If you are curious (I hope you are!) you probably will ask, “What is the relationship between God and churches?” The short answer is this: Not much!
Actually, here is a better question, “What do religions have to do with God, and what does God have to do with religions?” The short answer is this: A lot!
About Churches.
Churches are buildings. They are just places where people go to worship God. But of course you can worship God anywhere! You can worship God at home, in the car, at the beach, in the mountains, while you are waiting in line to check out groceries – anywhere. You don’t have to go to a church to worship God. Churches are just convenient places where people of that religion go to worship together.
Worship is really just a personal activity you do by yourself, even when you are next to another person in church who is also worshipping God. And you don’t need a priest, minister, pastor, rabbi, or Imam. The Fragrance of God is within your mind, so you can worship God anywhere you go.
About Religions.
As you know, there is only one God, BUT there are many religions. Let’s try to answer this question, “Why are there so many religions when there is only one God”? The answer is that religions were founded by a person who usually had a personal experience with God and got so excited that he or she began telling everyone about that experience, and those people wanted an experience like that, too. They probably asked, “How can we have an experience with God like you had?” Usually what occurred was that the person began writing down the instructions for “knowing God” based on their experience with God, and that became the new religion.
What is the Purpose of Religions?
The answer to that question is actually hidden in the paragraph above. The purpose of religions is to teach people how to worship God.
Worshipping is what people do who have a feeling of profound love and admiration for God. They admire, adore, love, and see God as the great provider of all of the good that they see around them and that they have in their life. Worship is a process of giving great thanks to express gratitude for their lives and the beautiful things they have in life.
When religions teach people how to have a personal, even intimate, relationship with God in Paradise and with the Fragrance of God within them, then the religion is fulfilling its purpose to help people know God in a personal relationship.
Unfortunately, most religions confuse people with their rules, rituals, and ceremonies. In fact, most religions have almost forgotten how to teach people how to worship and talk to God. That’s a pretty sad situation in my opinion.