Religion

P 2208 Walking with Jesus = REST.

/ DVH

Matthew 11:28-30 says: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Hubby and I go away at least a couple of times a year on our bible trips. What we do when we go away sounds like work … but it isn’t to us. We do what we do from His rest. So what does that mean? We go where He says to go and speak to the people He picks out. We’ve learnt to live with our spiritual ears and eyes open and we trust Him to make our paths straight. 

We’ve also learnt to let Him choose what happens, and when. Walking with Him in this way is amazing. We have been sent to people we didn’t know, in places we’ve never ever been before. We both love to choose to stand back and let Him move. Out there, with non-believers, is His favourite place to be!  He’s a shepherd, and a true shepherd wouldn’t dream of walking away from any of His sheep. Jesus loves to go after the lost ones! 

Did you notice that the verse above said “burned out on RELIGION?” Religion uses compulsion, guilt, punishment and shame, to motivate. Unfortunately that stuff produces works, and works produce resentment, comparison, despair and jealousy. That’s the wrong production line! (Galatians 5:22&23)  But when we walk with Him, this life is an adventure – it is never predictable. We’ve found the Lord’s attention to detail is astounding. I always tell people that we just follow the prompts. We are no longer motivated by a desire to get things right – we are motivated by a desire to do what He tells us to do. (John 2:5) And sometimes that happens on the spot!

This means we’ve learnt to listen and follow His instructions – and He always gets the glory. Jesus says: “…walk with Me and work with Me.” This shows us the Lord never intended for us to be spiritually idle – or ALONE. Anyone can live in and from His rest, every single day, even while we are doing whatever is in front of us. You just keep your heart open to whatever He might say or want, and then obey Him. 

So, how did the Lord Jesus rest and still work?  He ‘only did what He saw His Father doing.’ This means Jesus kept His spiritual eyes on His Father. Now, because of Jesus, we have a highly personal guidance system inbuilt in our beings – the Holy Spirit! We need Him like we need air – He is not just some happy feelings or goose bumps while we are worshipping in church or at home. He’s outside in this world, sitting beside a dirty smelly homeless person or a broken hearted mother. And He wants to get our attention!

A young man we knew years ago was part of that church’s ministry team. One year, he left the Christmas service, almost at the beginning, prompted by the Holy Spirit, and he went outside. There were literally loads of street kids hanging about outside the church. He took out his phone and asked them: “Who would like to call Mum or Dad, or someone at home for Christmas?” Many of the kids said ‘yes,’ and he gave them his phone and stood there with them while God reunited these kids with their caregivers. It took hours.

Now here’s the miracle. Those kids called people all over the country, so his cell phone bill was bound to be astronomical!  He was just an ordinary guy and he didn’t have loads of money, but he did what he did in faith, because the Lord prompted Him to do it. Eventually, the time came for the bill to arrive. But the charges were not on the statement. So he went and called his telecommunication server to check because he knew he must owe them money. However, when they carefully checked the date, nothing was there – at all. He never ever received a bill for what would have amounted to hundreds of dollars.

My story about this brother had a sad ending, he was rebuked by the leadership for leaving the Christmas church service that day. Today, he is no longer serving Jesus. What a tremendous gift we lost because religion and works got in the way! God’s Grace can be learnt, even though it has unforced rhythms. (Matthew 11:20-30) It is not rigid, it flows toward people with needs. It is far more like water than ice!  His Grace is not designed to be controlled … it is meant to be let loose! You might want to think on that. 👋🏻

P 2175 The treasures of redemption.

/ DVH

“Since we are now joined to Christ, we have been given the treasures of redemption by His blood—the total cancellation of our sins—all because of the cascading riches of His grace.”Ephesians1:7 TPT

I have a passion for words, so I’d rather read a really good book than watch some dumb thing on TV! Today those words in Ephesians …’cascading riches’ … caught my attention. When I hear that phrase, I can immediately see Niagara Falls in my mind’s eye. Hubby and I stood beside that magnificent wonder once, watching tons of water succumbing to gravity … endlessly. It was a force of nature like nothing else I have ever seen. The water just roared over the edge. The sheer power of so much water endlessly moving, falling down to smash on the rocks, just took my breath away. 

We also went on one of the boat tours, the ones that go right up to the bottom of the falls. Man what a rush! I was standing next to a tiny little Asian girl, who was nearly blown away by the power of all that falling water hitting the rocks and river below. I had to gently put my hand on her shoulder … she very nearly achieved lift-off! 😂 Wow! Seeing that particular waterfall was such a memorable experience – it was inspirational. Now, when I think of His love, I think of those falls. It blows my mind, every single time. 

These words in Ephesians 1 describe how rich, how wealthy and more-than-we-could-ever-ask-or understand, in LOVE, redemption, and passion our Lord is. Much, much more than we can ever imagine.  When we came to know Christ and recognised Who He is, we stepped into a passionate endless river of love – and we get to jump off the edge with Him daily, in our own private waterfall. Plus, because of our decision to follow Him, we are now part of Him as well as each other – we are all a part of something so much bigger than our little lives.

From now on we have something we’ve all dreamed about – endless unconditional love. The Precious Holy Spirit looked through time and saw each one of us, standing there covered in the muck and bad choices of our lives in this world and then He came after us and washed us all clean in that river. Love was on His mind. 

