Religion or Life?
Religion or Life which will it be?
Webster’s definition of ‘religion’...“piety, conscientiousness, scrupulousness, from ‘religare,’ re- ‘to bind back;’ and ‘ligare,’ to bind together...”
Religion is a BINDER, it is binding oneself to the keeping of rules and regulations that govern conduct and formulas as the pathway to God. This is neither pleasing to God or accepted by Him. In fact, it is “another gospel” and not the “gospel of Christ” All religions see God as distant, unfriendly and the giver of laws as the way to approach Him. All religion, no matter the brand or it location, is the upward reach of man searching for a way to please the God of whom he is so afraid.
Religion is hard work and is ‘performance’ based. The more we do the better we are! Or so we think. So, it becomes a life of hard work in order to get ‘closer’ to God. God is not religious. He is Life! Friends, God is not egotistic desiring all people to be his slaves of performance, performing to rules and regulations to be accepted as godly.
Jesus Christ came to change the religious way of thinking and acting. He came to free us from ‘performance based’ living and boldly asserted, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life!” He came to end religion’s hold on people!
Suddenly, we are confronted with a complete change of perspective. It is no longer you and I trying to do our best to earn God’s favor. It is God saying, I am all that you need in life. He came to end this religious distortion by bringing us an offer of something we can all understand and relate to – ‘relationship’. Jesus came to show us what God is like!
Jesus said, “I am the way!” Though ridicule may come my way for penning this it must be penned. Christianity is not the way. Church is not the way. Good works is not the way. Religion is not the way. The person (Jesus) is the way. We have been introduced to God through Jesus and have been offered His salvation invitation by relationship as the way to God.
Listen, listen and hear Jesus say, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced beauty of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Grace is a rich word in the Greek language. The meaning of the word expresses, “something that delights or brings joy, a favor, something given that is not earned.” Grace plus anything is not GRACE!
If you give a gift to a person as an expression of your love, that would be ‘grace’. Your only merit for giving was LOVE and not rooted in expectation!
Grace give us understanding of how God gives to us. He gives His life to us as an unearned favor and one that was completely undeserved. We do not deserve all that God gives to us and there is nothing we could do to deserve it – BUT God gives, and that is grace!
The truth found in the Bible, that Jesus came to do for us what we could never do ourselves is called the Good News. News, by definition, is the announcement that something has happened, not a list of things that must be done! All that must be done for a man or woman to live in perfect union with God has been accomplished for us by Jesus Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. Now that is amazing!
Webster’s definition of ‘religion’...“piety, conscientiousness, scrupulousness, from ‘religare,’ re- ‘to bind back;’ and ‘ligare,’ to bind together...”
Religion is a BINDER, it is binding oneself to the keeping of rules and regulations that govern conduct and formulas as the pathway to God. This is neither pleasing to God or accepted by Him. In fact, it is “another gospel” and not the “gospel of Christ” All religions see God as distant, unfriendly and the giver of laws as the way to approach Him. All religion, no matter the brand or it location, is the upward reach of man searching for a way to please the God of whom he is so afraid.
Religion is hard work and is ‘performance’ based. The more we do the better we are! Or so we think. So, it becomes a life of hard work in order to get ‘closer’ to God. God is not religious. He is Life! Friends, God is not egotistic desiring all people to be his slaves of performance, performing to rules and regulations to be accepted as godly.
Jesus Christ came to change the religious way of thinking and acting. He came to free us from ‘performance based’ living and boldly asserted, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life!” He came to end religion’s hold on people!
Suddenly, we are confronted with a complete change of perspective. It is no longer you and I trying to do our best to earn God’s favor. It is God saying, I am all that you need in life. He came to end this religious distortion by bringing us an offer of something we can all understand and relate to – ‘relationship’. Jesus came to show us what God is like!
Jesus said, “I am the way!” Though ridicule may come my way for penning this it must be penned. Christianity is not the way. Church is not the way. Good works is not the way. Religion is not the way. The person (Jesus) is the way. We have been introduced to God through Jesus and have been offered His salvation invitation by relationship as the way to God.
Listen, listen and hear Jesus say, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced beauty of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Grace is a rich word in the Greek language. The meaning of the word expresses, “something that delights or brings joy, a favor, something given that is not earned.” Grace plus anything is not GRACE!
If you give a gift to a person as an expression of your love, that would be ‘grace’. Your only merit for giving was LOVE and not rooted in expectation!
Grace give us understanding of how God gives to us. He gives His life to us as an unearned favor and one that was completely undeserved. We do not deserve all that God gives to us and there is nothing we could do to deserve it – BUT God gives, and that is grace!
The truth found in the Bible, that Jesus came to do for us what we could never do ourselves is called the Good News. News, by definition, is the announcement that something has happened, not a list of things that must be done! All that must be done for a man or woman to live in perfect union with God has been accomplished for us by Jesus Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. Now that is amazing!
Comments
Post a Comment