Dear Church Family
If you have been a Christian for a while you are familiar with the great commission and the great commandment. The great commandment stems from when Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment in all of the Scriptures? And Jesus replied, “Luke 10:27 – Love the Lord your God with all of your heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus issued the great commission in Matthew 28:19-20 when he tells us go and make disciples.
For me, fulfilling the great commandment has been boiled down to staying close to God and being kind to others. However the great commission has been a bit more of a challenge. I so deeply desire to see people come to know Christ. As a minister, ultimately that is my life‘s work. As I look back on my years in ministry, I often wish I had greater success in this.
Recently I was listening to apologist Greg Koukl and he gave me a new perspective. One that has put a lift in my step and helps me look back at my years of ministry as potentially being more successful than I had imagined? Greg presents the idea that as a Christian, every encounter that I have with unbelievers does not have to result in them being converted to Jesus. This has often been a frustration for me. I develop a relationship with someone, share Christ with them, and then expect that they will head straight to the baptistry. More times than not, I find that as I scatter the seeds of the gospel along the paths, there are plenty of birds and weeds to prevent the growth. Greg Koukl presents a different perspective. He challenges Christians to not think of every encounter with people as having the destination of converting them to Christ, but simply with every encounter with a nonbeliever – put a rock in their shoe. Put a small pebble of the gospel in their shoe so that when they leave you, they walk away with something to think about. Something that might cause them to reflect back on who they are in Christ, or without Christ.
This ministry approach is so simple, yet profound, for in fact the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:6 that we are only responsible for a small part on someone coming to Christ. We are not responsible for their conversion, only responsible for giving them the word. As a Christian, I would love to be able to look back at my life and see all of the people that I baptized. I truly wish there were more. However in my heart, I am convinced that I have placed hundreds if not thousands of rocks in peoples shoes. These rocks have caused people to reflect on their relationship with Christ. Having this perspective is satisfying to my soul and takes a weight off of my heart. I will continue to place a Biblical rock whenever I can, and trust God will use it in His time.
Maybe this is an encouragement to you as it was to me? May God bless you as you go on life’s journey delicately and strategically placing small parts of the rock of the gospel of Jesus Christ in people’s shoes.
Steve