Wednesday 4 March 2009

Church is us!

One of Adrian Plass’s books features a lady who keeps saying: “The church is the people, not the building, you know!” I was thinking about these verses in Hebrews 10:24-26: And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another… Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on…

I watched two four year olds – twins, a boy and a girl – on holiday. They were ‘spurring each other on’, gathering handfuls of sand on the beach and then running down to the water together to throw it into the sea. They seemed to be unanimous in purpose, neither willing to let the other go it alone but happily doing it together.

I am so convinced that this is not just for social purposes, although that is good as well, but getting together as Christians has to be INTENTIONAL, to encourage each other to live life well for Jesus. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17) or, as The Message puts it: You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. The Amplified Bible mentions to ‘show worthy purpose’. I want my Christian life to be as full of purpose as a four year old intent on filling the sea with sand!

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