The emphasis in Matthew 28:19-20 is not GO. The emphasis is MAKE. We are to MAKE disciples. Sometimes that will mean going to a far off land… and sometimes that will mean going to the store. Sometimes that will mean going across an ocean… and sometimes that will mean going across the street. The point, Jesus says, is that as we are going, we are supposed to MAKE Jesus Followers. Anywhere, everywhere, all the time, whenever you are breathing and stepping and blinking, we are to MAKE countless numbers of others see and embrace Jesus Christ.
MAKE does not mean force. MAKE does not mean manipulate. MAKE means craft, mold, shape, try, create. Literally it can mean "to cause to happen". Too often, we don’t try to cause something to happen. Too often we sit on our tuffet. Rather than causing something to exist or to occur, rather than laying out or constructing, rather than bringing something into being, rather than framing or formulating, rather than putting together components or assembling materials, rather than producing as a result of action, effort or behavior… too often we sit. If we love Jesus and want to obey, MAKE we must.
I’m so thankful that some people in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, some 28 years ago, were MAKERS. As they were going about their lives, they constructed and assembled and laid out and framed for my dad. And you know what, my dad was MADE into a Jesus Follower. And as I watched my dad being formed, I was MADE too.
So now, for the last 28 years, I have been trying to MAKE for my master.
I’m hoping some of you who read this blog wouldn’t mind sharing how you were MADE into a follower of Jesus. Or share a great example where you saw someone MADE. Please leave comments below so that we all can be encouraged!
Been praying for you Paul— and I hope those who read this site have been praying too. Hope the evening went well! Glad to hear that you’re still liminal- engaged in both worlds! Keep it going my friend!
I like your comment about how our culture seems to have lost a sense of what it means to be MAKERS. We microwave our meals, rush through traffic… in fact, to MAKE a light means that we ran through it just in time. Rarely do people breathe and actually take the time to truly MAKE something. The image of a carpenter is a fascinating one to me… it’s an art form that gets lost in our media driven pace. A log doesn’t become a desk quickly… it needs vision, belief, foresight, intention, care, skill, craftmanship, attention, oils, tools, saws, glues, glazes, brushes, chisels, and especially time & patience & endurance.
What continues to blow my mind is that God actually calls us to do what he could do so much better…and it’s not that he calls us to do it on our own, but calls us to partner with him. That we have the privilege to partner with what He’s doing in the lives of people is such a great honor.
I don’t know if the speaker from camp truly knows how God used his obedience of sharing a message of “No Compromise” to a group of teenagers but I suppose one day he will.
And I think that’s what encourages me the most…that sometimes our obedience does not immediately expose the results of what God is doing in someone’s life which we shared with. Our words and actions may be imparting more of the gospel than we sometimes think, and yet God does what he does best: change lives.
I’m going out for coffee tonight with a co-worker who I’ve had some very interesting conversations with over the past few months…he is not religious, but he is very interested in Yahweh, whether he knows it or not (He always tells me about the “Earth” videos he watches and how amazed he is at the complexities of creation, never once denying a Creator).
Being a maker in today’s culture sometimes loses its potency because we expect great things in a short period of time…when maybe we (or better, “I”) need to be reminded that salvation is not a program we adhere to but a process we enter into for all of time.
You can also keep my in mind this weekend Ken…I’m speaking at a youth retreat for my old youth group from Langley.
Deanne!! Just awesome how God works. As your family was being MADE, we were too. It was incredible to watch God’s Spirit at work in your lives— and that changed us forever. So glad the LORD brought us together on Juan De Fuca Blvd in 2003. God has a keen interest in you guys!! Amazing!! Absolutely, thank you Father!
Andrew! What a great testimony of the way God has surrounded you with MAKERS in your family and in the local church. That’s the way I want it to be for my kids as they grow! I think you have a powerful story of being MADE!
Steve! Absolutely stunning. Like Deanne and Andrew, it’s so incredible to see those who have been MADE become MAKERS themselves. As you know, God’s got this in mind for you… to be a MAKER of men and women around the world. Thanks for being a part of the building process in my life and so many of my friends over the last few years now. May God continue to mold you so that you can mold others!!
wow..great blog!
let see.. our story starts about 5 years ago, God in his amazing wisdom place people in our lives to MAKE Jesus followers of Glen and I. He started with Chris and Tammy Lynn who trusted us with their children “even though” we weren’t christians, They lived there life and shared their love with us! Next we have the whole Castor Family! God used each one of them to reach into our hearts and help MAKE us Followers. I am so truly greatful for the willingness that Zac had to share his faith with Ty and the willingness of Ken and Kathy to listen, gently direct and support Glen and I in our Walk to and with Christ! Now in my role as Children’s director my prayer is for Christ to use my hands and feet to help MAKE disciples! Each day he presents us with new places and new challenges…
“Thank You Father!”
Makers. I have never thought of it like that before, but I suppose that this has always been the sronger ephasis in my own ideal conversion theories. I can say that there were some serious makers, movers and shapers in my own life. People whose presence and influence extended over my life with such God inspired power that I could not and cannot help remembering or meeting with them and sensing something more to their being than just their humanity.
My parents have always kept us at church. I can remember the fights we had when I was young and did not want o get p early on Sundays and my mom would kick my butt and get me out the door in my Sunday best. I think that FORCE got some serious making going in me. I met people, friends, mentors, leaders, encouragers and I am sure the occasional evangelist. These people had some of the srongest input in my life. I remeber very little of what I did in school or which teachers I had, but I will never forget the joy I had tearing around the church with the sunday schoool teachers playing our wacky games with us.
These last number of years through high schol and out the other end have been huge for my development through the leadership o our youth pastor and the leadership in th youth group. Then coming out and bein a part o that leadership myself, I hope that I am making in lives. Laying structures on the Gospels foundation that will stand the test of fire.
Good blog Kenny. These verses are under my skin and have been for about 4 years. I think about them everyday. All this missional stuff is fine and dandy, but Jesus’ words still have more power. I too am glad that ten years ago this year I met some MAKERS, and I am also glad for all the young people who have afforded me the privilege of being a maker. Yet in all of this there is still a place for preaching the Gospel. We have had ten young people become Christians at YFC in the past four days. Wonderful stories with deep convictions of sin and amazing life changing grace. I wonder for some is it a journey, (being MADE) and for others is it just a RADICAL encounter? Although if u dig deeper each of these kids was in relationship with someone who was MAKING them! God just blows my mind. I am loving these verses in Colossians at the moment (Col 1:15-20, The Message)
We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.