Tag Archives: Judgment Day

Religion or Relationship?

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It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here!! Day 31 of the #31day blogging challenge!! Some of you are sighing with relief! And yes, I am taking tomorrow off! Go find your own devotion, ha! Seriously, this has been a blessing to me and I hope it has to all of you who have either followed from the beginning, or jumped in from time to time, thank you all. It has been challenging, encouraging and when it rolls around next year…hmm…we shall wait and see!

A 19th century Danish theologian acknowledged that there were two different kinds of religions. The first one was Faith in the name of religion only, as in the scripture in 2 Timothy 3:5, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”   We all know people such as that who go to church because that’s what their parents did, and their parents before them, and so on. It’s just what they have always done. But it doesn’t change them, and it doesn’t make a difference in their lives.

The second religion he says is “…a life-transforming, destiny-changing experience. It is a definite commitment to the crucified and risen Savior, which establishes an ongoing personal relationship between a forgiven sinner and a gracious God.”

Religion or relationship?

The Bible shows us the difference so clearly. The Pharisees were stuck on their “religion”. They were proud of it! They loved all of the rules and regulations. The dotting of the “i” and crossing of the “t”. That was what became important to them.

The Law.

There were so many rules that no one could keep them! Not even the Pharisees themselves!

But Jesus was all about LIFE.

“I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10.

When He came into the picture, He went to where the people LIVED. He got down on their level. He listened to them, heard their stories, talked to them and helped them.

“God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:27-28 ESV.

God doesn’t want a Religious Experience for me, He wants a personal relationship with me!

Personal Relationship hopeinthehealing

He wanted relationship with US. He came, He loved, He died to repair that broken relationship with mankind.

It is available to each and every one who reaches out and grabs hold of it! Once we do that, once we accept that wonderful gift of relationship with Almighty God, we then will WANT to serve, love, give and be a part of the Body of Christ!

We are now called Christians, or “little Christ”. We emulate HIM. We will want to be MORE like Him by studying about Him in the Word of God which He left for us. Through prayer, the ultimate conversation with God, we can talk to Him, every day! Anytime we want to! How cool is that?! That is how we will keep our relationship growing and alive…communication.

These past 31 days of hope and healing have really been about relationship. We have learned that God is a God of deliverance, beginning with the story of Egija’s miracle. We talked about our insecurities, being a voice and not an echo. We did a two day series on fasting, and we may expound more on that at the beginning of the year! We talked about the beautiful promises of God, how we were made for another world, crazy coincidences or divine appointments and to expect great things! There were so many great topics including the guest post by my SIL, Sue on trust and the one by my son, Kristopher this week on Wisdom. You can see all 31 posts here!

What a blessing to KNOW the God of the universe…that is what it will take on Judgment Day. Our name must be written in the Book of Life. We cannot just say we went to church on Sunday. We must KNOW HIM! It is all about relationship!

Do you know Him today?

“For by grace are you saved, through faith; and this not of your own, it is the gift of God.  Not of works, lest any man should boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9.

Sharing with Homemaking Party, Hearts for Home, Time Travel Thursday, Thriving Thursday, Proverbs 31 Thursday, Still Saturday

We Don’t Do The Church Thing…

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We don’t do the Church Thing…This little post of less than 1,000 words, hit home with so many people. It was the closest to “viral” we will probably get! (smile) And most importantly, a few lives were changed. Some went back to church, some renewed their relationship with Almighty God. I pray you will be blessed and feel free to share. You never know what it might do!

It was one of those conversations that you could have any day of the week.

You could be in the grocery store, doctor’s office, on the playground, it doesn’t really matter. You’ve just met a stranger, easy to talk to, you start with small talk about your families.

I had one of those. It was life-changing.

She was a sweetheart. A mother of two, she worked five days a week, came home, cooked dinner and helped with homework. Then spent the rest of the evening doing the usual chores; baths, packing lunches, laundry, normal things we all do, day in, day out.

She talked about how blessed her children were to have such a wonderful school to attend. They still said the Pledge of Allegiance…she stressed the real Pledge of Allegiance with “under God”. They were even still allowed to attend a weekly, church-sanctioned, afternoon Bible class. Yes, this is a public school. She went on and on about how safe they felt there, how her parents lived just up the road; life just couldn’t be much better.

Then, I guess I unintentionally backed her in a corner when I said something about church. With everything she had just described about her life I just assumed she attended.

She said, “Oh, we have Bibles in our house, but we don’t do the church thing.”

And before I had a chance to say anything, she stumbled, mumbled, and said, “Well, we are just busy on the weekends and all…” and with that she found an excuse to make a quick exit.

Now, before you fill my comment box up with “We don’t have to go to church to feel God…”, you are correct, we sure don’t. I will get to that in a moment. Bear with me here, I was actually more saddened by the “We have Bibles IN our house….” because I could tell by the way she said it that those Bibles probably didn’t get read any more than the children were getting taken to Sunday School.

It was wonderful that she was so happy that her children were in a good school that paid honor to God, and in a good community that still allowed God in the schools, a rarity in our country. But for all of her commendations to her school and her community, she had left the King of Kings out of her home. The Bibles were there but they weren’t being used.

That may be true of many church-going Christians and that is a dangerous place to be. The Word truly is a “lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.” Without it, we stumble and fall and blindly lose our way.

I may be taking a few liberties here since I do not personally know this stranger but “We don’t do the church thing” is speaking a mouthful to me.

  • Has she been hurt somewhere before?
  • Disillusioned?
  • Lost her faith along the way?
  • Can’t bring herself to trust in leadership?
  • Or is it laziness?
  • The American “sleep-in-on-Sunday” culture, or the attitude that says, “I’ll do it my way, I don’t need the church.”

Because, my friend, we DO need the Body of Christ, we need the community and the unity that comes from the assembling of ourselves together. (Hebrews 10:25)

We must hear the preaching of the Word of God! “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

And in answer to those that have been hurt, abused, lied to, and misled in a church house somewhere on this planet, as a former pastor’s wife, my sincerest apologies. That should never be in the House of God.

But Jesus did not do it, people did.

People are just people and unfortunately they are still people in the church too. You will find the complainers, the naysayers, the gossipers, backbiters, liars, chew-you-up-and-spit-you-out-haters. I’ve seen them all and still had to hug their neck the next Sunday! And let us not forget the good ole hypocrites. Yes, they are there too. Where else would they be but in church?!

It would be a terrible shame to let people keep you from coming  face to face with Jesus of Nazareth.

Don’t let a few busybodies keep you from your worship of the King.

(If you are one that has offended people, hurt them, caused them to leave the church, there is no excuse for this type of behavior in the church. God is not pleased. But He does forgive! Seek that forgiveness with sincere repentance today.)

There are plenty of great churches that preach Truth. Go find one!

It’s worth it to be able to stand up in service with tears streaming down your face, hands raised in worship and actually feel the presence of Almighty God as you offer Him praise, just because He is worthy.

My friend, one day we will all stand before Him. It does not matter who you are, or your social status.

You will be there.

You won’t be late. We will all be there.

We will call Him Lord then, we will all call Him by Name.

For some, He will return the favor.

Others He will say, “Depart from me, I never knew you…”

I wonder if some will be the ones that had Bibles in their homes but didn’t DO the CHURCH THING?

For the Kingdom