There has been lot’s of heat and noise generated about Christianity and

Religion. Not too many facts, but lots of opinions.

Let’s start with some facts:

From my Oxford dictionary –
religion (n):

1. belief in the existence of a supernatural ruling power.

2. one of the various systems of faith and worship based

on such belief.
christian (adv) :

1. of Jesus and his teaching; of the religion, beliefs,

church, etc. based on this teaching.
christianity (n) :

1. the Christian faith or religion
OK, now some opinions.

Religion is worshiping something. It might be Allah, Satan, money,

yourself, some patriarchal figure, or even Jesus.
If your religion is about worshipping Jesus, then it is probably a form

of Christianity. If you worship some watered down or distorted figure

that you like to call Jesus, then it is probably something else.

However if you are worshipping the real Jesus of the bible then what you

have is probably Christianity.
Some religions find buildings and rituals to be important. While there

is nothing wrong with buildings and rituals, they do sometimes become a

distraction – and some people become more interested in worshipping the

buildings and rituals than in worshipping Jesus.
Big religions sometimes need lots of administration. That means lots of

administrators (read “sinful people”) so there is always danger of

corruption and distortion.
However you do it, worshipping Jesus is a religion. Remember, though,

worshipping Jesus is a lot more than singing hymns and kneeling down.

It’s about the life you live.
My kids sing a chorus which starts off:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart

and all your soul and all your mind

and love all of mankind as you would love yourself ….

Singing the song won’t help you. Obeying it will.
—

Michael Smith