We just finished up a series called “Losing My Religion” and honestly it stepped on my toes a lot. It pretty much stripped me of everything but Jesus. For the longest time i felt that if i didn’t perform well as a Christian (read my bible daily, pray often, didn’t sin, ect…), then God was mad at me and everything in life would slowly fall apart. I felt that my own goodness and purity made me right with God and honestly better than most other people in this world. When the only thing that makes me right with God is Jesus, and His love for me never changes no matter what i do. And that is so stinkin hard for me to understand, how God can love me in spite of me. I’m sure that Jesus knew when He was being beaten and tortured and crucified for my sins that I would continue to sin even after hearing of this selfless act that was done just for me, to save me from the punishment of sin, death and eternal separation from God, and to make a way for me to experience victory over sin and eternity in the presence of God. I don’t know about you, but if i was Jesus i would have been like, “God, they all don’t deserve to talk to you or to go to heaven one day, they deserve hell for the way they live and treat one another and Me, You’re only Son,” But thank God Jesus didn’t think like that at all. There is no greater love that can be displayed than the love Jesus displayed on the cross. It is through accepting Him and the gift of life that He gave by dying on the cross that makes us right with God. It is never by my own righteousness that I am made right with God. I know this is something that a lot of people know, but it is easy to get caught up in religion and the formulas that we try to live by to get closer to God. I honestly think that God hates religion and formulas, and God simply loves us. I believe that God simply wants us to be real in the way we talk to Him and real in the way we live for Him. He wants us to be motivated by His love to do what is right and flee from sin, not because it is going to make us better than anyone else or make us right with God again. God loves all of us the same, so why do we think we are better than anyone simply because of our own righteousness. It says in the bible that our righteousness is but filthy rags to God. There is only one that is good and His name is Jesus. I believe that religion encourages people to be fake and tries to deceive others and make everyone think that these religious people are perfect, and if you will only accept Jesus then you can be perfect too. I am feed up with religion. All I want and need is JESUS! and i want so desperately for everyone to know Him too.

This is merely scratching the surface of all that was covered in this series, but it was an amazing series that really opened my eyes. Check out the podcasts here. And if you live near east orlando come check C3 out, we meet in Regal Cinemas in Waterford Lakes town center @ 9 and 10:30 am every sunday.

Remember: CHURCH ISN’T SOMETHING YOU DO, IT’S SOMETHING YOU ARE!