January | 2018 | Done with Religion

Archive for January, 2018

Obey God by Giving Me Your Money

Posted in christian living, Scoop.it, The church, tagged christian living, giving, money, tithing on January 31, 2018| 4 Comments »

by Jim Gordon

One big sore spot with me within the christian religion is listening to big-named evangelists and preachers tell us we need to give them our money so they can go forth and proclaim the gospel.

money

They will pile up big bank accounts, nice houses, huge buildings, expensive jets, cars and who knows what else, all under the guise of being able to proclaim to gospel to more people.

Many times the money they raise is coming from people who can barely afford to meet living expenses day to day. They will give money to these people because they are told it will help them better spread the gospel around the world. They are also told they are robbing from God if they do not give.

If I understand what I read in the bible, Jesus and his twelve disciples turned the world upside down with their love and by teaching the good news that God loves them. I do not remember reading about how much money they had, or how many luxuries they had that helped them spread the gospel.

It really bothers me that the money spent buying these people some of the luxuries of life could be used to help many starving, homeless, jobless people across our country or around the world.

As christians, we are all called to proclaim the gospel. We do so in the way we live. We are to show love to all people and help those in need with the means we have been given.

We are not under the old covenant law that said bring ten percent into the storehouse. We should give to help others, but not out of obligation. We are to give out of love and that amount we have determined without our own heart to give.

PriesthoodofBelievers

No person, man or woman, should be looked upon as more important or more spiritually holy than anyone else. We are to be a priesthood of all believers with no one more important than another.

Rather than focus on those who are demanding we give them our money to support the kingdom of God, let us follow after the example of Jesus by loving all people and using the money, gifts and talents he has given us to help those we can directly.

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Freedom of Speech

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, Community, Lifestyles, Love of God, Scoop.it, tagged acceptance, condemnation, expression, freedom, judgment, opinion, respect, speech on January 24, 2018| 13 Comments »

by Jim Gordon

Here in the United States we are always talking about freedom of speech. I have to say I am in favor of it, yet many times the practice of it seems to be done in the wrong manner.

Freedom to say what we think, how we feel and what we believe should be the right of every individual. Done in the right way it should not be a problem for anyone. There are questions as to how far we go with this and what is beyond freedom in regard to the rights of others and disrespect towards others, but that is for another discussion.

The trouble starts when one group thinks they should be able to say what they think but the other group should not. Or one person is very judgmental and condemning in what they say and are very rude in their presentation. Or the person or group speaking thinks everyone should conform to their way of thinking.

Freedom of speech should be done in a respectful way. Make your point and speak your mind but do it in a way that is not mean and judgmental.

FreedomofSpeech

Also remember that we will all have different views and opinions and just because we are free to speak them out, we should be accepting and respectful towards others whose views are going to be different.

Most of the time we would rather fight and argue over opinions, trying to prove ourselves right and the other person wrong. Name calling gets started and it ends up in a mean free-for-all and nothing gets accomplished.

Just because we have the right to say what we think, we have to realize that it is only our opinion. Not everyone will agree with what we say and we should be respectful of others opinions.

It would be best if we could say what we think in a kind and respectful manner, yet I know that does not happen most of the time. By being mean and condescending towards others we usually cause people to be defensive and respond in the same rude manner.

Enjoy your freedom of speech. Express yourself, give your views and opinions in a respectful way but allow the other person to have the same freedom. If we could express ourselves in this manner I think we would make more of an impact and we could actually have meaningful discussions with one another.

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Days of Uncertainty

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, Lifestyles, Love of God, Scoop.it, tagged atheism, Bible, Greek, Hebrew, LGBT, nuclear war, republican, terrorism, trust, worry on January 17, 2018| 2 Comments »

by Jim Gordon

Living in these days of uncertainty, for me it is good to have a faith and trust in God. I know not everyone agrees with me on that and I certainly understand. This is just my opinion, but for myself and my wife we would not want to be without God in our world today.

We hear so many scary events going on in our world, threats of nuclear war, natural disasters and terrorism.

Here in the US it seems that sometimes we over-react to certain groups of people and do things that not always seem so Christ-like. We do things and say things that I just do not think we would see Jesus doing or saying.

We are told in the bible to put our trust in God, cast our cares on him and do not worry about events going on in the world.

We are also told to love God and love one another, yet we see so much hate and unacceptance even coming from fellow Christians.

Here in the United States we have a wide variety of beliefs, ideas and interpretations all falling under various labels. Labels such as christian, atheist, religious, LGBT, straight, asexual, male, female, black, white, illegal alien, nationalist, republican, democrat and such. Yet we need to remember behind each of the labels is a person who we are to love, accept and treat with the love of God.

We obviously will not agree with one another or see eye to eye with all the different views in the world, but we should be able to look past those differences and love the person who was created in the image of God.

In the organized church I have found we have been taught many things that may not necessarily be exactly as we have been told. Most of us, me included, have been taught a lot of things we take as truth without checking out for ourselves.

Most of us do not know Greek or Hebrew. Most of us do not have access to anything other than the current versions of the bible. I think I am safe in saying that many of us do not do a lot of in-depth studying for ourselves. We seem to take the teachings of a particular pastor or evangelist as gospel truth.

I am finding that this is not a good thing to do. We are told in the scriptures that we have the mind of Christ. We are also told the Holy Spirit lives within us and we have no need for anyone to teach us. To me that says we should stop focusing on listening to only a few people tell us their versions and interpretations and listen for the voice of the Spirit to guide us into his truth.

We find ourselves listening to one person give their explanation of the bible and we do not even check into it for ourselves and seek the guidance of the Spirit to see what is the correct way of interpretation.

We have been taught for so long in the institutional church that God is up in heaven and he shows up now and then at a special church service. We are in the frame of mind that we can only hope to find the will of God while we are in this current world.

