Day 04 – Your views on religion.

I want to get this book written by Ravi Zacharias.

According to Wikipedia, religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of life and the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a supernatural agency, or human beings’ relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, or divine.

I'm born in a family where they worshiped Buddhist. I would always follow my mom to the Buddhist and put incense on the ashes, but I didn't know what they meant. I guess my family prayed for good luck, health, and fortune to the statue. However, a big thing happened at around 2002, when things started to shift in my family (read my Testimony).

Moreover, secular world-view would see religion to be dangerous. Islam is considered to be a violent religion although they promote peace in the America. Remember what happened on September 11th, 2001? Even Hitler did the same with Christianity although he used the name of Jesus in a non-biblical act. Jesus would never have wanted millions of Jews to be killed or other who rebelled against him. In general of history and even now, some religious followers would used the name of religion to promote violence or warfare. Right now, war is still happening in the middle east, which saddens me.

In the secular world, the Atheism not only believe religion is wrong, but to have respect for it is also wrong. They have been trying to wipe out religion for some years. Friedrich Nietzsche said "God is dead". Little did he know, God said, "Nietzsche is dead." Years and years have pass as Atheists do their best to completely destroy religion, but they're not close from doing so. Well, even science like evolution can be a religion. A well-known atheist, Richard Dawkin, has written a book called "The God Delusion" ,although I haven't read it myself.

Personally, we are all religious at some level. We all have something we worship or to give praise of. We worship car, money, girl, reputation, and even science. It is hard-wired in us that we worship something. However, "who do we worship" is the question. Do we worship the Creator who made creation? Or do we worship creation.

As a Christian, I am not bound to be obligated to follow Jesus Christ. It is not because you HAVE to...because religion says you have to do these things to inherit good Karma (Buddhist), please god so that he will let you into heaven. However, that is NOT the God I worship. My God is immorally graceful, steadfast love, forgiving, the ultimate judge...He is indescribable. That is the God who I worship because He saved me by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die as a substitutionary atonement for my sins. My heart was broken because He died for me, and He changed my life and gave me a new and desire to follow and love Him.

John 1:3 "All things were made through him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made." There is only one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the Creator who created the everything, including you (readers) and I. Because of Adam and Eve, we die to sin. We rebel against God. We would never choose God because our sinful nature goes against the nature of choosing Him. We turned our backs on Him and turned to worldliness or sin. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." Jesus came down to earth, fully man and fully God, to live among us and sympathize with us, yet He did not sin. He didn't came down here to promote religion but went against the religious Pharisees who were setting down laws that were not from God, but tradition of men. Ultimately, He came down to earth to do His Father's will, and that was to die on the cross for our sins so that we may receive His forgiveness of sin and live a new life as a follow of Him. In repentance of our sins, we turn our backs on sin and turn to God. Therefore, it is not because you HAVE to, but because you WANT to. Jesus removes your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh (the new heart) and the new mind so that you WANT to follow Him in obedience not because you HAVE to. Christianity is about a religion, it is about having a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.

Even though I am saved, I still struggle with sin everyday. However, I know I have been justified, meaning I have been made right with God because of what Jesus has done for me. He has forgiven me of my sin. He has adopted me into His family. It is a process of sanctification where I am continually being made holy by the work of the Holy Spirit regenerating my heart. I look forward to my last day because my "citizenship is in heaven, and from it [I] await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform [my] lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself."

Let me tell you this, if you do not know Jesus Christ today and have yet to surrender your life to Him, then you do not have eternal life. Jesus is "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through" Him (John 14:6). Your sins can be redeemed NOT through religion; NOT through good deeds; NOT through philosophy; NOT through science; but through Jesus Christ.

Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour? Do you want to know Him and begin your relationship with Him?

That's My King!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE