Faithful Hall of Fame Mother--Alicia Gwynn

Tony Gwynn, one of Major League Baseball's Hall of Famers, died at 54 of salivary cancer as a result of a lengthy smokeless or spit chewing tobacco habit.  He succumbed to a nasty substance abuse addiction.

Chris Gwynn, 50, Tony Sr.'s brother, is the Seattle Mariners director of player development since 2011.  Tony Jr. is an outfielder with the Philadelphia Phillies after stints with the Padres and Dodgers.

Chris Gwynn spent a dozen years working in the Padres' scouting department and was their director of player personnel two seasons after concluding a 10-year career in the Major Leagues. 

Chris Gwynn

Chris oversees the entire Mariners' Minor League system. He carved out his own career, batting .261 with 263 hits, 17 home runs and 118 RBIs after being a first-round Draft pick of the Dodgers in 1985.


I learned more about the Gwynn family from Ken Gurnick's recent column, at MLB.com. 

A Hall of Fame faithful mother

Everybody knows that Tony Gwynn Jr. is the son of Hall of Fame hitting machine Tony Gwynn Sr. He's also the son of Alicia Gwynn, no minor footnote to the younger Gwynn.

"She's an extremely strong woman, born in South Carolina, five brothers and two sisters, a strong Christian and she raised me and my sister as such. We got a sound foundation," said the younger Gwynn.

Note that Gwynn said "she" raised the kids. Dad was busy winning batting titles.

"Mostly, it was me and her and my sister (Anisha)," Gwynn said. "She was on top of us to go to school, clean our room, do the right things. She was the disciplinarian. Dad was focused on being the best he could be on the field. And Mom had no hesitation or animosity with her part of the deal. That was her job.

Alicia Gwynn

"Everybody knew about Dad and I. But I was just as close with Mom as Dad. I'd go to Dad for advice, but a lot of times he was on the road and I'd go to her. It was more comfortable going to her than Dad."

"I was. And we've talked a lot about this as I've gotten older, and he never understood why, but that's how I felt for a long time, longer than it should have," Gwynn said. "I would go to the field with him and see the intensity in how he'd work. It was a little scary for a young kid. That's why a lot of times I went to Mom. She figured it out early."

"I've told her, but not as much as I should," he said. "Women in this lifestyle don't get enough credit. For home games, he'd leave the house at 12:30 and wouldn't be home until late at night. They didn't spend a lot of time together, but she completely understood. My dad would tell you straight up: Without Mom holding him up, he wouldn't have been as successful. She would throw batting practice to him with a Wiffle ball. She was his work partner. Dad would always say Mom was the better athlete.

"Her faith needs to be brought up; her faith in Jesus Christ helped my dad get through a lot. He's won eight batting titles, but he's had trying times [including two bouts with cancer]. I remember hearing a story -- one year at the break he was batting under .300 and Mom told him he'd win the batting title. He did. Her faith kept the family intact and going in the right direction."

Alicia Gwynn, whose parents were church elders, said she never pushed her son into being an athlete, only to be the best he could be at whatever he chose to do.

"We taught our children responsibility, character and how to lead a sustaining life," she said. "I like to think I have the best son in the world. He's grounded. I'm proud of the way he carries himself. I remember one time he didn't clean his room and he said he didn't have to because we had a housekeeper. I told him, 'She works for me, not for you, now go clean your room.' I wanted him to understand that, even though you are blessed, you still do your chores. He needed to grow up and appreciate the value of what he had.

"I'm proud of him as his mother. I went to his house and saw the routine he had with his three girls. As a mother, I appreciate how he is living his life. I always told him it's not about being a good player, it's about being a good human being."

Baseball and smokeless spit tobacco 
Research by the Pro Baseball Athletic Trainers Society revealed the number of major leaguers who use spit tobacco has declined from about 50% to 33% in the last 20 years--about 10 times the amount in the general population, according to the American Cancer Society, whose data from 2012 showed 3.5% of Americans 12 and older – or 9 million – use the highly addictive product.

