God is about relationship - “religion” is man made, and God has had a lot to say about it. (Think Old Testament idol worship, Sodom and Gomorrah, and what Jesus had to say about the chief priests and Pharisees.) God has always been about restoring His relationship with us. God doesn’t need our “Religion” to bring us to Him.
Isaiah 1:16-17 NLT
Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. [17] Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.
Amos 5:21-24 NLT
"I hate all your show and pretense- the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. [22] I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won't even notice all your choice peace offerings. [23] Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. [24] Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.
Mark 12:29-31 NLT
Jesus replied, "The most important commandment is this: 'Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. [30] And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' [31] The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these."
James 1:27 NLT
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
Organized religion is used to usurp and twist our relationship with God to nefarious ends. One look at the history of the Papacy, as an example, will show you the demented crap that has been the custom since almost the very beginning. It began as something pure, but that didnt last long. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is the legacy of organized religion. That and death in the name of God.
Now that is not to say there arent any good men of religion. There absolutely is good men involved. A very many good men, with good intentions. But it is rotten at the top.
This has always been my brick wall to religion. Soo much control is begot via religion. I feel i can be a good person and do right. Should be good. I have to experience something tangible to go any further
Religion is giving to God what is owed. It is the original social justice. Your reverence and respect and adoration are owed to the Father. Keep the Sabbath day holy.
I believe the Bible IS the word of God. I believe God inspired men to write it. Therefore, it is HIS word to us.
I tried reading the bible when I was younger but it never made much sense to me.
... Forward to my 50's and I became Born Again Roman Catholic. I still consider myself a baby Christian But it wasn't until I was saved that I was able to understand the Bible when I read it. There are multiple meanings in the Bible and so much to discover behind the words.
You may only truly understand it if you have the Holy Spirit within you. He is our guide here in earth, our interpreter and the one who calls out to God when we pray
FWIW the more one reads the bible with the Spirit within in them, the more the Spirit will reveal..
To be saved all one need do is to apologize for their sins and mean it and accept Christ as their Personal Savior. Nothing else is required of you. Once you do that His Spirit will become your guide here on earth.
Deeds of goodwill will alone will NOT save you. You need God INSIDE your heart. When we meet God in Heaven He will RECOGNIZE His Spirit within you. He will welcome you into Heaven. Without His spirit within you He will say "Depart from me, I never knew you."
The Bible. It is infallible. All of it is true or none of it is. I have a friend that says "not every story is true, but some are". But which ones then...so it has to be an all or nothing proposition.
The Holy Spirit bares witnesses to the truth in the Bible. GOD's Word saturates it. Even if there are issues of translation in language and culture, the Truth shines through. Remember that a relationship is a spiritual matter. Believe in GOD, ask Him to open your eyes. As you read the Gospels, the Truth will resonate with your spirit. Don't over think things. The Truth is pretty simple. When you are talking with your best friend, you know things without really thinking about it, you just know. That's your spirit resonating with his. Jesus wants to have a relationship with you. The Holy Spirit will guide you.
All it takes is the tiniest amount of belief to open the flood gate.
Bah, semantics. If one believes in God, that person can be said to be religious.
If it's religion as an organized social institution, or a Church, I can see where you're coming from with the note that I believe Moses and Christ both began such institutions. I've had to learn to overlook the faults of those in my Church the way that our Savior admonishes, which would be harder to do without that body He instructed us to meet as.
You don't have to be religious to know God.
In fact, the first people to know God were not religious at all.
God is about relationship - “religion” is man made, and God has had a lot to say about it. (Think Old Testament idol worship, Sodom and Gomorrah, and what Jesus had to say about the chief priests and Pharisees.) God has always been about restoring His relationship with us. God doesn’t need our “Religion” to bring us to Him.
Isaiah 1:16-17 NLT Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. [17] Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.
Amos 5:21-24 NLT "I hate all your show and pretense- the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. [22] I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won't even notice all your choice peace offerings. [23] Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. [24] Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.
Mark 12:29-31 NLT Jesus replied, "The most important commandment is this: 'Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. [30] And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' [31] The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these."
James 1:27 NLT Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
Humans coalesce into hierarchical groups. Its our nature. So is exploiting the power to influence others. Hence the challenge with organized religion.
Hallelujah!
That is the truth.
That's why I avoid churches -- any kind of organized religion.
