Go then and make disciples… – Matthew 28:19, AMP

Once upon a time Don and John were teenage runaways. Having fled their home at the age of fifteen, they ran as fast as they could into a life of drug pushing and drug abuse. One day while 15-year-old Don was hitchhiking, a man named Bill pulled over and picked up the scraggly looking teen. The first words out of Bill’s mouth to young Don were these:

Are you a Christian?

For the next five years Bill made frequent visits to Don and John’s home. Sometimes he found them there alone. Sometimes he found them there with others partaking of drink and drugs. Each time he went, he broke open the Bible, preached Jesus, and filled that wicked home with the holiness of Heaven.

After five years of consistently hearing the Gospel from Bill’s lips, Don and John finally accepted Christ as their Savior. But Bill didn’t stop there. For the next several years Bill, along with his wife Ann, discipled young Don and John. Now, thirty years later, Don and John have raised families for Christ, have won others to Christ, and have made disciples of their own.

In Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells us to go and make disciples of all nations. In our microwave society, where we expect everything to happen instantly, we easily get frustrated when we discover that making disciples is not something that comes about with a snap of the fingers. Even if someone accepts Christ the very first time he or she hears the Gospel, the process of discipling is a lifelong one. Making disciples takes drive, purpose, commitment, dedication, and self-sacrifice, and that is why so few Christians engage in disciple-making these days. It’s just too much work.

Most people shy away from hard work, but even the most lazy people will work hard in pursuit of something they love. When we love something, work becomes play, and just about everyone naturally plays with energy and drive. Although I’ve never met Bill and Ann, I’ve got to believe that making disciples was fun for them, and I believe it was fun for them because they found it fun to serve the Master that loved them enough to die for them. What other motivation could there have been for spending years working to convert and to train two drug pushers in the ways of Jesus Christ?

Let us pray that God will give us the same passion for soul-winning that He gave Bill and Ann. Let us pray that seeing people rescued from the bondage and destruction of sin will become as exciting to us as our favorite hobby. Let us pray for God’s enabling to “Go then and make disciples.”

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