Kyle Seager

Seattle Mariners, Kyle Seager and DD/WDS Dental Director, Dr. Ron Inge were featured on King 5 Evening Magazine discussing the risks of smokeless tobacco. http://www.king5.com/on-tv/evening-magazine/-Kyle-Seager-and-smokeless-tobacco-208687281.html





The current collective bargaining agreement, in effect from 2012-16, bans players, managers and coaches from using smokeless tobacco during TV interviews and team appearances. And they have to keep tobacco products out of sight while fans are at the ballpark.

In addition, MLB and the players union have stepped up educational efforts, and teams – which in the past freely distributed cans of dip in the clubhouse – can no longer do so and are now required to administer oral exams as part of the spring training physicals every year.

Here is a video of Tony and his wife Alicia sharing about their cancer ordeal before his passing:  http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:6254063

Joe Garagiola

Longtime TV announcer Joe Garagiola, who quit his smokeless tobacco habit in his 30s, made it his life's mission to warn other baseball folks about its dangers, making presentations during spring training alongside former major league outfielder Billy Tuttle, who died of oral cancer at 69 in 1998.

"I don't think we talk about it enough anymore," says Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. "I remember as a young A-ball manager, Joe Garagiola would always come around in spring training with Bill Tuttle. It was scary.

"And I still see people chewing tobacco. Not only in the big leagues, but you still see kids in junior high and high school. For me, it's not enough yet. It's a shame."

New life multiplied in God's kingdom

"When I first came to the jail, I was still high. It took me a long time to realize what I had done.  I was numb and didn't fear anything back then.  I even tried to commit suicide.  I felt sick to my stomach. I spent time crying and praying." 

Brad is a 26 years-old Native American incarcerated at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center since 2012. He was recently sentenced to 19 years likely at Walla Walla or Clallam Bay correction centers.

In the weeks before sentencing, he wrote out his testimony and gained a heart to influence other inmates about God's kingdom. We shared together about persevering in our deepening love for Jesus and remaining faithful in the Scriptures.

In his journey through the Department of Corrections sites, he will need to lean hard on Jesus in prayer.  We prayed together purposefully about God bringing to Brad another faithful man he might fellowship and grow together with.  

We kept studying about God's purposes in saving sinners to follow Jesus and multiply themselves with other men.  We are miraculously gifted in the Holy Spirit to work out being God's men to reach other men within the amazingly creative ways He prepares each of us.

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. ~2 Timothy 2:1-2


Here is the MRJC part of Brad's own story
"I grew up on a reservation with a loving and hard-working mother and a verbally and physically abusive step-father.  As a youth, I kept to myself.  

"When I was 17, my life drastically changed as I got into drugs, alcohol, sex, and gang-banging. There were many fights. I had to bury a lot of my family and friends. I was depressed and felt hopeless. I didn't care if I lived or died, at that point. Drugs and violence were my life which landed me in jail and drug treatment."

Brad passionately believed he could somehow save his people from drugs and alcohol and tried to quit drugs and alcohol, himself.  There were four different trips to drug treatment. He held on to his heritage and culture. He clung to believing knowing and loving his native culture would solve the problem.  He made many trips to the river with his drum to sing and pray.  He searched for a peace.  He always felt a Creator would show him the way.

"I had a prejudice against the Christian faith because older missionaries wanted to "culture us" to their way of living.  They put us on a little reservation and threw the kids in a boarding school. They beat our people if they practiced their language and culture.  So, I never opened my heart to Jesus.  On December 24th, I was really high and drunk and killed my cousin then I attacked and almost killed a police officer.

"One night when I was in treatment, a missionary on the street told me to open my Bible.  I was stubborn. Hate and prejudice filled my heart. I didn't listen because I wanted to have my own beliefs.      

"Now I know it was all God's plan from the beginning.  I put in a kite for pain medication when I really started reading the Bible.  The nurses suggested I speak to a chaplain.  I did and Chaplain Mark showed me where to start in the New Testament and a prayer to forgive me and for salvation.  We did it but it was half-hearted because of my prejudice.  I now know the devil tried to stop God's plan to save us from the lake of fire and eternal death.

