November 13

Day 244: Today

I read somewhere that transplanted outdoor plants need to be hardened. Apparently meaning, those plants need to learn how to be outdoor plants. Handle the weather and all that.

So in that vein hardening, being hardened, is a positive. But our Bibles don't usually stress hardening as so good a thing.

The Book of Hebrews is the writer's attempt to convince his fellow Jews, now Jewish Christ-followers, that they cannot continue to use their ancestral legacy as a leg up. Being Jewish, at least in the mind of this Jewish writer, wasn't necessarily a head start in spiritual life.

In chapter 3, the writer quotes from the Old Testament, saying, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." Who rebelled? The generation of Jews led by Moses out of Egypt. The generation who got to see all the cool stuff!

This is the same generation that heard God speak. They witnessed God's mighty acts. For 40 years they saw evidences of God the rest of us can only begin to imagine.

And yet they rebelled. They rebelled, repeatedly, against their Savior God. And the chapter ends with this final sentence: "So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief."

After being witness to, and benefitting from God's grand displays of sovereign power, and His countless gracious acts, how could it be that they disbelieved anything about God? How could they choose instead to be rebellious, disobedient?

Because their hearts were hardened. They were hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (v13.) Over time the more sin they tolerated in themselves, the more hardened against God they became. Not enviable.

But we are not exempt from this very same hardening. Therefore, the writer of Hebrews says, in no unclear terms, "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened..."

I read this to mean, it is our individual and corporate responsibility to remind each other of the timeless gospel truths. The truth about who God is, and what He has done through Jesus. How that determines who we now are, and how we are to live.

Don't miss how the writer said, "Today!" Today is the day, not assuming yesterday's good word was sufficient. And not tomorrow, meaning we'll get around to encouraging each other in the faith...only when I feel adequate to do so, or am in the mood.

Without a show of hands, it's my guess that the majority of us need to be encouraged in our relationship with Jesus; to be reminded of His sacrificial grace to us who believe and are saved.

I just read a text where someone did just that for me. Today.

Today! And here's a little side benefit: the more we purposefully encourage other believers, the more encouraged we find ourselves The same day!

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church Juneau