“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV)
Faith is personal – but it is not private! Let me say that again. Faith is personal but it is not private! As believers we are a part of a family – a community that is responsible for one another. Somewhere along the way we got the notion that our spiritual life is our own business and nobody else’s. This is not true.
This verse tells us a few things:
1) We must be intentional about challenging one another to live out our faith in real and practical ways.
2) We must be intentional about meeting together – creating time with one another, so that our faith can rub off on each other.
3) We must be intentional about encouraging one other – building courage into each others lives so that we can boldly walk the walk we have been called to by our Father.
Why? Because there is coming a Day! So we live today with that Day in mind and we remember that we are in this fight together. Celebrating together. Mourning together. Striving together. Learning together. Laughing together. Praying together. Growing together. Hurting together. Playing together.
Together… for the gospel!
Why this brick is foundational: This story illustrates the value for our own growth of helping others to grow…
The story is told of Ludwig von Beethoven. Born into a musical family in Germany, Beethoven was compelled to spend a lonely childhood while he practiced his music for hours upon hours every day. His genius soon showed itself. At the age of eleven he was composing his own music and conducting an orchestra, and in his late teens he went to Vienna for further study. There he reached fame if not fortune. There he composed what was perhaps his most bewitching composition. Beethoven was passing a cobbler’s cottage early one evening and heard someone practicing one of his compositions. As he paused to listen, he overheard the girl express the desire to hear a real musician render it properly. He entered the house and discovered that the young lady was blind. Offering to play for her, he sat at the piano and did so for an hour or more. Dusk had settled into evening. The lone candle in the room went out. But the moonlight glistened in the room and, under its inspiration and that received from the blind girl who so loved his music, Beethoven composed the “Moonlight Sonata.”