7 Days on Discipleship—Part 4

When it comes time to share the gospel, what’s your “go-to”? Do you use a tract like Knowing God Personally, or The Four Spiritual Laws? Or do you use a verse of Scripture, like Romans 6:23? Whatever your “go-to” may happen to be, it is vitally important that we learn to share the gospel in ways that are relevant to the people we are talking to.

Let me give you an example from the Scriptures. In John 4, Jesus encounters a woman who is coming out of the town of Sychar in Samaria to the town well at noon to draw water all by herself. This, in and of itself, tells us a number of things about the woman, even before Jesus starts talking to her. First, she’s coming out at noon…the hottest part of the day…to do a labor intensive task that would be better suited to be done either early in the day or later at night.

Secondly, we find that she is alone. Normally they town well was a local meeting place to catch up and find out what was going on in the lives of all of your friends (think of it as Facebook before Facebook)…kind of like the watercooler at work. But this woman is coming alone. No interaction with anyone, or perhaps she’s trying to avoid interaction. Either way, she comes alone. This tells us that she most likely isn’t accepted by the rest of the town.

The third thing we see is that she is coming to the well to draw water. This is the main thing. She has a need. She is thirsty. The water from this well would be used to drink, to wash, to clean, and possibly even to use in religious ceremony. So when Jesus sees this woman, He processes all of this in a split second (not a supernatural thing, by the way) and decides that He’s going to interact with this woman.

When He does it shocks her, because typically Jews don’t associate with Samaritans. Also, she’s a woman and He’s a man…also a cultural no-no. But Jesus asks her for a drink of water. She immediately tries to shut Him down by saying, “You’re a Jewish rabbi, and I’m a Samaritan woman. Why are you even talking to me?”

But then Jesus says to her, “If you knew who I am, then you’d ask me and I’d give you living water so that you will never thirst again.”

As you read the rest of the conversation, Jesus broached the subject of her sin in kind of a supernatural way, but the truth of the matter is that we don’t need the supernatural to be able to tell where people are in their lives. We can look at them and the Holy Spirit tells us that they need Jesus. And as we look for opportunities to share Christ in their present circumstances, we will find even more opportunities to share.

So the challenge for us today is to look for ways in which we can share the good news of Jesus Christ to those around us as we see where they are in life. We then tailor the message (not the content, but the delivery) in such a way as to maximize effect in their lives.

How do we do this? Practice, practice, practice. We need to do it more and more. Look at people, see where they’re at. We live in a society that is more disconnected from each other even though we have all these ways of staying connected. We need to learn the art of connecting with our neighbors. So practice it today, and see what happens!

Think about that today! And God bless you!

7 Days on Discipleship—Part 2

On Tuesday, I challenged you to think about the process of evangelism. Today, I want to talk a little more about that process. One of the 7 habits of effective disciple making is to make discipleship a part of the rhythm of your life. With that being said, let’s talk about what that would look like.

When Jesus was choosing His disciples, at first blush it looks about as random as can be. He’s walking along the lake and happens to call out to four fishermen to come and follow Him so He can make them “fishers of men.” While this is pretty awesome in and of itself, it seems to make no sense that these four men would simply walk away from everything that they had known all of their lives to follow this guy. From the accounts in Matthew and Mark, it looks as if this is the first time that they’ve ever met Jesus. But when you look at the book of John, you realize something different.

In John, we see Jesus shortly after coming out of the wilderness where He had been tempted. John the Baptizer sees Him and declares, “Look! There’s the Lamb of God who will take the sins of the world away!” Andrew and John (two of those four men called in Matthew and Mark) are with JTB at this time, and they decide to leave John and follow after Jesus. Jesus notices them following and asks them what they want. They ask Him where He is staying (this was a common question asked to Rabbis when certain persons wanted to become their disciple). He invites them to where He’s staying and He spends the day with them.

We are then told that Andrew immediately goes and tells Simon (Peter) about this man they’ve found. He brings Simon to Jesus and Jesus changes his name right there to Peter. In the chronology of the gospels, we find that this event takes place right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The calling of the four fishermen (Peter, Andrew, James and John) comes around one to one and a half years into the ministry. What does this tell us? It tells us that Jesus spent significant time with the men He called prior to calling them. This changes everything for the Matthew and Mark passages and makes perfect sense as to why they would leave everything at that point to follow Jesus…because they already had significant relationship with Him.

That’s why when we make discipleship a part of the rhythm of our lives, people will be ready to allow us to teach them what God has taught us.

So how are you doing in this area? Are you allowing your life to be used of God to disciple those around you to become more like His Son? Or are you keeping it to yourself? Friend, there is nothing more exciting than watching someone come to understand God the way you do, and when that happens, you are a disciple maker…just like Jesus commanded you to be.

Think about that today! And God bless you!

7 Days on Discipleship—Part 1

I was cruising the internet the other day when I found a link to a video that talked about the seven habits of effective disciple makers. Some of what they said I agreed with…some of it I didn’t. But the fact of the matter is that we are all called to be disciple makers. The call comes to each of us as we read the command of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20, where He says the following:

“I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth (i.e., there is nothing that is beyond my authority). Therefore (i.e., because of this), go and (i.e., as you are going throughout the world) make disciples of all the nation (i.e., anyone and everyone you meet), baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (i.e., immerse them in who God is). Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you (i.e., once they come to Christ, teach them what you know). And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age (i.e., He’s going to be with us with all of the authority of heaven and earth at our disposal).”

–Matthew 28:18-20 with obvious emphases added by the author.

So, as we look at what Jesus is saying here, what are some things that disciples must do? According to the video I watched, there are seven things. They include making Jesus central in everything, sharing faith in culturally relevant ways, making discipleship a natural part of their lives, using simple patterns and practices, being hospitable, and being empowered by the Holy Spirit. These six ideas I agreed with wholeheartedly. However, the seventh one (which was actually the second one) I had issue with. They said that there was a “strategy” that God uses to identify disciples. Now, I’m all for not wasting time with people who are just not interested in going deeper in their faith, and I think that’s what these guys were meaning when they used the word “disciple”. However, if discipleship is a process (and it is), then there is a process by which one becomes a disciple. If that’s true, then there is a sense in which all people are being discipled, and every relationship we have (with both believers and the unsaved) is a discipling relationship.

Let me put it another way. If I want to make a table, I don’t start with a table, and then make the table more of a table. No. I take the pieces that go into a table, fashion and design those pieces and then put the table together. The same is true with disciples. We don’t find disciples and then make them disciples. If they’re disciples when we find them, they are disciples. We were called to “make disciples!” So we find the pieces (individuals who are newly saved, or even unsaved) and from those pieces through the power of the Holy Spirit, craft a disciple.

So, are you making disciples? Or are you just hoping that someone else will do it? If we are going to be disciple makers, we need to learn the process…and that’s what we will be talking over the next several days.

Think about that today! And God bless you!