Faith and Religion
I just deleted a reflection that I spent quiet a bit of time writing. The reason I deleted it is because I found myself caught up in the frustrations of which I was speaking. It has always been my goal in life to be of good cheer and spread a positive word and smile no matter what my day is like. I will admit that is not always a good thing because as many know there are people that love to take advantage of what is perceived to be a weakness.
This morning let me share a simple thought. Lately I have been writing about faith and religion. I have had many people write me with varying opinions on both. Some say that you cannot have faith without religion and some say that it is impossible to have true faith with religion. I will avoid that argument because it is one that has no right answers.
What I want to focus on are the people out there that feel left behind. The man or woman that you work with that for whatever reason has no interest in your new found love for Jesus. They end up labeled as non caring or non Christian. How about the person you went to church with and suddenly they changed and took their family to another place of worship. Did you create positive or negative thoughts about that? The same thing can be said about people that fall away from church and no one seems to care.
I had a lady tell me that the "church goers" as she called them think they are doing everything right and everyone else has it wrong. The feel justified in keeping the contamination out of the congregation. I just read where the fastest growing faith group are those people that have left organized religion. Is it because of the people in the churches or what the churches stand for. Obviously the happy ones in the church will gladly share their opinion of why the one's that left or never go have it wrong. But do they? Let's assume for a moment that the one's that have been cast out, left behind, or simply walked away really have it right.
What do you do that would make people want to follow you to a place of worship? Moving forward ask yourself this question, what do you do that makes people want to stay where you lead them to worship? As the so called Christian community of which I claim to belong I am not sure we have done a good enough job expressing the true desires of Christ. Instead we commercialize and modernize things to the point that the real message has gotten diluted.
It might be time to put aside our differences and prejudices and seek the peace lovers that for whatever reason have found that organized religion creates more division than it does healing. I will close with one of my favorite stories in the Bible. You know the one where the shepherd leaves the 99 for the sake of the one. When that role is reversed and we cater to the money of the masses then we miss the message Christ was trying to share. I am not and never will be opposed to religion. I enjoy my church. I just want everyone to know that Christ has messengers inside the walls as well as outside. So before you cast a spell of judgement on someone please know that you may be casting a stone at Christ himself.
Peace and love is the answer
Dale
This morning let me share a simple thought. Lately I have been writing about faith and religion. I have had many people write me with varying opinions on both. Some say that you cannot have faith without religion and some say that it is impossible to have true faith with religion. I will avoid that argument because it is one that has no right answers.
What I want to focus on are the people out there that feel left behind. The man or woman that you work with that for whatever reason has no interest in your new found love for Jesus. They end up labeled as non caring or non Christian. How about the person you went to church with and suddenly they changed and took their family to another place of worship. Did you create positive or negative thoughts about that? The same thing can be said about people that fall away from church and no one seems to care.
I had a lady tell me that the "church goers" as she called them think they are doing everything right and everyone else has it wrong. The feel justified in keeping the contamination out of the congregation. I just read where the fastest growing faith group are those people that have left organized religion. Is it because of the people in the churches or what the churches stand for. Obviously the happy ones in the church will gladly share their opinion of why the one's that left or never go have it wrong. But do they? Let's assume for a moment that the one's that have been cast out, left behind, or simply walked away really have it right.
What do you do that would make people want to follow you to a place of worship? Moving forward ask yourself this question, what do you do that makes people want to stay where you lead them to worship? As the so called Christian community of which I claim to belong I am not sure we have done a good enough job expressing the true desires of Christ. Instead we commercialize and modernize things to the point that the real message has gotten diluted.
It might be time to put aside our differences and prejudices and seek the peace lovers that for whatever reason have found that organized religion creates more division than it does healing. I will close with one of my favorite stories in the Bible. You know the one where the shepherd leaves the 99 for the sake of the one. When that role is reversed and we cater to the money of the masses then we miss the message Christ was trying to share. I am not and never will be opposed to religion. I enjoy my church. I just want everyone to know that Christ has messengers inside the walls as well as outside. So before you cast a spell of judgement on someone please know that you may be casting a stone at Christ himself.
Peace and love is the answer
Dale
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