Religious

The other night at Live @ Webster Hall we talked about the term "Religious". What are your feelings when you hear this word? What do you automatically assume?

Some love to use the term religious. They see it as how they express themselves to God. They love their religion and get very offended when that term is used in any kind of derogatory remark at all. They hear "religious" and their minds go right to the place of worship. That intimate time with their God. The most precious time to them is expressed in the religion they hold so close to their heart. Others however, do not hear the term "religious" with heart warming sensations, but feelings of judgement, condemnation, and laws. This is the place where man has taken over for them and God's words have been abused against them. This is the place where I have come from. This is the place that freaks me out!

When I have spoken in the past I have had a very hard time not mocking the traditions, the seemingly meaninglessness of the worship schedule that seems to appear within many of the worship orders of any given Sunday morning. The people stand and monotonically read the words that are projected in front of them with no feeling or understanding of the scripture. They stand and quote the Lord's Prayer asking God to forgive them as they forgive others. Seemingly without even noticing the very next line, "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." When I hear this seemingly thoughtlessly repeated just out of wrote memory, I just about have a conniption. "Do you not hear what is next. Please God forgive me like I do NOT forgive others. If you forgive me like I forgive others, I am DOOMED!" And lets not forget the passing of the collection plate at every service!

Then one day I was abruptly corrected. That thing that I fear from the "religious people." Those judgements, those places of being silenced, those condemning and judgmental looks, those fears were a true revealing of my own heart. I had become what I feared most from others. I was not stepping back and looking at their worship time as something that may just be their hearts cry to God. I was seeing it through my eyes and not theirs. I was passing the most judgmental look upon them and their outward appearance and seeing only the "seemingly" from my broken heart and not able to put myself in their place, (which is what I am always expecting others to do for me).

One of the things that I cherish the most about my church is the fact that we have have young and old worshiping together, in different styles, in different clothes, with different wounds, with One God. It is our belief in One God that unites us. It is our coming together to join our lives in our time of worship that unites us and gives us strength. My most precious time is my time with my family on Sunday mornings. It is my time to see that I am not alone. It is my time to hug and receive hugs from others whom I would not see on any other ordinary day. It is my time to express my gratitude to my Savior and my time to accept others in their gratitude toward Him. It is a time for my broken heart to be softened toward others who have also been wounded by the world and even by other "Christians" as well. Without those who are older than I am, who would I go to for advise? Without the young, who would offer me so much energy? It is all of us together, laying down our differences for the sake of others, that is what makes us a family.
F- forget
A- about
M- me
I- I
L- love
Y- you
I can lay down my wounds to allow you to come to your God in your way. I can set aside my fears and my misunderstandings. If I do not, it is my fault that I do not feel close to my family. If I insist on things being my way, it is my own heart that will tell on me. Then, I hope you can do the same for me. My worship style may be different from yours, but it is how my heart sings to my God. It is in those moments that I can share with you our love for Him who unites.

“The Christian faith is not a state of mind. It is not a philosophy. You become a Christian when you meet the person of Christ, when you encounter Him. When I say I know God, I am not saying that I know about Him abstractly, I know Him. I have a relationship with Him.... The certainty that comes doesn't come from the fact that my philosophical system is 100% or that I have all of my theology tied up. The certainty that I have comes from the fact that I know Whom I have trusted and I am convinced. I have a relationship with Him. So, I can speak about Him. I can explain it, and I can give it ideas, but in the end my relationship is with Him. It is not a certainty that can be found in any other religious system. All others just have someone else's ideas. Without Christ there is no Christianity(MR)...... We draw a distinction in saying we know an absolute God is not saying we know Him absolutely. There is a difference between God and us. I can know God sufficiently, truly and really, but I am not saying I know absolutes or that I know Him absolutely. That is a knowledge claim that I do not have the capacity to make, and it is not possible. I am saying that the Absolute One, the One Who does have all knowledge is capable of revealing Himself, not exhaustively, but sufficiently... and that means that Absolute Truth has made Himself known (SM).” (Fourth Presbyterian Q&A)

Crowds Chanting

Matthew 21:1-11, "A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed shouted,'Hosanna to the Son of David!' 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' 'Hosanna in the highest!' When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, 'Who is this?'"

