Faith, simple faith

"Your relationship with God is about your response to God, not your pastors', not your wifes', not your childrens'. No other person is responsible for your spiritual welfare. Whatever you receive of God and the level of communication that you have with God will be (and always has been) based on your faith. Not your faith like Catholic, protestant, other, but your personal faith, through personal relationship with God.  

God receives you with your bents, personality, character, temperament, skills and talents, as they are, under the current circumstances. But it is not these attributes that attract God to you. There is nothing you can do or say that will attract God to you or your situation. God is attracted to you because you are His child. That's enough. And if you have placed your faith in Jesus, God not only sees you as His child, but God sees you through the works of Jesus Christ. 

God works on your behalf whether or not you see it or acknowledge it. But through the eyes of faith you can see it and you can acknowledge it. Instead of wondering if God is in this or in that, doing this on your behalf or doing that, you can know and participate with God as a co-creator if you have faith. 

Now, maybe you are thinking: "I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and I believe what my pastor says. I go to church (regular or not). I give to the church. I have even served in one capacity to help others." That's wonderful, but the faith I am talking about isn't just the faith that gets you a ticket to heaven because you believe that Jesus is Lord. 

That kind of faith, as real as it is, is faith in a religious system:

• One that goes to God on your behalf and provide your personal connection and spiritual growth at the rate that the religion deems satisfactory.
• One that meets your time constraints by providing all the spiritual nourishment you need in one hour or less each week
• One that identifies with Christ and brings to Christ your questions and then provides you with filtered answers
• One that examines your faith and determines the quality of your relationship with God through the eyes of man
• One that accepts your level of faith by the precepts of its doctrines that you keep without ever knowing the inner man, where the root of all actions are borne. 

If this is what you think is a relationship with God, you are a religious person. I am not saying in any way that being a religious person is not good or not saved or not anything. What I am saying is that it was never meant to be that you would prefer a relationship with God where you could use a mediator for your relationship so that you never have to face God yourself. Religion is the mediator between God and man in many of today's parishioners. Yet religion does not always speak for God. Every denomination and every other non-christian religious system believes in its own man-made system. They all claim to have their origin from God and they all have their tenets of faith that outline what a true relationship with God looks like. 

The problem is that not one of these religions are correct concerning all issues. Not one of theses religions hold all the truth. Not one of these religions have all the answers and not one of them can stand before you and represent you to God. You were and are now and always will be responsible for yourself. If you are satisfied with a predetermined relationship with a beginning and boundary parameters set by someone else, then not heading to this simple essay will be sufficient.  If you were wondering if God can hear you and speak to you directly without any aid from anyone else, the answer is yes. 

Why not get started with a simple personal prayer where you talk to God and ask to hear from God? You might be pleasantly surprised."