You’ve always been very religious. You do all the religious things faithfully. But you’ve known for a long time that there has to be something more. Something is missing. It always has been. You know you should feel differently. So, you get more involved. You work harder. You read more. You pray more. You talk to your pastor. Sometimes, you get excited, but excitement is short lived. There’s still a big void; an emptiness.
What I’m about to say may surprise you. First of all, religious systems can serve a necessary purpose for a believer at a point in time. However, it is beyond the capacity of religion to contain God. God doesn’t dwell there. If you want to find God, you will have to look beyond the walls of religion. No, not just beyond the walls of the church building you go to on Sundays (or Saturdays), but beyond the boundaries of the entire religious system that you are affiliated with.
Yes, God can be talked about and taught about in religion, but He can’t be known there. He can be symbolized and ritualized in religion, but He can’t be realized there. You can look for Him in religion, but you can’t find Him there. No, not there. His residence is not in a religious system of any kind. Religion and God are only compatible in the confusion of our less than spiritual minds. Just because, from day one on this earth, we’ve been taught that a religious system is where we have to go to find God, doesn’t mean it’s true. “But that’s what the good book says!”, you’ll say. For now, I’ll just posture that the Bible doesn’t say that, and promise to eventually have that discussion.
Religion may well be a stop-off on your journey to find God; and a legitmate one at that. Religion can serve a valid purpose. In the end, however, you will have to look outside of the system to see Him.
There are concepts of God to be found in religion; and there are as many of those concepts as there are brands of religion! But, they are mere products of humanity. There is nothing spiritual about them. Biblical words have long been interpreted by men and we strangely accept these ‘hand-me-downs’ unquestioned, from generation to generation, as “gospel”. Religion is simply men doing things religiously and then stamping God’s name on them. Nothing mystical or spiritual about that! Regardless of the pious claims men have made regarding their interpretations of Scripture, it still amounts to words processed through the lens of less than spiritual men. If you read and apply Scripture to yourself, as it is interpreted through the eyes of another, you are looking outward, not inward, to find God. You don’t need a scholar, preacher, or even a parent to interpret Scripture for you. You just need a quiet, open heart. Only when you look for God through your own eyes (spiritual), looking inwardly, will you begin to have a genuine vision of God.
Kerry
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