Religion vs Faith

Maybe I should call this post "Religion vs Relationship with God".

So many people are disillusioned with the so-called Christian religion. I guess I'm one of those people and I ask myself why.

The answer I get is: people are not perfect. People just don't live up to our idea of what a Christian should be. And, maybe we're just not supposed to.

What a Christian is supposed to be is a person like Jesus Christ. He was the original "prototype". And, honestly, how can anyone possibly live up to that?

Jesus is humble, patient, loving, sympathetic, perfect...

So, we try to put God in a box with nice neat labels on it. We try to schedule, organise, methodise, legalise, structure, and hinder God's spirit so that we can "cope" with it and thereby suck the juice right out of it.

Isn't that what the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus's day did?

They focused on the sins and failures of the common people and on setting the example of perfection that was demanded of those sinning failures. In order to compensate for their sins, the common people were required to make sacrifices. And, in order to obtain the correct sacrifice, they had to buy it from the temple.

It got to the point where the priests and Pharisees were becoming merchants, more intent on the tithes and payments than on worshipping God. Which is why Jesus made a hand-made whip to beat them and wake them up. He overthrew the money-changers' tables and tossed them out of the temple.

In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus is quoted as saying, "...woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in... Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves... Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel... even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity... Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"

Does Jesus sound very religious to you? I get the picture of a radical revolutionary who is stirring up the pot! I get the picture of someone who is completely and utterly fed up with the church system! --Or, in those days, the temple system.

We're playing by different rules now. These are no longer Old Testament days. These are New Testament days, brethren. We have been set free from the law. There is something greater than the law now:

Love.

Love is the fulfilling of the law.

We're not supposed to go to church to judge one another and compare ourselves with others. We're not supposed to play the "I'm holier than thou" game. Going to church should be a celebration of thankfulness of God's great mercy and love! It should be a joyful experience, not a drudgery or a duty.

So, if the church you're attending is a bummer, find another one or make your own. Wherever two or more are gathered together in the name of Jesus, He is in the midst. There's your church. The church is people. It's not a building. It's not a system. It's not rules and regulations. In fact, it's not even about attendance and being faithful to one church and one church only. God's church is spread out all over the earth! Whoever prays in the name of Jesus is praying to the right God.

Saying that you are a Christian does not make you a Christian. I personally do not believe the statistics on the number of Christians around the globe. I believe there are few true believers among us. To be a true believer in Christ, you must be born again. (I'm not talking about water baptism because that's a separate issue and one does NOT need to be baptized with water to be saved! Being baptized is a way of testifying of your belief. But, what about those whose lives are in danger by becoming Christians? It takes wisdom to know when baptism is called for and in some cases, it can endanger entire communities to hold public baptisms. It's what's in the heart that counts.)

A truly born-again Christian is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as his/her personal Saviour and who understands why Christ died on the cross. They have to know that they need to be saved from their sins and that they are sinners.  

Jesus said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Matthew 9:13)

If you think about it, that's very deep. He's not saying here that those who think they are righteous are truly righteous in God's eyes, is He? That's not the way I see it. He's more-or-less inferring that they are so full of their own self-righteousness that He's not even going to bother calling them to repentance. Phew! And we know that without repentance, there is no remission of sins.

Thank God that you're a sinner! And all the sinners said, "AMEN!"

What makes a true Christian? Here's my idea:

1. Know you are a sinner and always will be until the day you die.
2. Accept salvation through Christ and only Christ. (Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us from all sin.)
3. Love. Love God. Love your fellow man. Love your enemies. (And, true Christians will have lots of enemies. That's just another mark of a true Christian.)

In order to make sure you have done #2, here's an example prayer you can pray:

"Dear Jesus, I believe You died for my sins. Please forgive me for all my mistakes and sins and come into my heart and my life. Give me Your Holy Spirit so that I can share Your love and mercy with others. Amen."

This is a good prayer that you can also share with family members and friends who do not yet know Jesus on a personal level.

Once you have received Jesus into your life, get to know Him by reading His Words. The Words of Christ are found in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.