Follow the Nazarene closely (he set a pretty good example on how to live).
Pray often and even more so. Pray for the people you love, and pray for the people you don’t love.
Don’t build a big church. Because if we do, then we will need to protect it and use up time, taxes, and treasure to maintain it. Instead of a building try Being Church – and rather than building a new building, start making charity and justice for the poor a personal, close-up thing and not a ‘program’ in the church.
Share the Good News. For what Jesus did is indeed Good and truly Newsworthy.
Visit the sick, the locked up and the shut in.
Give relief to those who are suffering around you.
Sit with the dying…just be with them as they transition into the next part of life.
Comfort the broken, the bruised and the bereaved.
Be generous and lavish with those in need and do so with your time, your talents, your money, and your stuff. Share your house with someone in need like a teenager in a bad situation or a young girl who is deciding to carry her child to term, share your car, your tools, your garage, your apartment, your books, etc.
Be reckless in giving and receiving Abba’s grace and graciousness.
Practice hospitality and be hospitable (for that is where the word hospital came from).
Love your neighbor…and yes, I do mean the one right next door, as well as the one down the street, across the country and across the world.
Live your life as a fully alive, aware human being. Practice being real and transparent then watch people see Jesus in and through your unique personality. No stuffed shirts, smug piousness or the need to be superior over people. And love sinners, all of them, not just the ones you feel most comfortable around. Befriend sinners and people of other faiths, and don’t do it just for evangelism sake. Jesus loved all people truly, madly and deeply, even the ones that walked away from, betrayed and killed him. He had no other motive but too love people into the Kingdom, so put down your Four Spiritual Laws, your tracts and your Bibles and start being real and around people (you’ll be amazed at how much Abba’s love will flow from you).
Practice Common Grace (whether you are Calvinist or Catholic). For all people are made in the image of God and God sustains everyone regardless of their faith or lack thereof (see Matthew 5:45 and James 1:17)
Practice common graciousness as well; don’t be a bully, mean-spirited, or smug. Just because we know the Truth does NOT mean we are always right. Only Jesus is Lord and only he will judge on the last day, so save the judging for him and him alone.
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