Relationship, Religion or Both?
A few months ago I preached a series of sermons on spiritual urban legends. Some of these are sayings that are assumed to be from the Bible, but really aren't, such as "God helps those who help themselves." Others, like "God needed another angel," "Heaven gained another angel" are simply spiritual sounding cliches that at best are untrue and at worst are devastating. If I preach another series of sermons on this topic, certainly another spiritual urban legend to take to the woodshed would be the well-worn and over-done cliche, "Christianity is relationship not religion." Bloggers, preachers, and writers frequently say that Christianity is not a religion, but is a relationship. One blogger wrote this: " Religions are man made, and are based on trying to get to God through rules and regulations and works." Compared to this definition of religion our faith is a genuine relationship with the person Jesus Christ. Our faith is i