Is "Religion" a word any of us want to use to describe GOD?

 I don't believe for a minute that God "organizes" "religion". I think man does that all by himself, and I think that's anti-relational. And if God did have anything to do with it, He was the Parent that said, "OK, have it your way!" "And let's see what happens." Then as they fell on their faces in their own inability to do anything at all well, then God brings all that will actually come to Him into deeper fellowship with Him and each other as He kept revealing Himself little by little as they could handle it, and as the season or thing warranted etc. So man does "religion", organized or not. But in contrast, Jesus knits His Body (The Church, The Body of Christ) together as He sees fit…, and you see this working well when God is doing it, and when we are learning to let Him be God. But if man is in charge (being misinformed) of the doing of that, then everywhere it is tried when man is doing it, and trying somehow to put God's Name on it, then yuk, makes even the world and His Real Church want to throw up. So let's look at some of the reasons why people don't want to come. Not necessarily asking why they don't want to come to Jesus, that's a different discussion. But why don't people want to come to church? Or Even the healthy ones? Then let's look at the main reason(s) anyone really comes, and see where we are after that.

First let me say that Jesus IS GOD come in The Flesh and went back to Heaven in a Glorified Version after He Rose Himself (and His Body) from Death and the Grave or Tomb.

Then let's not forget that the Children of Israel didn't want anything to do with God at Mt. Sinai, they just wanted what He had to say so they could keep God at arm's length because they were either scared of Him, or they wanted to have their earthly life while doing some things (obviously they were imagining whatever they were imagining) that they may have wanted to do and they didn't want God interfering while they thought they were going to be able to "serve" God what they imagined God wanted because they thought He would only be a taskmaster and a mighty one at that since He apparently just brought them through the Red Sea while God drowned the enemy easily and swiftly. Who knows what they were thinking, but certainly it wasn't mixed with faith and certainly they didn't know God up to that point the way Moses did. And apparently not very many others did either that were left with the people while Moses and Joshua went up the mountain. So presumably not all who stayed down at the base of the mountain in the camp were participating in all the idol worship and goings on down there. But clearly the ones who were interested in "religion" keeping God at arm's length were certainly interested in worshipping something, because that's what they did do. But some no doubt wanted to actually follow and get to know this Amazing God and Savior that led Moses and them out of Egypt with such a Mighty Hand. And certainly it wasn't Moses doing all those things himself and I'm sure he made that clear to the people.

There are many reasons why we haven't even wanted to get out of bed or go outside at all to see anyone at all let alone God. So too if we think about the prospect of going to church, even a really good one where God is doing it and the people are letting Him do it, then at the very least, if we are having a hard time of it, or things are falling apart around us, then we know for sure that if we go to church, that there will at least be some that are having a much better time of it than we are on our not so great days. Or maybe there's going to be people that we really don't like or that maybe stick their noses into our business when we just want to be left alone. Or maybe someone in our family is having a hard time with some of the people there. Or maybe they know us and we know them and we don't want to be around each other. Or maybe we're ok working with them in a work environment but not at church. Or maybe we're ok with them being in our family or connected to our family but not at church? Or maybe we're just feeling dirty and we don't know how to deal with that. Or maybe we just want to go and be left alone? Or maybe we want to be payed attention to and we know if we go that we won't be? Lots of good reasons not to go…, and I'm sure that we all feel the same way(s) at different times, and most of all probably a lot of Pastors have to get past their mixed feelings as well. But if Jesus is really calling, and if there are thirsty hungry people out there dying and wondering if there is any hope at all, Jesus has ways of getting them in contact with Him, or someone that He is living in and working through. Also, it's amazing, because when we really know it's All God and All Grace, and nothing we bring to the table, then it puts us all on an equal footing with God, because none of us are able to earn anything. So at the least anyone can come on any given day, and by letting Jesus in, can have such a change that it puts the "religious" ones that have been going for years or even decades to shame because they have no life and here are these new people and all they did was let Jesus in because they knew they needed Him. They weren't coming to try to "figure it out", they just knew they had to come, and all the previous reasons that kept them away before are now dwarfed because maybe circumstances are highlighting their own emptiness in a new way? But Seriously, if God is doing it, then He will make a way to finish it, and He will knit the thing together and accomplish what He wants to accomplish His way and help enough people know that it's Him, and be filled with His Love, that it all just comes together and works because He makes it so with a whole bunch of misfits that we all are even after many years of God working on all of us. So anyway, let's stop looking at each other and ourselves, and let God prove to us that He's God and we aren't. I'd rather believe Jesus than anything anyone has to say or not say about Him, and if it's Him, then we'll know it soon enough, and if it's not Him, or it's not about Him, that will be pretty obvious pretty soon as well. So warm up to Him, and then warming up to others that He is in various states of helping them develop will be pretty easy as Jesus works His Character and Grace into us all by His Spirit that works in all of us who Believe, and let Jesus in.

