Thursday, Oct 22, 2009

10-22 The Great Pyramid Scheme

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Cruise recap: Every evening at the dinner hour, Susan and I were seated in the “elation” dining hall. Our assigned seating placed us at a table with six Baptists and two reformed Jews. I sat next to Phil, a retired School Superintendent from California. Phil, Joyce, Susan and I hit it off right away, and it seemed like wherever we went, Phil and Joyce just happened to show up! Twice we watched the evening shows together and Joyce showed up for the art auction, where we sat together. It was as if God was bringing these two wandering Jews together with us. I told Phil that I had a special place in my heart for the Jews because they are God’s Chosen People. I told him that Jesus was the Messiah. They were very open to everything. They even invited us over to their house after the cruise to kill time before our flight, and then drove us to the airport! I certainly hope they come to trust Yeshua, their Messiah.

Today's Scripture reading is 1 Chronicles 25; Isaiah 47; Acts 13:13-
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Today’s thought comes from Matthew 28:16-20 “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Have you ever been recruited by a direct marketing company? Years ago, when I was in my twenties, Susan and I did. We signed up for _________, one of the mothers of all marketing companies. They know how to sell! Ordinary folks sign up with the dream that if they can just recruit a dozen people who will recruit a dozen people who will recruit a dozen people you’ll be financially set for life! It’s a brilliant strategy. While not technically a pyramid scheme, the resulting chart of recruitees does look like a pyramid and the beauty of it is that you get residual income from everyone below. The key to success is personally turning every person below you into a master recruiter. That takes time, training, personal interaction and “a little luck.” I’m not suggesting that you go sign up, on the contrary, I have a bone to pick with Direct Sales companies like this: THEY STOLE THE CONCEPT FROM JESUS! Jesus created the original pyramid scheme. He chose 12 disciples and spent three years training his “sales force.” He took the time to train them personally, and he was personally committed to each one of them. He prayed passionately for his dozen. Then he let them loose on the world! Now what do you suppose they did? They did what Jesus trained them to do. “Go and make Disciples of all nations!” They went out and found a dozen of their own disciples to train. They poured their lives into their disciples just as Jesus poured his life into them. Once they had trained their disciples, they sent each of them out to find a dozen others for themselves. Every person they won to the Lord was a potential disciple! And every disciple was a potential discipler of disciples! But somewhere along the line, this pyramid concept has been replaced by the western concept of the “chairman and board of directors.” In our churches we have one main discipler (the pastor) who is supported by a small group of leaders (teachers). They do all the discipling work on a large group scale! Now I’m not denying that the Apostles preached to the crowds as we should, I am suggesting that the main work of the ministry should be the training of disciples who will train disciples to train disciples! Everything we do in the large group is aimed at this! Either be a disciple or train a disciple. That’s the mandate! Isn’t it time that you found your twelve?

Dear Father. I have been content to sit, soak and sour when all along I should have been passing the message on to others. I want to be a disciple, and I want to be a discipler! Give me a passion to reach individuals with the good news of the Gospel and then pour my life into them so that they can grow.

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”-

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