Do you ever take for granted the richness of God’s blessings in Christ?

Do you ever take for granted the rich blessing of salvation you have received from God’s hand? Today I was privileged to go on a temple tour of 5 major world religions: Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam. The differences and similarities with these 5 were striking, and the difference from Biblical Christianity is sincerely profound.  I would suggest everyone to do the tour if you can!

It happened to be Saturday, which is the Jewish Sabbath, or Shabbat, so we witnessed one of their Services. It was amazing to think that the rituals have not changed much in 2000 years, and the language is essentially same – so what we witnessed was essentially what Jesus would have seen & done at synagogue. When the Rabbi began his “sermon” the gist of the message was something along these lines – If you sin, or mess up or do it wrong, well it’s ok, you can try again tomorrow.

I am not going to go in depth in each religion as each would take up a number of blogs ( and I am fighting off some form of head cold lol) so I am going to say this…all 5 of these religions place a heavy emphasis on what a person has to DO, to achieve salvation, or nirvana, or oneness…

I want to share with you an illustration  that reveals in part how Christianity is different from the other religions of the world. And it is an easy way to share this truth with others.

Imagine you are stuck in a pit and you can’t get out.

Bhudda comes along and says, “Meditate, discipline yourself, seek wisdom, purify yourself, and you’ll get out.”

Mohammed looks in and says, “Worship Allah alone. Practice the Five Pillars and you’ll get out of the pit with success on judgement day.”

A Jewish Rabbi  happens by and says, “Keep trying!”

A Hindu Guru happens by and says, ” Stay devoted, if you don’t get out this time you will next time!”

Jesus climbs down into the pit and lifts you out of the well, with no way to climb out himself.

I know this is not a perfect picture of each religion, but it makes my point.  Do you see the difference? All religions of the world have a “do” mentality except one. “Do this” and “do that” and you’ll get out of the pit.  In our precious Lord and Saviour Jesus, the work is already done, we don’t have to DO anything. When Christ died on the cross and cried out, “It is finished,” our salvation was completed. Jesus paid it all. We don’t have to Do anything, Christ did it all.

Have a blessed Sunday everyone, and I will be back on monday.

Don’t forget its time to spring ahead!

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