i am not like you!
Cookie-cutter Christians are a dime-a-dozen. We are taught by our leaders to be like them, so we develop into clones of Bishop so-and-so and Apostle So-and-so. We loose our identity. And yet God in His infinite wisdom declares the need for everyone of us to function as uniquely as He made us so that the Body can be healthy and whole.
1 Corinthians 12 has been of great help to me when fighting the pressure to conform to the ‘cutter’ presented by my peers. If I am passionate about children’s ministry, I should have no business manipulating those that are around me into being passionate about children. Their gifts might be for Prison’s ministry. That doesn’t mean they are not Christian. It just means that the area I am strong in is one in which they have little desire for.
Sometimes I am not quite clear where my gifts lie but I know encouragement is one of them. I can’t help but encourage people. I see the light at the end of the tunnel (even if I have to acquire telescopic sights).
1 Corinthians 12:4-14
4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
(NIV)
Why do we want to have a body full of feet? Why can’t we acknowledge that though the things we are passionate about are biblical and godly, they are only a small part of the bigger picture? Seek to understand me and appreciate the role I play with my gifts. If social justice is your thing, do it. My ‘thing’ is faith. Don’t drag me into your thing, I don’t want to go. And yes, I feel nothing.
What do you feel?
Was made an ORIGINAL, why go back an imitation?
First of all i feel ‘cookie cutter christians are a dime a dozen’ is an intro i would like to hear when the preacher starts his thing(its more like betty botter bought some butter…). i dont know why i decided to check what is on muchiri.com this morning but i guess it one of those things God leads you to when you let go and let God ama? nway this applies so much about what we were discussing jana.
Suprising enough those people who want us to be an extension of them do not notice what they are doing until this other person is completely lost and most of the time the latter gets so stressed and do extremes – all they ever want was just to be like(as you say) Apostle so-and-so.They lose who they were to be in the beginning, and it gets worse when the one they are following loses direction.
I think it is important for both the leaders and the ones being led to know themselves and what there position in this world is(ok that is hard at times but hey at least we can have a breather coz our hope and our all is in He who knows it all). These two weeks(after the retreat) i have been saying the serenity prayer because i was made an original, why should i go back before God as an imitation?
You know about the serenity prayer;
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Blessings.