Jesus and Religion
The last few days my Facebook has gone crazy with the topic of Jesus and religion and at the risk of making myself vulnerable, I am going to throw in my two cents.
I know that religion does not exclusively mean Christianity. Any group of people that have common beliefs about life and living are a religion, regardless of what title we put to it.
Personally, when I think of religion, I think of obedience, rules, laws and rigidness. I do not think of structure or discipline or prayer or worship.
As a type-A, rule following, task oriented person, the rules of religion made me focus on my ability to 'to do' things. I would base God's acceptance of me on how well I did. So if I did something good, God was pleased with me. But when I messed up and did not do the right thing (according to the rules) then I would be consumed with guilt. My guilt would cause me to avoid God because I was not good enough.
Notice that love was not part of my religious walk with God.
In the course of my personal walk with Jesus and time spent reading my Bible and thinking about what it says, I have learned that my relationship with Jesus Christ is free of the laws that were mandated by the Old Covenant. I am free of the rules of religion in order to explore the wealth of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.
On the other hand, there are many people who are not like me (my husband is one of them). They are not type-A personalities that get tangled up in following the rules. Discipline is more of a challenge for these people and they need the rules to help them stay on course.
Perhaps, each of us, as uniquely made people in the image of God, by God, need to find our own balance of religion and relationship.
Perhaps, we should stop drawing lines in the sand with our 'one way fits all approach' and instead focus on accepting each other in the same way that Jesus accepts us.
Perhaps, we should stop creating divisions with our personal beliefs and focus more on our unity as sons and daughters of God through Jesus Christ.
Perhaps, we should learn to embrace our differences like we do our similarities.
Perhaps, we should live God first.
Heidirn
I know that religion does not exclusively mean Christianity. Any group of people that have common beliefs about life and living are a religion, regardless of what title we put to it.
Personally, when I think of religion, I think of obedience, rules, laws and rigidness. I do not think of structure or discipline or prayer or worship.
As a type-A, rule following, task oriented person, the rules of religion made me focus on my ability to 'to do' things. I would base God's acceptance of me on how well I did. So if I did something good, God was pleased with me. But when I messed up and did not do the right thing (according to the rules) then I would be consumed with guilt. My guilt would cause me to avoid God because I was not good enough.
Notice that love was not part of my religious walk with God.
In the course of my personal walk with Jesus and time spent reading my Bible and thinking about what it says, I have learned that my relationship with Jesus Christ is free of the laws that were mandated by the Old Covenant. I am free of the rules of religion in order to explore the wealth of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.
On the other hand, there are many people who are not like me (my husband is one of them). They are not type-A personalities that get tangled up in following the rules. Discipline is more of a challenge for these people and they need the rules to help them stay on course.
Perhaps, each of us, as uniquely made people in the image of God, by God, need to find our own balance of religion and relationship.
Perhaps, we should stop drawing lines in the sand with our 'one way fits all approach' and instead focus on accepting each other in the same way that Jesus accepts us.
Perhaps, we should stop creating divisions with our personal beliefs and focus more on our unity as sons and daughters of God through Jesus Christ.
Perhaps, we should learn to embrace our differences like we do our similarities.
Perhaps, we should live God first.
Heidirn
Comments
Post a Comment