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Reasons to Believe ... Christianity is not a "religion". The definition of Christian is "Christ follower". The only rules Christians go by are those in God's Word. No worshipping idols , no strict standards, just following God and being a light for Him in return for God watching His only son die the most painful death so that we may live. Christianity is loving everyone and showing everyone what God has done, can do, and will do for them, if they just believe. Its faith. Its being different than the rest. God wants us to stand out in the crowd and be living a happy and loving life where there's no sorrow. Now we all know thats not gonna happen, but its better to live sorrow here than to be burning, literally, in sorrow for all of eternity. Life on earth is so short compared to eternity. It has been said that eternity will last as long as it takes a dove to fly from the earth to the moon and back, each time taking a grain of sand from earth and placing it on the moon until all the sand on earth is gone. And even then, its only begun. Christianity is a way of life, not a religion to be catagorized as anything but God's children living for Him. |
10
Reasons to Believe In Christ
Rather than Religion
1) Christ
is someone to know and trust.
2) Religion is something to believe
and do.
3) Religion
doesn't change hearts.
4) Religion
makes much of little.
5) Religion
offers the approval of men rather than God.
6) Religion
makes hypocrites of us.
7) religion
makes a hard life harder.
8) Religion
makes it easy to deceive ourselves.
9) Religion
hides the key of Knowledge.
10) religion
leads its converts astray.
1)
Christ is someone to know and trust.
Christ is more than a system, tradition, or belief. He is a
Person who knows our needs, feels our pain, and sympathizes with our weakness.
In exchange for our trust, He offers to forgive our sins, to intercede for
us, and to bring us to His Father. He cried for us, died for us, and rise
from the dead to show that He was all He claimed to be. Conquering death,
He showed us that He can save us from our sins, live His life through us on
earth, and then bring us safely to heaven. He offers Himself as a gift to
anyone who will trust Him (John 20:24-31)
2)
Religion is something to believe and do.
Religion is believing in God, attending religious services, taking catechism, being baptised and receiving communion. Religion is tradition, ritual, ceremony and learning the difference between right and wrong. Religion is reading and memorizing scripture, offering prayers, giving to the poor, and celebrating religious holy days. Religion is singing in the choir, helping the poor, and making amends for past wrongs. Religion is something that was practiced by the Pharisees, those scripture-loving, conservative, separastic, spiritual leaders who hated Christ enough to call for His death. They hated Him not only because He broke their traditions in order to help people (Matt 15:1-9) but because He saw through their religion to their hearts.
3) Religion doesn't change hearts.
Jesus likened the religious Pharisees to a group of dishwashers who clean the outside of a cup while leaving the inside dirty. He said, "Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also?" (luke 11:39-40). Jesus knew that a person can change his image without changing his act (Matt 23:1-3). He knew that religious credentials and ceremony cannot change the heart. He told one of the most religious men of HIs day that unless a person is :born again" by the spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). Yet from that day until now, many of the most religious people in the world continue to forget that while religion can give attention to outward appearance, only Christ can change the heart.
4) Religion makes much of little.
Jesus spoke to religionists who had a passion for detail when He said, "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practised the latter without leaving the former undone" (luke 11:42 NIV). Jesus saw our tendency to make rules and to focus on 'morally correct" behaviour instead of keeping our eyes on the bigger issue of why we are trying to be so right. While the Pharisees were big on knowledge carried out to its logical conclusions, they forgot that God doesn't care how much we know until He knows how much we care. It was this greater "why" that the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal... If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor. 13:1,3 NIV)
5) Religion offers the approval of men rather than God.
Jesus reserved His strongest criticism for religious people who used their spiritual reputation to get social attention and honours. To such religionists Jesus said, "Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces" (luke 11:43). Then, speaking to His disciples, He said of the Pharisees, "All their works they do to be seen by men" (Matt 23:5). Jesus saw clearly into the practice of religion, which holds the opinions and attention of man to be more important and desirable than the approval of God.
6) Religion makes hypocrites of us.
Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen and the men who walk over them are not aware of them" (Luke 11:44). What looks better than being dresses right, attending religious services, and doing things that mark us as decent, God-fearing people? Yet how many religious scholars, ministers and faithful followers withhold honour and encouragement from their wives, attention from their children and love from their doctrinal enemies? Jesus knew what we often forget : What looks good may have a heart of evil.
7) religion makes a hard life harder.
Because religion cannot change a heart, it tries to control people with laws and expectations that are not even kept by the religionists who interpret and apply the rules. With this "burden factor" in mind, Jesus said, "Woe to you also, lawyers (experts in religious law)! For you load men with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers" (Luke 11:46). Religion is good at describing high standards of right behaviour and relationships, but poor at giving real and merciful help to those who realize they have not lived up to those expectations.
8) Religion makes it easy to deceive ourselves.
It's been jokingly said, "I love humanity. It's people I can't stand." The Pharisees acted out a similar idea, but it wasn't funny. According to Jesus, the Pharisees prided themselves in honouring and bulding memorials to the prophets. The irony is that when they met a real prophet they wanted to kill Him. Barclay says, "The only prophets they admired were dead prophets; when they met a living one, they tried to Kill Him. They honoured the dead prophets with tombs and memorials, but they dishonoured the living ones with persecution and death." This is the point Jesus made in Luke 11:47-51 and in a parallel passage in Mathiew 23:29-32. The Pharisees had fooled themselves. They didn't think of themselves as prophet-killers. Religionists don't see themselves as the God-rejecting people they are.
9) Religion hides the key of Knowledge.
One of the greatest dangers of religion is that it causes us to be a danger not only to ourselves but also to others. To the very religious biblical experts of His day Jesus said, "Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered" (Luke 11:52). Religionists take away the "key of knowledge" by distracting people from the word of God and from a "right attention of heart" by the unnecessary additions of denominationally correct traditions and expectations. Rather than leading peole to God, religionists shift the focus to themselves and their own rules. Religionists are those who trust the beliefs and and actions of their religion to do what only Christ do.
10) religion leads its converts astray.
In Mathiew 23:15 Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribe and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." Converts of religion are in double jeopardy. They bring a double enthusiasm to their new way of life, and with zeal they blindly defend their blind teachers. They put themselves in the trust of people who have exchanged a system of rules and traditions for the life, forgiveness and relationship of an infinite saviour. Teligion is important in its place (james1:26-27), but only when it points us to the Christ who died for our sins and who now offers to live His life through those who trust Him (Gal 2:20; Titus 3:5)
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