In Hebrews 3:7, we are warned, "Today if you hear His voice don't harden your heart." And then in Hebrews 3:12, "Take care lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart." The writer is warning holy brethren who have partaken of the heavenly calling to fear ending up with an evil, unbelieving heart that cannot believe that Jesus came exactly like them. It is only when you are fed up with your defeated life that God will give you this revelation that Jesus came like you in order to be your Example. I was a thoroughly defeated Christian at one time. But I was sick and tired of my defeated life. I used to cry out to God day and night, saying, "Lord, I don't know what the answer is. I am a preacher but I am defeated by sin in my inner life. I am defeated in my thoughts, in my words and in my family life. I am born again, and water-baptised. But I am defeated. Show me what I need to know." Then the Lord showed me the secret of godliness - Christ came in the flesh and was tempted exactly like me, and yet lived a pure life. I believed it wholeheartedly - and it changed my life. We are warned here that if we have an unbelieving heart, we can fall away from God (Heb 3:12).

But instead of falling away, the next verse gives us another option, "Encourage one another, exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today" (Heb 3:13). We do not know what will happen tomorrow. So let us do something today. Let us encourage someone today. Let us exhort someone today. In the context of this chapter, that means to encourage someone to consider Jesus Who became like us.

Our calling, every day, is to lift up Jesus. Our conduct and our words must always be saying, "Look at Jesus. What a wonderful Saviour He is! He not only forgave my sins, but He changed my life. He has changed my family life, He has filled me with the joy of the Lord so that I can rejoice always. He has taken away the fear of death from me. Consider Jesus." Our life must be a challenge and an encouragement to others every day. When people look at your face, they must see something of the glory of God there.

Hebrews 3:13 warns us that it takes only 24 hours to become a backslider. That's why we need to exhort and encourage one another every day. We have a responsibility for each other in the Body of Christ. Cain said, "I am not my brother's keeper." But in Christ's Body, we are our brother's keepers, we are our sister's keepers. If you see somebody slipping up, encourage him. If you see somebody falling, lift him up.

If you have nobody to encourage you or exhort you, you have the Holy Spirit and the Bible. The apostle Paul has exhorted and encouraged me personally on many days - through his words in the Bible. Peter, James and John have also exhorted and encouraged me. Many times when I didn't have brothers near me to exhort me, these apostles came to me through the pages of the Bible and encouraged me. Isn't it wonderful that we all can have Peter, Paul and John with us in our rooms, to encourage us every day? Why don't you let them encourage you? Why do you keep them locked away inside the Book?

You need to read the Bible itself, more than all the other books that speak about the Bible. I don't want to know what all the great Bible scholars have to say about Peter's, Paul's and John's writings say. I want to hear them directly. So I read the Bible itself - and not books about the Bible.