Love to hear from and know who is listening
What is the process you go through when you are making a new car purchase? How much time do you invest studying the vehicle you’re about to purchase before you buy it? I will spend some time comparing features and comparing prices but all together I doubt I spend more than an hour or two, for a couple days, definitely less than a week, before I make the purchase. I may look at and test drive several cars before I decide but in the big scheme of things I do not invest a lot of time. With the cost of new vehicles being so much it is a decision that must be discussed between my wife and I because it could potentially be a life changing decision, at the very least we will have to change our spending habits, maybe put in some extra hours at work or dip into the rainy day fund to pay for the license and taxes after the purchase. How different would the car industry be if we treated purchasing a new car like we do bible study? How would the salesman at the dealership react if you asked him for a copy of the owner’s manual to vehicle so you could study if before you bought it? Once you receive the manual, you take it home and spend 1 maybe 2 hours a week really studying each section of the manual then you put it away until the next week. I know this sounds ridiculous! By the time you have read through the manual and made yourself familiar with every aspect of the car it would be sold, or next year’s model would come out and it would be different, and you would have to start the entire process all over again! In the book of Matthew Jesus gives the disciples the great commission. The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Matthew 28 19-20 ESV Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The most important word in these verses is the first word “GO!” When you finally make that new car purchase you don’t spend months studying the car before you drive it. You get in the car, and you drive it until the day comes when you don’t understand something about the car, then you get out the owner’s manual and you study it until you figure out your problem. I am not saying that you shouldn’t attend bible study on a regular basis and gain every ounce of knowledge you can about the scriptures, no not at all! What I am saying is that you need to put feet to your faith. What good does all that knowledge do if you never use it to witness to the lost? How different would the church, the entire world be today if the disciples had listened to Jesus words and then started a weekly bible study on them and never followed through with Jesus’ command to “GO!” As Christians we have a duty to “GO”, make disciples, teach, and baptize. Although the command was initially given directly only to Christ's eleven Apostles, it is a directive to all Christians of every time and place.
Mark 16:20 ESV And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
We need the whole Church to band together to minister to the whole world. We have three options in responding to the Great Commission: Go, send, or disobey. There are many ways to participate in the Great Commission, and each is an extension of God’s individual call on your lives. What God, does not do, is leave as an option to not to participate at all. We Must GO!
