemented to them and th e ir w ay of living. H e fin ally begins to re a lly understand such terms as “the un ity of the Sp irit,” “the body of Christ,” “the whole body, joined and kn it together by every jo in t w ith wh ich i t is sup plied,” which before were ju st so much double talk. I t is never too ea rly to stimulate th is creative self-expression. W h en a person accepts Christ, he should say or do something. I f th e situa tion perm its it, th is person should be encouraged to p ray his own prayer aloud when accep ting Christ. T h e sound of his own voice express ing what little he knows of a Christ-related world and h is desire to live in it w ill absolutely astound him . I f he w ill not pray, le t him read something from the Word. L e t h im sign something because that is both self-involvement and self-ex pression. However, since p ray er is the w i d e s t comm itment o f the whole person to God, it is th e most effective condition f o r l e a r n i n g through creative self-expression. F o r most persons the earliest fe l low sh ip o f th e H o ly Spirit w ill he the counseling between convert and pastor. I f anywhere along the lin e this convert is contradicted rudely when he begins to express b iblical tru th or if he is told h e is not grasping doctrine correctly or if m any new and strange-sounding ideas are jamm ed down his throat by a dominating personality, you can wave good-by to your new friend in Christ. R arely w ill he go much further. If the atmosphere isn ’t drenched w ith permissive love there can ’t be any learn ing and there never w ill be a genuine fe l low ship. In these ea rly stages the patience, th e Christ-like love and the m a tu rity of the pastor or pastor- representative are all important. Th is explains why e x c e l l e n t preachers m ay have a large follow ing in the pews but because of arro gance and a brazen sense of self- importance lose m any converts and The King's Business/June 1957
How Do I Love Thee?
How do I love thee, dear ? Ah, where are found the words To tell the one who cannot hear, The lilting song of birds ? How do I love thee, dear ? For eyes which do not see, Can mortal tongue ere truly show The sunset’s lovely ecstasy ? How do I love thee, dear ? With longing tenderness, To help thee hear the song of birds In time of strain and stress. How do I love thee, dear ? With yearning of my heart To be to thee thine other eyes, When sunset’s glory doth depart. How do I love thee, dear? All gathered up in flame, My soul meets thine in passion sweet; Completely thine, pure, unashamed. How do I love thee, dear ? Oh darling, truly mine, I love thee with the strength of life, And all the heart which makes me thine. — Althea S. Miller
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Editor's note. Mrs. Miller says she wrote this poem for her husband two years ago and since then he has often encour aged her to send it to some magazine. Then she adds some thing we like very much: “We are both of the opinion that among Christians there is all too little spoken love between married folks, especially after a few years of marriage . . . we both work to maintain that re freshing sparkle which marks every early love."
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