Get Together?

Good Morning,

Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:25 (NLT)
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

Most of the messages and sermons that I've read and heard over the years based on this verse of Scripture were focused on "church" attendance. Now, this verse certainly does give credence to that particular point of view and I would never argue that it doesn't. However, in my mind this morning it spoke of something a bit different.

What I gleaned from this verse was that you and I, yes the two of us, or a few of us perhaps, should "not neglect our meeting together, as some people do." Unfortunately, there are many of us who simply don't get together on a regular basis to simply share time with one another and, as we read continuing in this verse, "encourage one another," which is one huge aspect of simply getting together regularly.

We spend too much of our time in front of the television or computer in some mindless activities that do anything BUT encourage us in our Christian lives...even in our day to day secular lives, truth be told! I mean, let's be honest here, I know that there have been times when someone has called to maybe meet someplace for a cup of coffee or a soda and we've made some excuse because our favorite television program was scheduled for that particular time. Or, it could be that we want to play that online video game that has its hooks in us. We've all done it at some point. Might not have been one of those things that kept us from meeting with a brother or sister, could have simply been just too much effort would have been required to do it.

So, we get a call or an e-mail from someone who asks us to meet with him or her to just talk over a cup of coffee. Our response, more likely than not? "Oh, let me check my schedule and I'll get back to you," even though we're pretty sure there's nothing scheduled that we couldn't move around in order to comply with the request made of us. What should our response be? You know as well as I do that it should be, "Sure, I'll move some things around if I have to, but I'd love to get together for coffee (lunch, coke, or whatever). I'm looking forward to it!"

You see, the simply acceptance of an invitation to get together is the first step in the encouragement that we read in today's Scripture. Why? Because maybe the person making the invite just needs to know that he or she is accepted and cared about. That, as it speaks to me, is the first step in encouragement.

So, instead of simply taking this verse to only mean that we're supposed to go to our local congregations regularly, let's not forget that it also means...maybe even more pointedly and importantly...that we are NOT to forsake each other by neglecting to get together with one another one on one or in a small group of people. It's there, together and apart from the large congregation, where we will truly get the encouragement that all of us need in order to be all that we can be.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David