There is a concept which is very popular in the organized church, its called covering.  Usually, the question goes, “who’s your covering?” in other words, “who are you accountable to?”  It’s not necessarily an improper question but can lead to oppressive attempts to control brothers and sisters in the body.  Such control is truly one of the main factors in our departure from the institutional church.

The body of Christ is to be made up of brother and sisters living together in unity following our Head, Jesus as He guides us by the Holy Spirit.  This model is by nature messy because it includes humans, we are quite imperfect at hearing and following the leading of the Spirit.  We must have examples of godly men and women who’ve gone on before us down this path and can help us along the way.

So we come to the conundrum.  We have a Head, Jesus alone is the Head of the Church, His body here on earth.  We also need examples of successful followers of the way.  Into this problem the human organization of the institutional church has stepped.  This requires much prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit to discern what all is going on in the local body and that it is in line with the true Gospel of grace.

It may take some amount of time associating with a particular church (local expression of the body) to determine how closely they are following Jesus and what their particular bent to the Gospel is.  Churches can operate in various modes and be well within the guidelines of Scripture.  So we as individual believers must listen carefully to the witness of the Holy Spirit about the situation.

I know this is not a clear answer, but it is a call to maturity.  We are each responsible to Jesus to follow Him with our whole being.  To do that well we must continue to grow daily in our fellowship with Him.

We live life on a path which has many branches. They lead us upward, downward and even just sideways. Each choice of direction sets up the next. Just like physics says a box in motion tends to continue in that same direction we get bent towards the path we choose. Like the verse which tells parents to train up a child in the way he should go and that will set them on the path of righteousness.

However our choices can lead to great endings or horrible ones. It is so much easier to continue on the path of righteousness when we have a foundation of godliness. Likewise the path of doom is a self fulfilling spiral like a whirlpool with a slippery slope surrounding it.

Then there’s also the sideways trails which lead to repetitive motion ever leading nowhere effectively. These go around and around the mountain of life bringing frustration and eventually leading us, exhausted, to crossroads where we must go up or down realizing the utter failure of this way. These paths are most dangerous because of the vexation they bring to the whole journey.

The good news is that at any time in our journey we can choose to turn off that downward trail and rejoin the upward path which we were destined for. It is amazing that if we simply turn Jesus is right behind us with open arms. Once we follow Him the path upward becomes one of ever increasing joy and fulfillment.

Heb 10:22  We are free to approach him with absolute confidence, fully persuaded in our hearts that nothing can any longer separate us from him. We are invited to draw near now! We are thoroughly cleansed, inside and out, with no trace of sin’s stains on our conscience or conduct. The sprinkled blood purges our inner thought-patterns; our bodies also are bathed in clean water.  (Our behavior bears witness to this.)

Remind yourself of this daily. Sin no longer has any rights to rule our lives. We are able to walk above the lower nature by the power of the Spirit of life not by some personal effort.  Our “effort” in this life is to believe and lay hold of our redeemed state.   Putting our faith and trust in Jesus’ finished work.  Our work is a work of faith, not human strength or willpower both of those will always let us down.  But Jesus paid for it all and will never let us down.

Life requires a goal. We must have an objective to keep our souls moving toward. I recently heard a retired man say he was “learning to live with no purpose” and thought, that can’t be right! I understand the sentiment as I’ve now crossed that “finish line” of retirement myself as well. But something deep inside me rebelled against those words. I can’t just let go of purpose and wander aimlessly across the River Styx.

Yet what goal is appropriate at this stage of life? Becoming educated and proficient in a lucrative skill, finding a good wife, raising up children and doing my best to provide for them all, are all in the rear view mirror. Life has to mean more than just doing what all the retirees are doing; pickleball, beer and golf just don’t sound like that much fun as a life goal.

This passage from a book I’m reading was particularly challenging:
Whatever occupies our attention whatever we are conscious of, however briefly is thus something elevated for the moment to the highest place, celebrated and worshipped, whether we know it or not.
Jordan Peterson “We who wrestle with God”

While survival itself is a worthy pursuit, my inner man tells me there must be more. In our little town in Mexico, life is much more about survival as opposed to the excessive consumption of the States. Life is truly simpler here and that has brought the relentless pursuit of our Lord Jesus into clearer focus for me. What better goal than to know Him more and follow His clear voice.

Let that pursuit be my goal and yours too if you choose to join me. He’s our ultimate destination!

How blessed is the one who receives a receipt instead of an invoice for their sins. Romans 4:8 (Mirror Bible)

An invoice is a record of a debt which must be paid.
A receipt is the proof one has when a debt has been paid off.

Are we in a state of still owing debt since the Cross? Did Jesus not pay the full price of our redemption?
Is there still some work we must do to pay off our debt of sin?

Religion says yes! You must do penance to remediate your fallen estate. There are specific prescribed actions you must take to make amends. You are hopelessly lost in your sinful state unless you follow all the rules and do all the things. The bill (invoice) must be paid in full.

But Jesus, says I paid the full price of your redemption and I’ve already given you a receipt signed in my blood. We are released from the burden of our sin debt. That whole deal has been settled and our job is to share the good news that the cross was for everyone.

We are free from the bondage of the sin and guilt that fuels the religious system.

Salvation what is it?

Is it a simple transaction, where we say the special prayer and boom we get our ticket stamped so we get into heaven and miss the fires of hell?  Now it doesn’t matter whatever else we do, we got in and all the others are on the outside.   Our only obligation is to get others to make that same transaction.

