Rusty grew up in a poor family in a very small town in Indiana. He is the oldest of 4 children, 3 boys and a girl. Not only was the family poor monetarily, they were very poor spiritually. The family did not go to Church together, pray together, or mention God other than maybe Christmas or in profanity. It's not that they were unbelievers, they did believe He existed, they just didn't see the value of knowing Him. Church was really looked at as an entity where hypocrites gathered to make themselves feel better. Besides, money was scarce and Rusty's Dad worked hard to provide for the family. Rusty's Mom was struck with cancer in her early 30's and lost her leg, so it took all she had to keep the family taken care of at home. In their opinion, at best, God was a cosmic kill-joy watching people struggle from afar.
Rusty did have some good friends though whose family went to Church. At age 10 they started inviting him to Church with them. He jumped at the chance to go. It was a social outing away from home and a chance to meet new friends. He heard a lot about God and Jesus and was even moved during one revival service to seek forgiveness and walked up the long aisle (at least it seemed long) to the altar. He "accepted" Christ during that service and he tells me that he walked home after that as if his feet never touched the ground. He felt the touch of Christ on his life.
The next blog to come is my first encounter. Stay tuned! :-)
Rusty did have some good friends though whose family went to Church. At age 10 they started inviting him to Church with them. He jumped at the chance to go. It was a social outing away from home and a chance to meet new friends. He heard a lot about God and Jesus and was even moved during one revival service to seek forgiveness and walked up the long aisle (at least it seemed long) to the altar. He "accepted" Christ during that service and he tells me that he walked home after that as if his feet never touched the ground. He felt the touch of Christ on his life.
Unfortunately, there was no mentor ship, no discipleship, no follow-up. Although Rusty became aware of Christ in a personal way and desired to follow Him, with no one to help him to grow in the Word, he strayed away to pursue the things of the world.
I want to stop the story here today to talk about this last point because this is where our heart is and why we feel God has us in the mission we're in at the book shop. Dear friends, if you have people coming to faith in Christ in your Church or in your sphere of influence, PLEASE make it a point to help disciple and mentor them. They are babies and as such, are subject to attacks of all kinds. Being left to defend themselves is not the model that Christ gives us in Scripture. False teaching is rampant and way more accessable to the casual believers and new converts than the solid truth is. Just turn on the T.V. or walk into many Christian bookstores for examples! And sadly, too many Churches are too busy with programs, projects, or whatever else to intentionally disciple new believers. This is a tragedy! God will make good on His promise to redeem and save a truly repentant believer who is doing their best to trust and walk with Him, but my goodness how much better and faster for a new believer if they have people helping them along the way! Besides, this is how God modeled it for us during Jesus' incarnation as man on earth.
And for goodness sake, don't take a child's submission to Christ lightly. Rusty was 11, I was 12. But there are some younger. We KNEW Christ that day. We just needed some adult guidance and care giving to help foster our spiritual growth.
Matthew 19:14: Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
The next blog to come is my first encounter. Stay tuned! :-)
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