5:25 AM
I think that "religion" is a word and a way of life that we've come to understand can be a substitute for a relationship with God. Therefore we've made sure to avoid religion at all costs.
The conference that we're attending seems to be saying, "Yes, you've got to have a relationship with Christ first, but 'religion' is not the bad thing that we've made it out to be." Religion should be the outer woking of what we have inside; it should not be a set of moral standards which we set up for ourselves, or a liturgy or a thing we observe on a special set-aside day of the week.
James 1:27 says, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."
I have a lot of opinions on why Christ-followers (starting with me) do not actually put their words into action. Some of it is pure laziness, but some of it is that our political and/or social ideals are actually challenged by the way Jesus Christ lived and the things He said. I believe many of us have rationalized our actions or made false assumptions to make Jesus' life and its plain and simple lessons fit into our preferred, increasingly complex mold.
Scary, and not something too many people would readily admit. And it's not true for everyone. I don't want you to think I'm accusing anyone.
Off to the final day of Catalyst now. I discovered that the wiry hair thing was because of the water here, not because of the shampoo or styling stuff. Haven't gotten a deep spiritual truth for that yet...
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Manga, anyone?
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[image: Serious Post Ahead warning sign]
Not my usual post, thought it needed a warning!
I was in Barnes & Noble the other day, and noticed something that ...
1 comments:
"Haven't gotten a deep spiritual truth for that yet..." - it's not necessarily deep, nor necessarily spiritual, but perhaps it's a reminder that things aren't always what they seem. Perhaps the waiter who's not giving you the attention you deserve has some serious unobservable personal issues... once upon a time we had a horrible experience at a local restaurant, and in fact our waiter left before we were even halfway through with our meal. The overall service was terrible that night. However, the waiter's sister (or perhaps wife, it's been a while and I don't recall for sure), who had serious medical problems (cancer of some sort, I think), had been admitted to the ER shortly after he'd come on shift that evening, and the restaurant was already short-staffed, and his concerns were obviously with his sister instead of his customers. I know I'm guilty of judging without knowing the circumstances way too often (you'd mentioned the "judging" thing in your Charlie Brown post already, so I'll not go any more into that, other than to say we (at least I) should be careful to follow the advice in James 1:19 and ensure that my thoughts are in line with the way a "Christian" should be thinking (that is, the way Christ would think); perhaps I should expand the "slow to speak" to "slow to think" and the "slow to anger" to "slow to form opinions" (similar to Jesus' equating attitudes with actions in Matthew 5).
Ok, enough for now... enjoying your Blog, Dean!
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