I don’t know about your life before Christ, but mine was a total washout before I met Him.  Even though I was married and had two gorgeous little girls, and all that I thought I wanted … I was not happy. Life did not turn out the way I thought it would. I certainly knew very little about the sacrifices of love. So I was vastly under- prepared for the kind of human love that quickly turns into endless daily routine. But one day the Lord Jesus came along and interrupted that life, and offered me a chance to live differently. He asked me to live for Him, because He came here once and lived for me, long ago. This life became an adventure – with good bits and bad ones. However it was not ever boring again!

Before that day, I’d tried religion … many, ma-n-y kinds! My sole parent dragged me with them into some really weird things. But as I got older I realised the stuff I had experienced was pure religious hypocrisy, and so eventually, I walked away from all of it. I found out that there was nothing there to hold my heart. But the minute I met Jesus I knew immediately. HE. IS. REAL. He taught me a different, lasting kind of love that involves sacrifice. Redemption is a treasure that cost Almighty God everything, He sacrificed all He had and we cannot take that gift for granted. 

Personally, I think that when redemption becomes habitual, and not a great source of joy, it leads to traditional religion. That sort of religion sucks all the joy out of loving God, and shrinks relating to Him down to a series of unobtainable obligations and rules. It overwhelms people and numbs them. Either they hide who they really are – or they get so enamoured by the rules and regulations and run about trying to control everyone within the sound of their voice. Neither of those things even remotely look like the redemption Christ died to give us. He died to restore our relationship with our Heavenly Father. 

Jesus’ kind of redemption always leaves us free to accept or reject Him. He gives us choices. The downside of those choices is … we can easily end up part-time Christians … if we want to live like that. The Lord of all,  Jesus Christ, allows us to choose our own rate of growth – how amazing. The sad thing about that way to live is that every second we spend in this life living for ourselves is a second we freely give away to something that cannot last! However when we allow His complete redemption into our lives, He will transform us from self-centred, bigoted, controlling, weak human beings into loving, compassionate people with the strength to serve others daily, gladly. Transformation through redemption sounds like treasure to me.  👋🏻 

P 2160 Avoid religion.

/ DVH

2 Timothy 1:12 “…for I know Him [and I am personally acquainted with Him] whom I have believed [with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in the truth of His deity], and I am persuaded [beyond any doubt] that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him until that day [when I stand before Him].”  We need a God Who is wiser, more loving, and more incredible than we can imagine or think. Not a God Who obeys us!  I’m talking about THE God Who made heaven and earth!

Sadly, religion demands rules. We feel we must keep the rules, and steadfastly teach others to keep them, either actively or through disapproval. Religion has to have programs, agendas and numbers to prove its validity. Religion often uses fear and control. However, the Holy Spirit loves to start with just one person and Himself and call that a majority. Religion is not a fit container for the God of the Universe – He chose US, human beings, to be His PIPELINES OF LOVE into this world. The equalising and revelatory question in any given situation is – IS THIS LOVE? If it is not love, then it is not God.

You and I can always experience His love as it is spoken to us, from His word. The secret is to let His word minister to you. Don’t just agree with it … deliberately take it in. Act on it. Particularly those verses the Holy Spirit highlights to you, personally. Treat them like He is there, beside you, speaking them to you. Sadly, today in the body of Christ we feel we must shove our experiences onto someone else. Our God is so generous, He treats people as individuals. Experiences aren’t merit badges – they are for His purposes. 

Humanity has been given the opportunity to leave methods and systems behind, when Christ came and instituted a new commandment. ‘Love God … love each other.’  Over time, I’ve sometimes found that like-minded people like to club together, so they can agree. Then agreement becomes the priority not worship.That’s a great shame – when we always agree, we remain unchallenged in our beliefs, and stretching our faith is good for us. Romans 14:4: “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand…”  

Religion likes clones. One size fits all! But a living faith seeks to actively love each other in ways that build one another up so we all grow. BTW that does not exclude correction. Today’s world hates that word. Instead, we all must be politically correct, so everybody has to be seen as right – believers, non-believers… Respecting someone else’s right to be wrong is almost law. Meanwhile God could care less about being politically correct. His standards are already perfect – He’s too busy laughing at our silly ideas to care what we think we know! Psalm 2:4: “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.”

Religion is man’s way of trying to manage God. James tells us that true religion is looking after widows and orphans. What a difference that would make! Humanity does not want to have a God Who colours outside their specific lines. Especially not a God Who would send His Son as an infant, to die for everyone! Instead, they want to put animals on the same level as human beings. You often hear people say: “Oh I could never follow a God Who does … this and that … “ These people want a god they can understand, someone they can judge for his actions. They think by critiquing His work they can change Who He is. Lately I’ve even heard people who were so deluded they gave their god a female pronoun! Rhubarb. Religion wants a god who has to answer to us so we can just obey the rules and then walk away, and live this life however we want.

Walking with the Holy Spirit is our calling. In order to get along with each other, we ALL need HIM. HE is not a series of symptoms or signs that we use to diagnose who is in and who is out. They will know we are Christians by our love not by speaking in tongues or prophesying. Sadly I think we may have wa-ay too many people who know everything, and too few that actually, reverently, live that way instead. 👋🏻