The Shark

The shark is one of the most popular aquarium animals. A shark confined while small will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium. Sharks can be six inches long and yet fully matured.  If you turn them loose in the ocean, they grow to their normal length of eight feet or longer. That also happens to Christians. I’ve seen some of the cutest little six-inch Christians who swim around in a little puddle.  If you put the sharks into a larger arena--into the whole of creation--only then can they become great.  I personally want to raise my children to become great.  I want to encourage those around me to become great.  Six inch Christians aren’t what I think of as great.  

Making disciples leads others to become great.  It moves others from six inch Christians to eight feet long Christians.  In Matthew 28, we are commanded to go and make disciples.  

Who are we to disciple one might ask?  

--We disciple our family.

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. “Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates."
Deuteronomy 6:4-9

--We disciple our faith family.  We lead Bible studies and discipleship classes, teach Sunday School, and facilitate small groups,  We invest in our children and in our students.  We encourage our college students.  We love our senior adults.  We walk through difficulties and tragedies with those in our body.  We partner one on one with others to teach them to love God with their whole heart and help them put God’s commandments in their hearts just like we teach our children.

--We disciple those outside the faith.  We seek out those who do not know Jesus so that we can introduce them to Jesus and help them experience Jesus in a new way so that they might be reconciled to God.  And then we disciple them, we teach them to love God with their whole heart.

To be reconciled with God is to bringing others to be reconciled with God.  It is our mission on earth.
 Paul is pleading with believers to be reconciled.  And his message to the Corinthians is just as important for us today.

How are you making disciples in your family today?  How are you impressing upon those in your home God’s Word and how are you teaching those in your home to love God with their whole heart?

Where are you serving in your church?  Where is God calling you to serve in the body?  We aren’t bystanders at church.  We are making disciples.

Are you intentionally looking for those outside the faith family to introduce to Jesus and then teach them to love God with all their hearts?  When was the last time you shared Jesus to someone who didn’t know Him?

--Karen Smith

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