Prepare for the Future

We often hear the words, "prepare for the Golden Years", which, of course, is referring to your economical future.  However, what is much more more important, is our spiritual future.  It isn't enough to accept Christ as our savior, we need to "pass it forward".  Oh sure,  we accept that Christ came to die for our sins, that He paid the ultimate price;  and that He was raised on the third day and ascended into heaven.  That acceptance saves us from eternal damnation.  But there is so much more to being a Christian.
This is where preparing for our spiritual future starts.  We must trust that God will make known our talents, so that we can use them to reach others, preparing our ministry, our personal outreach, as Paul did.  In 2 TI 2, his ministry was coming to an end, but it was to go on through Timothy.  This is what each of us should do.  We must create our own outreach, using our God-given talents.
Our ultimate goal is to make disciples within our family and friends.  You may ask yourself, "How do I make disciples who can be disciple-makers?"  First thing's first; in order to teach God's Word, we must study God's Word.  Then we must live God's Word, as 2 TI 2:15 clearly states.
2 TI 2:16, says to avoid "godless chatter" (NIV), or vane teachings, as it will promote godlessness, which spreads like gangrene.  If we run into someone who argues against the truth, we are to teach with gentle instruction, and hopefully "God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of truth" (NIV).  We must "pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 TI 2:22).  In this way, we teach through our testimony, our lives.  Why do we do this?  To save souls, which is the most important job of a Christian!
So, we need to study God's Word to have sound doctrine, so that we can teach others sound doctrine  so that they can go on to teach still others, and on and on.  But it is not enough to teach with our mouths; we need to teach through our lives.  We need to live God's Word!
The only requirement to spread God's Word is to have faithfulness.  Faithfulness is the key, then look to Christ and God will use your faithfulness in mighty ways!