I am seeing a lot of these statuses lately (and it's nothing original) that are the classic, "man, I hate religion but I love Jesus..." things, and I just wanna let y'all know...
We get it!!
You're an edgy Christian, you're a free-thinker, you wanna step outside the box, you don't wanna be labeled as some "religious" guy, you wanna love Jesus in your own way without some judgemental church folk telling you what to do, you wanna drink a beer right in front of one of "those" Christians and say "well, Jesus drank", you wanna cuss because where is cussing wrong in the Bible, you wanna have your personal relationship with Jesus and not mess with the mass organized religion that is so whack, and on and on and on...
WE GET IT!!
Well, just chill out, calm down, relax, take off your "nobody understands me" hat and your "I just wanna be me" t-shirt, and lets just stop for a sec.
Is there problems with religion?
Of course there is...
Is there problems in the church that you grew up in?
Of course there is...
Are there things that drive me crazy about how so-and-so does church, or how so-and-so doesn't understand where I am coming from, or how so-and-so thinks I'm going to hell cuz I wore jeans to church, or how so-and-so thinks hymns go hand in hand with the shekinah glory of God?
Of course there are...
But how many folks out there railing on "religion" have a relationship with Jesus in the first place because of that whack religion they grew up in? How many "they don't understand me's" out there still think their grandfather or grandmother is one of the most amazing Godly men or women they've ever met? How many of you out there ripping this religious thing or that religious thing, still struggle and mess up quite a bit in your own ways?
Jesus said, "Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose."
He didn't come to abolish religion or to hate on it. He came to accomplish, what it was intended to accomplish. He came to set right, what we had failed to set right.
I just think that we all need to humbly step back for a few and realize that none of us have it figured out.
NONE of us!!
Not my grandparent's generation...
Not my parent's generation...
Not my generation...
Not the first church or the New Testament church or the Acts church or whatever we look back at and say, "I just wanna be like them cuz they had it figured out."
We all fall short...
PERIOD.
And we can try generation after generation to show the ones who came before us how wrong they are, and continue a cycle of bitterness and fighting and bickering and discord and lack of unity and on and on...
Or we can realize that Love is the Greatest Commandment, that "the greatest of these is love" and that "the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."
I just feel like this leaves little room for "hating" religion because at the end of the day, every whack, crazy, confused, misguided, judgmental, spiteful, angry person in the middle of that religion, needs the love of Jesus...
and maybe you are the only one who is going to show it to them.
Good word brother. I watched that video today and was bored and irritated by it halfway through. I love that people want to love Jesus better, I just get irritated by it when they think they can do that on their on or with their own "anti-religion" group that meets and does a lot of the same stuff "religious" churches do (like worship, give, serve, learn from the Word, etc.).
ReplyDeleteChurch and grace don't have to opposites. Yes, Jesus does say "done," as the video says. But he also says, "If you love me you will do what I command you to do." Perhaps religion does say, "do," but so does Jesus at some level. Of course, we don't "do" to get to heaven or get into God's good graces, but there must be some sort of "doing" on our part. Otherwise it's just lazy and taking grace for granted.
All that to say, good post man.
-Bo