[Jesus] said to [the disciples], "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."

MARK 16:15.

JESUS LEFT US with the great commandment to love G.o.d with all our hearts (see Mark 12:30) and the great commission to take the message to everyone on the planet. Both of these apply to every believer, not just those to whom He appeared that day or to pastors in churches today. If you're a believer, these statements are written on your job description. How's it going so far?

Too often, we treat the good news of Christ as if it's the news that our favorite team won the big game. We're excited, but it doesn't change how we live each day. The great commission, though, is about life and death, heaven and h.e.l.l. It's about sharing the best news ever announced, and those entrusted with it have the unspeakable privilege and heavy responsibility to get the news out to every person.

Jesus was very clear: Those who believe will be rescued from sin and death, but those who don't will experience G.o.d's righteous judgment. He could have chosen a different way to get the message out, but He chose you and me. We can see it as a burden, or we can see it as the greatest privilege anyone has ever received. G.o.d calls us His amba.s.sadors to a lost world (see 2 Corinthians 5:19-20). We represent the King of kings, and we can be both proud of our role and humble that He would entrust His venture to people like us. Our primary motivation comes, though, from remembering that we, too, were lost, but now we're found.

How does it feel to know that the greatest commandment and the great commission are on your job description?

What changes do you need to make to represent Christ more effectively?

"The Gospel is only good news if it gets there in time."-CARL F. H. HENRY "Each of us must start from where we are with what we have and go from there. Then G.o.d will take the knowledge we have, expand it, and use our witness to claim others for Himself."-ZIG ZIGLAR

SEPTEMBER 23.

Pa.s.s IT ON.

The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

2 TIMOTHY 2:2.

WE MAY THINK we invented viral marketing, but Paul used it almost two millennia ago. Viral marketing occurs when a product or service generates enough enthusiasm to cause people to tell their friends and business a.s.sociates about the product or service. The life-changing truth about Christ works the same way.

Paul invested tremendous resources in Timothy. He spent lots of time with him, prayed with him and for him, and showed him how to lead people. Day and night, in every kind of circ.u.mstance, Paul taught and modeled the truth for Timothy. Paul didn't expect the chain to stop there. He told Timothy to pa.s.s along everything he had learned, but not just to anybody. He carefully instructed Timothy to set the standard very high: Select "faithful men" who have the heart and the skills to teach others. These men would then do the same thing, selecting great leaders and imparting G.o.d's truth to them, and they'd do the same with people they selected.

The Christian faith isn't like a box of cereal on the shelf that people can buy on a whim. Throughout the world, people who become believers are won because men and women have caught the "virus" from faithful, skilled, pa.s.sionate men and women who were "infected" by others.

Today, most of us can look back at a generation or two of faithful people who, like Paul and Timothy, were part of the viral marketing of the Christian faith. How are we doing at moving it forward?

Why is it important to select faithful people to invest our time in?

How are you doing in imparting the faith to faithful people? Explain your answer.

"When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece."-JOHN RUSKIN

SEPTEMBER 24.

WORTH FIGHTING FOR.

I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

2 TIMOTHY 4:6-7.

PROFESSOR HOWARD HENDRICKS quoted a businessman who lamented, "I've spent my life climbing the ladder of success, only to find that it's leaning against the wrong wall." Effort isn't enough. Even adding a healthy measure of pa.s.sion isn't enough. Our energy and emotion have to be spent on something worth fighting and dying for. It's the ultimate object of our life that gives it meaning.

Paul had fought like a madman! Years earlier, an encounter with Jesus made him realize that his ladder was leaning against the wrong wall. Suddenly, he found a cause that was worthy of every ounce of his being-and he gave it his all. He devoted his considerable intelligence, his heart, his leadership gifts, his time, and all the rest of his resources to that single, consuming cause: Jesus Christ.

He enjoyed incredible successes, and he experienced tremendous difficulties. He was beaten, stoned, whipped, and imprisoned. He was betrayed and misunderstood. But a clear eye on his cause gave him purpose, energy, and the will to keep fighting for Christ no matter what obstacles he encountered.

Now, at the end of his life, he looked back with, we can imagine, a sigh and a smile. He had fought hard. He had fought for a cause that was worthy of his efforts. And he wasn't sorry one bit.

How would you define and describe the wall your ladder is leaning against?

Is Christ a cause worth fighting for? Why or why not?

"What our deepest self craves is not mere enjoyment, but some supreme purpose that will enlist all our powers and will give unity and direction to our life. We can never know the profoundest joy without conviction that our life is significant-not a meaningless episode. The loftiest aim of human life is the ethical perfecting of mankind-the transfiguration of humanity."-HENRY J. GOLDING

SEPTEMBER 25.