I worked on a ranch when I was younger. I loved getting up early, feeding and catching the horses. Then being on horse back just as the sun was coming up over the horizon. It just so happened that the ranch that I worked on worked cows and sheep. The cows were my favorite. They were work, but they were fun too. The sheep on the other hand, they were just annoying. One thing that I noticed about them was that when you are herding them, they will not walk up a hill. So you have to take them the long way around the hill before you can get up it. For the straight path is much too hard at first, so around the same hill you must go, gradually gaining altitude. Something else that I noticed was that when you caught them, they just laid there. Once they were caught, the fight was over. No wonder coyotes thought they were an easy meal. They didn't go straight up a hill, even to get away from danger. And once you caught them, they just laid there never fighting again. But something both cows and sheep had in common, they both followed each other without knowing where they were going or why. As far as they knew we were going to feed them. I will put it nicely, feeding them is not what we were doing...

Many times throughout the bible we are referred to as sheep. So often we are following wherever the next breeze blows us. Instead of learning our lesson the first time, we insist that we must take the long way around the same mountain, over and over again. We will follow any crowd, never knowing what is going to happen in the end, or caring why. This is what happened when Jesus entered the city. The crowds were rejoicing, but they didn't know why. They were worshiping Christ, just because their friends were. It was like going to a game without knowing what teams were playing. Who do you rout for? Depends on what side of the stadium you enter and who your friends are routing for. You will yell and cheer, but never really having any true heart for the outcome. This is why we must carefully choose our friends, because we are sheep and we will follow them, anywhere.

Oswald Chambers, "This sense of expectation will give our life the attitude of childlike wonder He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious. In other words, we must stop using religion as if it were some kind of a lofty lifestyle-we must be spiritually real." Are you a Christian? Do you know why? Are you just flowing along, following the crowd not really knowing who your shepherd is? Or, do you see Him? Sheep that follow their Shepherd because they know and see Him are much different than sheep who blindly follow the crowd. Who are you and what are you doing here?

http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/03/29/devotion.aspx?year=2010

Religious, I Don't Think So

I felt a sting today, something that I did not see coming. Someone that I do not know yet, but they saw my profile on Face Book, addressed me as religious. I seem to always get a sour feeling within, when I am put in that mold. The last thing that I see myself as, is religious. Yes, I talk a lot about God, but religious I am not. Let me explain, if I can. Never did Christ ask us to become religious. He asked us to love Him and others around us. You see, I am not religious, but in love. How does anyone stop talking about the one they are in love with? Young girls concentrate all of their energy and conversations toward their boyfriends. If anyone asks them if they can talk about anything else, their reply is always, "but I am in love." Teenage love, how powerful, how strong. Yet, how fleeting. My love is so strong, so powerful, and lasting. My lover has found me. He called me to be His and to love Him with all of my heart. I think it would be a disgrace to Him if I did not tell others about my love for Him, but please do not confuse this love with being religious.

All of this is really still relatively new to me. This strong love walk started about 4 years ago, when I started seeking Him in the mornings. He grabbed hold of me about 8 years ago and started to change my life, but it was in my early morning hours that I started to fall in love with Him. My love walk started, with me seeking Him, after He had already caught me. Luke 11:9, “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." I knew that just going to church on Sunday mornings was not enough for me. While I need to be in the company of believers, religion was not what I needed. So I started asking Him, begging Him, to reveal Himself to me. And He did! This is when I fell in love.

My Lord, my groom, my love walks with me. He is always right beside me. Psalm 16:5-9, "Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine. The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance! I will bless the Lord who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me. I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety."

I know what this life is like without my lover, and that journey I never wish to take alone again! Psalm 18:4-6, "The ropes of death entangled me; floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path. But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from His sanctuary; my cry to Him reached His ears." You see, at just the right time, He heard me. At just the right time, He saved me. Romans 5:6,"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." At just the right time, He rescued me. So you tell me, how can I stop praising Him for all He has done for me? For He loved me first, while I was still unlovable.

As I look back on my life, my darkest hours were spent alone, without Christ cheering me on. My most glorious moments have been spent with Him walking with me, and sometimes, carrying me forward. In this body I have experience pain and pleasure, but now that I really know Him, how could I even take my next breadth alone. He is my Lover, Redeemer, Savior, My Lord. And as I look forward to all the uncertainties this life will offer, I can place my next step with confidence, because I know who is walking beside me. Thank You Lord, for loving me first, while I was still so unlovable...