Friday February 6, 2015

Read Hebrews 10:19-24

I love the old Cowboy and Indian movies where the hero races off on his horse to save the distressed damsel at the climactic moment. Perhaps she’s been kidnapped by the Indians. Perhaps the bad guy has tied her to a railway track and the locomotive is fast approaching or maybe she’s been tied to a chair with the dynamite fuse quickly burning away. To get the best out his trusty steed he spurs the horse on to gallop faster and faster. The cameras always seem to zoom in the horse being spurred on by the cowboy. Of course the damsel in distress is saved and everyone ends up happy.

This picture of spurring the horse to go faster is a beautiful picture of what Christian fellowship is meant to be about.  V24 encourages us to think carefully about how we might spur each other onwards to greater heights of love and good deeds. The command is not in the spurring but in the thinking about or considering how we might spur each other on. Of course the expectation is that such thoughts lead to action.

Consider how we may spur one another to love and good deeds. What a great way to prepare for Sonday worship. We can spend the week prior to our Sonday gathering of worship thinking about how (and who) we can be spurring on to love and good deeds. To do this well we need to think about the people in our congregation, their needs as well as the needs of the congregation and the various personalities and giftings in the congregation. It would be pointless, for example, to spur on someone who can’t sing to sing upfront as part of the worship team. It would be silly to spur someone who isn’t gifted to teach to be a preacher or teacher.

The word ‘consider’ is the main verb in the sentence. During the week and leading up to each Sonday we are to be carefully considering how we can spur others onto love and good deeds. You could for example divide your church phone directory in 6 equal groups and spend Monday through Saturday praying for each family/individual, asking God how you can spur them onto love and good deeds. 

The last phrase of verse 24 gives us the content and outcome we are seeking to achieve. We are urging our fellow believers to greater heights of love. We are exhorting them to take up the good deeds that God has prepared in advance for them/us to do.  Again it means we have to know the people in our congregation, the giftings they have and the needs that exist. It also means that we have to draw near to God to seek His wisdom to know who and how to spur people on.

In reality none of this can happen if we choose to date the church and attend sporadically or if we choose to church hop, pretending that we belong to the greater regional church. Hebrews 10:24 is as clear as it is challenging.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Prayer:

Use the day’s reading notes and Bible passage to pray meaningfully:

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

· Ask the Lord to be bring great blessing this weekend at your church’s Sonday service. Ask Him to be powerfully at work in the lives and hearts of each member of your congregation and that He would bring conversion to those that are still distant from Himself.

· Pray that the work of Shiloh Ministries in India would continue and that they would be resourced by God for all their  needs. Pray that many would come to Christ and grow in Him.

 Discussion & Reflection

1. If 10% of your congregation took this command in Heb 10:24 seriously, how would your church change?

2. What if the figure went up to 90%?

3. What are the visible features of a church that is spurring one another on to love and good deeds?