Celebrating Christian Friendship
First of all, I want to ask you for your prayers as I write our second book, He
Always Holds Up the Heavy End. I
have just finished a chapter entitled “The Ministry of Friendship.”
If you don’t mind, I would like to share a short part of that chapter
with you for our devotional. Christian
friends are a wonderful gift from God and gives meaning to our lives.
I have been so blessed to have so many Christian friends, I really
can’t think of a better devotional thought for this week.
So here goes:
I have heard others say that if you go through life with five true friends, then you are very lucky. Well, maybe that’s true in a worldly sense, but whoever said that could not have been referring to the body of Christ. Christian friendship rises above all other kinds of love.
I have spoken in churches where I
have never met one person in attendance, and before I leave feel like I have
known these friends for years. I
have met Christians at functions, looked into their eyes and have instantly
known I had a new friend in Christ. That’s
the Body of Christ in action, and there is no other love like it.
You know what really makes me sick
– it is the way the world takes friendship and makes it into some sort of
warped relationship. The world’s
standards simply won’t fit into the mold of Christian friendship.
The world can not understand the kind of love and bond that exist
within the body of Christ. The
world says if a man and woman have a friendship in Christ, then something else
must be going on. If two men
embrace as Christian friends, then something certainly is wrong with that
picture. The Body of Christ is
one, there are no barriers. As
Paul said in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor fee,
male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus!”
What a scripture! And the
world?…the world does not understand the kind of love Christ brings.
Christian friendship is probably the
closest glimpse of heaven we will get down here on earth.
But one day, we will all come to the full realization of God’s love
for us through Christ and our love for each other through Christ.
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see
face to face.” No distortions of
the world, no lies of Satan, only the love of Christ for us and our love for
each other through Him.
May each of us be challenged today to bring that love to the world. It is a love the world desperately needs, even though it rejects it. There will be obstacles that stand in the way, but be assured that one day, the love of Christ is all that be left standing. Thank you for your friendship and in the name of Christ, I love you.