The Difference a Fellowship would make...

What am I talking about..."a fellowship"? At the core of this is a group of men who intentionally share life together. They spur one another to grow and face life's challenges. They hold accountability to and for one another. They face the inner most battles of life together. They share the masculine journey which has been forgotten or beat down by our modern day, fast paced society.

Proverbs 27:17 (New International Version) "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

All to often we find ourselves running through life "just making due" the best we can, as we face the battles of life. Some carry a box cutter, others a Swiss Army knife, some have their old Boy Scout knife still. Others have the privilege of carrying the knife given to them by their father or grandfather. Maybe is the Husky knife we saw in the checkout lane at Home Depot, and we thought to our self, "I might need that and I always wanted a cool knife", so that is what we carry. Very few have have a dirk, dagger, katana, hunting knife,ranger sword or a battle sword. My point is two fold, first, the knife is simply a symbol of what we use to face the battles of life. And no matter what we have, we just face the battles of life head on and use that knife over and over and over again to cut through the entangling snares we face. The knife may work great at first and for a time, but at some point we realize it's getting dull and doesn't protect us or work as well as it did in the past. This leads to the second issue, we never take time to sharpen that knife. The battles of life are hurled at us by the enemy so fast that we just keep pulling what we have and wearing the blade down making it more dull each time...soon its nearly useless. How often have we felt dull and useless, we just don't make a difference any more. (Another lie from the Accuser!) We need to on purpose schedule time to stop and sharpen our blade. During that time we may even learn how to use a larger and more effective blade from another man.

Okay, you understand the analogy, which one of us doesn't want to be worthy of a battle sword...but we find we are simply carrying a folding pocket knife?

What sane person goes to battle alone? Even the military elite enter missions in teams...AFTER an immense amount of training and conditioning! The gist is this, how much different (BETTER) would our families, churches, communities and businesses be if we had fellowships of men who were intentional and committed to sharing life together? Committed to sharpening one another as iron sharpens iron? Committed to helping young boys journey into manhood? How much stronger would we be to fight the spiritual battles in life? I know that I need it and desire it.

What a difference a fellowship would make...