What is Christianity?

What exactly is CHRISTIANITY? For some, it is a belief system, limited to the time they spend in church but lacking any real relevance in daily life. For some, it is a label they wear because their parents slapped it on them as children and they just haven't bothered to remove it. But for others, it is far more than just a belief system and in their lives and it is the ONLY thing relevant in daily life because for them, it is a way of being. And THIS is what Christianity is supposed to be.
When Christ ministered on earth, He didn't preach about how a "church" is supposed to be organized and run. He didn't preach about loyalty to a "church" or how mass should be conducted. When Christ ministered, He preached to the individual. How the individual is supposed to BEhave. He described a way of being. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers.
And if you look at the Biblical definition of "love" in Corinthians it is not described as a warm, fuzzy feeling. The Biblical definition of love is a way of being as well: slow to anger, patient, kind, enduring, etc., etc. So then, Christianity is a way of being.
But honestly, how many of us are all of the things that Christ told us we needed to be? Very, very few. Why? Because very, very few understand that in order for us to achieve all that Christ set before us, we need to harness the power of God and enter into the Father/Child relationship with God and ask for His guidance.

Too many Christians make the mistake of "pretending" they are "good" Christians and so they present this phony persona to the world and inside, their hearts remain empty. And could this be what Christ meant when He said "I never knew you" to those crying out to Him, "Lord, lord! Didn't we prophecy in your name?" I wonder if this type of Christian thinks they are fooling God?
There is absolutely no point in lying to God and praying pious prayers because you "think" this is what He wants. God never wants a lie; Satan is the Father of lies eh? No. When we pray, for example, we should say, "Heavenly Father, I know that I'm supposed to be patient but I am really having a hard time with this. Can you help me?" He will. How do I know? In the NT, Christ tells us to pray for the Holy Spirit and goes on to say that if earthly fathers who are evil can give good gifts to their children, don't you think your Heavenly Father will give good gifts to you?
How many times does Christ say, "Ask and ye shall receive". Or ask and if you truly believe, it will be given. How very, very sad, that God had to send His son to earth so His son could tell us to ask our Father for help and stop trying to do it all yourself!
Picture this; God is sitting in heaven all day, every day watching His children run around confused, hurt, angry, cruel, selfish and He's just waiting for ONE of them to say, "Help me Father!"
How many of us phone a friend when something bad happens instead of running to our Father? The Bible says, that God is jealous and I've thought about this. We have the power to make each other angry and we have the power to make each other laugh. What we CANNOT do, is take someone's pain from them. And how many of us have wanted to do this? How many of us have had to watch a loved one suffer in pain because we did not have the power to take it from them? But God has that power and I believe it is because God, being a jealous God, has reserved certain rights only for Himself.
Because so many of us have made God irrelevant in our daily life, we turn to other humans for the things which only God can provide. This is a mistake. Other humans cannot provide us with the things only God can provide. So is it fair that we become angry or disappointed in the humans we looked to to provide the things that they simply could not? And is it fair, to burden others with a task they just were NOT created to perform?
I think it is time we let God out of the box we call church. It is time we truly enter into the Father/Child relationship and ask for His help. It is time we untied His hands and let Him work in us and through us so that His glory may manifest in the material world. The Bible says we are not to put a light under a bushel and yet this is exactly what we have done. We have put the light of God under the roof of a church. Please, the world needs its light; let God out of church and BE a Christian.

gently,laura