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That's why I prefer Christianity. A simplistic statement made to my pagan friends.


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#1 tiffanyhema

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Posted 30 December 2012 - 07:25 PM

“That’s why I prefer Buddhism. You don’t have to get up early on Sundays.”

This is what a friend of mine texted to me this morning after I invited him to church. It got me to thinking because I am not exactly a morning person myself. After pondering the topic for a long while (it always takes me an age to articulate a thought), I realized that the REAL beauty of being a true Christian has absolutely nothing to do with religion and even less to do with making it to church. It has to do with a REAL relationship with God. Period. I don’t need to practice any silly rituals or follow any man-made rules or hold myself to an unattainable standard. All that is really required is very simply explained in the infamous passage of John in the Bible: “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

This passage goes on to say: “This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”

So that’s why I prefer Christianity. It’s free. It’s reckless abandon to a greater being. It doesn’t hold me to any unattainable standard, in fact it gives me the grace to screw up a lot because that’s just the way I am: a bit screwed up. I don’t HAVE to go to church to be in touch with God, but I do because it gives me the opportunity to celebrate my relationship with him and to be with other people who are there for the same reason. I have spent time in the darkness. I prefer to walk in the God-light…not of my own meager power, but by the power of Christ and in a daily, thrilling moment-by-moment relationship with him. To me this blows the roof off of any ritualistic or self-absorbed religion or belief system.
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#2 chipped china

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Posted 31 December 2012 - 12:31 AM

I really needed to hear this tonight. Thank the Lord for you!!!!
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#3 Lori Smith

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Posted 31 December 2012 - 09:34 AM

Tiffanyhema,

Well said! Your words sum up so perfectly what it means to embrace grace. With grace and only with grace we find our Father!

Many blessings!
Lori
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In The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer writes, "Jesus taught that He wrought His works by always keeping His inward eyes upon His Father. His power lay in His continuous look at God (John 5:19-21)."