Day 2258 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.
Colossians 2:8 NIV
I had a gentleman send me a message yesterday and it goes pretty well with what we talked about in yesterday’s post. There's a vast difference between truth and deception. But unfortunately, our world has done everything it can to blur that line and make it difficult to know when we've crossed it. Sadly, our world has taken the idea of faith and turned it into something that it was never meant to be. And in doing so, many have been led in the wrong direction thinking they we're doing something right.
That's the danger in religion. It's built to make us think we're doing right. It's designed to make us feel like we're heading in the right direction and making positive changes in our lives. But sadly, the religions that our world has created are based on so many things that it can be nearly impossible to find Christ in any of it. And that's where it's all gone off the rails.
I understand that rules and procedures help keep everything organized. They help set up these buffers in life and in our society that keep us pointed in the right direction. But the problem is that so many rules have been set up that people are expected to follow that the rules themselves have become the savior. The procedures have become the gods that many serve. The expectations of worldly religion have become what matters and that's simply not how this is meant to work.
Faith isn't about what we wear. It's not about how much we donate or offer. It's not about what role we can play in the operation of a church. It's not about making sure we light the right candles in the right order. It's not about saying some secret password or memorizing a handshake. It's not making sure you're praying to the right saint at the right time. All of that stuff and all the other man-made ideas that fall into that category are only religious distractions.
The thing is that Christ paid for freedom from the ways of this world. But rather than freedom, we've chosen to submit ourselves to a yoke of slavery to rules, regulations, expectations, and procedures thinking that following those things will ensure we're doing good enough. We've fallen for this lie that we can secure our salvation by doing checking all the boxes that other humans have decided are important. Sounds an awful lot like trying to earn our salvation.
Friends, it's about Jesus Christ. He is the goal. He is the purpose. He is the reason. He is the only name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. So, if it doesn't point to Him then it's distracting us from Him. If it isn't based on Him, then it's built on something else. If He isn't the goal, the purpose, the reason behind what we do then we do it all in vain.
When all is said and done and our time on this earth is finished, God isn't going to be standing there with a checklist. He isn't going to go over some list of rules and dock us for every one of them that we failed to uphold or get just right. But He's going to interested to see if we knew Christ as our Lord and Savior. Christ Himself will testify to whether or not we had a relationship with Him. That's what we should be chasing after. Not religious ideals. Not man-made ideas. Not worldly rules that we think are enough to get us where we need to be.
Truth be told, the best of us is worthless without Christ. He is our only hope. He is our only chance. And so, if our faith doesn't revolve around a growing relationship with Him, then it's a worthless faith that can do nothing whatsoever to help us now or later. That's the truth of it all. Sadly, so much of what this world teaches is based on traditions or ideas that have been passed down that someone else thought were important. We have to aim higher than that.
If it doesn't lead you closer to Christ, then it will pull you away from Him. And each of us are solely responsible to keep from letting that happen. Might not be an easy thing to do in a world that thinks that religion is enough. But that's our task. So, focus on Christ and please don't get caught up in a bunch of rules that can do nothing at all to save you.
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