True Fellowship

"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 and all the more as you see the Day approaching" Hebrew 10:24-25

This passage has continued to speak to me since I read it a month ago. There are a couple of things that strike me about this passage. First of all it talks about getting together and to do it more often as we see "the Day" appraoching. What is "the Day"? I take that to mean the end of time as we know it. That would also make sense because Scripture also says that times are going to get harder as we get to closer to the end. So it would make sense that we would need to get together and encourage each other more often.

That leads me to the next thing that strikes me. What are we supposed to be doing while we meet together? the easiest answer is to go to church. However, I want to challenge that a little bit. There is a lot of value in church services and so many wonderful things are to gained from the church services, but I don't think that is what this section of scripture is talking about. I want to make note that it does not say to meet together to sing songs, hear a sermon, and go home. That is not what these verses are saying at all.

The words I see are words that involve more intimate involvement than that. I see words like, "spur one another on to love and good deeds" and "encourage one another". That to me indicates more than just a church services. If we are going to spur one another on and encourage each other than we need to know what is going on in each others lives. So I think this passage is not referring to church services, but is instead referring to more intimate settings like having a friend over for coffee or meeting at the park or meetings of this nature where you will be more inclined to get more involved with each others lives. Then at the end of verse 25 it says to meet together in this way more often the closer we get to the end of the age.

I agree that we need to do this and likely most of us would benefit from this type of meeting more often. However, it is easier said than done with the overwhelming number of things going on in life, but I believe one of the biggest reasons this type of fellowship is happening less and less is because of social networking on the internet and text messaging. I am not saying that activities, social networking, or texting are in and of themselves bad. There is a danger though that if these things become out of focus they can stop you or I from meeting together with friends and from what I have seen in the work I used to do with teens-- they have forgotten how to have actual conversations as they sit side by side and have a conversation through text message. What I am saying is to watch to make sure that life does not get too filled with activities that it leaves no time for true fellowship. Also to enjoy your Facebook account and testing, but make sure you have actual face time fellowship too. There is so much that can not be expressed through typing and I don't want you or I to miss out on that true fellowship.