A Lesson from My Mom & Mary Kay

I just returned from visiting my family last night and today. My girls were visiting Grandpa & Grandma for a week along with Uncle Jeff & Aunt Amanda. We went yesterday to pick them up and freeze some homegrown sweet corn! There is nothing better! Anyway, in the middle of today, my mom took off to go and get her diamond ring. We're not talking about any ordinary diamond ring - it's a huge star with one big rock right in the middle and smaller diamonds surround it. She went to meet her Mary Kay director to receive the rock. She's been selling for a couple of years and this year has done so well that she was awarded the Queen's Court of Sales. The prize was a diamond ring.We stopped on our way home at the hometown pizza joint where they were meeting to say goodbye (ok, really - we wanted to see the thing on her finger!). Tonight I called to get the whole story and Dad's take on the deal. In our conversation we started talking about sales and how she's really got a handle on selling the product, but now she just needs to get others to sell it as well to move along in the company. I said something along the lines that that's the true test of a good salesman - not only are you convinced that the product is good and that it's good enough for others to purchase, but also that you so convince others that they need to share the product with everyone that they know. Immediately I had the thought and opened my mouth and said, "It's just like the Gospel." We talked briefly about that, and I continued to ponder that thought after hanging up.

Some of us are so convinced that the Gospel of Jesus is "Good News" that we share with others about it. However, if we're really convinced that it's good news, our life's ambition is to enlist others to share the good news with others. So, as born-again, believing Christians, we fall into one of three categories.

• We are consumers of the Good News - we enjoy the benefits of salvation but use it only for our personal consumption. 
• We are salesmen & women of the Good News - we have so enjoyed the benefits ourselves that we MUST tell others about the Good News and enlist them as consumers themselves. 
• We are directors in the company - we enjoy the benefits personally, have enlisted others to become consumers, and are NOW training our disciples to disciple others. 

Which are you? Are you satisfied with your personal relationship with Jesus and just keep it to yourself? Or are you sharing the incredible product - Jesus Christ - with others? Or are you a radical sales director - discipling others to disciple others??

Comments anyone?