Saul
was the consummate religious person. He was “a real Hebrew if there ever was
one;” - circumcised on the eighth day, from the tribe of Benjamin, and a
Pharisee. If human efforts could have resulted in eternal life, Saul would have
had it made! Phil. 3:5
But
Paul-the-evangelist had been shown a new vision, and he reports, “I once
thought these things (religion) were valuable, but now consider them worthless
because of what Christ has done.” Phil 3:7
Nowadays,
many of our churches are still full of religion.
Dutifully, we conduct ceremonies, rituals and traditions – man’s attempts to
connect with God – when what we should really be doing is using our best
efforts to connect with the Son, to live as he lived, and to put his teachings
into practice in our lives.
You’ll
sometimes hear evangelicals say, “Throw off the religion!” Sounds confusing -
they want you to attend their church, but get rid of the religion??? What they
mean is that we should permanently set Jesus at the top of our agenda. Our
primary focus should be on the Son. Much of the rest is, after all, just
religion.
Throw off
the religion and go for a relationship!
Norton
Lawellin
Jesus in the City
Fellowship (JICF) meets at 10:30am Sunday, May 12. Pastor Daisy May Rader will
take us inside Luke 9:37-45, healing a demon-possessed boy and Jesus predicting
his death. We gather in the North end (gym) of the Oliver Ministry Building,
27th Street & Bloomington Avenue, Minneapolis. See you there!
NL
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