Religion

What I am about to share here I know will be a bitter pill for many to swallow, but the truth is that outside of Christ it is ALL religion - period!
Every time I hear either from my own mouth or from so many others using terms such as “organized religion” “institutional church” or others, what I keep hearing is folks simply describing mere symptoms of the problem which is in my opinion religion.

Too many are still seeing the “institutional church” to be their enemy when in fact it is merely a shadow of an entity that has successfully hidden and disguised itself within this outer expression of smoke and mirrors. The father of all lies, and religion being but an expression of those lies, is what has beguiled the entire world. Scriptures report that the whole world lies under the (influence) power of the wicked one, Satan.

Without eyes to see the truth of an impetus behind empowering ideologies, doctrines and teachings of philosophy, etc. we will keep shadow-boxing at best. But, if we by God’s spirit begin to recognize that any and all ensnarement comes by adhering to and imbibing from a commingled message, one of grace mixed with (religion) law then we are seeing beyond shifting shadows.

I love how Jesus exposed the real source of corruption and entanglement when he warned his disciples NOT about the Pharisees, but of the LEAVEN of the Pharisees, and to further elucidate this point I want to say this: that it would be so easy to mistake what Jesus said regarding the leaven. It was not a building or a teaching exclusive to a small demographic known as the Pharisees, but in my opinion Jesus was making it undeniably clear that this ‘leaven’ is in us ALL!

According to scriptures we, the re-birthed have been “translated out of the kingdom of darkness and been transferred into our Father’s family of love”.
We have been made one with a Life that is totally foreign to the world we were all born into; it is that which was made available to Adam and Even in the Garden represented in the Tree of Life, and in choosing to imbibe in ‘knowledge’ vs life, they didn’t loose anything, they of their free choosing forfeited that privilege instead.

There is no longer any corruption or toxic contamination within the real you and me, we have been made whole and complete in becoming one with God our Father in our spirit union, but, within our flesh which includes our soul and body the hideous parasite of sin that covertly and insidiously works to try to keep us from seeing and knowing the experiential reality of His incorruptible and indestructible life from being “fully formed” in us as us! The Matrix of religion has a motto much like the Borg from the TV series Star Trek the Next Generation, “resistance is futile, and you will be assimilated.”
The invasiveness of His life has present tense, freed us from the power of sin and death, this holy (wholly) and righteous infection is slowly infecting and affecting more and more of the rest of us that so desperately needs His saving keeping grace.
I see it being so much more than simply being changed; it is a continuous ongoing transformation.

Rich