A big old block of stone...hard, cold and very VERY dead.
On Sunday I was sat in front of a beautiful old war memorial in church - man it was cold - it was an anti-radiator - it gave off this chilliness which made me and a friend move away. We wanted to be warm but were made cold.
The passage from Hebrews today - 3:7-13 - is very clear:
DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS GO HARD!
Our hearts can go hard for all sorts of reasons...bad habits, time away from God, deliberately avoiding doing what we know deep down is right to do, allowing resentment and anger to fester in our hearts, and on it goes. Rarely do we intend to be hard-hearted, but so often we look back and realise what we thought was 'growing up' or toughening up, has actually been a deadening. Do you notice what happens to make us die? In the verses above it says we turn away from the "living God" (v.12).
Turning away from something living implies, I'm afraid, that we might well turn to something dead - to something that won't give life, but take it.
How might you have been turning from God?
So what are we to do??
1. Encourage one another to live for God
2. Do it daily!
We are instructed to stand together.
I love our cell (small midweek church fellowship group that meets to get to know one another more, worship God, challenge one another from His word, and think through how to live in service of others)
Cells are the opposite of stone - they are alive, living, breathing, active...
And this is how we have to be: alive, soft, fragile, vibrant...
But notice - cells work together - I need other people to help me, to encourage and to exhort.
Please - this day think about your Christian brothers and sisters - how are they doing? Are they struggling? Would they benefit from a supportive word, a hug, a text?
We do not do this alone.
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