Tag: inner transformation

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Religion obliges vs. love empowers

There are so many different religions, so what’s the difference between Christianity and any other religion?

Most religions lay out a set of laws and rules that you need to obey to be worthy or righteous or to attain some degree of spiritual piety, prestige or position. The most holy thing in the religion is the rule book or law by which the believer abides.

With Christianity, the law or rules are not obligations that hover over you with a promise of punishment for wrongdoing; they are a foundation on which you stand.

The premise is that Christ died to make you perfect. You are born again and setup for success on a solid foundation. That foundation then is not above you, crushing you, but under you, built by those who went before you.

It’s for you build on. You stand on Christ (the Word of God), the foundation, to do greater things than He did. Everything is sustained by the Word of God, not by your own effort.

You do not begin your journey under an impossible burden of perfection, you start as a baby for whom all is provided and you grow and learn to hunt for your own food; to “build the temple” of the Holy Spirit on the foundation of The Word that is given to you at conception.

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There are two seas

There are two seas in the Land of Israel. One is fresh, and fish are in it. Splashes of green adorn its banks. Trees spread their branches over it, and stretch out their thirsty roots to sip of its healing waters. Along its shore children play.


The River Jordan makes this sea with sparkling water from the hills. So it laughs in the sunshine. And people build their homes near to it, and birds their nests; and every form of life is happier because it is here.


The River Jordan flows on south into another sea. Here there is no splash of fish, no fluttering leaf, no song of birds, no children’s laughter. The air hangs heavy above its waters and neither people nor animals will drink here.
What accounts for the mighty difference between these seas? Not the River Jordan. It empties the same good water into both. Not the soil in which they lie; not the country ‘round about.


This is the difference:
The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan’s water. For every drop that flows into it another drop flows out. The giving and receiving go on in equal measure.
The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income jealously. It will not be tempted into any generous impulse. Every drop it gets, it keeps.
The Sea of Galilee gives and lives. This other sea cannot sustain life. It is named the Dead Sea.


There are two seas in the Land of Israel.
There are two kinds of people in the world.


Bruce Barton