Religion vs Relationship

A friend of mine recently emailed and we were talking about how it is coming up on 10 years that we've known each other.  He commented that 10 years later and now I'm the religious/righteous one.  The words religion/religious have come up a lot lately in my life.

My response to him was:

Funny how our religious (though I despise that word) views have changed. Hadn't really thought much about that. I was pretty lost 10 years ago and felt like God couldn't exist and if He did He obviously forgot about me a long time ago. You were debating on whether you should go on a mission. Crazy. 

Yeah in the last 10 years I have grown so much in my relationship with my Creator. I guess the term religion seems so cold, man made and so far from who I believe "He" (although I don't believe gender applies to "Him" it is easier for me to just use the male pronoun) is, relationship feels like a much better term to describe what I believe we are meant to experience. 

It's not enough to say you believe in God, or that you are a Christian.  If you are Catholic you follow this set of "rules" and if you are Methodist you have a different set and Baptist, and Mormon and on and on....

I guess I'm just not convinced that this was God's plan in sending Jesus.  I don't think He ever intended for us to view Him as a bunch of does and don'ts. I think more than anything He simply wants a relationship with us. I don't think that God is going to be angry with me because I chose to use birth control, only confessed my sins to Him and not a Priest, ate pork....  The list of rules could on forever.

I do however think that He is angry with me when I choose all these rules over relationships.  When rules are used to decide who is worthy and who isn't.  It is not my place or yours to decide who gets to come to the Father.  That is one of the greatest things about the cross, ALL can come.  Not just those the religious felt were worthy.  In fact go back to the Gospels, it was the people who the religious leaders of the day said were unclean and unworthy that Jesus was hanging out with.  He was hanging out with the prostitute, the tax collector, the Gentiles, those on the fringe.  The lost and the lonely, those that had given up on themselves and society had long forgot.

And what did He tell them?  That God loved them, that they were important in the Kingdom.  He welcomed them, He found out their needs and met them, where they were.  He didn't say, "I'll tell you what, you get your life together, follow all these rules and then and only then will I accept you", or "Sorry you joined the wrong church, we aren't taking Methodist members".  No, He not only accepted them, He met them.  He didn't sit in the synagogue waiting for people to realize they needed Him.  He went out and found them and loved them and shared His message, He brought God to them.

The whole time He was in ministry, He was in relationship.  Relationship with His Father, Relationship with the Disciples, Relationship with the lost. He wasn't some cold and distant King that sat on His throne where the people couldn't reach Him, He was out amongst them.  So if our King was out amongst the lost, where are we?

And speaking of Jesus, I think it must really anger God when we use rules instead of His Son to determine our worthiness.  People there is nothing you can do or not do to earn your salvation.  Christ did it, He covered it all on the cross.  You could live what you consider to be the most holy and pure life, and it still wouldn't be good enough without Jesus.  We are sinful by nature, we have messed up from the Garden of Eden, we will never get it right on our own, ever.

The self proclaimed righteous are no different from the murderer, the prostitute, the thief, the homosexual, all those that we as a society have deemed unworthy, all are God's children and all can come to the Father through Jesus Christ.

So I guess it doesn't matter how many good deeds you do, or how badly you've messed up, through Jesus we can all have a clean slate.  And through Jesus doesn't necessarily mean that you must do A then B and the finally C.  It simply means to have a relationship with Him.  Think about what a relationship is.  You know the other person, you think about them, you consult with them, you listen to them, you value the them, you LOVE them.

To me a relationship with God means that I want to know Him, and I want to be what He created me to be.  I can achieve this through His Word, through other believers, through all His creation.  Yeah, relationships are messy and relationships are hard, but without them it would be an awful lonely world.

So I challenge you to not only step out and build relationships with people, but more importantly build a relationship with God our Father.  Put down the rules and pull out your Bible.  Once you build a true relationship you won't need the rules, they will be in your heart.