Chaplain’s Corner –
October 18, 2007
Rev.
Rich Hines
The Difference Between Religion and A
Relationship With God
This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ
as their own Lord and Savior from sin, and serve as a Chaplain or a gospel
minister in a jail, prison or a follow-up ministry such as a rescue mission –
in the
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Dear
Christian ministers to inmates and rescue mission residents, this month I want
to address the difference between religion and a true relationship with
God. Said another way, I want to talk
about the difference between just a God conscious part of someone's life, and
the whole life of a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many,
many people, including inmates and correctional staff are confused about
this. I've heard correctional staff say
things like: "That new Chaplain, he's so
religious!" and "Religion is all-right, just don't let it take over your life." Their use of the word “religion” was, on
those occasions, a description of what they imagined went on in a church
service. They were saying that’s where
you think about God and pray and maybe hear from the Bible, but it ought to be left there.
Part
of the problem is the un-regenerate mind.
It thinks of life as categorized areas.
Their thinking tends to go something like this, "There's the work
side of life, the family side, the fun or hobby side of life, and for some a
religious side." They see human
life as compartmentalized, like different colors on a pie chart.
Man-made
religion actually has contributed to this kind of thinking. In most religions you go to a time and place
of worship, do the prescribed thing and then it’s all over until the next time
you come back. The thinking that ensues
is “I gave God His time, and now it’s my time.”
Man-made
religion is mostly works oriented.
Particularly in sacramental man-made religion, as long as you did the
proper ceremony or sacrifice at the proper time you kept your record with God
clean and you’re OK. The whole system of
these religions was man-made. That means
among other things, that the inventors themselves had to make room for self to
still have its own way, at least some of the time.
Add
to these two factors (the way un-regenerate natural man thinks, and the way
most religion accommodates that thinking) a third influence: the way life is
lived when incarcerated. When you’re
incarcerated everything is programmed for you.
The
inmate is told when he or she is to get up, eat, do this or that, and
sleep. In time the individual
incarcerated person may think “this is my time to do this – fill in the blank,
get stores, get medications, go to the library and study, get amusement” and so
on. Then, there’s Chapel time, or a
section of time announced over the P.A. for “religious services.”
These
things being so, as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you want to make
sure you address this reality and call your hearers to turn from it.
God
wants all of us, all the time. That’s
why He created us. He made everything
else for mankind, but He made humans for Himself! Inmates desperately NEED TO
KNOW THAT FACT. They need to know
THEY WERE MADE FOR AN ONGOING RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
A
good place to start would be Genesis 1:26 where it says:
“THEN
(in context, after God created everything else) God said, ’Let Us (alluding to the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the
cattle (here the Hebrew word refers to any large quadruped), over all the earth
and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ ”
As
the Genesis record moves along chronologically, we learn more of what it means
that God made man in His “image.” It was
so that they could have a relationship with Him. God regularly spoke with the first humans.
This is all recorded in Genesis 1:28-30, 2:16-17, and in chapter 3:8 we read:
8
And they (Adam and Eve) heard the sound (or the
voice, from the root word, "call") of the LORD God walking in
the garden in the cool of the day,…”
That
statement strongly implies a regular repeated fellowship with God in some
manifestation of His presence. But by
this point something terrible had happened: fellowship with God and paradise
was lost for all mankind by one act of SIN.
So God, COMMITTED TO A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS SPECIAL CREATION MAN, had provided
a way back to a full time relationship with Him.
This
is where the “eternal gospel (Rev. 14:6 lit.)” comes in. Because Jesus was the “Lamb
slain from the foundation of the
world.” (Rev. 13:8). From the
first sinner in the Garden of Eden until now and into the future every human,
made for an ongoing relationship with God that trusts in His word and believes
His promises is covered and declared right with God, on the basis of the substitutionary death Christ offered at the cross. It’s an eternal
gospel.
