Mickey Mouse Clubhouse?? Or The House of God!!

4/1/2025

What IS “fellowship”? What then is “disfellowship” (even though it’s not a real word, and it SURE isn’t the catholic’s “excommunication” legal “hereby kicked out and officially divorced from ‘the holy mother church’ forever and so you must go to hell” concept)?

What IS “fellowship”?

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:36-39)

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:40-47)

Obviously that’s a pretty great description of “fellowship.” Anything less than that is definitely not “fellowship”—because that’s the Jesus kind of life that is the overflow of a washed away life of sin and selfishness and pride, and infused as Peter said with the Holy Spirit of Christ now living within. If the Holy Spirit is given free reign within, that’s what’s going to happen every single time. “Fellowship.”

All of the above could, of course, be artificially concocted, as numerous “groups” have tried to do over the generations and centuries—including those related to monks and other such strange devices imposed on some special “orders” of humans in a monastery set away from the world rather than living “in the world but not of it.” Clearly, the description above in Acts chapter 2 of new Christians (even before very mature!) is what it looks like when “everyday people” give their lives to Jesus, are washed, and infused with life and love from on high—the Holy Spirit. That is no special order or religious monastic separation from the world. That’s just everyday Jesus life by those who don’t care about controlling or acquiring things of the world any longer and love God and others more than themselves. It can take on different forms in different cultures, perhaps, but that everyday selfless connection to everybody else around them who is washed and endued with power from on high—is just a given. It is just Jesus Life manifest “On earth as it is in heaven.” Again. The second Adam living His life that He had demonstrated, Pioneered, and has empowered from within as He and the Father now live inside of us by the Spirit.

Fellowship. Even though “disfellowship” is not a word, the idea of it, shared with us by Jesus and Paul and John for reasons of having betrayed Jesus and His truths and His life by choices, is simply this: “such a one as this” would not any longer have the privilege of walking every day with the Family of God. The “leaven” must be removed, because the Standard of Jesus willingly violated will destroy young people and others around them.

As the midnight television infomercial would say: “But wait! There’s more!”

What is fellowship? It’s not just a club or a lifestyle, obviously. Jesus absolutely did not come from heaven, spend 33 years on our sort of interesting but lame spinning mud ball—to start a stupid lifestyle club.

Jesus came that everyone who is part of him would live as He did with the Father: I in them, me in You, all in all, heaven and earth, one with another. (John 14:20)

Thus, all of the “one another” verses that come after us and surround us in the New Testament, flow from the pen of the Holy Spirit like water from an underground pure spring. These “one another” scriptures are not goals but the overflow of a cleansed heart, soul, mind, and strength, with Jesus himself living inside. It is not a man saying to his neighbor “Know the Lord, know the Lord”(Jeremiah 31:34) anymore. It is “springs of living water flowing from within”! (John 7:38)

1. Mark 9:50: “Be at peace with one another.”
2. John 13:14: “Wash one another’s feet.”
3. John 13:34: “Love one another” (repeated multiple times throughout the New Testament).
4. John 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
5. John 15:12: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
6. John 15:17: “This is my command: Love one another.”
7. Romans 12:10: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
8. Romans 12:16: “Live in harmony with one another.”
9. Romans 13:8: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.”
10. Romans 14:13: “Stop passing judgment on one another.”
11. Romans 15:7: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you.”
12. Romans 15:14: “Instruct one another.”
13. Romans 16:16: “Greet one another with a holy kiss.”
14. 1 Corinthians 1:10: “Agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you.”
15. 1 Corinthians 11:33: “When you come together to eat, wait for one another.”
16. 1 Corinthians 12:25: “Have the same concern for one another.”
17. 2 Corinthians 13:12: “Greet one another with a holy kiss.”
18. Galatians 5:13: “Serve one another humbly in love.”
19. Galatians 5:15: “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”
20. Galatians 5:26: “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
21. Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
22.Ephesians 4:2: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
23. Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
24. Ephesians 5:19: “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.”
25. Ephesians 5:21: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
26. Philippians 2:3: “In humility value others above yourselves.”
27. Colossians 3:9: “Do not lie to each other.”
28. Colossians 3:13: “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.”
29. Colossians 3:16: “Teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.”
30. 1 Thessalonians 3:12: “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else.”
31. 1 Thessalonians 4:9: “You yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.”
32. 1 Thessalonians 4:18: “Encourage one another with these words.”
33. 1 Thessalonians 5:11: “Encourage one another and build each other up.”
34. Hebrews 3:13: “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today.’”
35. Hebrews 10:24-25: “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds… encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
36. James 4:11: “Do not slander one another.”
37. James 5:9: “Don’t grumble against each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged.”
38. James 5:16: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
39. 1 Peter 3:8: “Have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love for one another.”
40. 1 Peter 4:9-10: “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling... use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
41. 1 Peter 5:5: “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
42. 1 Peter 5:14: “Greet one another with a kiss of love.”

