Spending time together with Jesus.  

I’m writing this late.  I apologize in advance for the typos…

But yep.  Spending time with other disciples in full awareness that Jesus is there makes the difference.  I am observing that the difference between a stagnant, burdensome experience of Christianity and a vital one is mainly driven by how often someone hangs out with other Christians who are being intentional about trying to live life like Jesus.  

I’m not suggesting that we get together and pile Bible Study upon Bible Study, pause for prayer and singing worship before returning to Bible Study.  Of course there is a place for  Bible Study, prayer, and worship.  (We call that “Up”).  But we need to do a lot of “In”.  A lot of being together.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m not talking about getting together with other Christians as if no one knew Jesus.  Too many times I’ve sat down with groups of Christians who just wanted to socialize like Jesus didn’t matter.  When someone tells me, “We can get together without having to be spiritual” I know there’s been a tragic error at some point.  You see, there should be no point in time when followers of Jesus are living like he doesn’t make all the difference in the world.  

What I am talking about is getting together with other followers of Jesus and doing normal activities with full awareness that Jesus is there.  When we can naturally pray, love one another, serve one another, and experience the vital life of Christianity at the same time – that’s when transformation happens.  That’s a natural way for our faith to stop being a set of religious practices and it becomes a life.

Get around a follower of Jesus who has a life worth imitating and start imitating what you find most noble in that life.  Chances are what you love in their life is an imitation of the life of Jesus.   And if that’s the case, when you imitate them, you are imitating Jesus.