I hate Religion

No I don’t mean I hate God, I don’t mean I am not a Christian, I mean that I hate religion in the sense of Webster’s third definition of the word : “scrupulous conformity”. Jesus said, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. What did he mean when he said this? Simply put he was warning us to beware of their teaching. Who where they and what was their teaching? They were the leaders of the Jewish religion at the time, simply put they were the “church leaders”. And why did Jesus Christ contend with them? Because they were hypocrites and put heave religious burdens on the people, large lists of rules, dos and don’ts which had nothing to do with God’s law or the condition of their heart.
Modern day Christendom has its own version of this in many Christian leaders. I did not say all, but many. We here sermon’s preached on not smoking, not drinking alcohol, do not gamble, read your bible every day, pray an hour a day, and the list goes on. It’s not that some of these things are not good ideas, but the idea that they should be religiously applied to every Christian allows no room for the Holy Spirit to work in specific, individual Circumstances. Galatians 5:1 says “It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (emphasis added)
The context of this passage is that Paul is warning the Galation church not to give in to those that wanted to subjugate Christians to the old Jewish laws and customs, and specifically to circumcision. It seems even after 2000 years, we are still arguing with ourselves over laws and regulations, does and don’ts. We still have leaders who want to burden us down with long lists of thing we must do in order to be a “good Christian” or be a “good whiteness.” In fact this last statement has been used to justify all sorts of heavy yokes upon people, and as a judgment against those who don’t CONFORM.
It is obvious that we should not sin. Specifically we should not violate the ten commandments. We should Love God and Love our neighbor. Obviously we should be above reproach and follow God’s will as led by the Holy Spirit. But Christians often make a rule or law out of something which is not a law, such as “You must have devotions every day.” Is it to please God we have devotions, or to please those who say we should? Too often has the enemy of our soul used the fear of man to brow beat us into scrupulous conformity. He seeks to make our faith nothing more than a wearisome list of rules we must follow instead of a life giving relationship with the Living God.

Relationship with God or a list of rules to follow.

Which do you think brings life?

Life is WAR!

One of the things that I am trying to accept is that life is war. What I mean is that we were all born in to a world war which has been raging since before the garden of Eden. The sooner we all come to grips with that and accept that we must pick our swords every day, that is when we can truly find peace. I know that sounds ironic and it may not make since unless the Lord reveals it to you. In some ways I take comfort in the fact that the enemy opposes us, it means we are still a threat to him. It means we are still alive and have not given up. Jesus said in this world we would have all kinds of struggles. I don’t think he just meant persecution at the hands of non believers. I am not looking for a demon behind every malfunction, but many times there are,
“influences”. Victory does not look like the cessation of battle, it looks like living to fight another day. It looks like overcoming and thwarting the enemy’s plans. Yes, in this world we will have struggles, but HE said, fear not for I have overcome the world.

It’s exhausting at times. Sometimes I want to give up. But it’s times like those that His strength is perfected in my weakness. God has a dramatic flair I think, and likes to come in and save the day just in the nick of time. As they say, it is always darkest before the dawn. Life is like the battle of Helm’s Deep in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. That battle is intense and seems endless. Just as it seems darkness will win and all hope is lost, the sun rises, night is ended and good comes in to save the day.

He cares for his beloved and is always there fighting besides us, even when we can’t see Him. Sometimes we don’t see Him, because He is fighting at our back.