The truth is, the bible makes it clear the Spirit of God lives within us. God is not a person that resides in one place. God is spirit. God is not male or female, white or black. He is not an American or a republican. God is spirit and God lives within us. He is closer that we can imagine and it is time we begin to realize this truth and listen for the still, small voice of the Spirit from within.

For me, I feel it is time to put our trust and faith in God and not worry about all the things going on in our world today. Worry will only affect our health and make us miserable. We cannot do anything about most of these things anyway. God promised to be with us always and that he would never leave us. Whether in the physical world or the spiritual world, having the God of the universe tell us he is with us and loves us is the best thing I can imagine.

TrustinGod

The goal of myself and my wife is to become more and more accepting of all people. We all have different personalities, different ways of life and different beliefs but there is no reason why we cannot be respectful and kind to one another. Rather than attack LGBT people, people of different nationalities and color, people of different faith or no faith, look past the differences and see a human being who can be a good friend in your life.

This is one thing for me that has become more and more evident after leaving the institutional church. The organization that should be known for its love, so much of the time is known more for what it is against and for showing judgment and condemnation against people who see things differently. I think it is time for this to come to an end.

We do not have to agree with one another, we do not have to condone what we do not agree with and we do not have to participate in things we feel for us is not right. Yet we are called to love one another even in the differences, and we can be kind and accepting to all people without pushing our personal views on them.

So, in this day of uncertainty focus on the love of God. Put your trust in him and walk each day in the power of the Spirit, letting the love of God touch each person you meet throughout the day.

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Replacing church for Church

Posted in christian living, Community, Ekklesia, Scoop.it, The church, Word of God, tagged Bible, church, denominations, doctrine, Ekklesia, Holy Spirit, Word of God on January 10, 2018| 2 Comments »

by Jim Gordon

Several of my past articles have mentioned modern day church and how it is off base from what it was intended. I want to make clear that I am not against church, but I also want to make clear what I mean when I say church.

Normally when the word church is mentioned, we think of a building we go to on a certain day to learn about and worship God. We also think in terms of how much we go to church as being a guide to how spiritual we are, or how close we are to God. We think of the doctrines, rules and regulations placed on us by the church as ways to make us better Christians.

Church

I think we need to reset our thinking. The Church is not a building. The Church is the bride of Christ, all of us who are saved by grace. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The building is just a place where we can meet and conduct spiritual meetings. It is another place to enjoy christian fellowship. Rather than see church as a place we go, we are to be the Church daily living under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and showing the love of God to all people.

Another area where we confuse the meaning of words is in regard to the word of God. When we talk about the word of God we usually think of the Bible. The Bible is inspired by God, but the true living Word of God is Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Jesus is the Word of God.

WordofGod1

Far to often we christians put too much emphasis on the Bible, sometimes even thinking of it as part of the trinity. Remember it is not Father, Son and Holy Bible. Again, the Bible is written by men but is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. It is certainly profitable to read the Bible under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but we need to focus on the fact that the Word of God is alive and living within each of us as followers of Christ.

Although it may seem unimportant on how we think of church or the Bible, I think it is very important that we understand what is really meant. The old mindset of a building and a book need to be replaced with the fact that the Church are those of us who are redeemed through the blood of Christ and the Word of God is Christ Himself, alive and living within us.

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New Year, New Beginnings

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, Community, Lifestyles, Love of God, Scoop.it, tagged acceptance, Bible, fellowship, Holy Spirit, Jesus, New Covenant, New Year, resolutions on January 3, 2018| 4 Comments »

by Jim Gordon

Here we are into a new year already. This is the time many of us have a sense of excitement for new beginnings. We make resolutions to do better at various things in life, whether it is exercise, our spiritual life, eating or treating people better.

Resolutions

My wife and I have stopped making resolutions since we usually, like many, forget about them within the month.

On the other hand, we would like to continue on our walk outside the walls of religion and the many religious rules it puts upon us.

We are going to continue making new friends and get to know people who we were told to stay away from when we were in the organization. We were supposed to associate with people who believed in God and people who mostly believed like the denomination we were part of at the time.

We feel that Jesus came to show us that God loves people. Jesus associated with all kinds of people from all walks of life. They were not all godly people or people the religious leaders of the day would even dream of being seen spending time.

What we have found over the last few years is that people are basically the same. We all have our own beliefs, interests and ways of life. Yet behind the labels that are placed on us we are all human beings in need of love, acceptance, fellowship with others and a fulfilled life.

We all go about finding those things in different ways. Just because we see things differently is no reason to separate ourselves from one another. There is no reason we cannot respect one another, accept one another and treat each other as equals.

Many christian people think this view is very wrong and we should only associate with other believers. They feel christians should judge and condemn those who do not believe as they do and stay away from them until they come to Christ. They seem to think that if we accept people as they are we are condoning what the other person is doing.

My wife and I just do not see things that way. Obviously none of us are going to agree or condone everything other people do, yet we can accept others as human beings, treat them with respect and enjoy time talking and learning about their views. We believe we are all loved by God just as we are, and we believe we are to show that same love to others.

BeKindtoOneAnother

Many times we read in the bible how God treats the righteous and unrighteous equally. We read how God loves all people whether they love him or hate him. We are told to love our enemies and do good to those who treat us bad.

In the New Testament we are told to love God and love our neighbor. Of course our neighbor is not just the person who lives next door but any and all that we come in contact with during the day.

So, we are anxious each day to meet another one of God’s creation. Maybe it will be someone that believes like us, maybe it will be someone who is completely opposite from our views. We just pray that no matter who we meet or what they believe, we will be guided by the Holy Spirit to show love and acceptance, and to enjoy our time together.