But... Is It Working?

I really enjoy things that work; on the other hand I despise things that don’t. 

Take for example a low fat diet that comes with all the low fat labeling. People assumed that if you got fat, that means you need to eat less fat. Direct correlation right? Wrong. Most low fat foods that are marketed to us are extremely high in sugar/carbohydrate, which our body stores as fat…..but enough science. 

In this blog I want to ask a more important question that has to do with something even more important than your physical health. 

Is the version of religion/Christianity that you have chosen to pursue…working? Or any lifestyle for that matter that has become a religion to you. Better known as: a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.

Your religion is whatever is most important to you.

So, is that way of life that you are pursuing making you a better human being? A more loving human being? 

I remember when I came face to face with the fact that I was not indeed following Jesus; but what I WAS following was a self-prescribed religion taken from particular texts that I enjoy, and removing the text I did not. 

I knew this, because I literally kicked through a cupboard door when I had an argument with my wife. The argument was surrounding a birthday experience that she planned for me. Not a shining moment, but one I needed none the less. 

What was needed, was the real Jesus. Not “something”, but someone. 

You see the real difference between any model of religion in the world, whether it is consumerism or Christianity, is that it is something. It is dead and lifeless and produces that result. People become shells of humans and hypocrites. I mean, you can’t help it, because nobody actually keeps their own rules; even the really great self prescribed rules. 

But what if I told you there was an actual living person that you could follow? What if I told you he has a real personality and real power to transform your life? What if I told you that you don’t need a spiritual leader or “holy man” of any kind to find him? What if he tore down the old temple model of religion (Temple model = holy place, holy book, holy men…and only men). He not only tore it down, but made it obsolete with his sacrifice and resurrection. 

But isn’t it funny. We would continue to do something over and over and over again even if it never changes the content of our character simply because it’s the ‘right thing to do’. 

I want to encourage you today to examine your faith, to see that you are in it. Because the new testament I read is full of people transformed by Christ. If that is not the life you are living, look again at what you are doing, and who is in you. 

I say all of this because an imaginary Jesus can not save you. What I mean by this, is that a Jesus that you have made up in your head can not bring you life of any kind. The Jesus revealed in scripture is far more helpful to a transformed life. As all living people are far better at relationships than imaginary people.

Don’t be like the silly Galatians. Or as Paul Apostle would say, don’t be a fool.

If it’s not working it’s not real. 

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh? Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing? Does God lavish His Spirit on you and work miracles among you because you practice the Law, or because you hear and believe?”