"I've spent time in my cell reading and trying to understand the truth.  It was very hard battling my pride, pain, and hate.  I didn't want to change.  It took time but I learned God loves me."

Epilogue
Brad and I met for weeks at the beginning and then he went through a season when he told me he didn't want to spend time with me.  I go into his unit several times a week so I remained available to all the inmates.  This cycle of meetings followed by apparent lack of interest repeated for around nine months.

God held Brad's heart but he was doing battle with those issues of hate and prejudice he shared in his testimony. Spiritual warfare was fully active.  

Many men in that unit ridicule those seeking to follow Jesus.  His eyes telegraphed he wanted to meet but something was holding him back.  I continued to pray and greeted him when I visited the unit.

I invited him to meet with me and he was not interested until one day about 18 months ago.  He shared he was ready and wanted to meet.  He had been reading and marking his Bible. He brought in his NKJ Study Bible and began asking me questions about growing faith.  We read, prayed, and laughed together. 




There were always more questions.  His inquiries grew deeper as he was gaining understanding.  God's truth was catching fire in Brad.  My purpose was to answer his questions by showing him how to find the answers himself around the context in the passage. 

I repeated, "Where can you find the answer yourself?  Let's look!"

We worked together through learning to use the cross references, concordance, and study notes.  I asked him to do his own study and share with me what he learned the next visit.

Would you join me in praying for Brad?  We may be writing in the next weeks.  Pray God Himself will use Brad to reach other men. Pray Brad will continually remain passionate to remain faithful and be God's man to multiply others in the correction center where he will be placed. 

Multiplying disciples with marbles

"In my own life," Howard Hendricks said several years ago, " I can recall several profoundly influential figures who were strategically used by God to change the course of my life." 

"The first was a man named Walt. Had it not been for Walt, I seriously doubt whether I would have ever become a follower of Jesus Christ." 


God often chooses to use ordinary folks to be His disciples and do life-changing, multiplying disciple-making.  People are impacted by changed people who love other people toward walking with God.

Mike and Travis, an accountant and an engineer in our church family, are these kind of men.  Each man just took off on "another level" with their Sunday School classes. 

Disciple-making lifts ministries into new stratospheres

Both were "out of the box" guys but never saw it, really.  They wouldn't say they are creative, either. They put together special events with their curriculum of loving disciple-making. Classes were invited to their homes for games and pizza. It became common place to witness these men using a curb on our church campus to talk to the boys one-on-one.  The boys loved these men.

"Mike" and "Travis" are everywhere in our churches.  They are following Jesus as His disciples and serving as His ministers in and all around the church.  Some go into our communities and even around the world.  Some go to the streets and into jails and prisons. 

Disciple-making men and women are artists, accountants, bakers, computer geeks, custodians, engineers, fruit growers, gamers, nurses, physicians, software engineers, mothers, and dads, grandpas and grandmas. 

Disciple-making begins on the ground
"I came from a broken home," Hendricks recounted. "My parents were separated before I was born, and neither one paid much attention to my spiritual condition. To put it bluntly, I could have lived, died, and gone to hell without anyone even bothering to care. 

"But Walt cared. He was part of a tiny church in my neighborhood that developed a passion to affect its community for Christ.

“One day, he asked me, Would you like to play marbles?”

"Walt’s passion was to reach nine-and ten-year-old boys like me with the gospel. I’ll never forget that Saturday morning I met him. I was sprawled out on a Philadelphia sidewalk playing marbles. Suddenly someone was standing beside me. I looked up to see this gangly guy towering over me—all six feet, four inches of him. My mouth sort of dropped open.

“Hey, son, how would you like to go to Sunday school?” he asked.

"That was an unfortunate question. To my mind, anything that had the word “school” in it had to be bad news. So I shook my head no.

