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

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

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