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Got Your Spurs?

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)
            Unless you've been hiding for the past several months, you are aware that we are in a campaign season. It seems that everywhere you go, people are telling you for whom you should vote (though their reasons why are often missing or poorly argued.) Most campaigns have a symbol or a slogan. Campaigns change the way people talk to one another, for the better and the worse. As an employee of a woman whose husband was a politician, I could tell when he was campaigning. He didn't simply ask for his wife, he took 30 seconds to talk to me. A lot of time, energy and money goes into political campaigns. Even more money tends to go into military campaigns. Decisions are made about how to use resources that could change the world.
           While we may not wish to be quite as aggressive as  someone waging a political or military campaign, the word brings to mind the sort of activities that today's passage describes. We aren't to just spur one another on. We're to consider how to spur one another on. Spurring on is more than encouragement. Spurs are meant to get an idea across with enough emphasis to get attention, perhaps even unwilling cooperation.
         The ideas of "Random Acts of Kindness" and "Pay It Forward" are some campaigns that have been used to spur people on to love and good deeds. Three thoughts come to mind for ways that Christians can spur one another on in this way. The first is to pray about it. The second is for us to act on it ourselves. The third is to teach.

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