Come On Y'all

Times are wicked and the days are evil.  School shootings are becoming commonplace.  People would rather shoot than reason.  Chicago is a war zone with innocent children dying in the crossfire.  It reminds me of the 80's in California when the bloods and crips were killing each other over turf and for faux respect.  Even in the church, preachers are watering down the gospel and limiting its effectiveness to transform lives.  Even in the church, people's hearts are waxing cold, just as Jesus prophesied. 

In times like these, we need one another.  Believers are a peculiar bunch because we sometimes don't understand that we NEED one another.  We MUST show love to one another (John 13:35; 1 John 4:20) because that is how the world will be able to identify us as Christ's disciples.  We get so caught up sometimes in walking in the strength of the flesh.  We covet other people's gifts.  We turn away from those in need.  We hurt those that try to we are supposed to be helping.  The church is supposed to be a place where those that love God and those that are followers of Jesus can come in from the cold and and be warmed by the embrace of another that is dealing with the same things.  Instead, people come in from the cold and need an extra coat because of the frigidity of many so-called Christians.

We are admonished and called by God to help each other! Hebrews 3:13 "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."  We are to build each other up and encourage each other every day.  The word used here for exhort is the word παρακαλέω, parakaleo.  What it means is this, we are to be right up close and personal with each other to support one another.  I heard one pastor, Dr. Mike Fabarez refer to it this way- we are to be "knee braces" for each other so that out knees don't give out on us along the journey.  We are to be braces/support/leaning posts for one another.  Without this support from one another, look at what the result is: the unsupported Christian faces the possibility of being "hardened" literally, dried out or stubborn towards God because of sin's delusion!  We all know that sin can make you believe a lie, it can put you into the bed of another woman or another man, it can make you think thoughts that were never designed to be in the mind of a Christian, it can blind our minds and deceive us, pulling us further and further away from God!  That's why we need to be support for one another.  We need to be each others' leaning post.

The book of Hebrews deals with the issue of apostasy and the issue of falling away on numerous occasions.  Here is why we need encouragement.  Every one of us that has walked this Christian walk will get tired at some point.  We will all look back at some point and wonder "what could have been".  All of us will get weary.  That is why the bible is so full of encouragement of the Christian to endure until the end (Isaiah 40:31;Hebrews 3:14; 1 Corinthians 15:58; Galatians 6:9; Romans 5:3-5; Hebrews 12:1; Hebrews 10:23; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Hebrews 6:19).

There is another scripture in Hebrews that also charges us to build one another up and support one another.  Hebrews 10:24,25 "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near"  The writer here says that not only are we to encourage one another, we are to think of ways to encourage one another and stimulate each other to GOOD works!  Sometimes, we are quick to stimulate each other to gossip but slow to say, "hey, I don't want to hear that."  We should applaud someone for walking away from sin and find ways to keep them in that frame of mind.  When we are around fellow believers, we need to create an environment whereby spiritual growth occurs, not spiritual relapse.

Meeting together, being around fellow believers and all the more as we see Jesus Christ's return approaching is vitally important.  We are a family.  We are His body, His ambassadors here on the earth.  We have to stick together and give love, grace and strength to one another while we are here.  If we love one another, then we can love those that are not in the body of Christ as well.  Come on y'all.  Let's get our minds right, encourage one another and love each other as we see the Day approaching!  Grace and peace.