Have Intimacy With God

On Sunday we continued with week #2 of our Rediscover Church series. We discussed how New Passion values “Having Intimacy with God” as individuals and as a church.

We took an in-depth look at Religion and how when we go through religion to get to God, we always end up further from God than where we intended to be. Religion allows us to set obtainable goals, that when reached make us feel spiritual, increases our opinion of self, reduces our opinion of those who have not reached our spiritual level, and reduces the effort that Christ made on the cross to redeem us and to have a relationship with us. (Phil 3)

I had to confess…For 6 years I bought Nicki her favorite candy, Ferro Rocher, and would stuff her Christmas stocking with them, because I wanted to give her something she loved. It was about a year and a half ago that I discovered for the first time that she in fact hated the Ferro Rocher candy because it had nuts in it. I could not believe she claimed she did not like the candy, I was 99.999% sure she had told me they were her favorite, but Nicki informed me that she never ate them, but didn’t tell me because she didn’t want to hurt my feelings.

My challenge was this, “How many of us do that with God?” We give him what we think pleases him through rules, rituals, and man made opinions (Religion) while He’s provided the only method that we can gain right standing with him, and that was through His Son Jesus. “What are you offering God? Is He pleased with it?” We watched about 4 minutes of Pete Wilson preaching about the Mathmatics of Religion from week 1 of Cross Point’s Religion Lies Series, he pointed out that Religion always adds to (Jesus) and that it always complicates that which God made easy. It tied in perfectly with our message. You should go check that series out on their website.

Join the Conversation…What are some ways you have offered God something you thought pleased him, when all he wanted was your heart?