Morning Devotional

August 29, 2003

"Are You Religious"  

by Don Emmitte

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How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:3-8 NLT).

 Will Rogers was once asked, "Are you a member of an organized political party?" He replied quickly, "No, I'm a Democrat." I recently overheard a conversation that reminded me of that question.

A few days ago, a customer was copying some documents and asked one of the sales consultants to help get the machine working correctly. He discovered that she had the original placed wrong. A quick adjustment and her copies started spewing out. She thanked them for helping and then asked, "My son writes religious poetry, would you like to read some of it?" She handed them a copy and as they were reading the poem, she immediately followed up with the question, "Are you religious?" Without thinking about what he was saying he replied, "No, I'm a Christian."

That was a very curious response. I know the salesman very well. He is a committed Christian. However, that response must have sounded odd to the lady. She probably did not expect the response she got. After some thought and reflection I realized that you can be religious without being a Christian and you can be a Christian without being especially religious by society's standards.

Just today I read another statement that spurred my thoughts further. Steve Brown, who writes for a program called Key Life, said: "People who don't want to go to Hell are religious. Christians have probably been there and know who showed them the way back."

It was a reminder that being religious and being a Christian are not necessarily one and the same. And certainly, being religious and being Heaven-bound are not necessarily the same. I've heard it said that religion is man's effort to reach out to God. Jesus is God's way of reaching out to man.

The experience of grace centers in the person of Jesus Christ, not in the organization developed to worship Him! Are you religious? It is better to be Christian!