They Had Been With Jesus

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13

I must give credit where credit is due.  The Spirit provoked these thoughts via Spurgeon's morning devo:

If we were what we profess to be, and what we should be, we should be pictures of Christ; yea, such striking likenesses of him, that the world would not have to hold us up by the hour together, and say, "Well, it seems somewhat of a likeness;" but they would, when they once beheld us, exclaim, "He has been with Jesus; he has been taught of him; he is like him; he has caught the very idea of the holy Man of Nazareth, and he works it out in his life and every-day actions."

Spurgeon goes on to make some more excellent points, but what struck me the hardest is the idea that Christianity is not something we do or join or simply acknowledge. It is something we become.  Here is a less than perfect analogy: I do many things a manner much like my dad. Do I think about them? Do I intentionally do things or say things to mimic him? Do I walk around asking 'what would my Dad do in this situation?' The answers are no. I have simply picked up various traits of the man I lived with and interacted with for nearly 30 years. In some sense, I have become my father. And if someone knew him, they could say :"He is just like his father"  And if someone didn't know him, I can say (in a small, human way) "If you know me, you know my father"

The bottom-line? We need (well, at least I do) to move from thinking about our Christianity as something external, as something we put on. Rather it needs to be something internal, something that affects the very fiber of who we are. And, when someone who knows our Father sees us they will say, "They are just like their Father"  And if someone doesn't know our Father, whatever else they may say, I pray they would say, "They have been with Jesus"

To God Alone be the Glory