And let's not forget that the whole Jesus movement that started in the 60's and 70's was neither organized or religious. In fact, we have it on very good authority that it was the most "religious" ones that cared more about the new green carpet in the sanctuary than they did about the Hippies that were coming in droves to get a glimpse of what God was really like and how much He Loved them just as they were. And it's not Jesus fault for not leaving them the way they were before they came to Him. And then the whole tent thing exploded because they were growing so fast they couldn't keep building new buildings fast enough to accommodate all that were coming for something real, because all they saw before was fake and pretending. But here Jesus was accessible, and way way more satisfying that what the religious folks were peddling in their own ways and their own "righteousness". And that movement was one of many significant moves of God in History that sparked and kindled real revival and is still happening today, but not quite as much of a contrast as it was then. At least not in the west. But He's God. He will do what He will do. We can go with Him, or we can try to drag Him along, and us dragging Him, doesn't really work.

So let's hang out more often together and let God sort out our differences. It's His Love that works that all out anyway, and His Love isn't a "controlling" Love but the most Liberating Power in the known and unknown Universe.

 God IS Love, and Love is of God, and they that Love are born of God and know God.

 We've all seen them..., families where it's just about what is "supposed to be or get done..." for the greater good or just because it's "right". That is a miserable existence. And some of us were like that for years or even decades before Jesus got His Grace and Love to us in a way that we knew that we knew that we knew, that it was all about Him and not about us. We've watched Him work in our lives and work from the inside out, and change us when we couldn't change ourselves, Love us when we weren't Lovable. Love produces Deep Freedom which produces obedience out of Relationship not out of obligation. If God wanted an obligated people then He would have made us all robots, but He wanted to express His Love and receive it when it came back to Him. Robots can't do that. We all know this. So lets stop thinking that an All Powerful, All Loving, Everywhere All The Time God, Maker of Everything Good would be silly enough to make a bunch of robots. He's not at all looking at any of us like that. And He doesn't need a thing from any of us. But He does Love us, and more than we Love ourselves..., and He Loves our kids more than we Love our kids and He Loves us more than our parents do, and even more than any grandparent does, etc, etc, etc...,

 Remember, without Jesus there is no real Love, and without Love, there is only self orbit and self absorption, which means that there is no real freedom which means only bondage which means only slavery. And selfish only leads to more and more confusion. So we've only really met "religious" people that are "self righteous", not Jesus Justified Righteous. Jesus wasn't "religious" as much as He was Relational. Can't really have both. One is Relational, the other one just isn't. Can't have a relationship with rules.

But Jesus introduced in Bodily Form what He was revealing all the way back in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve. But they went the other way too soon..., before they were fully exposed to Him, because He wanted their trust before He went further with them, otherwise it would have seemed like a "Force" rather than Love. An "Overwhelm" rather than an Invitation to Deeper. And besides, it was always going to be what Jesus did after they chose than it was going to be about whether or not they were going to be perfectly obedient right out of the gate. Anyway, The Same Jesus is All through the Old and New Testaments, let Him show you, let Him show you between the lines what He was saying and is saying and will continue to say. Without His Spirit inside of us we would only be able to understand the Letter of The Law, but not The Spirit of The Law which is Grace, and more of Jesus. He's The Only fully Human Being in The Flesh that has ever fulfilled The Entire Law In The Flesh Perfectly. Fully God, Fully Man, so that He could Redeem us back to Himself so that we could be able again to choose, so that we could see His Love before seeing something less. So it makes sense that it's only Faith in Him (from Him) that gets us anywhere, and justified in God's Eyes Because of Jesus, not because we're in some stage(s) of Perfection. It's Jesus. It's just Jesus.