"But exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13)."
The word "exhort" is a verb that means "to urge, advise, or caution earnestly; admonish urgently; to give urgent advice, recommendations, or warnings; to encourage greatly." Synonyms include to "encourage, spur, press, goad." God's Word exhorts Christians to encourage or urge or spur or goad each other on in following Jesus in a real way so that we're not "hardened" to the things about which God cares most -- like lost, perishing souls all around us who are drowning in their own sins under the weight of God's wrath (John 3:36). Have you become hardened to the eternal fate of the lost who are all around you? What matters more than someone's eternal destiny? Nothing! That's why God stepped down personally in the express image of His Son to rescue us Himself!
A man crossed my path today. I asked him if he had received his Obama Million Dollar stimulus money yet, handing him a million dollar bill gospel tract with Obama's caricature on it. He smiled and laughed. This is cool, he said, where did you get it? I told him I ordered them at www.livingwaters.com and that it was a gospel tract. I showed him the million dollar question on the back, "will you go to heaven when you die?" He said, yes. That's great, I said. Do you mind if I ask how you know for sure? I've been saved and have been baptized, he responded. Under the circumstances, I didn't have time to inquire further to ascertain what he really meant by that in order to confirm that he had a biblically correct understanding of salvation. But, I exhorted him to share the gospel with others while he still had time left, since Jesus told His genuine followers to join Him in "fishing" for men. I handed him a few more tracts and asked him to think about people he may know who are unsure of their eternal destiny and pass them along to them and exhort them to read the tract and consider their fate and act before it's too late. He thanked me for the tracts and said he would do it. A few minutes later, he came back to me and thanked me again and said how much he appreciated me doing that and how we really don't know how much time we have left. He commented on how much he liked the tracts and asked again where to get them. I told him and exchanged a few more pleasantries and he went on his way again. I hope that simple exhortation will spur him on to be a sower of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, which lives and abides forever and which causes one to be born again (1 Peter 1:23)!
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