Yesterday I wrote about how God used a man named Harold Lee to start the process by which I would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. All Harold did was be obedient to what God would have him to do in a local church and from that God used it to bring me to Christ.
Once a person is transformed by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, that's not the end of the story but only the beginning. The same is true in my life because once I was saved God sent countless people into my life to make sure I would grow in my Christian faith and that is the object lesson in today's devotional.
I was 11 on the Sunday morning in October of 1971 when God radically changed my life. At that time no one else in my family went to church very often, if at all. Harold Lee would keep picking me up for church, along with a bus load of other children.
When I went into the seventh grade I joined the Tabernacle Baptist Church youth department. Now Tabernacle was a growing independent, fundamentalist church. While I am no longer an independent/fundamentalist in theology but rather a theological conservative, I am very thankful for the men and women from that church who invested time in me and taught me the truth's of God word.
At the start of my ninth grade year, that church disbanded and I needed another place to go so I started to attend the First Baptist Church in West Memphis. It was there, while I didn't know it at the time, that God would bring people into my life that God would use to mold me and mature me in my faith.
While the pastor, Dr. Thomas Hinson, was a tremendous influence on me by the way he carried himself and his faithful preaching of the Word, God mostly used laymen and women to build up my faith. These are men and women who will never get their names put up in lights or go on to write Christian best sellers but their impact on me was real and meaningful even if they weren't doing it intentionally.
There were a group of men who just invested time in a bunch of high school kids by allowing us to play basketball with them every Sunday. The way they treated one another and showed Christ love and sportsmanship went a long way to show me and my friends what it was to me a true Christian man. I don't ever remember winning any of those games but I won spiritually just by being around them.
Then there was Mrs. Margaret Ginn. She never showed me how to witness. She never taught me a Bible Study lesson. The thing she and a couple of ladies from that church did was accept me into their homes unconditionally because they knew my home life was pretty rough. Mrs. Margaret and her husband JD weren't prosperous finanically but what they were was deeply rich in Christian grace, faith and most importantly to me, hospitality. Their quiet witness to me can't be over stated. They saw a teenage boy whose parents didn't go to church and were dealing with serious issues of their own and they often accepted me into their home as one of their own. Their home was a city of refuge for me. I serious doubt that they even know today how much of an influence they had on me. They were simply living out their Christian faith. I call it everyday obedience.
Then there was a godly man by the name of Steve Smith. At the time Steve was a hard-working laymen who worked in the youth group even though he didn't have any children of that age. By the time I was a junior there was a program called the Paul and Timothy discipleship and for whatever reason Steve volunteered to be my Paul. The time he spent with me going over scripture and teaching me the Bible are lessons I still to this day cherish.
None of those people, and there were a lot more, had any clue that one day I would become a pastor and be able to travel all over the world sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ in Russia, Mexico and Austrailia. Nor pastor now five churches, hopefully being faithful in season and out of season teaching the precious truths of God's Holy inerrant Word. You see, every single life that I have touched with the Gospel, they have had a hand in it also because I couldn't have been the person I am without them.
All of these wonderful people were just living out their Christ faith in everyday obedience. There was absolutely nothing in me that any of these people could see and say, "That Daniel McCrosky he is going somewhere. He is going to be a giant in the Christian faith. I am going to invest time in him so one day when he makes it big in the Christian world he will mention my name and I too will be famous." No what they saw was a kid who loved Christ and wanted to be faithful and they showed me how, either directly or indirectly.
I want to encourage you to purposely invest your life in someone. Jesus called it discipleship. In fact Matthew 28: 16-20 is called the Great Commission and it can be summerize in two words, make disciples. It has been my intention to make disciples where ever God has placed me, whether I was a pastor or a laymen.
You want to impact the world? Be a disciple maker.
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