Day 87 Go And Make Disciples

April 3, 2015
Day 87

Disciple is the word, Matheteuo, in Greek. "The word suggests the deep shaping of character and the cultivation of a world-view through a close, personal relationship between the disciple and the teacher. The teacher is a mentor par excellence who seeks to stamp his image on his disciples and thereby enable them to participate in his life. For the goal of discipleship is not simply the attaining of information."

We are to share the living Word with others knowing that by hearing the word they might be saved. The Word is living and active and Jesus saves. Along with this, as well, God has given us living tools to help us understand and show His relationship to those around us. The tools are: husband and wife (Jesus and His bride), earthly father (God), earthly mother (God), family members (members of the Body), and the family (mother/father and many times children).

These are amazing tools of discipleship. Go and make disciples could be better described as, go and live out your relationship with Jesus in your community. Show others your relationship with Jesus as you live it out in your homes with one another. Go and make disciples is all about showing others our disciple/teacher relationship in hopes that their relationship will deepen or just simply begin.

We have discovered that the best tool we have yet, to show the community our relationship with our Father, is our family. Or I could put it this way, the best tool of showing our community how it is to be a disciple of Jesus is by living it out in our family.

So our "Go and make disciples" might look like this: A young man walks in to our coffee shop, I recognize him as a friend of my adult son and we begin to share. We share about walking in relationship to Jesus even when the other christians' priorities seem to be counter to what we read in scripture. He has just come back from YWAM and is bursting with faith and a desire to be led by the Holy Spirit. I am able to affirm this real, live, living desire to be a vessel and we both encourage each other to have ears and eyes open to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit.

He tells me he is married, I tell him to bring his bride back. He leaves and within fifteen minutes he brings his bride back, a little sooner than I had anticipated. Jesus wakes me up to the moment. "Alright, I will invite them in. Yes, I am willing to spend time with them. You don't have to hound me, God."

This is my spring break. I have grand plans for the week but all of a sudden my day shifts and morphs into a fellowship around the deep things of Jesus.  I offer them a smackerel of food and so we sit for a number of hours speaking of our Teacher, Jesus. This young man

has moved back into the community and is finding it difficult. I encourage him to do what he is doing today, go and visit. In essence "break into the community" for that is what Jesus calls us to do. We, as believers, do not wait for others to include us. As outsiders we include them. We share hospitality with others regardless of whether we are active members of the "said" community. Why? Because we are in the community of Believers and that is just what we do.

We spoke of "rest. " When Jesus speaks of us as a vessel this is our "rest." I do not strain to move, I can't move. I must be moved. Ah "rest!" This allows me to walk up every morning, brush my teeth and wait to be moved. Today the "moving" looked like spending time these two beautiful young believers, disciples. We laughed at the silly thought life of a jar trying to decide how best to move, such silly stupid wasted thoughts for a jar. It can't move, it has to be moved. And likewise a disciple has to be moved, led.

My family during this entire time was moving in and out of the home, meeting and greeting them. Our family is a tool for making disciples. My "going" looked like eating my food and visiting. You might be saying, "Uh, Lynne, they are already disciples." Herein lies a misconception. Making disciples is not a once and done deal. You and I both know how many young christians become discouraged by what they do and do not see that they leave the faith. This was a time to live a disciples life with them and for them.

I am His disciple, His vessel, a jar on a table keeping my thoughts of where I am to go left up to my teacher. Today I was to love this couple and affirm their desire to serve the risen Savior.

The young and old children that come in an out of our home must and should watch me live my life as a disciple of Christ. This means I feed them, I apologize to them when they see me losing it on my children, I talk with them, I make them feel welcome. The christian family unit is one heck of a disciple maker. I "Go" everyday that I wake up and walk down our creaky old wooden stairs.

My house looks like a community center, we are on the main thoroughfare, we are accessible. And we are making disciples. This is our "Going" into all the world. The folks who have come through our doors are from Sweden, Norway, Africa, India, Turkey, Hungary etc. For us believers not to understand that our own homes are disciple making environments is to leave behind major mission fields.

I write all of this to not only bore you but to help explain what I believe is a major misconception in Christendom, what the "Go" looks like. It looks so different for everyone of us, hence, that is why there is no explanation of how it is to look in the verses swirling around Matt. 28: 20. The silence of words speaks loud. The tug to "go" is a very real tug but the question of where is answered by where you find yourself today within the relationships God has given you.  And if you are to go "go" to another country, you can bet your bottom dollar God is going to make that clear.  But in all things "Rest" and be a disciple maker as you flesh out your faith in your relationships. You are being watched.

Yikes!