No More Religion

Mark 11 depicts a sequence of events regarding Jesus and the religious officials of the day. The chief priests, scribes and elders were once again following Jesus and questioning Him. They were getting anxious to catch Him doing something wrong and hoping they could arrest Him. Clearly, they were threatened by his influence.

In verse 28 they asked Him, "By what authority are you doing these things?"  

What 'things' they were speaking of. He had been traveling, teaching, and healing. They didn't question his teachings or find fault with them. Instead, they were upset by the way He carried himself, with an air of authority. What right did he have to teach in their temple? He didn't have a rank or title and yet, people were listening to Him. 

These were men that cherished their titles and all the perks that came with them. The chief priest was was born in the family of Levi and had an impeccable genealogy. It was an exclusive position that very few were qualified to attain.  

Jesus showed up and challenged the importance they placed on titles and positions. He refused to defer to their man-made rules and restrictions, especially those that were created through distorting the truth of the scripture.  

For example, they focused heavily on how people ought to behave on the Sabbath. Twice, Jesus went into the temple and and healed on the Sabbath.  He could have done that any of the other six days, but he chose to use this as an example. 

It's easy to trust in the rules and structure that religion offers. We can follow the steps laid out and have a false sense of security about our standing with God. "I attend church, give to the offering, say grace before I eat, and I have read the new testament. I'm OK."  

Jesus challenged us to look beyond the religious format and into the intent of the scripture. There is a much deeper meaning beyond the set of rules that people tend to ascribe to being a Christian.  

I encourage you today to DIG DEEPER, challenge your religious thinking, and seek the heart of Jesus.  

Dangerous Comparisons

I'm currently working on a new book that tackles a very serious topic, hypocrisy and corruption in ministry.  It's a tough subject, but I am committed to producing a an engaging story with some thought provoking circumstances. Most of all, I want to bring God's truth to the topic. 

Today, I was writing some dialogue between two characters. They were discussing a few examples of church leaders who publicly failed, making all Christians look bad in the process. The main character made this statement: 

"All Christians have to decide what level of commitment they are willing to live. If we spend our time comparing ourselves to others, we will always find someone performing better and someone not doing as well.  We can use that to excuse our bad behavior or we can aspire to be better."

This is so true. It's not helpful to spend our time focusing on how everyone else behaves.  There will always been Christians who are more or less committed that you are.  It's never a good idea to gauge our own behavior based on the observations of others.  

Almost every non-Christian I've ever talked with with cite the hypocrisy in the church members as one of the reasons they don't want to be a part of it. As a believer, this pains my heart. I don't believe anyone is intentionally acting hypocritically. Christians are judged harder and their actions are  reviewed with much greater intensity.  I'm not sure that is fair. 

My encouragement to non-believers is to base their faith decisions on Jesus and the bible and not on imperfect people who fail just like anyone else.  Instead of waiting for the perfect Christian before you make a commitment to God, focus on Jesus.  He's the only one that got it 100% right.