“Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you.  You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him.  TEACH them the decrees and laws, and SHOW them the way to live and the duties they are to perform.”  – Exodus 18:19-20

One of the books in my recommended resources section is entitled Organic Disciplemaking.  The reoccurring theme throughout the entire book is “Discipleship is more caught than taught”.  Its kind of the whole monkey-see-monkey-do-actions-speak-louder-than-words-do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do thing.

A few summers ago, I took a few students down to the beach.  We stopped at Toca Bell to change into our bathing suits.  At some point in all of that, my wallet fell out of my pocket.  I didn’t notice it was missing until several hours later.  To the students’ amazement, I kept my cool.  I made the round of phone calls to my banks and such and went about our day.  What was no big deal in my mind was HUGE for them.  To see someone they respected respond in a positive, unexpected way, to a potentially disastrous situation made an impact.

“When you see someone you respect become angry because of a selfish decision made by another, you learn in a memorable way what matters to such people.  The same is true when you see the intensity of joy respected by believers show when someone comes to Christ.”   (excert from Organic Disciplemaking)

If what Jesus says in Matthew 10:24-25 is true, then I want to be on my A game!  I want to set the bar high for my disciples.  The truth is, “You cannot give what you do not have…” and “You cannot lead to where you are not going…” If we hold back from God in one area of our life, we will produce disciples who hold back in 10 areas!

In order for Moses to teach it, he had to know it.  And in order to show it, he had to live it.

Whether we intentionally teach people or not, we still teach them.  The question is, what are you teaching them?