God give Us Offspring

Scripture: Ruth 4:13

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.

Insights: In today’s verses we see Ruth gave birth to a son.  In the spiritual sense we are also to be procreating.  Think for a moment how the apostle Paul addressed Timothy and Titus.  He called them true sons in the faith.  They were not his biological sons, but he was their spiritual father.  Whenever we lead someone to know Jesus Christ as his/her Lord and Savior, we become that persons spiritual father or mother.  We are the ones who become responsible for them and their growth in the Lord.  We need to take on an active role of discipling them in the ways of the faith.  It is not the responsibility of the church staff to feed this baby in Christ, but of the one leading that person to Jesus.  It is for this reason I really personally prefer for the person who lead the individual to Jesus to perform the baptism of this new believer.  It gives a sense of spiritual blessing being passed on to the next generation.  Beloved, I fear we have grown very impotent in our proclamation of the gospel.  In a recent survey quoted on Thom Rainer’s podcast it stated it used to take fifty church members to lead one person to Christ.  Today it now takes eighty church members to lead a person to Christ.  What that survey was stating was not that eighty individuals have to go and share the gospel with a person before they get saved, but rather in a church of eighty they will likely have one conversion in that calendar year.  A church of 160 may have two conversions in a year.  A church of 240 may have three conversions in a year.  This statistic is the current average, but it does not have to be normative.  Any church, at any time, can say, “That is not good enough,” and can start to have an evangelistic zeal for the lost in this world.  I pray you will begin now asking the Lord to give you opportunities to share your faith and become a spiritual father or mother.  May the Lord richly bless you with a full quiver of spiritual children and grandchildren.  May His name be praised in all the world as a result of your faithfulness to Him.

Questions:

1. Are you actively sharing your faith with people?

2. Have you ever had the blessing of leading someone to know Jesus Christ?

Prayer: Father, thank You for every opportunity You have given me to lead someone to Jesus.  Lord, I pray You open doors every day for me to share my faith with those around me and let Your love pour through me into their lives.  Amen.