One by One
“And he said to them ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'”
Matthew 4:19
My grandfather was a brick layer by trade. He died when I was fairly young so I never asked him about his trade or how he built building with bricks but I imagine that he did it one brick at a time. My father is a contractor by trade. I spent many of my summers growing up helping him around the job site and watched him take a pile of lumber and make a beautiful home; he did this one piece at a time. Brick by brick, nail by nail things are built every day. We would do well to consider if this is the way God builds His church.
I will never forget Greg Robertson. When I was living my life of sin, before I knew Christ, he took the time to faithfully share the gospel with me and fold me into his life. He had me over to his house for breakfast, we worked out together, we worked at the same job. He introduced me to his wife, let me play with his kids and even let me crash his motorcycle. He took time to invest in me. God used him in my life as God does with his people every day.
In a day and age where conversion of the masses is what is sought after, which God will certainly do at times, I wonder if this distracts us from our call to be faithful in little (Luke 16:10). What if we all focused on one? What if we decided we were going to reach people one by one? What if we built brick by brick, one by one and took the time to treat people like individual people with whom we faithfully and lovingly shared the gospel message? We need to remember that at one time we were far off from God without hope and without Him (Eph.2:12). As I listen to stories of my brothers and sisters in Christ most of their’s sound like mine…one person took the time to faithfully and lovingly share their lives with them.
Let us start to look at people as individuals with real stories, struggles, problems and pains. Let us pick just one person to be there for, available to, and faithful with. Perhaps God will bring forth faith in their lives and we can share in the joy of His harvest.
More in Pastor Nic's Blog
March 13, 2017
Prayer Follow-UpMay 11, 2016
Scripture is SufficientSeptember 2, 2015
Exemplifying Godliness