Disciple-making talks their language
But Walt was just getting started. “How would you like to play marbles?” he asked, squatting down. Now, he was talking my language!

Younger Howard Hendricks

“Sure!” I replied, and quickly set up the game. As the best marble player on the block, I felt supremely confident that I could whip this challenger fairly easily.

"Would you believe he beat me in every single game! In fact, he captured every marble I had. In the process, he captured my heart. I may have lost a game and a bit of pride that day, but I gained something infinitely more important—the friendship of a man who cared. 

"A big man, an older man, a man who literally came down to my level by kneeling to play a game of marbles. From then on, wherever Walt was, that’s where I wanted to be.

Disciple-making builds into lives
"Walt built into my life over the next several years in a way that marked me forever. He used to take me and the other boys in his Sunday school class hiking. I’ll never forget those times. He had a bad heart, and I’m sure we didn’t do it any good, running him all over the woods the way we did. 

"But he didn’t seem to mind, because he cared. In fact, he was probably the first person to show me unconditional love.

Disciple-making models faithfulness
"He was also a model of faithfulness. I can’t remember a time that he ever showed up to his Sunday school class unprepared. Not that he was the most scintillating teacher in the world. In fact, he had almost no training for that. Vocationally, he worked in the tool and die trade. But he was for real, and he was also creative. He found ways to involve us boys in the learning process—an approach that made a lasting contribution to my own style of teaching.

Disciple-making incarnates Christ
Overall, Walt incarnated Christ for me. And not only for me, but for thirteen other boys in my neighborhood, nine of whom also came from broken homes. Remarkably, eleven of us went on to pursue careers as vocational Christian workers—which is ironic, given that Walt himself completed school only through the sixth grade. It just goes to show," Hendricks concluded, "that a man doesn’t need a Ph.D. for God to use him to shape another man."

Disciple in the Biblical context simply means one who follows and learns from a teacher. The disciple is mentored by another.  The curriculum is knowing Christ.  It doesn't require a Bible School, Seminary education, nor a library of books.  Published curriculum is helpful but isn't necessary.  The disciple's handbook is the Bible and the most faithful work life-on-life.

Using Mike, Travis, Walt, Howard, and 13 boys, disciple-making starts where we meet people and where we want to invite them to join us.  That's great for me because it tells me I can do it where the person I am meeting with and I are safest.  

At Prisoners for Christ, we have a pen pal ministry.  Letter writing is a form of disciple-making. Women are great at writing letters.  There is a long list of male inmates who requested a faithful man to write them.  They are still waiting. 

Disciple-making passionately serves
Dawson "Daws" Trotman founded the Navigators ministry and summarized disciple-making as, “a passionate call to maturity, spiritual reproduction and spiritual parenting to help fulfill the Great Commission,” in his text, "Born to reproduce."

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. 

~Matthew 28:19-20

Effective disciple-making, Trotman taught, was based on three principles:
1. Remember, nothing under heaven except sin, immaturity, and lack of communion will put you in a position where you cannot reproduce.

The Daws Trotman enthusiasm

2. But when all things are right between you and the Lord, regardless of how much or how little you know intellectually, from the standpoint of the world, you can be a spiritual parent And that incidentally, may be when you are very young in the Lord. 

3. The Gospel spread to the known world during the first century without radio, television, or the printing press, because these produced men who were reproducing. 

When Daws started the Navs, there was no internet nor social media, both can be tools for disciple-making.  There are many articles, booklets, and books available to do this disciple-making.  You can fill in blanks together or read and discuss chapters.  What might work best for you?  You can start by simply meeting a need or acting on Paul's "one another" passages.




Disciple-making loves Christ into the lives of others
This ministry requires time and love.  Disciple-makers love people enough to spend time with them. It is more than a casual conversation at the grocery story or in between services. Spending time together is incredibly flexible because it can be doing many things. 

