I GET IT

The titles are all there on my bookshelf, in my CD collection, in my conversations with others…..”Church Without Religion, The Death of Religion, I’m not Religious, I ‘m Spiritual, I’m not Religious, I just Love the Lord.”  I understand the heart behind these sentiments because it is very much my heart.  Religion can be delegated to an external fixation, an end rather than the means.  But I also know that God made Laws and Rules for a reason.  To me they are foundations to be built on.  But I believe they are to under gird, not predominate.

I get it; but something just doesn’t feel right to me when I say these words that make Religion seem like a bad thing.  There is even a feeling that it is dangerous to throw out Religion altogether because human beings have abused it; it’s like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  It wasn’t that Religion and Religious acts were bad.  The problem came when the people continued doing them after they had forsaken God.  This made the practices empty and meaningless in the eyes of men and probably in the eyes of God.

God was serious about His Religion of Law and Prophets.  He gave them for a purpose.  Jesus began his public ministry by saying he wasn’t throwing anything out.

“For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not

One iota, nor dot, will pass away from the Law until

All is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17, 18)

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;

I have come to FULFILL them” (Matthew 5:17)

 Jesus fulfilled the Law.  He was who the Law foreshadowed and He came to give it Life and meaning.  We cannot live right without it.  We need to put it in it’s rightful place and honor its fulfillment.

If Jesus didn’t abolish or throw Religion in the form of the Law and the words of the Prophets out, we had better be careful not to do what He didn’t.

Knowing this makes me mindful of what Religion is to me.  Somehow rather that frame it as bad, empty, or meaningless, I want to see it as a foundation to under gird my faith walk with God and to go Beyond it into a Relationship with God.  So what is my sense of Religion, at least my Religion?

M Religion is what draws me into a Relationship with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, nature/creation, the ‘one another’s’ in my life, and the world.

My Religion is what cultivates and maintains those relationships.  It is those Spiritual Practices I use like tools to work on the garden of my life.

My Religion is not external applications I ‘put on’ to appear righteous to myself and to others.  It is internal assimilation and immersion into the heart of God.

My Religion is Intentional Discipleship to Jesus.  It keeps my heart, mind, and soul growing internally, keeps me invested in the Kingdom of God, and keeps me involved in what it takes to manifest that Kingdom on earth in my day and time. 

My Religion is Intentional Living the way I believe God intended me to live from the beginning of time.  It is living my faith with heart filled devotion one ordinary day at a time.

When I look at Religion that way there is no need to differentiate between being Religious of Spiritual; there is no need to frame Religion as the ‘bad guy’, and there is no sense in loving the Lord without it.