It is not easy to be a Christian in the 21st century. <\/p>\n
We are continually exposed to the influence coming from the "God of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4). We are just a tiny minority – the "little flock" that has to resist the influence of the big majority.<\/p>\n
It is all the more comforting, then, that we do not have to live our lives as Christians by ourselves. God has called us to be part of a fellowship where we can help one another to reach the great goal that God has given us.<\/p>\n
The author of the book of Hebrews encourages us to do this: "Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24). If we do that, we exert an influence on one another that is the opposite of Satan’s influence.<\/p>\n
However, the author of Hebrews does give two requirements for us to be able to spur one another to good deeds and love.<\/p>\n
1. We have to be fully committed to our heavenly calling: "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful" (verse 23).<\/p>\n
2. We should also not neglect our fellowship with one another: "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" (verse 25).<\/p>\n
God has called us to His church – a community of believers – so we can help one another reach the great goal together.<\/p>\n
With these thoughts I wish us all a rewarding Sabbath!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is not easy to be a Christian in the 21st century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sabbath-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucog.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucog.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucog.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucog.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucog.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucog.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucog.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucog.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucog.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}