Nehemiah 4:17-18
"...Those who carried materials did their work with one
hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the
builders wore his sword at his side as he worked..."
We are called for a mission. We are called for service. I think that we have lost sight of that. I was raised with preachings and teachings on winning souls for Jesus. My friends and I were taught to be great soulwinners... We could evangelize in school and not be ashamed of it.
I remember one time when we missed the last Metro (bus) to take us home, and we stayed and evangelized. In about 45 minutes, at around 11 PM, we had a deacon open the church to baptize 2 men that had felt conviction and had repented. That was normal for us. But I am starting to realize something. Those 2 men came to services for about 2 months, I think. They did not come for a long time after their conversion. Why? I did not know at the time. I was so busy scurrying around trying to get more people baptized. hehe! (Ah, memories!). But really, I did not understand why.
Now I am starting to understand why these 2 men did not stay for long. I believe that these men were converted to Jesus. I was witness of that. I saw them cry and repent of their sins when they were going down the steps of the baptistry. These guys knew that they were being forgiven. But the reason that they did not stay in church for long was because they were not converted to the mission of Jesus. Now I understand this.
You can be converted to Jesus, but not converted to Jesus' mission.
WOW!
The church is so busy converting people to Jesus. They want to baptize, hold crusades, have campmeetings so ppeople can come to Jesus and be saved, but what we need to work on is our follow up. After converting people to Jesus, we need to teach them that there is a mission that we need to work on.
The only way to grow the church is if we teach people about Jesus' mission and motivate them to do it.
To grow a church people need to be driven by a mission.
To grow a church people need to feel that they have a purpose in their life.
So... meditate on this.
When we are building a wall (soul wining), we do it with a trowel (construction tool; evangelizing), but also we need to take care of our work, tending to it, defending it.
When the enemy comes to steal and to tear down our wall, mess with our deliverance, taunt us with the guilt of our past, we need to draw the sword and keep doing Jesus' mssion.
In another view, we build people, but do not defend them when the enemy comes to tempt them.
We are experts at building the wall, but we do not defend it well.
We are experts at winning souls, but we do not equip them with Jesus' mission.
Are you converted to Jesus? Sure.
Are you converted to Jesus' mission? Hmmm.
Make sense?
I think so...
5 comments:
Wow I hear you loud and clear. We definitely are awakening to this within our part of the body over hear is Roswell GA, Many people coming in and out of the our little group, but even less are hang'n around for the mission, lack of equipping and sending.
That's right, Richard. A lot of people are coming in and out. Let's keep them in, I pray. I appreciate your comment.
AMEN BROTHER TONY! it really makes sence. and i believe that preety much everybody has made this mistake... i know i have, yeah sure, take people to church, but then they don't want to come anymore, and what do you do? nothing. that's gotta change. thanks tony, youre doing a great work here:)
"In another view, we build people, but do not defend them when the enemy comes to tempt them.
We are experts at building the wall, but we do not defend it well.
We are experts at winning souls, but we do not equip them with Jesus' mission."
Wow Tony, that phrase was pretty
darn good I may say. That was an interesting piece you got there.
It really makes an individual reflect on a lot of things. Well, keep on going, and keep on striving for more knowledge. God Bless
the knowledge thing, im not trying to offend you, I meant like more knowledge to write more blogs.... that's what i meant :D
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