Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more