Reject Religion and The Religious
Embrace Faith, and Know God.
Welcome, once again, my dear readers. This week will be a little different. Originally, I had planned to have a lot more of this personal commentary, stories, and life in the asylum than I have had. So, this week is going to be more like the article Walk the Walk (here). It just seems like the world is getting crazier and crazier every day and feeding me more and more things to write about. That being said, I feel strongly that as we move into the Christmas season and celebrate the Birth of Christ it is important to shift our focus away from the world. Honestly, in the greater scheme of things the world as it is now is irrelevant. It is broken and dying. This has been the case for a very long time. This week, I am going to talk about faith and having a relationship with a living Christ.
First, this isn’t about religion, as religions are terrible things that may start with the best of intentions, but typically end in control through fear and emotional manipulation. They also tend to have rules, rituals, and expectations completely divorced from the Bible or a relationship with Jesus. It is incredibly sad because nearly every professing atheist I know is such because they were hurt by religion. Typically, they fell short of the false expectations of some image of perfect piety or behavior set by men and then were deeply shamed or abused over it. The truth of the gospel of Jesus is that none of us are good enough, we all fail, we all sin, and none of us are even capable of being good people by God’s standard. Worse, there is nothing we can do or not do that will make us worthy or good. As humans, we are incapable of being holy, pure, or righteous. It is just something that we can’t do. Romans 3:23 states “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” I am a bad person, you reading this are a bad person, and we both deserve to die and be tormented in hell forever.
The worst part is hell wasn’t even made for us and the plan wasn’t for us to end up there. Matthew 25:41 states “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Hell was made as a place to put rebellious angels, not people. Unfortunately, man fell and broke the world. Since man was created as an immortal spiritual being with a short corporeal existence that was no longer worthy of the Presence of God, they had to go somewhere, but that is ancillary to my point. The very short story is God created a perfect everything for his glory and satisfaction. Then imperfect beings (or were tricked) broke everything with the introduction of sin (acts that separate us from God). God set about to fix his creation. The culmination of God’s restoration of creation was the birth of Jesus, who was God made flesh living a mortal life with all of its trials, pain, and hardship. Jesus was the first and only person to live a perfect life. Perfect in that at no time did Jesus sin. Even though he was beset by Satan and tempted, he resisted. Then, being fully innocent, Jesus was persecuted (by religion and religious people) and executed because he spoke truth to religious leaders of his father’s people, shaming them for their hypocrisy. An excellent example is Matthew 6:5-6 “5 And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Examples can be found elsewhere, like Mark 18-27 where Jesus tells the Sadducees not only do they not know the scriptures, but they misunderstand the power of God.
Since Jesus wouldn’t sin by recanting his claim to be God made flesh, and because Jesus’s clear teaching of the scripture and explanation of the nature of God to the common people posed a serious threat to the religious power structure that had evolved among the Jewish people by that time, the religious leaders of his day had him killed. Jesus knew his torture and crucifixion were coming. He was scared and didn’t want it to happen. We know this because in Luke 22:42 Jesus was praying and he prayed “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” I think this is one of the most human moments in the Bible and also one of the clearest demonstrations of what our faith should look like. Jesus, an innocent man, is terrified because he knows that he is soon to be humiliated, beaten, and killed. He doesn’t want to go through the pain and the suffering and he prays if there is any other way, please not this. Then we see, at the end of his prayer, submission to the will of God because he knows that God’s will is always for the best. Shortly after Jesus prayed that prayer, he was killed. The good news is that since Jesus was innocent and lived a pure and faithful life his sacrifice was able to take on all of the sin, imperfection, shame, and brokenness that would ever be and make it perfect as it was atoned for by Christ’s blood.
My sweet Grandmother Levi knew the power of this sacrifice and its importance to every one of us. As a result, she would quote John 3:16 every time I saw her from as far back as I can remember until the last time I saw her a couple of months before she passed. So, like 35-40 years. It is because this passage explains why and how “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The bad news is you are a flawed sinful creature unworthy of the love or presence of God and deserving of death. The good news is that God loves you so much that he was willing to die in your place to make up for your shortcomings. That faith is just the first step, as God is willing to dwell within us as Holy Spirit to help guide us into becoming closer to the perfection of Christ as long as we live.
Before I go on, I want to say sin is sin. Homosexuality is a sin, transvestitism is a sin, sex outside of marriage is a sin, drunkenness is a sin (not drinking, drunkenness), and the list goes on. We all sin and all sin makes us unworthy of the presence of God. Sadly, we all sin every day and we all have sins we struggle with. As I walk with Jesus I notice my sin, my back slides, and my imperfections, and as Paul wrote in Philippians 2:12 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” and just try to do better every day. Over the years I have found that I am much harder to anger, much more patient, and much more empathetic, among other things. Had you known me when I was a young adult I was an ugly human, 6’2”, 220# of just meanness. I have seen the work of the spirit in me and still, I see my sin and strive for repentance.
I suppose this brings us back to the folk’s religion hurt. I have heard many tales of churches not being very Christ-like. Everything from turning on people after a divorce, affair, or other sin made public to stupid things like what a person wore to church, their offerings, or who they choose to date. Just as Jesus did, Christ’s Church should welcome everyone exactly how and where they are because we all need a savior. While we shouldn’t ever condone or “accept sin” we should do as Jesus and love even the sinner. We get several examples of this in John 8:3-11 “3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” In this case, she is saved by Christ, yet he still acknowledges her wrong and tells her to sin no more. He doesn’t accept her sin or call it good, but neither does he allow other very flawed and sinful people to punish her in their “righteousness” because they are not.
We see again in John 4:7-26 “7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
We hear that even as Jesus recognizes that the woman is living in sin (has had 5 husbands and the man she is with now isn’t her husband), he still preaches to her and speaks of the church to come when we worship the Father in spirit and truth. Also note that salvation is from the Jews, not exclusively for them, and this is reinforced by the fact this woman’s testimony convinced other Samaritans to seek Jesus’ teachings. If you were hurt by religion, I am sorry, but know Jesus still loves you and he will meet you right where you are in whatever condition you are in to offer healing and forgiveness that will change you at a fundamental level.
To my brothers and sisters in Christ, beware this world and its draws and desires that you do not lose sight of your place and duty in the body of Christ. If you are called to a thing, do not evaluate it on what you will have to sacrifice or won’t be able to do if you follow through. When called take up your cross in the face of whatever it might call you to sacrifice and heed Mathew 6:25-34.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
God Bless you!
-Sam