As you can see, this is Jesus’ life flowing from within touching each other in the deepest places, without deceit or hiddenness at the HEART LEVEL. Not a club! A shared life with Jesus and the Father and one another at the deepest levels!

That is fellowship! Anything less is not fellowship! Now you can define “disfellowship” for yourself. But it certainly is not some legal document of “excommunication” to threaten and send them to hell.

A better definition:

“Disfellowship” is the loss of HeavenLife NOW, in this present age.

Yes! My first thought was: Again! Just like baptism—it’s not some religious thing that people decide to do or not do in order to try to accomplish something, but instead is our acknowledging and walking in the current REALITY of Heaven! It is our union with Jesus as Head. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!

All of these things are God—or not God; not religion on sand!

Baptism/or not, Fellowship/Disfellowship, Heaven/Hell.

That’s just every day Jesus life by those who don’t care about controlling or acquiring things of the world any longer and love God and others more than themselves.

I remember a time in a city I lived in where a family (who didn’t particularly “do anything wrong” but were absolutely not part of Jesus) were creatively “asked to move along.” When they left, I felt a burden lift, like the skies turned blue, the birds began to sing again, the grass turned green and the flowers bloomed. I asked myself why, when they hadn’t “done anything particularly wrong” I felt that burden lift. The truth is, acknowledging a lack of Jesus-centered “fellowship,” a.k.a. “disfellowship,” and asking a household to leave brings some sadness for sure, (sometimes much more than others if they are “biological family members” or longtime relationships), it is the right and mandatory thing to do according to the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, and not optional whatsoever. But when they do leave, as sad as it is to have to push them out, even if they didn’t “do anything particularly wrong, like murder someone,” the reason why the whole ecosystem of Life begins to blossom when they are gone—is because a Spiritless life is a BLACK HOLE that invisibly sucks Energy and spontaneity and freedom from everyone, whether we even know it at the time or not. Everything changes when we do the Right thing for Jesus.

“Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is in your midst’” (Luke 17:20-21) NIV

Fellowship: Our Heaven Life Together

Our Jesus, You brought us from ashes to life,

Washed our hearts and removed all our strife

Now Together we rise as one in Your name,

Being Transformed into one holy race

Your Life’s not a meeting nor a mere creed,

It’s powerful love in word and in deed

It’s heaven uniting the vine and the branch

Jesus Alive, as Kingdom’s advanced!

This is fellowship: a life made new,

Bound by the Spirit, empowered in You

This is fellowship: where Your Spirit Reigns,

Heaven on earth Breaking our chains

Jesus, we know you walked this way first

Pioneering the life for the church that you Birthed

By Living inside, You empower Your own,

Through Spirit within Your Pathway is known

Daily together with hearts open wide,

Fellowship thrives as self’s crucified

No walls confine us, no riches hold sway,

We share what we have, come what may

This is fellowship: a life made new,

Bound by the Spirit, empowered in You

This is fellowship: where Your Spirit Reigns,

Heaven on earth Breaking our chains

But when hearts grow cold and shadows divide,

The light of Your truth can’t with darkness abide

Disfellowship’s cry is a call to restore,

To come back to Your Garden of love evermore

This is fellowship: a life made new,

Bound by the Spirit, empowered in You

This is fellowship: where Your Spirit Reigns,

Heaven on earth Breaking our chains

Jesus, You are our fellowship… our heaven life together

•  Fellowship: Our Heaven-Life Together