<\/p>\n
Matthew 28:19<\/a>.\u00a0 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,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
I can remember a time when disciple-making sounded more doable. My days had more margin for late nights, spontaneous meals, and extended fellowship. Fewer responsibilities demanded my time. Discipling others in a life-on-life way didn\u2019t sound\u00a0easy<\/em>, but it did sound more manageable than it does now.<\/p>\n
Businessman, husband, mother of young ones \u2014 you probably know what I mean. You used to say yes to nearly every invitation. You used to\u00a0send<\/em>\u00a0those invitations. Now saying\u00a0yes<\/em>\u00a0often means saying\u00a0no<\/em>\u00a0to some part of life that seems nonnegotiable. And for as much as you\u2019ve tried to invite others into your normal routines \u2014 aiming for overlap, not addition \u2014 the fact still stands: Discipling others is harder than it once was.<\/p>\n
Yet you still hear your Lord\u2019s command: \u201cMake disciples of all nations\u201d (Matthew 28:19<\/a>). Evangelize and baptize. Teach and train. Invest your life in others so they grow up into Christlike maturity.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Lord,\u201d you say from the heart. But as you look up from your overtime schedule, overdue projects, or overloaded sink, you add, \u201cBut how?\u201d<\/p>\n
Go and Make When?<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\nOf course, something would be wrong if we heard Jesus\u2019s command to make disciples and thought,\u00a0Simple. I can make disciples in my sleep.<\/em>\u00a0The command should make us stagger a step or two.<\/p>\n
Indeed, not only discipleship but also disciple-making\u00a0comes with a cost<\/a>. We reckon rightly with Jesus\u2019s command when we start rearranging life to more regularly welcome the unbelieving and less mature. What hobbies might we give up? What lesser priorities might go? In what creative ways might we take others alongside us and teach them to observe more of what Jesus commanded?<\/p>\n
But as we feel the weight of the task, we should also beware of adding more weight than what\u2019s there. \u201cGo and make disciples\u201d does not require us to neglect job or family. In fact, the same Jesus who told us to make disciples also told us, through his apostles, to work and parent heartily (Colossians 3:18\u20134:1<\/a>). So, those who shortchange family or employer in order to make disciples do so at the expense of their own discipleship. And a disobedient disciple-maker is a walking contradiction.<\/p>\n
Somehow, then, we need a vision of life-on-life discipleship for lives with little room.\u00a0 (Hubbard)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matthew 28:19.\u00a0 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, I can remember a time when disciple-making sounded more doable. My days had more margin for late nights, spontaneous meals, and extended fellowship. Fewer responsibilities demanded … Continue reading “64.e. Matthew 28:19”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195719"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195722,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195719\/revisions\/195722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}