Think quick, who are the most important people in your life? Got some names? Good.
Now, why are they important to you? What makes that relationship special?
Maybe you were thinking of a spouse, a child, a dear friend, a coworker, or a fellow connection group member. We all have people in our lives that are important to us, but I think there’s a relationship that we tend to neglect more than some of these relationships. And no, I’m not talking about about your relationship with Jesus – even though it’s probably true. It’s a relationship that jumped out and convicted me as I was reading last week in Joshua. Take a look:
Just as the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.
Joshua 11:15
Here we see such a special relationship. We see a man, Moses, teaching a younger man, Joshua, the commands of God. And we see Joshua doesn’t just listen to the teaching and instruction of Moses, but puts what he was taught into action. It says that Joshua “left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.” While the specifics of what Moses taught Joshua were probably different than the things we deal with today (unless you’re planning an invasion and conquest of some ancient Canaanite civilizations), there’re a couple principles I think we can take away from this relationship:
We all need a Joshua. We all need someone we should be teaching the commands of God to. And not just the commands of God, but the character of God. We need to have some one (or some people) that we are departing our knowledge, experience, and love for Jesus to. To add to that, we shouldn’t just have someone we are communicating the things of God to. We should also be communicating those things in such a compelling way that it encourages them to follow Jesus with urgency. We should explain and teach in a way where they want to do all of the things that please the Lord.
We all need a Moses. We all need someone that is further along than we are. We all need someone that can reveal more of the character of God to us. We all need someone that can teach us who God is and how to follow Him more closely. We all need someone that we can humbly learn from.
Do you have someone you’re learning from? Do you have someone you’re teaching?
What would it look like if we all took seriously the call to be discipled by someone who loves Jesus well, and then in turn disciple someone? I think we would see more families pursuing Jesus with more purpose. I think we would see more students engaging people with the Gospel at their school. I think we would see more engineers, teachers, bankers, insurance agents, realtors, and factory workers influencing their culture with the love of Christ. I think we would see this community shaped by disciples of Jesus who are making more disciples of Jesus.