not religious...why not?

We’ve all been in this situation…

“hi… my name is ___ I’m a Christian”

“so you’re religious, then?”

“It’s not religion… it’s a relationship”

What does that really mean? Religion as defined by Webster’s dictionary as the service and worship of God or the supernatural: commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance. Is that not what Christianity is? We build our lives around the belief that we are created by,  and therefore held accountable to, a supreme, supernatural and omniscient being to whom we refer to as God. There’s a word that we’ve decided to use to specifically describe our relationship with God. That word is religion. Other belief systems have adopted our term because they wanted to be accountable to a less powerful being based on human traits. However, since our God is eternal, they were forced to pattern their belief system after the one true religion. Does this mean that it is in our best interest to throw the term away entirely? I think not.

                The bible uses several comparisons to help us to understand the nature of our relationship with God. The reason for this is simple. It is impossible for finite beings to fully understand an infinite God. These comparisons are very helpful. However, in our humanity we make applications where applications shouldn’t be made. For instance, if you tell someone that God is your heavenly father, they might assume he’s absent from your life or that he’s abusive. If you claim Him as the eternal judge, they may picture him as one to be paid off for personal gain. If He’s your great physician, he’s an egotistical narcissist who holds control over your well-being. I could go on, but I digress.

                My point is, because of our humanity, our relationship with our savior is extremely hard to describe. He is a being that is full of paradoxes. He’s the Lion of the tribe of Judah and he’s the sacrificial Lamb. He lived a life of a servant so that He could be our sacrifice. He allowed himself to be beaten and perceived as weak, so that we could witness His power for eternity. He cannot abide sin; however He desires a relationship with the sinner. So yes, it is a relationship. However, it is also a religion. What other term can one use to describe an eternal relationship between mere humans and an infinite God who deserves our worship?

                But it’s such an antiquated term, you say. Do you know what else is antiquated? God’s love. God has been the same for an eternity past and will be the same forever. His love existed before time itself. Before he created time for us, He loved us with a love beyond our comprehension. Our lives as Christians are to be lived with Christ as our center. Every decision we make should be made in the context of eternity. We are servants of the most high God. It’s time we accepted the social stigma of being religious.  After all, in the context of eternity…this life is but a vapor.

Salvation Upgrade

A man died and went to heaven. He was greeted at the pearly gates by Saint Peter who was wearing a long sleeved dress shirt, tie and khakis.

“Where’s your robe” he asked jokingly.

Saint Peter chuckled and replied, “It’s casual Friday. Come on into my office while I pull up your account, John.” He continued.

He sat down at a desk and began typing on his celestial computer…

“Hmm, I see you received Jesus as your personal savior when you were twelve years old at summer camp… good… graduated high school… went to college…” there was a long pause.

Peter looked up from the computer with a disappointed look on his face.

“What’s the matter?” John inquired, “Is there something wrong?”

“Well,” Peter explained. “Our records indicate that you did receive Christ as your savior. That’s good. However, as we look into your account further we find that you never upgraded your salvation from the ‘1985 free edition’ to the ‘new millennium full edition’.”

“What does that mean?” John asked in a confused tone.

“Well, since you accepted the free edition and never upgraded, you’re only mostly saved.” Peter explained

“I didn’t realize that I could be mostly saved. I thought it was a free gift that covered all my sins!” John exclaimed.

Peter sighed as he explained “It is a free gift. There are just a few minor requirements as laid out in the fourth book of Maccabees. In order to upgrade to the ‘new millennium full version’ of salvation you would have had to either dedicate your life to the clergy, or die a martyr’s death. And before you ask,” peter added, interrupting Johns next question before he could ask, “the book of Maccabees is in the apocryphal books which the early church decided didn’t make the cut for the Gutenberg Bible. They were right on most of them, but I’m afraid they got one wrong.”

“Well, what does that mean for me now?” John asked dumbfounded.

“It means that you’re saved, but Lucifer still has partial custody.” Peter paused and then continued realizing that John didn’t understand what he was trying to say. “It means that you still go to heaven, but you have to visit hell every second and fourth weekend. By the way… this is the second Friday of the month so… see you Monday.”

Note from the author: it is important for the reader to understand that this short story does not reflect my personal beliefs. It is simply a humorous story intended to get the reader thinking about this… God does not limit his free gift of salvation. Why should we limit our ‘free’ service to Him?

-Scott Henning

Deists?

Deists believe in God but they don't believe he does anything. they believe He created the universe but they don't believe He affects His creation. This allows them to believe in a creator without  believing in accountability.

When it comes to the question of the origins, no one can come up with a good answer on their own. evolution was the only non-inteligent design theory for a long time. It just didn't pan out for a lot of people. Entropy, the science backed belief that nothing ever actually improves, kind of puts a damper on the idea that we evolved from a single celled organism. So, man came up with a way to answer the question of the origins without having to answer to the creator.

Sometimes people take long walks in the woods or through some meadow to commune with nature and find their inner peace. They sit down and let the breeze gently caress their faces. They let go of their problems and their insecurities. They slow down long enough to forget that life isn't going the way they wanted. They leave refreshed and sixty seconds after they re-enter reality, the inner turmoil comes rushing back. They can't figure out why...

You can commune with nature all you want, but if you're not communing with God, you're just laying in the grass.

People go to art galleries and look at the paintings. Each painting has a little card underneath. This card has the title of the painting, the name of the artist and a little snippit about what the artist was feeling at the time. The work of art, beautiful or not, has only a limited amount of emotional value to the patron without a certain amount of context to bring it in to perspective.

Gods creation only means so much without a relationship with Him. If little miss commune with nature had a relationship with her creator, that inner peace would have lasted a little longer.

As christians, our relationship with God allows us to appreciate the creation as a reminder of our creator. God made this world as beautiful as it is to remind us that only He is capable of such creation. Only He is worthy of holding us accountable.