Is the God in your religion dry and impersonal? For Israelites since the ancient timers it might have seemed that way. Their God had forsaken them because they first had forsaken Him centuries earlier as a people. They went dark-side then all went dark. No God to defend them from the Assyrian 'military operation' in ancient Samaria, once Elijah and Elishah had been and gone. Elijah might have pleaded for them but God was done listening. No personal god for them now. Until the Messiah came along and spoke to a woman beside a well in Samaria centuries later, 2000 years before today. This Messiah told her that a time of change would soon come and had come when worship would be restored among them towards God in spirit and in truth. No more pretending God was their God, God would really be their God, their personal God to answer their prayers for salvation and personal Lord to obey. How did it happen? Jesus died on a cross as a sacrifice for all that sin and God the Father raised him from the dead. Suddenly God was back. God was with them. God was theirs. Like Thomas when he saw Jesus alive from the dead, belief in God could return as a personal hope and a personal lord. My Lord and My God. This is how it can now be for all who believe: For all who follow Jesus' teachings, believing that Jesus is this Messiah. God becomes your God and your Father because Jesus died for you, and remember this is for a disciple who believes Jesus is the Christ, sent by God for salvation, and holds to Jesus' teachings. It is only if you hold to Jesus' teachings. God becoming your God and your Father is for you a rebirth. You gain a true father you did not have as father before your discipleship. Jesus died for all but it is the disciples of Jesus who benefit by God becoming personally their God and their Father.
