July 25

“I am afraid a great many people are so taken up with Christian doctrines and dogmas, and are so convinced that their salvation is secured because their “views” are sound and orthodox, that they have never yet come to a personal acquaintance with Christ himself.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 7/25

This is the difference between being a real Christian and a pretend Christian.  Most of us can act a certain way once we find out what is expected of us.  It becomes a matter of whether or not we want to act that way or not that determines how well we can pull it off.  If we get a lot of positive feedback and are made to feel good about ourselves, we are encouraged even more so to act in a certain way.  That’s why we care so much about whom our children hang out with.  They are impressionable and their behavior, with our help, has pretty much been fashioned by reward and punishment!  But Christianity has nothing to do with rewards and punishments because the punishment has already been carried out on another--Jesus Christ.  Only reward is waiting for us if.....and it’s a big IF....we have a relationship with God through Jesus.  It’s this personal acquaintance with Christ himself that makes us one with the Father.  It’s there that we are truly changed--not on the outside for others to see, but on the inside where the new life begins and then grows outward for all to witness and whereby God is made known, too.

“No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.”  John 1:28