[aron]

I was probably too vague in my last post, and less helpful. One way to gain fellowship is first to understand the historical background and geographical placement of your current situation. This usually takes time for seeking, prayer, and consideration.

For example, if you're in Swansea, Wales, there will be a Catholic diocese and Anglican one. There will be a Baptist church, and various others, perhaps Methodist. If you look in history, Evan Roberts was involved in a great revival some 100 years ago of the Protestant population. Or, if you go to Thessaloniki in Greece, you may find that the Orthodox Church prevails, and claims to be based by Paul, and in continuous service since then, coming up through the Byzantine Age.

In both cases, if you live there, you should respect God's sovereign arrangement. By this I don't mean become Anglican or Orthodox, but rather hold a simple gospel message that allows you some degree of mutuality and mutual building-up - or at least the avoidance of ill-will and contention - that is so necessary for the presentation of the Body of Christ to the community at large. With some groups such as Mormons, JW, Christian Science, Unitarian Universalist, Rastafarian, International Churches of Christ, the Nee & Lee spin-offs, Unification Church etc, exercise discernment and avoid - with the rest, try to find some common ground. Because common ground is there.

Peter is such an aid in this. The simple Galilean fisherman had a simple gospel message. Look at 1 Peter: his gospel consists of "the sufferings of the Christ and the glories that follow" (1:11). This is similar to his message on Pentecost, and to the house of Cornelius later in Acts. Peter, as his intimate disciple, held forth that Jesus had obeyed God, did myriads of good works and miraculous signs to manifest God, then suffered, died, and rose again after 3 days, demonstrating conclusively that this one death atoned for the sins of the world. Now, we who repent and believe will hold ourselves up as befits our name, and hold ourselves to go forward in this very faith and hope. It's not complicated. If you seek the Shepherd, and wait to hear his voice, then you'll hear a simple message, plain and true, and you'll soon enough find yourself among his sheep.