- Life From the Hand of God
What is religion? That’s a hard one to answer because people define it in so many ways. If you look at Dictionary.com’s definitions, you’ll see a human-based system of doing what is defined in the particular religion as good. That’s religion. It’s what we got when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We get to know for ourselves. We get to know good and evil; choose the good, and reject the evil — all according to the particular set of parameters set up by our particular religion. And they’re all the same, deep down, right? Well, actually, yes. Religions all, at bottom, give us a set of rules we must follow in order to be accepted by our particular goddesses and/or gods (or god).
God had something better for us — something we didn’t choose. What would have happened (have you ever wondered?) if we had chosen the other tree? The Tree of Life? What if we had chosen to live by the life of God instead of choosing to live independently, to live our own lives and to find a way to please God on our own? To me, that’s the difference between religion and living by Jesus. If we live by Jesus’ life, we will fulfill the Law as He did and does. We won’t be perfect, but as He is matured in us; as we reflect Him from glory to glory as He changes us, we will fulfill all the law and the prophets in the law of love just as He said.
So, do we need religion? Do we need an institution? No. We need our brothers and sisters in Jesus. He told us that all men would know that we’re His disciples if we have love one for another. Today it’s hard for folks to learn how to do that. We’re used to sitting in rows, singing when told to, and receiving the nourishment offered by an overworked pastor giving us the result of his quiet time with God. What if we had our own line with God? What if we went to Him and got our own portion to share with our brothers and sisters? What if the priests — all of them — functioned as priests in bringing one another Christ?
There’s a popular Christian tune entitled, “What if His People Prayed?” I’d like to answer that with another; “What if His People Obeyed?” What if we obeyed those things He commanded and commands us to do? Jesus told the people that the work of God was to believe in the One He sent. He told His disciples (and they told us) to love one another that the world might know that He was sent by the Father. Have we done those two things? Do we really eat, take all of our nourishment, from the Tree of Life? Or are we still hooked on our own knowledge? Do we take our orders day by day from our King, or do we just do what we think is best? Do we have religion, or do we have Life?
For a balancing facet of this intricate gemstone we call Christ, please see my friend David Flowers’ latest blog post, Walking the Line: Staying Out of Theological Ditches.
Blessings, Cindy
Casting Crowns?
very nice.
I do believe that we need framework and structure. God even shows us that in the way he made the earth. But, no, rituals, we should not abide. God wants a relationship and while their is framework in relationship there is no perfect how-to manual. Well, that’s my thoughts – I could be wrong
Hey, Phillip
I suppose it depends on what you mean by a structure. After reading many books and listening to many speakers on organic church, I had the idea that people just got together and waited for God to do something. (Like the Quakers.) This was not working out for us. Maybe it worked for the Quakers because they were more committed, or maybe they had nowhere else to go, but it wasn’t working for us.
Now, having spoken personally to a number of these speakers and writers, I’ve learned that the meetings they’re talking about aren’t as completely structureless as it sounded to me. What we’ve been doing lately is taking one of the seven signs of the Messiah recorded in John and spending time with God through the week meditating on it, reading and asking Him about it, then bringing to the group what we’ve received from God. We’re trying not to study — not that studying is bad, but all of us have done a lot of studying — we’re good at that already. What we’re longing to learn is how to listen to God and know the voice of our Shepherd more intimately.
It takes a lot of learning (unlearning?) to figure out how to go out and get our own food from the Father to share with one another, but we’re making progress. If that’s the kind of structure you’re talking about, I would agree. If by structure you mean having one or two people who are responsible for feeding the rest, then that hasn’t really worked out in my experience. Sure, the people in charge urge and try to teach the others to feed themselves, but when you’re paying someone else to prepare the food for you, there isn’t a lot of motivation. And when a full meal is provided by the management, there’s never anywhere for me to share my little covered dish with the family. It would be about as welcome as bringing in my favorite casserole to a gathering being catered at a 5 star restaurant.
I hope this makes some sense to you — sometimes I worry about my comment replies.
Sometimes they look longer than the posts.