I believe most religions exist to PREVENT people from knowing God. To obstruct it.
There are some exceptions, of course.
correct
Jesus instructed us how to pray
he gave the powers of binding abd loosing to his disciples, not to the crowds, and not to people who read about it later
the last supper was a continuation of the jewish passover ritual, the consummation of the new covenant, and he commanded us to do it
people need to pull their wishy-washy heads out of the sand
The Lord's Prayer....Jesus said "pray in this manner"...he did not say "repeat after me". The Lord's Prayer is an outline for prayer.
Organized religion is used to usurp and twist our relationship with God to nefarious ends. One look at the history of the Papacy, as an example, will show you the demented crap that has been the custom since almost the very beginning. It began as something pure, but that didnt last long. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is the legacy of organized religion. That and death in the name of God.
Now that is not to say there arent any good men of religion. There absolutely is good men involved. A very many good men, with good intentions. But it is rotten at the top.
Death in the name of God?
Yeah because martyrdom is oRgAnIzEd ReLiGiOn
Read up buddy
Sounds like you hit your head in that boating accident.
Religion is man-made and because of that is easily and often corrupted
This is MORE about a Relationship with God. Not about a religion.
This has always been my brick wall to religion. Soo much control is begot via religion. I feel i can be a good person and do right. Should be good. I have to experience something tangible to go any further
Thr whole organized deal turns me off.
I don't care for the hierarchy, either.
You want to experience something tangible?
Read the New Testament and talk to Christ.
Personally.
BTW, Christ was a kundalini master.
John the Baptist said so: that Christ baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with Fire.
That's what he meant.
Ask Christ to do that for you. See if you feel something tangible.
Religion is giving to God what is owed. It is the original social justice. Your reverence and respect and adoration are owed to the Father. Keep the Sabbath day holy.
I believe the Bible IS the word of God. I believe God inspired men to write it. Therefore, it is HIS word to us.
I tried reading the bible when I was younger but it never made much sense to me.
... Forward to my 50's and I became Born Again Roman Catholic. I still consider myself a baby Christian But it wasn't until I was saved that I was able to understand the Bible when I read it. There are multiple meanings in the Bible and so much to discover behind the words.
You may only truly understand it if you have the Holy Spirit within you. He is our guide here in earth, our interpreter and the one who calls out to God when we pray
FWIW the more one reads the bible with the Spirit within in them, the more the Spirit will reveal..
To be saved all one need do is to apologize for their sins and mean it and accept Christ as their Personal Savior. Nothing else is required of you. Once you do that His Spirit will become your guide here on earth.
Deeds of goodwill will alone will NOT save you. You need God INSIDE your heart. When we meet God in Heaven He will RECOGNIZE His Spirit within you. He will welcome you into Heaven. Without His spirit within you He will say "Depart from me, I never knew you."
The Bible. It is infallible. All of it is true or none of it is. I have a friend that says "not every story is true, but some are". But which ones then...so it has to be an all or nothing proposition.
The Holy Spirit bares witnesses to the truth in the Bible. GOD's Word saturates it. Even if there are issues of translation in language and culture, the Truth shines through. Remember that a relationship is a spiritual matter. Believe in GOD, ask Him to open your eyes. As you read the Gospels, the Truth will resonate with your spirit. Don't over think things. The Truth is pretty simple. When you are talking with your best friend, you know things without really thinking about it, you just know. That's your spirit resonating with his. Jesus wants to have a relationship with you. The Holy Spirit will guide you.
All it takes is the tiniest amount of belief to open the flood gate.
That's how I feel.
It feels to me that He is a property of the universe, like gravity.
Look into the Law of One, you are correct! It takes religion and math and makes sense of the whole thing. Very interesting concept to explain it all.
Thank you very much, I'll remember that
I just wanted to link that!
Aaron Abke is amazing at explaining things. He really helped to accelerate my awakening process.
For people who are new to all of this, I would also recommend his "Mindscience" series.
Thank you!
Bah, semantics. If one believes in God, that person can be said to be religious.
If it's religion as an organized social institution, or a Church, I can see where you're coming from with the note that I believe Moses and Christ both began such institutions. I've had to learn to overlook the faults of those in my Church the way that our Savior admonishes, which would be harder to do without that body He instructed us to meet as.
Perfectly said.