“Put on your new nature, and
be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.” – Colossians
3:10
I love to
witness to people, but I often succumb to discouragement when they reject a
personal relationship with the One who loves them more than life itself. Even with
Jesus as God in the flesh walking among them, they still rejected Him. His own
siblings did not believe He was the Christ until after His resurrection. This
dismissal of Jesus, then and now, puzzled me until my pastor husband reminded
me of Mark 4:14-20, which chronicles the four types of soil into which we sow the
seed of God’s truth
Some people that
we witness to receive God’s Word like seed sown alongside the highway. Satan
comes along with his sly deception and snatches the seed away. The second type
of person has a stony heart, and though they joyfully receive our witness, they
never develop deep roots. Therefore, when trouble or persecution comes they
blame God for their misfortune and fall away. The third group is so enmeshed in
the thorny worries and cares of the world, or the deceitfulness of wealth and
the desires for carnal lusts and earthly possessions that their preoccupation
chokes the seed of truth they received, making it unfruitful.
Only one-fourth
of our audience actually possesses fertile soil, which is tilled and ready to
receive the seed of the Gospel of Christ. Only these people are ready to take His
Words to heart (1 Peter 1:13-14). They accept God’s truth and allow us to disciple them, until they
in turn start to disciple others and to produce a spiritual crop of their own. Making
disciples actually begins prior to Salvation, when we first share the Gospel of
Jesus Christ with someone. Once they accept Jesus’ sacrifice for them on
Calvary’s cross, we can encourage them to continue growing in Christ though the
sanctification process, until they are "conformed to the image of God’s
Son" (Romans
8:29).
What does it
mean to be conformed to Christ’s image? From birth, we bore the likeness of a
carnal, worldly, earthly person. Once we are Born Again by the Spirit of God,
we take on the image of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49). God raises
us with Christ from the death caused by sin. We reflect the glory of the Lord
as the Holy Spirit transforms us into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are
renewed in the image of our Creator (Colossians
3:10). As we pursue eternal, heavenly
concerns and focus on the things of God rather than temporal, earthly ideals
and goals, we die to self and our life is then hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3).
Sanctification
means holiness. God chose us as a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. He called us out of the darkness
of a sin-filled life into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9; 2 Timothy 1:9). We must put off the old nature with its self-centered deeds before we
can put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:24). Then,
He wants us to live a life worthy of Him, one that pleases Him in every way and
bears the fruit of good works as we grow in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10; Ephesians 4:1; 1
Thessalonians 2:12). God desires for us to live like the Holy One who
called us, to be holy in all of our behavior; because God declares, “You shall
be holy, for I am holy” (1
Peter 1:15-16).
Prayer:
Lord Jesus,
every person we share the gospel with is given a choice to accept or reject
You. I know this is important, because You never send judgment without a
warning first. Please move by Your Spirit to draw all who hear Your Truth to
make a decision to serve You with their lives. Help us not to grow weary in
reaching out to those You place in our path. Send those to us who are searching
for Your seed of truth. Help us to disciple and faithfully nurture and
encourage them, so that this seed of truth produces more fruit in their lives
and in the lives of all of those, which they disciple.
Thought for the
Day:
A true
relationship with God does not develop from a one-time repentance of sin, water
baptism or a quick silent prayer. It is a lifetime commitment to grow
spiritually into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
