Long ago in a land far away and young man and his wife found themselves with a blessing that is natural and good. This blessing was a baby girl. As many young parents do they read a few books and had grand plans of how they were to guide this child to maturity. Most of these grand plans lasted until about halfway through the first night back at home. Needless to say there is only so much book learning that can prepare you to be a parent. As these parents grew their child they made mistakes and had successes and even added a few more to the family.
As I recall the journey of parenthood these two walked down I am struck by something. Jesus last command. Go and make disciples. Just like these two young parents there is little realistic training you can do to do this, but if you have accepted salvation it is your task. Those He saves, He sends to save others. Like young parents we might think we are more prepared than we truly are, but again that is kind of the point. Because it is by jumping into partnership with the Holy Spirit that this is even possible. We cannot make disciples on our own. We rely on God's strength when things get messy. We are filled to overflow His love when we run dry. It is in making disciples ourselves that we are brought to spiritual maturity. We stay in a sort of spiritual adolescence if we refuse to make disciples. If we say that it is the pastors job or simply close our eyes to the need. It's no wonder at why statistics in the church don't look much different than outside it.
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