Rules, Religion, and BS

To the furious masses and those who are significantly dissapointed that there's been no new material posted in weeks... Firstly, I apologize and secondly, if you think your going to be impressed by whats to come, another apology, and here's a picture from Patagonia - I digress.

"Religion is the default human mindset."

Here's the good news: Nothing you do (or withold from doing) will please God and make Him love you more. The amount of times you say no to a drink, don't get drunk, say no to weed, decide not to go to a party, resist a temptation, read your Bible, attend a Bible study, go to church, pray, listen to christian music, don't listen to "bad" music, etc, will not and does not make you more righteous, more loved by God, or more precious in His sight. He loves you regardless of what you've done, are doing, and will do...

Often, what we do to ourselves is set out our line of rules, that we think lines up with how God wants us to live, or how we think we should live our lives, and we make it our goal to follow them out to perfection - resisting where we've set to resist and doing what we've set to do. Here's the problem: One, are your "rules" biblical? or do you make them up cause they sound nice, i.e. don't be like Eve (See Genisis 3:3 where she adds to God's command) and Secondly, life (nor christianity) is about following rules, that's not Jesus - It's religion, it's idolizing your progress, it's putting your goals (made-up or not) first in the priority list and striving "after wind" to complete them. Welcome to another form of idolatry. Your check-list, or life's progress-chart, is not what the Gospel is about.

A friend once told me an inspiring story that ended with this line: "Religion will kill you."

Your life is about about loving God and being loved by Him, living your life for Him. Summed in one word: Relationship. The God of the universe loves you.

Ecclesiastes 11:9 - "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let yor heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things, God will bring you into judgement."

There is infinite freedom in Christ, or as Augustine put it: "Love God and do what you please."

Here's a short illustration (from a sermon I heard) to prove the silliness of religion: A friend is part of a certain Jewish sect who has created a rule that states: On the sabbath day you are not permitted to travel more than a distance of 1 mile...unless you are over water. This rule stands because if you were at sea it would be impossible to judge the distance you've travelled as the ocean is constantly moving, etc. So, this friend, in an effort to abide by this rule (religion) that was laid down, travels on the sabbath, in his car, miles and miles, with a bottle of water underneath his seat. (Travelling "over water".) Crafty isn't he. I know God's probably thinking..."man...that guy sure got me on that one."

No, that's not God's rule, it's man-made religion.

Examine your own life and see if you can find the bottle of water underneath your seat. (There's always half-empty water bottles floating around my truck...maybe you have some too.)

You're loved.

And Jessica, you're beautiful.