Daws recounts the story, repeated many times over, of Sally, a young woman telephone worker who received Christ as her Savior at a Billy Graham Crusade.  She found Pat, who wanted to learn about Jesus, who became another faithful woman.  They followed Christ together.  Sally had a daughter in Christ.  After awhile, Pat met Sue and they did the same thing. Sally was now a spiritual grandmother and Pat had a spiritual daughter.

"How was this done? God used the pure channel of these young Christians’ lives in their exuberance and first love for Christ, and out of their hearts the incorruptible seed of the Word of God was sown in the hearts of other people."  ~"Born to reproduce" 

Solitary hiding place

"I am afraid what will happen after I am released.  I don't want to be a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Ron confided.

Ron is an inmate at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center, in Kent, Washington where I serve as a chaplain through Prisoners for Christ Outreach Ministries. 

Over several months, he completed Bible studies, meets with several solid chaplains and appears to be progressing in daily faith.

Men may show signs of being responsive. They experience stress and take steps to change their lives.  They want to live a better life but are not certain what that will look like.

They will have to change their behaviors.  They need to have a definitive plan and support to live differently.  They aren't sure they want to do that.  

Some want to change because they think God will be proud of them.  Really, they will get out of jail quicker.  They want a "get out of jail" card.

If they are looking for this quick out, they will be sadly disappointed.  They are going to face the court.  There are consequences for what they are guilty of.  My heart is to care for them whether they are innocent or guilty and whatever the courts and lawyers determine. 

I tell them circumstances may get more complicated after they choose to follow Jesus.

One officer this last week said to me, "Over the years, I have learned you can't tell the book by its cover."

Ron wants to be sure he continues in the faith after leaving the jail.  His wife is not saved and she is not certain what is happening in Ron's life.  

His old "fellow users" are in his neighborhood. As his release date approaches, he worries about what is out there.  He knows how he acted before he came into jail. 

For some, change goes as far but no further than talking to fellow inmates. Some request prayer and talk a couple of times.  Others examine their lives and want to hear about walking in faith--we might meet 10 or more times.

Many attended church as a child.  They participated with church and would say they are Christians. They remember praying grandparents or a faithful mother. In staggering numbers, inmates do not have a solid father in their lives--he is often not part of their lives.  
I start asking simple questions... 

• Could you share your testimony with me?  
• What is your spiritual journey?  
• Have you attended church?  
• Do you have a Bible in your room...are you reading it?
• Would you like to read with me?
• How may I pray with you, right now?

                                 Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
I just listen and keep asking questions, praying along the way.  The Lord may lead me to a passage of Scripture.  They may want me to pray. When they see I genuinely listened and prayed with them, I a great ministry may be accomplished.  

I start, often with us reading together the conversion testimony of Charles Spurgeon.  Here it is...

Charles H. Spurgeon

"On a memorable sixth day of January, 1850, at 15, Charles Spurgeon rose before the sun, to pray and to read one of his bedside books. He found no rest.

"I cried to God with groaning—I say it without exaggeration—groaning that cannot be uttered! And oh, how I sought, in my poor dark way, to overcome first one sin and then another, and so to do better, in God's strength, against the enemies that assailed me, and not, thank God, altogether without success, though still the battle had been lost unless He had come who is the Overcomer of sin and the Deliverer of His people, and had put the hosts to flight."

Jesus. Jesus. JESUS! He alone, He without another, had become the solitary hiding place against the storm. 

I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist Church.

In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people’s heads ache; but that did not matter to me.

I wanted to know how I might be saved.

The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now it is well that preachers be instructed, but this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say.  

The text was—"LOOK TO ME AND BE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH." (Isaiah 45:22)

He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimmer of hope for me in that text.  The preacher began thus:

"This is a very simple text indeed. It says ‘LOOK.’ Now, looking don’t take a deal of pain. It doesn't require lifting your foot or your finger, It is just ‘look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to college to learn to look. Nobody needs a huge salary to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. But then the text says, ‘Look to Me.’ Ay!" he said in broad Essex, "many of you are looking to yourselves, but it’s no use looking there.

