RELIGION OR CHRISTIANITY.

I remember asking someone to tell me why He thinks he's a Christian, he said he attends church every Sunday, so also weekly service, pays his tithe and other contributions in church. Yes he is right at least to some extent, as Christians we are not expected to forsake the gathering of fellow believers but it is not all about that.
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I am not writing this article to encourage non-payment of tithe, not going to church and others but I am writing to let us know that there is difference between being religious and being a Christian. These days people are fast becoming so religious that they do not bother to even check their personal walk with God.
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There is a great difference between 'Churchianity' and 'Christianity'. Many are going to church but few are going down the road which leads to life, I am not judging anyone please, I want us to examine our lives, are we truly Christians?
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For some, they feel it is their money that matters to God, they boast of paying all necessary dues and even give very well to any project but their heart is far from God, hear me this morning, your money into the work of God does not make you a Christian. Attending all church service does not automatically make you a Christian too, if you think sitting in church will make you a Christian, try sitting in the garage to see if you'll become a car.
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Christianity is not about signing up for a religion; it is about being born into the family of God (born again, John 3:3) and not a Christian family, it is a relationship of a father and child. When you join His family through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside your heart (2 Cor. 1:21–22). He then empowers you to live like children of the King.
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He does not ask you to try to attain holiness by your own strength, as religion does. He asks that your old self be crucified with Him so that His power can live through you (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6) and there is no way you will crucify your old self and still be living in it. You automatically become regenerated and do all things to glorify the father who called you from darkness into light and made you a light.
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Quit the school of thought that says ‘this is how we do in my church and so it must be’, it is not about your denomination, it is about God, right standing with God, it is about checking if whatever doctrine you have or believe in tallies with the Word of God. Beloved; God wants us to know Him, to draw near to Him, to pray to Him, and love Him above everything and that is not religion; it is a relationship.
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Are you a really Christian?

By Oluwatoyin Aremu.