Lose your religion for the real thing.

Lose it for The Relationship. 

Do we know that there is a difference? 

Or do we see each other only in our different denominations, our different categories of doctrine and theologies? 

Isn’t the bottom line, Jesus? 

Whether you were dunked, sprinkled, christened or whatever, if you called on the name of Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you were baptized into the BODY of Christ.

Not a religious denomination.

Not into the Baptist, the Methodist, the Lutheran. (Ephesians 4)

Isn’t it true that in Acts and in Romans both, they tell us that God is not a respecter of persons, that God’s patient with us—that every man would come to repentance? 

I’m not just talking about salvation here… believing or not believing in the name of Jesus Christ…

I’m talking even about the hidden mysteries…the Holy Spirit’s fire.

Could it be that some people really just don’t know or have really heard the whole thing?

They haven’t been taught, yet we treat them like they have been? As if they are rejecting truth? 

There are some that do and will reject… but don’t confuse rejection with calloused hearts and blinders… and do not categorize others solely based on religious denominations…

Not everyone from that denomination DOESN’T want to know the fullness of the spirit. 

And not all focus needs to be on the gifts of His Spirit, but also the fruit He produces in us from receiving Him.

Can we see the spirit of God in the believer that goes to church three doors down from where we do? 

Can we see them, meet them where they are, even if it’s not where we think they should be?

They are a part of the body of Christ. 

Can we stop being so fearful of doubt and unbelief being put on us from others and know that we KNOW that GREATER is He who lives in me, than he who lives in the world? (1 John 4:4)

Can we know and trust the voice of God inside us? 

Can we remember that the battle isn’t against flesh and blood- but powers and principalities? We are to wage war with darkness, not people, and MOST especially not within the body of Christ. (Ephesians 6:12)

Can we come off our religion denominational pedestals and step down into the trenches and help someone up?

Someone from a completely different denomination than you?

Remember the one God sent to you, who was willing to help you up? 

I do. 

The ones who helped me were from a completely different denomination than the one I grew up in…

Completely different than what I thought I knew.

Thank God they didn’t turn their noses up at me, someone that was perishing.

And I’m glad they were willing to get their hands dirty for me.

Can we be willing to look at our own hearts and examine our own motives against the actual Word of God, and be willing to own being wrong?

Imperfect? 

Willing to humbly admit that we all will miss it from time to time?

Maybe even go as far as to admit to cherry-picking what we like, ignoring what we don’t, from the Holy, the infallible, the perfect Word of God?

Can we dust off of us the religion we like to flaunt? 

Can we allow ourselves to be loved so fiercely by the Father that as Jesus shines so brightly through us, people can’t help but feel His love from our words, our looks, our actions, our speech? 

Have we considered that maybe our fruit, if we even have any at all, doesn’t look very tasty? 

Forget the rules and the guidelines and expectations of behaviors for one minute…

Why ARE we doing what we do? 

What do we actually believe in our hearts about Him? 

Can we go there? 

Who do YOU say He is? 

We miss it big time when we go looking for a people to follow, a crowd who looks and acts like us, longing to belong, a place to find our identity in. 

We miss it when we keep certain believers at arms distance because they are of “that church, or “that denomination,” or they aren’t. Not wanting their “false doctrine” to rub off on us…

This is EXACTLY what the enemy wants. 

Christ is the Head of the body, which is the church. And we are the body… singular.

The Bible doesn’t say bodies…

The point of the body is to serve UNIFIED, and go out. So be the piece, the body part, that God made you to be for Him, for His church. ( 1 Corinthians 12:27, Ephesians 4)

Serve your place in a church and take it out… to the world.

Jesus commission to us was first to go out.

The eye, the ear, the hand, the foot. 

To see the person that only you’ll see at work. 

To help the one you’ll meet on the walking trail. 

To hear the hurt of the woman’s heart during your crossed paths at the checkout line, even in her Sunday best and pearls.

To help the wounded heart of the woman who has been raised in the church; and hasn’t yet known about God’s burning, intimate love for her. 

Imagine the show-stopping, world changing power of the Bride of Jesus Christ, unified. 

Arms linked. 

Armor linked.

Swords drawn not only taking ground the enemy has stolen, but holding it, advancing forward.

Unwavering. 

I honestly don’t know that we will see that until we come back with Christ, as His church. He is the only one that can unify us…

Be strong in the Lord yourself; you can know for yourself His Word, His love. His Word has fully equipped you to do so, without having to depend on others. (Ephesians 6:10, 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Be so strong in Jesus and in the Word that when others aren’t around, you know who God is… you know who He says you are…He’s never leaving, and you are MORE than okay. (Matthew 16:15-16)

HE is your portion, your daily bread, your provision. 

HE is the pillar cloud by day, directing your steps….the fire by night, the light when it’s dark, and the warmth when it’s cold. (Exodus 13)

Let’s truly LOVE others, but be set free from them, (Mark 12:30-31) they weren’t made to carry you, nor you, them. 

Never let people become your Jesus.

Your identity is in Christ, and Him alone. 

Be strong in Him, know you’re loved, and boldly embrace the biblical concept of the body- to unite to war against the enemy of this world… not toward each other within.

Contribute what He made you to contribute to the body. 

A solider is nothing compared to an army of believers. 

Now go on, lose your religion for Him.