Devotion
July 2003
I hate religion!!
Does that surprise you, coming from someone like me? Let me explain. I just got back from a trip to Linden, NJ and I was reminded of another time I said the same thing. I love the South and I can identify with the bumper sticker that says ‘I wasn’t born in the south but I got here just as quick as I could’. When I have to travel up north I get down and really can get depressed if I have to go someplace like Linden but this story is not about me. I had to go to Linden.
My flight was early in the morning and I had to get the job site for a meeting so I was at the airport early. In spite of my best efforts though, my flight was cancelled. I was placed on another flight, on another airline and it was only going to be 15 minutes later than my scheduled flight. I was certain however that I had gotten the last seat on the flight so I expected a center seat. It was not to be however. I had an aisle seat and after I got buckled in I began to relax and look around. That is when I saw Jim. He is a big guy in the center seat beside me. He seems friendly enough and we begin to talk. I tell him how I got on this flight and we made the normal chit-chat about the weather, etc. Then he asked me a question. “What would you do if you didn’t have to worry about money? You know, what do you really want to do?’. I thought for a minute and I said that I would like to ‘do whatever God told me to do, where ever he told me to do it.’ Jim looked at me and said, ‘you must be really religious’. My response was ‘I hate religion. In fact, Jesus hated religion too.’
Christ encountered a secularized form of Judaism during His earthly ministry which was bound to its traditions instead of to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The religious leaders of the day didn’t recognize the Messiah as their spiritual deliverer. They perceived the oppressor to be Rome, not Satan, the god of this world. But Jesus came to undo the works of Satan (1 John 3:8), not Caesar.
Satan’s ultimate lie is that you are capable of being the god of your own life, and his ultimate bondage is getting you to live as though his lie is true. Satan is out to usurp God’s place in your life. And whenever you live independently of God, focusing on yourself instead of the cross, preferring material and temporal values to spiritual and eternal values, he has succeeded. The world’s solution to this conflict of identity is to inflate the ego while denying God the opportunity to take His rightful place as Lord. Satan couldn’t be more pleased–that was his plan from the beginning.
Let define religion so we are all talking about the same thing.
Religion: personal belief or values, obsession, monk’s or nun’s life.’ Does that sound like fun to you. And what about God? This talked about ‘personal belief’, not God. I prefer the idea of Christianity. I am a Christian. Now you may ask me what is the difference and if I had to sum it up in a few words, I would say it is the difference between ‘do’ and ‘done’.
Religion is something you do. Another way to say that is ‘Religion is man’s work reaching to God’. It usually looks like a bunch of rules. Go to church, don’t drink, pray everyday, don’t each chocolate, don’t go to movies, don’t smoke, etc. It is a bunch of things we have to do in a effort to be acceptable to God and we never know how much to do or if we have done enough to be acceptable.
Christianity is about what Christ has done. It is about God reaching down to man to make him acceptable because we can’t do enough to be acceptable to God. The bible says that Christ came into this world born of a virgin, he lived a sinless, perfect life, taught about the kingdom during his ministry years, was crucified on a cross, died and rose to life again after 3 days in the grave. He paid the price for our sins and made us acceptable to God if we will only accept what He did for us and put our trust in Him alone for our salvation. That is the Christian message. Nothing more, nothing less. It is all about what He did. We cannot add to it or take away from it. Ephesians 2:8 and 9 says that ‘we are saved by grace through faith, not by works so that no one can boast. It is a gift from God.’ Since God knows we cannot do enough to be acceptable He did it for us. But we have to believe.
If we believe that with all our hearts and accept that then we are saved. Now, what does it mean to believe with all your heart?
Look at that chair. Do you believe that it will hold me up? I can say I believe it too but until I sit in it I have not put my faith in it. It is not enough to believe that Christ exists. The devil believes that Christ exists but he is not saved so it is more than head knowledge.
It is simple to tell God that we believe. We only have to pray and tell him that we are sorry for our sins, that we accept the gift He gave and that we want accept what Jesus has done as full payment.
Now, back to the flight with Jim to Linden. Jim and I talked about this for the two hours we were together and it was apparent to both of us that God had arranged this meeting between the two of us. There were just too many things that we were amazed at and at the end of the trip I asked Jim a question. The same question I am going to ask you. Is there anything that prevents you from accepting the work of Christ so that you can become one of the children of God right now? Jim responded right then and there on the airplane as we were on final approach. Even if that plane had not made the landing Jim and I would have had all of eternity to rejoice in his decision to accept Christ and his gift. We are rejoicing and I can tell you that you and I could be rejoicing in a few minutes also.
I am going to pray and if you want to pray with me you can have that gift also.
Father, I am sorry for all the things that I have done that have separated us. I want to accept the work of Jesus Christ as payment for my sins and from now on want to live for you. Thank you for your forgiveness and for accepting me as one of your children. I love you, Father.
Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, you are saved right now and we have all of eternity to rejoice. I want to know if any of you prayed that prayer and we will help you figure out what comes next.