Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Live the Cause!

At youth group on Sunday, my youth pastor began with an analogy of his son at dinner time. His son Carsten is a very picky eater. If he sees something on his plate he's never eaten before he will do anything to avoid eating it. So his parents will tell him he needs to try just ONE bite. Carsten promptly will take a bite of something else on his plate, take a sip of water, and then say in the cutest little voice, "All done!"
His dad isn't fooled of course and will ask, "Carsten, did you eat a bite of ____"
Again Carsten will go through the routine of eating everything but the one thing he's been told to eat and then proudly proclaim, "All done!" Again he is asked, "Did you eat one bite of ____"

Carsten is given one simple task; one thing he is told to do. Yet he busies himself with other things hoping that they will be enough. We Christians are just like Carsten. Before Jesus left this earth, he gave us one simple command, "Make disciples of all nations." When we get to heaven and God asks,
"Did you make disciples?"
what will you answer him? If I died last week, I have a feeling my only response I could give would have been,

"Not exactly, God. But see... I voltuneered as a Kids Hope mentor to change the life of an at risk 4th grade girl. And I was involved with different childrens' ministries at my church. Also I did my best to live a life that was different so my coworkers would know that I was not just a Christian by name."

I can picture the disappointment in God's eyes as he asks once again, "But Melody, did you make disciples? I only asked that one thing of you. Did you share you faith? Or did you expect the truth of the Gospel to simply jump at people from your actions alone?"


When my youth pastor made this whole analogy it really brought the point home to me. All that other stuff I'm doing is great. I have some really good ministries. But the call of the great commission - the call Christ placed on my life when I entered into a relationship with him was simple:
"make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
Once we've made disciples, we are to teach them to make disciples ("everything I have commanded you").
My youth pastors point was that, yes we all know we are supposed to share our faith but we generally let fear stop us. But when we think of it in terms of it being our only mission on this earth, it's hard to pass by. How many of us want to fail our only mission?? He gave out copies of a short book called Firestarter by Greg Stier. I highly recommend that every Christian read this book. I am a very slow reader and I easily read it in a day(which was also packed with a very busy schedule). The book again emphasizes the importance of sharing your faith and it's truly emboldened me to begin doing just that.

So I've started small. In the book there is something called 'THE Cause Circle"




The idea here is that you write names of people in your influence circle in the middle of the circle. It can be friends, family, coworkers, classmates, or just about anybody that you see on a regular basis and have some form of influence over. You then pick three people who you are going to begin praying for every day. You write their names on the three lines above "Pray" and then you pray for them every day. Eventually, you begin bringing up your faith in conversation. At this point you cross them off the 'pray' list and move them to the 'Pursue list'. When you've done this, you pick another person from the middle circle and place them on your pray list. And don't forget that even when someone has moved on to "Pursue" you still continue to pray for them every day.




Before I even got a chance to put names in my Cause Circle I actually got a chance to talk to a coworker. We were talking about death and I asked what she thought happened to people after they died. She had "never really thought about it" so I asked if she'd ever thought about Heaven or Hell. She said she didn't "believe there was a heaven or hell" so that opened up the opportunity for me to explain briefly that I did believe there was and that the only way to go to heaven was by God forgiving us for our sins when we ask him to. Sadly I didn't get to go into a lot of detail but I didn't scare her away with what I did say so I'm excited for future opportunities I get to talk with her about it.

So yesterday I made my Cause Circle. I just started by putting Christina (my coworker) under Pursue since I'd already gotten a chance to talk to her. Then, later I was talking to another coworker named Sia(who was on my prayer list). I talk to her quite a lot and we were just talking about decisions we make stupid things some people do that make no sense. And I suddenly realized it was perfect opportunity to bring up an aspect of my faith. So I asked her what made her not make some of the bad choices her friends were making; what helped her decide right from wrong. She said it was probably the main people she hung out with and her parents and then asked me the same question. So I got to explain that it was my personal relationship with Jesus that made me honestly have no desire to get caught up in all the junk lots of people do. And that since I got into that relationship I have just found joy in life and not felt any need to mess around (harmfully) just to 'have fun'.

I'm so hyped right now because in a matter of two days I've become brave enough to bring up my faith with two different people and they haven't acted like I was some kind of freak. They still talk to me just the same as they did before so I know that I'll have more chances to go into more detail with them on what I believe. It's such an exciting thing knowing that you are planting seeds in someone's life. Especially when it's someone that you truly care about. =) So now Sia is in my "Pursue" section as well. So I need to move someone else to "Pray". I don't know who for sure. But I am so excited for what God is doing in my life and what he's going to do in the lives of these people.

To God be all the Glory!

No comments: