I recently attended a women’s conference on the topic of discipleship. We were challenged to be Titus 2 women, teaching the younger women how to live godly lives. While there, I was asked about my first experience discipling someone.
The first person I discipled was through an outreach ministry. This ministry reaches the unchurched, and includes those who are homeless, drug addicted, and alcoholics. I had been attending and co-leading a bible study once a month at the women’s discipleship house owned by this outreach ministry. It was a cold evening in October, I had just finished teaching the lesson, and one of the ladies approached me and asked if I would disciple her.
Though I have never been in jail or experienced some of the things she had, we actually had more in common than you might think. We were very close in age. Both of us had lived in California. Both of us had 4 living generations of women in our family line. Both of us have beautiful mommas, and we both had a teenage daughter. We both could be loud – at times – and frank when we spoke.
We began our first lesson in a meeting room at a drug and alcohol treatment center, and continued meeting there while she lived in a nearby women’s sober living house. I remember picking her up and she’d have a preacher on the T.V. She’d always say, “You ever hear of him?” “Girl, he’s good.” “He is Off.The.Chain!” And then she’d laugh! She was always smiling and laughing – it was contagious – the joy that radiated from her. We became close throughout discipleship. We held nothing back from each other.
Sometimes she’d hear something in a sermon and ask about it and we’d look through God’s Word and figure it out together. She loved to hear the Word preached and she’d often come away from a sermon saying, “I needed that!” When we first started out in discipleship, we prayed that God would provide her a place of her own and He did. She was faithful to church and to the Lord, and she witnessed His words in Malachi 3:10,
“See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.”
She received an apartment near the treatment center, and I watched as the Lord graciously opened His hands and furnished her new place. A friend of mine bought her a couch. She received a bed from others in the church. She received a table, dishes, linens, everything she needed. She had it fixed up so nice; she was proud of her place. We finished out our discipleship meetings each week in that apartment.
Several times, my kids joined me at her place. They would bring their homework and sit at her table and work while she and I would go through our bible lessons each week. My kids got to know her well and became very fond of her. They would always tell me in the car on the way home that she was fun. She was! She never knew a stranger. She’d say hi to anyone and everyone and make an instant friend. She had that magnetic personality about her. She made you feel so comfortable to talk to and be around. And if you weren’t smiling when she saw you — she’d make you smile!
I asked her if she had plans for Thanksgiving that year and she said no. She talked about Thanksgiving at home and how her mom was a great cook. She talked about her mom often and how beautiful she was and I knew she missed her family. So my husband and I invited her to share Thanksgiving with us and she came and met my extended family. My family can be loud and they like to have fun. She said it made her think of her family. And I was reminded of yet another thing she and I had in common. We must not have been too bad, because she joined us again for Thanksgiving the next year!
I looked forward to seeing her and spending time with her in God’s Word. She was so teachable and desired to learn. She always had her homework questions completed for each lesson and I was so glad to hear her knowledge and understanding of His Word. If she didn’t understand something that we had read in Scripture, she was humble enough to ask because she desired to know more about the Lord. And it challenged me to dig deep and study hard in God’s Word.
Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
She was a blessing to me. She taught me so much about life and the Christian walk. Many people inside the church are quick to “write off” others. They want to have an easy faith. They don’t want anything messy in their life and they don’t want any interruptions. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to pour into this sister’s life. I am thankful God put her in my path and divinely intervened in my walk to bring me closer to Him. By being able to pour into her from my testimony and walk with the Lord, the Lord poured into me. This sister became a friend to me when I wasn’t expecting it and just as it says in 1 Thessalonians 3:12, the Lord caused me to increase and overflow with love for her and the other women I have met through this outreach ministry.
1 Thessalonians 3:12, “and may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you;”
She had told me many times her goal was to get her GED. We prayed over that for a long time, and we prayed through her classes that she took at the local community college to complete her graduation certificate – especially Algebra class! With determination and the Lord’s help, she achieved that goal. She never gave up – whatever she set her mind to.
She never seemed to have a care that was too heavy to weigh her down. It wasn’t that her life was perfect or that she didn’t have anything to worry about. She was a momma. She worried about her family. She worried about her daughter. She always talked about how beautiful her daughter was and she showed her pictures to everyone. She was so proud of her daughter. When she found out she was going to be a grandmother, she came into Sunday School class and sat down and gave that toothy grin and said “Girl, you are never gonna believe it! I’m gonna be a grandma!” We prayed for her daughter throughout the pregnancy and prayed for her little one that would soon come. When the time came for him to enter this world, she told me “pray for the delivery and for him to be healthy and safe.” She shared pictures when he was born. She worried like you and I worry, but she was good about giving her concerns to the Lord and letting Him work them out – and THAT was encouraging to me. She knew the truth of Proverbs 12:25,
“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, But a good word makes it glad.”
She practiced 1 Peter 5:7,
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
And the words of Philippians 4:6-7 became real in her life,
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
She never asked for anything. She was a hard worker. She may have been a fierce and independent woman, but she always knew when she needed the Lord. If her work schedule pulled her away a few Sundays, she’d say “I miss you and I miss church.” “I need you in my life.” She loved her family of believers and separation from us often brought loneliness. She knew the value and importance of being surrounded by godly friends in her walk with the Lord. And she knew the benefits of being in the body of Christ and His church.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”
She never hesitated to approach the altar and seek strength and guidance from the Lord for her life. She knew her weaknesses and she desired prayer – it was a comfort for her, soothing and restoring to her spirit. She knew where to go – but most importantly she knew Who to go to – to restore her. When she had a need arise in her life, she confidently trusted in the Lord to provide.
Her life tragically ended nearly 3 years – to the day – after we first met. When I think back over the short time of 3 years together, I am reminded how we spent a lot of time in ministry to the Lord – at church and in His Word – and in the car together. But we also spent a great deal of our time together in prayer. We prayed over earthly concerns and needs in her life like her job, and finding a car, or getting an apartment, as well as her family and their protection and relationship with her and her relationship with the Lord. We also spent a great deal of time praying over spiritual needs in her life – dealing with sin and living a right and holy life unto the Lord. I remember a few times sitting in different places in the sanctuary at church or at the recovery ministry, and if her heart was heavy, she’d come find me and say “Pray for me.” In the couple weeks following her passing, I could still hear her voice in my head saying, “Pray for my family.” And I did. Even today, her mom, daughter, and grandson are on my heart and mind often.
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Though my life in some ways was different from this sister’s, I am not perfect. I am a flawed woman. There is no one perfect on this earth. God’s Word tells us in Romans 3:10,
“there is no one righteous, not even one.”
And Ephesians 2:4-5 tells us,
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”
I have peace today because my sweet sister in Christ had shared her testimony with me and how she had received salvation in Christ. She wanted her family to experience a full life with Christ; and I know if she were here today, she would want others to know that God wants your eternity secured, so that one day you too can join your friends and loved ones in eternity with the Lord.
Acts 17:24-27 ministered to my heart in those hurting moments after discovering the news of her loss of life:
“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might search for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;”
Every Saturday night in the building of that outreach ministry, people of all walks of life are given the opportunity to hear about God. The Gospel message still goes on. It’s still proclaimed to lost souls, backslidden Christians, and those hurting and searching for hope and peace in their life. I pray if you have pulled away from the Lord or grown cold in your faith, that today you would seek Him, believe in Him, reach for Him from your heart, confess with your mouth and receive forgiveness of sin. Only Christ can forgive us of our sins. Salvation is from Christ – the only One who can save you – as we read in John 14:6, “Jesus said….I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”
