Emotional Outbursts

As I have become more chronologically enriched (older), I have noticed that it is more difficult for me to hide my emotions. I grew up thinking that “real” men didn’t cry. It wasn’t so much anything that was said to me as it was the culture of the times. Most of the men I knew had been in World War II and had come home with their emotions buried deep inside of them. The things they had seen and experienced had caused them to suppress their memories, more as a defense mechanism than a conscious act. Since they didn’t show emotion, I thought it was not manly to do so. As I got older, I worked in hospitals where you had to deal with emotional situations in a very unemotional manner or you couldn’t function when you were needed. Now I have come to realize that the expression of emotion is one of the gifts that God has given us.
Hebrews 10 (NLT)
    ²³Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. ²⁴Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. ²⁵And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.

The writer of Hebrews takes us through a primer on the Christian walk. In this passage, he briefly deals with the concept of the responsibilities and opportunities that we have in dealing with each other. It’s almost like the television commercial for a major credit card. The message of the commercial is that, if you have our card, you have access to amenities that “regular” people don’t have – “Membership has its privileges.” We are not being elitist when we say that the same thing is true of those who have accepted God’s free gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. In our case the slogan would be, “Relationship has its privileges.”

First of all, we have to recognize the basis for our status. The only thing we have to show that we are part of this family is our relationship with Jesus. The writer tells us that we must not only recognize this fact, we must hold on to it with everything we have. This relationship gives us a hope that those who continue to turn their back on Jesus will never have or even understand. That hope is freedom from the very presence of sin. We have already been freed from the power and the penalty of sin. When Jesus returns, we will no longer have to live in its presence.

Now that we have established the basis for our hope, we can begin to see some of our responsibilities as Christians. The Bible tells us that we are to think of ways to encourage each other. We all know that the Christian life is not always one of peace and prosperity. Satan cannot sit idly by and watch as God’s people succeed in this world. He will attack those who claim the name of Jesus. As brothers and sisters in Christ, it is our responsibility to lift up those who are under attack and encourage them to keep their focus on the hope. This is not a conditional instruction. The Scripture does not say, “If everything is going good in your life then encourage your brother or sister.” We do this regardless of our current status. When we act on our responsibility, we will see outbursts that will change the lives of others.

Finally, the writer says, “Don’t neglect the opportunities to meet together with other believers.” In other words, we are to take advantage of the opportunities we have for corporate worship. It may be true that you don’t have to go to church to worship, but you do need the encouragement and protection that participation in a local body of believers affords. That is one of the primary responsibilities of the local church.

Time is running short. Validate your membership in the family, then act on your family responsibilities and enjoy the opportunities for fellowship that families offer. Watch out for the emotional outbursts!
We serve an awesome God!!!!!