A Change of Heart

It is not the cloak of religion that can help your soul, it is actual purity and godliness you need; it is not a religious Sunday that is lacking, it is a God-fearing Monday through Saturday that is needful; it is not a pious church, it is a prayer closet; it is not just getting wetter but not any better with water; it is a change of heart at the foot of the Cross; it is not wearing the right garb or parroting some religious vocabulary, it is a right spirit and pure life for Jesus' sake; it is not a sacred place where you kneel, it is a holy place that you serve in all the day long.

You see, there must be a real change of heart via the Holy Spirit - an actual, vital, thorough change in your inward nature that causes you to love Christ sincerely and hate your sins intensely.  Religion says that a religious mediator of some sort, or a religious building is everything; religion puts down Christ and exalts man; religion puts baptismal waters in the place of the work of the Holy Spirit, and it exalts ordinances and sacraments, not an actual change of heart through simple faith in the Precious Blood of God manifest in the flesh.