“You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some say look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look to Me.’ Some of you say ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s workin.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. 
The text says, ‘Look to Me.’ "Then the good man followed up his text in this way:

Look to Me; I am sweatin’ great drops of blood.

Look to Me; I am hangin’ on the cross.

Look to Me, I am dead and buried.

Look to Me; I rise again.

Look to Me; I ascend to Heaven.

Look to Me; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand.

O poor sinner, look to Me!   Look to Me!"

When he had managed to spin out about ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then, he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, "Young man, you look very miserable." Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, "And you will always be miserable—miserable in life and miserable in death—if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved." Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do,

"Young man, turn to Jesus Christ. Look!  Look! Look! You have nothing to do but look and live!"

I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said—I did not take much notice of it—I was so possessed with that one thought . . . .

I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, "Look!" what a charming word it seemed to me.

Oh! There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. 

Oh, that somebody had told me this before, "Trust Christ, and you shall be saved." 

Yet it was, no doubt, all wisely ordered, and now I can say—

"E’er since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die. . ."

That happy day when I found the Savior, and learned to cling to His dear feet, was a day never to be forgotten by me . . . . I listened to the Word of God and that precious text led me to the cross of Christ.  

I can testify that the joy of that day was utterly indescribable. I could have leaped, I could have danced; there was no expression, however fanatical, which would have been out of keeping with the joy of that hour.

Many days of Christian experience have passed since then, but there has never been one which has had the full exhilaration, the sparkling delight which that first day had. I thought I could have sprung from the seat in which I sat, and called out with the wildest of those Methodist brethren . . .

"I am forgiven! I am forgiven! A monument of grace! A sinner saved by blood!"

My spirit saw its chains broken to pieces; I felt that I was an emancipated soul, an heir of heaven, a forgiven one, accepted in Jesus Christ, plucked out of the miry clay and out of the horrible pit, with my feet set upon a rock and my goings established. Between half-past ten o’clock, when I entered that chapel, and half-past twelve o’clock, when I was back again at home, what a change had taken place in me!

Simply by turning to Jesus I had been delivered from despair, and I was brought into such a joyous state of mind that, when they saw me at home, they said to me, "Something wonderful has happened to you," and I was eager to tell them all about it.  

Oh! There was joy in the household that day, when all heard that the eldest son had found the Savior and knew himself to be forgiven."

            My solitary hiding place against the storms

Tears start falling for some in the the first couple of paragraphs.  "Jesus. Jesus. JESUS! He alone, He without another, is my solitary hiding place against the storms in my life." 

As we read together, I am praying the Lord will use this testimony to touch this man's heart.  I want to learn how genuinely interested they are in seeking repentance and forgiveness for their sins. 

Now, what are they willing to say about where are they really at?  Where do they stand with Jesus?  Are they just looking for a way out, again?

Looking or turning to Jesus goes directly with believing and repentance.  The sinner changes his mind and turns away from his or her old life.  

Life with Jesus is all about the person. Repenting people look or turn directly to God through Jesus Christ and bring their sins to Him.

The inmate finds out they thought they were Christians but never heard of any of this before....or, they have prayed numerous times to be saved. 

Some "prayed the salvation prayer" repeatedly only to walk out of their jail and prison experience and returned to their old experiences. They may be saved and have stumbled badly and repeatedly. We need to be discussing walking in obedience and what it means to be His disciple.  

Like every inmate, I have scrapes on my knees and elbows to prove it.  My sins are different than theirs... but we are all sinners.  I am His and He is mine. I am loved by a great God.  I am forgiven based on what Jesus accomplished, once and for all.  

I don't need to keep asking Jesus to save me.  He already saved me.  The repenting one needs to obey the commands of Jesus and grow up in godliness.

The priority is always about Jesus.  Jesus calls for repentance from the heart, receive forgiveness and be saved, and be His disciple.  Following Jesus, being His disciple means obedience to the truth.  

That is where we start.  I may ask them to read John 3:1-21, 10:1-10-27-29 and John 14:1-6 and 15:1-16.