Think of the word Christian. What comes to mind when that word hits your brain? I hope that when you hear this word you think of other words like "love," "compassion" and, the one I am focusing on here, "relationship." Sadly, I know that when most people hear the word "Christian" the first thing that comes to their mind is "religion." I am here to tell you that Christ did not intend for us to be a part of a religion, but a part of an ever-growing, loving, and beautiful relationship with him!
If you were to look at worldly religions today, you would find that what they are worshiping is nowhere near producing the same amount of love and desire to know its people like that of Jesus Christ. One of the most beautiful things about Jesus is that he loved us so much that he became like us! He didn't just come to prove anything. He came to have a relationship with the lost and the broken. Jesus was so cool that he hung out with the people that "religion" turned away. Jesus came for sinners like me! In Mark 2:17 Jesus says, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners..." And not only did he become a man but he was nailed to a cross so we didn't have to be. That kind of love you can't find anywhere else.
I don't know about you, but boy, do I want to be like him! It is so easy to view Christianity as a fanbase; just people who blindly believe in a 2,000-year-old story. But I am telling you now, it isn't just that. Jesus did not come to start a religion. He came to start a relationship with you and me: the sinners, the outcasts, and the turned-away. Religion says "change before you come." Jesus says, "Come as you are!"
"We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are" (Romans 3:22).
Once you find peace in this it changes you. The best decision you will ever make, ever, is to step into that relationship with Jesus. Allow him to fill you up and to change you for the better. Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Shed the old and give your sins to him. Don't worry about living up to any "religious" expectations, because he wants to know you as you are. No one will ever be able to be exactly like Jesus was, but isn't that the point? Because he came, we don't have to!
