Making disicples - the way of the chainsaw!

A few years ago for Father's day, Bettina bought me my very own chainsaw! What a woman of God! She really knows what her man needs. :) The good thing is I knew how to run a chainsaw because a year or so earlier I was at my father-in-laws farm helping out and he, David, showed me everything about running a chainsaw: The best way to start it, how to hold it properly, how to stand, where to be when cutting a tree and how to properly fell a tree. (I gotta tell you - I get excited just typing the phrase "fell a tree" [insert "Tim the Toolman Tailor grunt" here] All of this leads up to our family devotion after breakfast this morning at my house with my wife and kids. We had just started going through 1 Timothy 1. I was talking about how Paul told Timothy - I left you in Ephesus to command people to not teach false doctrines. In verse 5, Paul says the goal of this command in "love"! Love comes from a pure heart (motive) and a good conscience (choosing what is morally right.) I talked about how we need to approach everything in love - the goal! Then in verse 8, Paul says, "We know that the law is good if one uses it properly." So I asked my children how does one use the word of God properly? Then came the chainsaw! Before they could answer, I said, 'if you had a chainsaw, how would you know how to use it?' Brenna quipped back, "I don't know how to use a chainsaw!" To which I said, then how would you use it. She said, "I guess, read the instructions." Good point, but not what I was thinking. I said, I have never read the instructions on how to run chainsaw. Then I said to Jalen, "Have you ever read the instructions on how to run a chainsaw?" He said, "No" (He grandpa, David, taught him this summer!) I said, "Grandpa taught Jalen and I how to properly do it." I think Paul's point is for Timothy to help others handle the word properly by showing them. And that is what we are supposed to do as well. We make disciples the same way, by showing people how to follow - leading them in love along the way! And that is how you make disciples - the way of the chainsaw!