Religion vs. Relationships
From my mother - written by Dick Innes. Reminds me of a conversation in the previous post's comments. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do."He [Jesus] appointed twelve . that they might be with
him" (Mark 3:14, NIV).
It may surprise some to realize that God isn't into religion.
He's into relationships. He's not into morality either.
He's into reality. And his goal isn't to make us good for
goodness sake. God's goal is to make us whole--for
only to the degree that we are made whole will our
lifestyle, our actions, our behavior, and our relationships
be wholesome.
Becoming whole begins with wholesome relationships
both with God through Jesus Christ and with other loving
Christians. As someone has said, "To be is to be in
relationships." We don't grow in isolation. This is one
reason we need to belong to a loving, accepting, non-
judgmental, and non-legalistic church and within a smaller
group in relationship with likeminded Christians. We only
grow and become the person God wants us to be as we
are in such relationships. We're not talking about "head to
head" but rather "heart to heart" relationships that are open,
authentic and real.
Selwyn Hughes pointed out that "the Christian movement
began in relationships." As today's Scripture stated, "He
[Jesus] appointed twelve.that they might be with him."
If Jesus needed to be in relationship with others, how
much more do we?
God's goal for the Christian is not for him/her to do good
or even to be good. It is to be in relationship with Christ
and become whole. It is out of being with him and being
made whole that our desire to be good and to do good
will come. This will be a natural expression of who we
have become. As Hughes put it, "Trying to be good
without that relationship [with Christ] is like trying to get
a stream without a spring, or sunlight without the sun."
posted by Devo @ 3:06 AM
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