Thursday, February 9, 2012
Hebrews 10:25 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.
HE GIVES US EACH OTHER
Christ blesses His Church in so many ways. Through Word and Sacrament He sends His Spirit to daily and richly forgive us. He is busy preparing places for us in heaven. He provides pastors and teachers to nurture our faith through the preaching and teaching of His Word. AND He gives us each other!
As part of Christ's body, we recognize our need to fit into the body of believers and to build one another up. We need each other. We really do. The church is the place where we come together to encourage one another in our shared hope as members of Christ's body. We need each other to grow up in the faith, to learn to serve, and to practice forgiveness. When we get out of the habit of meeting together our fellow believers are deprived of the building up we can give them. We also deprive ourselves of the spiritual help they can give us. In a world filled with Satan's lies and temptations, we desperately need our brothers and sisters in Christ to help us stay on the narrow path that alone leads to Life!
Thank you Lord Jesus for taking away my sins, for Your Word, for eternal life, and for my brothers and sisters in the faith!
Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.
We share our mutual woes, our mutual burdens bear,
And often for each other flows the sympathizing tear.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 464:1, 3)
