Religion vs. Relationship

Throughout my life I have encountered many misunderstood notions as to what it means to be a Christian. I think that many people mistake having a religion for having a relationship with God. Throughout my thoughts today I want to shed more light into this subject.
I see that Christianity has become more tradition rather than relationship. There is a big problem in this. I will explain. As a kid, many people are told that they have to go to church on Sunday, but the parents don’t really explain why. That is tradition. When the kid asks the parent “Why do I have to go to church”, then parents say “Because I said so” instead of explaining the bible thoroughly. The child doesn’t understand anything unless you teach them. That is why you see so many people in church on Easter, Christmas, and Mothers Day instead of the rest of the year. Here’s a story for you to contemplate about tradition. A woman cooked a ham in the oven but always cut the butt off of it. So one day her husband asked her “Why do you cut the butt off of it every time you cook it.” She said well my mother always cooked it that way. Still wondering, he said yeah but why? She said I don’t know I’ll ask my mother. So she called her mother and her mother said “Well that’s how my mother always cooked it.” So the mother said I’ll call my mother and ask her since she is still alive. So they called the grandmother and asked her why she cooked it like that, and she said “Well I used to cut the butt off of the ham because the pan was too small”, lol. So that is just a demonstration of why tradition isn’t always the answer.
Some of the breakdown of the relationship starts by the church that you go to. Churches are supposed to be used to grow your relationship with God. You should seek churches wherein you can learn the principles of God, and that live by example. For example, I don’t personally think that a pastor has to hoop and holler to preach. Some people like that, but me personally I don’t. I don’t knock preachers that do that. That’s just my personal preference. My reason being that it’s more of a distraction for me. I zone out and daydream when they do it. I feel that there is a difference in preaching with passion and hollering just to make the congregation say “Preach on Pastor”. To me there is a difference between talking and teaching. The difference between just talking and teaching is that when someone just talks to you, you forget about that in a couple of hours, but when someone teaches you something, it stays with you for a lifetime. That is why I like pastor’s that teach in their sermons.
The bad thing about not having a good relationship with God is that you don’t really know him. A lot of people act like praying to God is magic. They think that all you have to do is pray and BAM, all of your prayers are answered. God requires obedience and discipline, and not just words. For example, A lot of people will do something wrong and know all the while that it is sin and wrong, and then have the audacity to say “Oh Well God Will Forgive Me.” Don’t you know that is pre-meditated sin. God doesn’t reward you for just saying “forgive me” when you know that you are doing wrong. Everything is all in the intent. If you do something without knowing that it is wrong, then it is different than doing something and knowing that it is wrong. That’s why I say it’s all in the intent. Yes, God will forgive you, but that does not negate the consequences of that sin, just know that.
Christianity has become watered down because people have religion rather than a relationship. This is due to one major factor. Hollywood has watered down the Angel and real Christianity for the matter of it. Throughout history an angel is perceived to be a baby with wings and a harp, singing music and going about on clouds. Throughout the bible, Angels never came in the form of a baby. They came in the form of a grown man. The baby is portrayed in art and movies as a baby rather than having any truth to it. The crazy part of it is that in this new age Adultery is not shunned as much as it used to be. Now a woman can mess with a famous man, and get rich and famous off of it. The problem with this newfound disrespect for God’s commandments is that the generation after that thinks that that is the standard. This generation is bold and permits all kinds of disregard for God’s word. Just know that today’s permission becomes tomorrow’s standard. Every time you lower the standard, your kids are going to come along and set it lower. Now that’s scary huh?
Many people think that Christians are wimps, pushovers, or lames. They think that we don’t have fun. That is so far from the truth. In the bible there were many God warriors. For instance, Peter cut off the guard’s ear when they tried to take Jesus away at the garden of Gethsemane, and David beat Goliath with a sling and a rock. There were also many people in the bible like David that danced in praise of the lord, and had fun. I have more fun as a mature Christian now than I used to as a young person because I know how to have fun the right way. I used to have stupid fun instead of logical fun. Also, being a Christian doesn’t mean that I am a pushover or that I won’t speak my mind. It just means that when I do speak to you, that I take more time out to think before I say something bad to you and I won’t put my hands on you if you get out of line with me.
There is a mythical place called Purgatory that needs to be talked about. They say that is a place that you go to while waiting on Jesus to come back. So they are calling it a Waiting Room. That is funny. Why would there be any reason for God to write the 10 commandments, and give us the manual on Earthly life (The Bible), if we were just going to a waiting place? When we die, we are either going to Heaven or Hell. After you die, you get no 2nd chances. There is no in between place. That would defeat the whole purpose of Jesus coming to Earth and dieing on the cross, am I correct?
A lot of people say that they believe in God and are Christian but don’t know anything that is in the bible, nor do you live your life by example. To be a Christian means to be Christ-like, and model yourself in his image. Ask yourself are you living as Christ would, or are you living your life as you would? That is why other religions don’t respect Christians, just to be truthful. A lot of us are living as hypocrites. We can all put Christian quotes and sayings on Facebook and say things to someone’s face that sound good. It is the life that you live in private and everyday that shows your true character. A lot of us think that all we have to do is just believe in Jesus to get to heaven. God calls all Christians to be disciples for him. The word disciple means “Disciplined One.” How can you be disciplined when you don’t even heed to what he has commanded you to do? God dislikes lukewarm Christians. He says be either or, and don’t straddle the fence. A lot of people don’t even know the truth about heaven except what their parents have taught them. My question is if you don’t know any of God’s commands by not reading the bible and heeding to God’s commands then aren’t you going to be a stranger to him? The bible is your manual for living your life the way that God wants it to be lived, don’t you see that? A lot of us constantly ask God to speak to us, but the same ones don’t see that he speaks to us through scripture. When you read the bible and meditate on it, then God shows you all that you need to know. The bible is your guide book to navigate throughout life, and it is your way to communicate with God. Ask yourself do you have religion or do you have a relationship?

~Marks of Wisdom