Judas

I've wondered, at times, what kind of man this Judas was. What he looked like, how he acted, who his friends
were...

But for all the things we don't know about Judas, there is one thing we know for sure: he had no relationship with
the Master. He had seen Jesus, but he did not know Him. He had heard Jesus, but he did not understand Him. He
had religion, but no relationship.

As Satan worked his way around the table in the Upper Room, he needed a special kind of man to betray our Lord.
He needed a man who had seen Jesus, but did not know Him. He needed a man who knew the actions of Jesus, but had missed out on the mission of Jesus. Judas was this man. He knew the empire but had never known the Man.

We learn this timeless lesson from the betrayer. Satan's best tools of destruction are not from outside the church, they are from within the church. A church will never die from the immorality in Hollywood or the corruption in Washington. But it will die from corrosion within--from those who bear the name of Jesus but have never met Him, and from those who have religion, but no relationship.

Judas bore the cloak of religion, but he never knew the heart of Christ. Let's make it our goal to know...deeply.

Max Lucado - "On the Anvil"