There are few things quite so boring as being religious, but there is nothing quite so exciting as being a Christian! Most folks have never discovered the difference between the one and the other, so that there are those who sincerely try to live a life they do not have, substituting religion for God, Christianity for Christ, and their own noble endeavors for the energy, joy, and power of the Holy Spirit. In the absence of reality, they can only grasp at ritual, stubbornly defending the latter in the absence of the former, lest they be found with neither! They are lamps without oil, cars without gas, pens without ink, baffled at their own impotence in the absence of all that alone can make man functional; for man was so engineered by God that the presence of the Creator within the creature is indispensable to His humanity. Christ gave himself for us to give Himself to us! His presence puts God back into the man! He came that we might have life - God's life! There are those who have a life they never live. They have come to Christ and thanked Him only for what He did, but do not live in the power of who He is. Between the Jesus who 'was' and the Jesus who 'will be' they live in a spiritual vacuum, trying with no little zeal to live for Christ a life that only He can live in and through them, perpetually begging for what in Him they already have!
W. Ian Thomas, in Bob George Classic Christianity [Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1989], foreward
This makes me think of that "Believing Christ" book. It really rings true with me, especially this part: "their own noble endeavors for the energy, joy, and power of the Holy Spirit." We need so much more than our own noble endeavors!!
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