Is being religious the same as church going ?

Do you like churches? Here in St.Albans, our own Abbey is second to none in its history and architecture.

Maybe you go regularly to church, and in fact would call yourself religious. Now that term is shared with all religions, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism,Sikh, to name just a few. I looked up the term “religious” in two dictionaries, and found in each “God-fearing, devout, meticulous”. But that doesn’t describe the Christians I know, as it misses out the essential Person in the Christian faith, Jesus Christ. Anyone can be a kind and helpful church-goer, but there’s a missing element not always promoted in our churches.

We need to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to come personally into our lives.so that we are “turned around”or converted.

I often wonder who I’ll meet in heaven, if we can recognise people, and if so there’ll be Christians who were once murderers, slave traders, porn dealers etc, all of whom have had their lives turned around by Jesus.

Our churches are beautiful buildings, and they have many worshippers there who truly are “born again”…..yes, that is the phrase used by Jesus, but let’s not depend on the building or doing “religion” there. To me, religion seems to suggest doing good things regularly, but to know Jesus in your life is much more.

In the early church, it was the telling of good news and supernatural acts of healing that made people eager to believe in Jesus Is this happening in St.Albans today?

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