Cookie Cutter Christians

1)to be a disciple of one
     a) to follow his precepts and instructions
2) to make a disciple
     a) to teach, instruct

One of the things I love about my church is its commitment to creating disciples. Simply put, it is one believer investing in the life of another to teach them what God's word says and how to develop a personal walk with Jesus. It's what Jesus did with the 12 men he invested in while he walked this earth.

A couple of weeks ago, the young woman I invest in got her hair cut in a style that was similar to mine a few years back. We both walked into church together and two of the guys stopped, looked at us and said,"The two Carlas!" We laughed, but it got me to thinking on a deeper level about how I am discipling Andrea.

My whole desire is NOT to reproduce Carla, but rather to grow Jesus in Andrea. While I pray that some of the good traits that Jesus has developed in me will become part of Andrea's character, I am aware that they will play themselves out in the uniqueness in which He created her. All one has to do is study the years of Jesus' ministry to see that each of the men he surrounded Himself with were varying personalities. The four who wrote the gospels were uniquely used of God to tell His story from their perspective. Peter was a larger than life presence, always with a word to say. Thomas asked the question, refusing to allow his doubts to go unanswered regardless of how he may have appeared to the others. Jesus had a way of relating to each one on an individual level, reproducing Himself while allowing them to be themselves. All different, but in Acts they became known collectively as 'Christians', or little Christs.

Nothing is sadder to me than to see cookie cutter 'programs' trying to produce something the Lord NEVER intended a person to be. One cannot learn to be like Christ through "programming", but rather through walking through life together. I am thankful that we are charged to be biblical in our approach to dship. My prayer has consistently been that I am always teaching Andrea the truths of Scripture then encouraging her to live it out as He desires for her. That woman will reach people for Christ that would never give me one moment of attention and I want to do all I can to see that she gets all she needs to accomplish His will for her life.