Making Disciples

Dear Cell Members,

These are just some of my after-thoughts from Michael’s article.

Jesus’ command was to ‘go and make disciples of all the nations’. Many Christians today think that this means preaching and preaching, till they are the ones who convert the non-Christians. This is definitely not what Jesus meant. And come to think of it, in my previous religion the ‘truth’ about spirituality was the number of hours you clogged in going door to door preaching. If anyone is scared of preaching, well, I am who was really scarred by it.

We are all told to be the light and salt of the earth. Then again, to be a Christian is to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord. Now we get it. It is not simply to go up the altar call and then get your free passport to heaven, though most were first converted that way. Later on, we slowly learn that to accept Christ as Lord encompasses so much more than worship and attending Sunday services—it is surrendering your whole will to God. When that becomes so, and you truly live your life by His word and spirit, the nudge from the Holy Spirit inside you will keep telling you whom to preach the gospel to anyway. It may not even be the way you think He wants you to do so. It may be through practically helping the person in some aspect first before having the chance to really talk about God. Or, it can also be to preach to someone who has backslided. We must remember always the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Sometimes we are focused on teaching and converting new ones, we forget that still others may need encouragement or to be steered back correctly to the right direction in some of their beliefs about God.

To impact others first, we must be able to be a force of impact. Do we truly ‘shine like the stars’ in this darkened world? Do our conducts in the first place speak for itself? After all, the first witness is the unspoken—our actions. To first witness, do we show others first that we are different and therefore our testimony can shine?

I have found throughout my life that the ones who changed my life most are not the ones who kept on banging and telling me to accept Jesus. In fact, many of those stumbled me in the past through their words and conduct. However, there are those who were really different, upon inspection. I had this Secondary School Physics teacher who was a part time Pastor, teaching me not just Physics but Bible Knowledge class. He knew of my religion then, but not once did he tell me in the face I was in the wrong religion. Instead, he always asked me if I minded him praying with me for Jesus to touch me. When I ended my Secondary school life, and taking from what he wrote in my autograph book,
“Do you know that there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Prov. 18:24) inside your spirit? You can develop an intimate heart to heart relationship with Him. Do not seek outside what you have within, if you seek Him with all your heart, you will find Him there. Do remember that if you have a love story with the one that is inside of you, then nothing outside can shake you.”
Such profound words that I could not understand at all until so many years have passed. The first time I think I felt there was a God who performed miracles was in my Physics practical O level exam. He walked past me and then went in front and then I heard a still, small voice saying, ‘He’s praying a prayer for you to get your answer right’. Oh, God really answered his prayer then. I actually made a critical mistake in the lab that I managed to resolve before the end of my exam.

What I am trying to say is that these people who slowly touch our lives, do not proclaim from the rooftop. They show by their actions that God is alive and slowly, not one but several people will touch our lives in different ways before we find God. Sometimes when we are the ones who convert the person finally and witness the person going for the altar call, we may think we are the ones who made it, but we did not. We just play a part in the whole body of Christ to bring that person to God. And again, ‘I planted, Apollos watered, but it is God who made it grow.’

So, let us impact the world, each of us in our small little part, and let God do the rest.

Zenn Tan
5th March 2008