Religion & Relationship

Being a legitimate follower of Christ can be an extremely hard thing to do when you've convinced yourself that knowing things about God is the same thing as actually knowing God.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing to know things about God. It's a really good thing actually. But if we are "trying" to purify our souls only by growing in our understanding "about" God, then something must change.

Trying implies the action of earning on our part, and we must learn the truth that salvation is by faith alone and that all the trying in the world could never purify our souls. Recognizing Jesus Christ as the only One who takes away the sins of the world and embracing Him as our Savior and Lord is how our souls are purified. Letting Him be what we can't be and do what we were never meant to do, and accepting His free gift of salvation that covers us and cleanses us making us white as snow is how we are made holy. If we want to really know God instead of just knowing about God, we must have a relationship with Him.

My belief is that Christianity is never meant to be lived as a Christian religion but as a Christian relationship. The difference being, that Christian religion is often non-personal and all about everything you have to do. And the latter, which is rooted in intamacy and is all about what He did for you.

What He did for us was completely selfless.

That's true relationship...putting others above yourself.

"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." - Romans 12:10

So to have a relationship with Him we must hang out on a regular basis. We must converse with Him often. How can you get to know someone if you never talk to them?

You could know every detail about who I am- my name, my favorite music style, my family members, my favorite food, where I like to hang out, my age, what makes me happy, and on and on. You could know every detail about me, but you still don't actually know me.

The more we study the Scriptures the more we see that it's full of stories about a God who desires to be close with us. We see that we were created for the purpose of being in relationship with the Creator and joining Him in His plan of love.

Before it was called Christianity, Christ followers were part of "the Way". It's because it was something they gave their lives in their entirety over to. It became a new way to live. Like the band Switchfoot sings "There's a new way to be human". Christian religion is something we do when it works best for us. Real Christianity is a life style, nothing less.

He gives us the choice to let Him completely immerse every aspect of our daily lives.

Will you let Him?

May we seek to grow deeper and deeper in relationship with our heavenly Father as we also grow in the understanding of who He is and what He's done for us.