Exhort one another!

 

The word exhort is not often heard outside of church. These days, political correctness does not allow the average person to give an argument or advice intended to incite hearers to action. Perhaps this is because it is called a spiritual gift and usually associated with prophets or preachers, even though all Christians are told to exhort one another. In the NT, they were to use the OT Scriptures. Even then, sermons were considered exhortation because they called listeners to apply what God says to their lives.

Written messages were common in those days too, as stated in the NT: “I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.” (Hebrews 13:22)

Sadly, it is possible to hear a strong message exhorting specific action but totally ignoring it. Recently a sermon on covetousness had no effect on a person who, right after hearing it talked about all she wanted using words that indicated an attitude of materialism, even greed.

Today’s devotional talks about the fate of those who neglect to respond to God’s salvation message even though they hear and understand it. This is the exhortation God gives:

Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2:1–4)

Initially, God says to pay attention; this is important and do not disregard it. His next words are what happens to those who do not listen — the danger of having their hearts harden and God taking away their opportunity to enter into His peace and rest. As Hebrews 3:7–4:13 describes, once hearts are hard, that person is led be the deceitfulness of sin and are unable to enter into God’s promises because of it.

Yet this passage also encourages: “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” Hope is still there but not for those who “formerly received the good news (and) failed to enter because of disobedience.”

Again, He says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” because there “remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” for those who “strive to enter that rest” along with the reminder that “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 3:7–4:13)

The next exhortation is even more serious. God says if someone hears, understands, and knows God is good but falls away, it is “impossible to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” (Hebrews 6:4–8) That passage and the next two point to judgment:

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment . . . It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:26–31)

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven . . .  Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:25–29)

When God speaks, He demands my response. If God uses my words to speak to others, I should not be surprised if those words contain an exhortation to respond. Being like Jesus means aching for the salvation of others. He said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37)

Paul was like that too: “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Romans 9:2–3)

PRAY: Jesus, grant me the wisdom and courage to know when I need to exhort others and to speak the truth in love to them, like You always do.

PONDER: the danger of being too afraid to reveal my love for people to the point I am silent and they slip into hardness of heart or even eternal destruction because I didn’t exhort them sufficiently.

 

 

How often . . . ?

 

The question, “How often should I pray?” is actually in Google even though the NT does say, “Pray without ceasing.” However, I’ve noticed that having a ‘rule’ about prayer does not increase its frequency — feeling weak, needy, or concerned for others is more often why I pray. Praying without ceasing is not easily motivated.

Does feeling a need apply to how OFTEN God does things? Job wondered the same thing. He asked, “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger?”

The psalmist may have wondered the same thing, but answered the question in Psalm 78:38–43 with this:

Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again. How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe, when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.

Speaking for God, Jeremiah thought about how often God forgave His people. He said, “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord.”

The patience of God show up in how often He forgives His children. It shows up in both the OT and the NT. It is also part of how I should live. For example, in Matthew 18:21, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus replied, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” In other words, as often as it is necessary!

Even at that, willingness to be forgiven is also needed. Jesus said in Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. What can I do to be more willing to “often forgive” or “pray without ceasing” or to be often engaged in the will of God. It helps to know what Jesus did. John 18:2 tells how “Judas, who betrayed him, knew a certain place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.” He referred to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus often prayed. For me, when I focus on Jesus and on the needs of others He gives me a desire to talk to Him. If I focus on myself, my prayer is more often whining rather than praise or intercession.

Another practice produces a change in my focus. Jesus instituted it: “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.’ ”

His Word also reminds me that the OT priests had to often enter the holy places every year with blood not his own, but Jesus appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He did this once, offering a single sacrifice for all time, then “sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” His focus on being patient with sinners motivated His action and by that action, His often became our forever.