This is a guest post from Dr. Ibrahim Barsoum - a lifelong friend and mentor who has guest posted on my blog before.  In this post, he shares a beautiful meditation on what it means to be a disciple and a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you too are interested in guest posting on my blog, please visit my Guest Post guidelines for more info.

A man was walking along the beach and suddenly he saw under his feet a small fish thrown out onto the shore by a large wave.

The man had two choices: either to abandon the small fish and leave it to die, or help the small fish get back into the water and live.

He decided to help the small fish get back into the water by pushing it slightly toward the ocean. Suddenly, a big wave came to the shore with a lot of small fish and the small fish went back happily to live in the ocean with other fish.

This incident made the man think about what goes on in his ministry to human souls.

Either he neglects individuals whom God puts in his way to minister to them and let them die, or he helps these individuals to join other believers and live.

As much as Jesus Christ loved and preached to big crowds, healed and fed the multitudes, as much as He was also caring and searching for individual souls to save them:

+ He talked to Nicodemus by night about being born again of water and the Spirit (John 3:5).

+ He asked Zacchaeus to come down from the tree and invited Himself at his house to save him and his family (Luke 19:5).

+ He spent time with the Samaritan woman at the well and offered her the living water (John 4:10).

+ He appeared especially to Thomas after His resurrection to strengthen his faith (John 20:27).

+ He appeared to Peter after His resurrection to reinstate him as an apostle (John 21:15).

+ He appeared also to Saul on the road to Damascus to prepare him for a great ministry (Acts 9:5).

We too, as disciples and servants of Christ, we should look for individual souls to save them and bring them to back to God. We should not be concerned only about big crowds, and big meetings, but also be concerned about the salvation of individual souls.

For thought/discussion: ask God to reveal one soul that you can minister to today – what are you going to do for them?