Blessings, Cindy
lol. was a bit long
but I understand
Hi Cindy,
I’m going to go out on a limb here and disagree with you. Now while I agree that the last thing the Body of Christ needs are empty rituals and laws that force us into some mold envisioned by a guy in a pointy hat, to say that we don’t need ritual entirely is doing a disservice to the generations who came before us. Rituals have meaning, they have spiritual power and potency that have, in some cases, been forgotten. But that doesn’t mean they are entirely without merit. Remember that a lot of these traditions had to begin somewhere and if we dig into them, we’ll find that they began with a handful of brothers and sisters sitting around seeking God. When they found something that worked, that helped them to touch the Divine, they passed it on. It worked so well it was passed on again and then it was preserved for endless generations and before too long some idiot who isn’t paying attention says “this is the only way to do it.” At that point religion needs to take a back seat and be moderated by the Spirit, but in the same fashion, if I hadn’t been part of an established religion, I would never have believed that Christ was my savior. Without religion I wouldn’t know the spiritual benefit of fasting, or what it means to build the Kingdom. It is the institution of faith, religion, that holds these things together for us to use to build our own spirit.
That some people are continuously spoon fed spiritual nourishment by a single overworked pastor is as much the fault of the pastor (who has most likely taken on three or more of the offices of the church) as it is the congregation. If the pastor values the coninuation of his/her paycheck more than the spiritual welfare of his/her congregation then perhaps, just perhaps it is time for that pastor to take sabbatical and re-examine his/her heart.
Hi, Seiji
Wow, thanks for going out on a limb. I like that.
Actually, though, I have no problems with meaningful rituals, whether they’re ancient or brand new, as long as they’re scriptural. (Maybe the definitions mentioned ritual? If so, I must have ignored that part.) Ritual is one of those things we relate to on a kind of mythic or instinctual level. It speaks to us at a deep, deep part of our hearts — a vital element of the story it would be sad to do without. We would be diminished by the loss of ritual.
Regarding spoon feeding the saints, I think it’s inevitable that when welfare is available, people will be crippled by its very presence. There will be the occasional person who breaks free (and often becomes a pastor), but most folks will show up for their weekly helping and then try to make it through the week to the next feeding time. That’s not the life Jesus died to give us. It’s not the pastor’s fault, and it’s not the fault of the congregants. It’s the inevitable result of the Greco Roman system we inherited.
We are all supposed to be contributing to the life of the church, and we’re supposed to be doing it in the meeting. We’re all priests and we’re all supposed to function as such, to one another, during our gatherings. Other times as well, of course, but it’s the participation in the actual meeting that’s in question here.
So I’ll stop now
. I could write a book, but there are probably enough of those.
Blessings, Cindy
Cindy,
First, thanks for stopping by my site the other day; and sorry for overlooking the need to approve your comment. It finally occured to me.
In relation to your post, I’m not sure if I enjoyed reading the post more or the comments. I wholeheartedly agree there is much to ‘unlearn’. I decided about 6 years ago to start over in my Christianity and there has been much to unlearn. You almost have to clear the hard drive for a whole new operating system.
The structural part is touchy. Jesus has established pastors and teachers for the purpose of building up the body, but I know that for some it is all they get. I think it should be more a time to prime the pump so that we go after it on our own during the week. And some do . . . but sadly many don’t.
I’m like you. I could go on and on and on. Have to stop somewhere. Might as well be here.
Mike
Hey, Mike
No problem — I figured you’d get to it eventually. And yes, the comments have been great. You’re right to say it’s a touchy subject, about the pastors and teachers. I agree that they are gifts to us from the Lord. The discussion would come in on defining what exactly a New Testament pastor was, and whether he/she bore any resemblance to what we now think of as pastors and teachers. From reading the epistles, it sounds a lot like everyone participated in most of the meetings. It’s funny. Even as a child, I wondered why the church didn’t look like that today. For so much of my life I’ve put little niggling doubts like that on the shelf as just “one of those things I’ll understand when I get to Heaven,” but honestly, I think Jesus wants us to figure this one out now. It’s time.
Blessings from Jesus, Bro,
Cindy
PS: Next time be sure to enter your website URL so people can click on your name and find you! Did you have an opportunity to do that? I haven’t yet visited my blog as a non-administrator, so I’m not sure what that looks like. I’ll have to borrow my husband’s computer this evening and try it.
Yours is the first site I’ve seen that asks for this. Somehow, I couldn’t beging to tell you how, I set mine up initially to take care of that. On most other sites, a person’s name will either show up in black lettering or green. The names in green lettering are the links to that person’s site. There is an awful lot I don’t understand about how to do certain things I see others do; I’ve settled with the basics.
Since I’ve taken the time to make this comment, I have to add one that is at least a little more significant. You said, “For so much of my life I’ve put little niggling doubts like that on the shelf as just “one of those things I’ll understand when I get to Heaven,” but honestly, I think Jesus wants us to figure this one out now. It’s time.”: that is exactly what I have been doing for the past 6 years. All those things that I had just set aside because they didn’t my experience, I now stop to wrestle them out until they do. It is soooooo, cool. It is like going from black and white to color.