Let
me show this relationship with God from an Old Testament believer’s
testimony. His name was Asaph. Listen to his
testimony about his life.
Psalm
73
23
Nevertheless (even though this man in particular, had slipped in his trust of
the true God) I am continually with You;
You (God) hold me by my right hand.
24
You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward
receive me to glory.
And
then this in verse 25 -
25
Whom have I in heaven but You? And
there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
26
My flesh and my heart fail; but God
is the strength of my heart and my portion (inheritance) forever.
In
just looking at those words, you realize that’s not talking about giving God a
piece of the pie of life. That’s a
relationship with God, with Him being the whole of this man’s life.
In
the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wrote about the whole meaning of his life,
of what he was consciously consumed with, day and night. In Philippians 1:21 he said,
"...
to me, TO LIVE IS CHRIST,"
For
Paul, life itself was all wrapped up in Christ.
When he wrote to other New Testament believers at Colosse
he said including himself:
"When
Christ, who IS OUR LIFE..." (Colossians 3:4)
Further,
he wrote about Christians living out their individual lives on earth in these
terms,
2
Cor. 5:14b,15
"...if
One (Christ) died for all (the saved), then all died;
and He
died for all (His own, all the saved) SO THAT those who live (in union with Him)
SHOULD LIVE NO LONGER FOR THEMSELVES, but for Him who died for them and rose
again."
Next,
show your hearers verses like 1 Thessalonians 5:17, where the Spirit of God
instructs believers to "Pray without ceasing.” That’s anything but a part time religious duty
to be checked off and forgotten.
Furthermore,
and this is where the gospel has to touch a man or woman’s life. When Jesus called people to
follow Him, He didn't mean part time.
When
He said "Follow Me," (in Matt. 8:22, 9:9, 16:24,19:21, Mark 2:14,
8:34, 10:21, Luke 5:27, 9:23, 9:59, 18:22, John 1:43, 10:4, 10:27, 12:26, 21:19
and 21:22) He used the verb "follow" in the present tense, which means
an ongoing action. Jesus even made this
a main point of what's included in true saving faith in Him. He always spoke of it as a full-time
commitment.
Note
this for example in Luke 9:23-25 with verses 57, 61, 62
23
Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny (a strong word meaning, reject, disown,
repudiate) himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow (present tense) Me. (continually follow
Me)
24
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, BUT WHOEVER LOSES HIS LIFE
(here Jesus wasn't talking about martyrdom primarily, but rather about dying to
self interest) FOR MY SAKE will save it.
25
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself
destroyed or lost?
Then,
in the end of Chapter 9,
57
Now it happened as they (Jesus and His disciples) journeyed on the road, that
someone said to Him, "Lord, (the word means sovereign, ruler, king) I will
follow You wherever You go." ....
61
And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You,
but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."
62
But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back (in other words no one with a half-hearted
commitment), is fit for the kingdom of
God."
So,
Jesus taught that His followers were all
about their King and His kingdom.
One
last passage for you to bring to bear upon inmates about the difference between
simple religious activity which doesn’t save and a true relationship with God
that does save, is found in Luke 14:25-33.
There we read:
25
Now great multitudes went with Him. And
He (Jesus) turned and said to them,
26
"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his
father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own
life also, he cannot be My disciple.
27
And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me
cannot be my disciple.
28
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough
to finish it -
29
lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it
begin to mock him,
30
saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'
31
Or what king, going to war against another king, does not sit down first and consider (which is like counting the
cost) whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him
with twenty thousand?
32
Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and
asks conditions of peace.
33
So, likewise, whoever of you does not (by implication from the word “likewise,”
count the cost and then) FORSAKE (say farewell to) ALL THAT HE HAS CANNOT BE MY
DISCIPLE."
Christianity
is full time or it isn’t biblical Christianity at all.
I
pray you would make this clear, so that those that come to the chapel services
wouldn’t think by attending alone, that they’re OK with God.
Rich
Hines