Is it a transformational experience that completely rocks your world.  Yes, it has a starting point where we come to the realization that Jesus accomplished our salvation apart from our efforts.   And this beginning for us merely marks a point from which we should grow daily in our desperate love for the One who’s set us free.   We are never to be the same.  

For me, it was presented ad the first method.  With all the hellfire and burning judgement to scare me into saying that prayer.  I never got a hold of that version from the people who witnessed to me.  I was too blinded by the allure of the world to want to set it all aside.  But when I was exposed to the love of Jesus demonstrated by some friends who just loved me as-is the overwhelming grace of God was like a magnet drawing me back into his arms.  It was indeed a total transformation which has continued day by day.

Religion thrives on two lies, distance and delay!

Religion assumes that god is either a distant being who has little concern for his creation or a group of gods merely playing a game. He’s in no hurry to intervene in the affairs of men. Humans were left here to figure this whole life thing out on our own. We can come up with our own methods to reach out to him. It doesn’t matter too much how we go about that as there are many paths and truthfully they all look to be very similar. 

We look at the circumstances around us and find ways that seem to appease the deity or maybe even deities. There’s no real relationship other than that. Appease the angry gods so that they’ll bless us as a reward or maybe just let up in the torment they appear so eager to inflict. The gods are quite removed from our experience, just sort of watching from the stands not willing to interact with the players on the field. 

The good results are always delayed from our perspective and the bad results continue on long after the perceived offense.   This lends proof to the perceived aloofness of the deities, it really appears they are just playing with us on the game board of this planet. 

All of this gives fuel to the engine of Religion and its relentless pursuit of appeasement.  The soul crushing burden of figuring out all the rules and then living in a way that somehow satisfies the system. 

But Jesus……

He came to demonstrate the Father’s love for us and His deep desire for close relationship with the whole of humanity.   Run from religion and into the arms of our father who’s been waiting and watching for us to return to Him. 

Faith celebrates what is certain what hope visualizes as future. Yes Faith is the full grown fruit of hope. We hope for things that would be good or blessings. For evil to be vanquished or bad times to cease. It is the fuel which keeps man going at his basic nature. But true faith is the out growth of hope fueled by the knowledge of our great savior.

Faith comes when we are fully convinced of our hopes and dreams. When by the assurance of Jesus’ finished work on the cross we know without doubt that our trust in His promises is sure. That’s true faith, not just some super duper wish but a rock solid knowing that what He told us would come to pass is an absolute certainty.

Hope is the seed in the garden of our faith.

Let’s think about what accomplishes the greatest results for the Lord.

Is it a massive gathering together that makes things happen?  Does it really work to get as many “prayer warriors” as you can on your prayer chain.  Does the solemn assembly shake the gates of hell just because of the massive number of participants?

What do we see in the Bible.

Israel was unanimous in their decision to believe the ten spies who brought an evil report of the promised land.  That decision cost them 40 years in the wilderness where their bodies littered the sands.

Only two, Joshua and Caleb, had the courage to believe the Lord’s promises and they were only ones in their generation who conquered the promised land. 

This scenario is repeated again and again where the Lord sent a deliverer who stood up in divine courage and lead the children of Israel into the victory the Lord had promised.  David, Joshua, Caleb, Ehud, Gideon, Samson and on and on….

Mighty men of Valor

Not mighty men of unity

It is the valor of the courageous ones that inspire the masses to join in to the unity and make a movement not the other way around. 

Define Scandalous:

Disgraceful; shameful or shocking; improper
Dictionary.com

Making people shocked and upset
Oxford Cambridge dictionary

In a world filled with religions there are so many rules like;

• Don’t eat this, don’t do that, say this prayer, read this holy book
• Make this pilgrimage, observe this holiday, fast from this or that
• You must be ashamed of yourself and pay penance for your sins
• Follow what the holy man says, he understands how this stuff works
• Do not question the system

After all, God sits on the throne in heaven with a bucket of lightning bolts, just waiting to execute judgement on you when you mess up.  He’s been angry with the sinful world ever since Eve gave Adam that apple to eat.

That’s not what Jesus talked about as he walked the hills and valleys of Israel and taught the multitudes sitting on the hillsides and seashore. He ridiculed the whole idea of religion and its impossible requirements to attain favor from the Holy One.  Works, works, works, endless futile works to acquire enough brownie points to make the grade and somehow “make it into heaven”.

The paths of religion are as many and varied as man’s imagination, but all end in the same frustration.  We just can’t be good enough, even though we try so hard.  We even compare ourselves to others who are “more evil” than us to prove that we will get a pass and make it past those pearly gates.

The scandal is that Jesus came to tell us that we don’t have to try to be good enough, because He knows its not possible.  Through His overwhelming love for us He has already made us “good enough”.  He took all our sins and evil into Himself on the cross and carried them away as far as the east is from the west.

The Gospel flies in the face of all religion.  Jesus shatters all the assumptions man has made in his quest for God.  This is the scandalous nature of the Gospel. It makes no sense to the Religious mind. It makes no sense to the Rational mind. It’s nonsense to the scientific mind. But the mind blowing truth is, Jesus and what He said. Many find it too good to possibly be true but, but wouldn’t an all loving Father God “break all the rules” to redeem the children He loves!