Well again, gotta stop somewhere. A writer could easily just keep going.
Mike
Hi, Jon
You’re so right about that. God is good, and He’s willing to help us find these things we need to know. We just have to have the presence of mind to ask the question and go seriously looking for an answer.
Cindy you stopped by my place and left a very meaningful comment.
Thank you for taking the time.
This post is thought provoking. Thank you for writing with such honesty.
A few months ago I would have stated that I completely disagree with you but my husband and I have recently relocated to Ireland. We are nowhere close to a church and so we have been home churching for the past year. I cannot tell you how it has transformed my walk with God.
He has no longer been handed to me on a silver platter every Sunday. I have had to go looking for Him and I mean really searching.
It has been a scary and lonely and sometimes exhausting journey but it has been a very satisfying one. I understand His heart better.
Do we need structure? Yes, if it does not impede growth. Growth can only happen if we love each other.
Thanks for stopping by, Claire! Wow — what a great experience, living in Ireland. That would be so cool. I can so identify with what you said here. Once dinner stops coming in regularly, we feel the need to hunt for ourselves, but until then . . .
My favorite rant about the welfare system is that because people are given a check for $500 (or whatever amount) every month, they’ll never be motivated to go out and learn how to make $5000 every month to care for their own families and themselves. Not that people never need help, but in large part we keep people subjugated by this system. Likewise with the church. Need I say more? It isn’t easy, but finding Him for ourselves is so, so worth it.
And I believe He lets us have some lonely times, especially those of us who’ve been in the established church for too long to know the wilds. Otherwise we might go from taking a handout from a preacher to taking a handout from our brothers and sisters in the ekklesia without ever learning to hunt and gather and help to manifest Jesus to the family He gives us.
Blessings to you, Sis!
Cindy
I know I’m coming in late to this, but…
I think the idea that we don’t need organized religion is both true and false, just as the opposite is true and false.
What I mean is ideally we shouldn’t need an organization. We should all fall in love with who Christ is and proceed from there. We shouldn’t need authority as we should willingly submit and learn from each other. While I believe there will be structure in eternity, we will not have church like we have today.
At the same time, we must face the realities of a fallen world. Though an organized church isn’t the ideal, it is the tool God has chosen to aid us in reaching the ideal. For instance, you say the Bible calls us to obey. Other Christians may say, “Well I don’t interpret the Bible that way” or “Well that part of the Bible is wrong”. What recourse do you have to protect the Church when such a person begins to gain authority?
That is why we have the organized church. It is to help keep order because as sinners we are prone to chaos. It is meant to keep us accountable because as sinner we generally shuck off accountability. If we weren’t sinners then the organized church would have no need to exist.
Hi, Joel
Never too late when you’ve got something worthwhile to say.
Having denominational hierarchy hasn’t provided the church with protection against heresy. Rather, it’s magnified the heresy so that it applies to tens of thousands of people all at once, whether they agree with it or not. Those people you’re worried about have been in power for a very long time. (Not to say that all higher-ups in the organized church are heretics, but many have been.)
I don’t see at all where the organization has helped people to fall in love with Jesus. Many have, of course, but that was Jesus revealing Himself. Once you see Him . . . For me, the things I learned about Him became a decoy that kept me from figuring out how to truly KNOW Him. He finally managed to rip me away from my many false images of Him and only then was I able to begin to truly see Him.
We do need a degree of organization. We do not need human authority, though we do need guides — people who have been in Him for a long time and know the way. Just like if you were to visit us in SD, one of us would show you around. Not because we were in charge, but because we know where everything is and how to get there.
And if you want to see what a baby organic church looks like, you are welcome to visit any time you like.
Blessings, Cindy
Hi, Cindy -
Love your insights; posted yesterday as “homework” on my site.
Blessings and hope to see you soon.
In Him,
Steve
Thanks, Steve!
I’ve very honored.
Blessings, Cindy
Cindy
You said “We need our brothers and sisters in Jesus. He told us that all men would know that we’re His disciples if we have love one for another. Today it’s hard for folks to learn how to do that. We’re used to sitting in rows, singing when told to, and receiving the nourishment offered by an overworked pastor giving us the result of his quiet time with God. ”
Well said. Its frustrating for us because our relationships were formed around the IC. Once we departed from that it all changed, like we were something different now. I so hope that others can see that those that left are still the people they were when they wire in the IC. Nothing changed, we didn’t become evil or awful sinners. Its amazing how you can get shunned for believing God called you to something different.
Mike