UNCHANGING.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

HEBREWS 13:8.

LIFE CAN BE SO CONFUSING, and the Christian life can be even more mind boggling! Just when we think we have it figured out, G.o.d throws us a curve, and we wonder if we've understood anything at all. What happened? Did we miss what G.o.d was telling us to do? Was He too busy to pay attention? Did He change His mind?

G.o.d's will and ways have always included a fair share of mystery. (Beware of those who claim to know G.o.d's perfect will for every detail of life-especially for your life!) In the list of heroes of the faith, which we find in Hebrews 11, we see that many of them endured setbacks and confusion as they pursued G.o.d with their whole hearts.

In this life, we can see only the back side of the tapestry, and quite often we can't figure out the image G.o.d is producing on the front side. In those times-and every person who genuinely wants to follow G.o.d experiences them from time to time-we have to go back to what we know is true about G.o.d. The writer of today's verse reminds us that Jesus Christ never changes. His love, power, and authority existed in eternity past, and they will exist eons and eons into the future. They are real today, even if we don't see them, feel them, or believe them.

Even when everything around us seems to be changing, we can trust that Christ's heart, His purposes, and His love for us are still as strong as ever.

When times are tough, what kinds of questions do you ask?

How does it help to remember that Christ never changes?

"Great truths that are stumbling blocks to the natural man are nevertheless the very foundations upon which the confidence of the spiritual man is built."-H. A. IRONSIDE

SEPTEMBER 26.

START EACH DAY RIGHT.

This is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

PSALM 118:24.

DEAD-END JOBS. Strained relationships. Feelings of emptiness. Too often, we dread getting up in the morning to face another day of struggles and disappointments. But it doesn't have to be this way. Perspective makes all the difference, and if we have a strong sense of hope in a G.o.d of infinite possibilities, the whole world opens up to us.

Imagine Jesus' disciples getting up each morning. Do you think they dreaded the day? Not a chance! As they sat by the fire while munching on their fish breakfast, they probably looked at one another as if to say, "I wonder what He's going to do today!" Whatever it was, it would be fantastic!

Every day was amazing. They watched Jesus heal the sick, raise the dead, cure lepers, argue with the rigid religious leaders, laugh, cry, teach thousands, calm storms, cast out demons, pray all night, and get away to relax. As they packed up their meager belongings to hit the road, we can almost hear them say, "I can't wait to see what's going to happen today."

He's with us, too. We don't walk on dusty roads in Palestine, but Christ is with us in the boardroom, the bathroom, and the bedroom. He has made each day-including this day-for each of us to experience His presence and His power. The disciples often didn't understand what He was doing, and there will be times we don't get it, either. But each day is a gift from G.o.d for us to watch Him work in us, around us, and through us.

What would it have been like to be one of the disciples and watch Jesus every day?

How does it affect your att.i.tude about today to realize that you walk with the risen Christ and that today is His gift to you?

"I'm convinced that millions of people today don't know the Lord because of the long-faced, poor, suffering-little-me, self-sacrificing, tell-everybody-all-their-troubles Christians who act like their second birth was just as painful to them as their first one was to their mothers."-ZIG ZIGLAR

SEPTEMBER 27.

SEEING THE INVISIBLE.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

HEBREWS 11:1.

IN EVERY ASPECT of our lives, we exercise faith. We sit in a chair, having faith that it won't collapse under our weight. When we come to a green light, we trust that cars coming the other way will stop because those drivers are facing a red light. When it comes to the spiritual realm, however, some of us think that we have nothing substantial on which to base our trust. But that's not the case.

Though the spiritual realm is invisible, G.o.d has given us plenty of clues about His power, love, and faithfulness. Nature reveals the creativity and power of G.o.d, and the life of Christ is the supreme demonstration of G.o.d's character and His purpose for us. Still, faith, by its nature, remains a mystery. We trust in G.o.d today, looking back at the substance of Creation, the life of Christ, and the stories of countless believers who found G.o.d to be faithful in their lives. The choice to trust Him today, however, is our challenge. We don't see Him, and we don't audibly hear Him, but G.o.d has given each of us a sense that He is there and that we can trust Him.

The preamble to the "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11 blends the two concepts: first, the utter reliability of G.o.d in the past and as seen in nature and, second, our trust in G.o.d's invisible hand today. Faith stands on the past and confidently reaches out for the future, trusting that what G.o.d did in the past He will do one more time-for us.

In what ways is our faith based on the visible and tangible? on the invisible and intangible?

What does G.o.d want you to trust Him to do today?

"Faith is a pa.s.sionate intuition."-WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

SEPTEMBER 28.

DREAMS CAN COME TRUE.