Religion Ain't Bad, It's Just Misunderstood.

In keeping with my previous trend, I am going to talk about the misconception that seems to surround the word religion. I would be lying to you if I said that sometimes I cringe at the word. That kind of upsets me. Because religion is not the problem. It really never has been. If we look at the definition of religion, we will see that simply put it just means, the service and worship of God.

There, that's not so bad.

So why does society (and Christians specifically it would seem) flee from calling ourselves "religious"?

Because it has such a negative connotation.

A lot of "crazy" people have also been "religious", and Biblically speaking, the Pharisees were considered the "most religious", and look how that turned out for them.

I do not believe that religion gets you to heaven.

Serving God doesn't get you to Heaven. Worshiping God doesn't get you there either. Rather, they are products of your relationship with God.

Biblically speaking, the term religion only appears a scanty five times (in the English Standard Version), twice in Acts (25:19, 26:5), twice in James (1:26-27) and once in Colossians (2:23).

Really the only one of the five that speaks to what religion is, is found in James, which states:

"Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (ESV)

So by James' definition, religion is not so much about what you believe, but how you believe it.

In other words, James' definition of religion, undoubtedly supplied by the Holy Spirit, leans more towards religion being a term to describe the action of the relationship between Christ and His followers. So while no, Christianity is not soley a religion, there seems to be a balance between our relationship with Christ and how we act on it religiously.

So instead of getting bent out of shape because someone calls you "religious", take it as a compliment. And ratify the term by claiming "religion" and  honoring God through it.

If you're reading this, I'm going to urge you to stop and instead go read what the Bible has to say on the subject of love. As a culture we have complete desensitized ourselves to its meaning. We do not understand what the word even means. Let me pause here by saying that I'm under no false pretenses that I am an expert in the subject, nor do I find myself in the right here. I'm as guilty as anyone of this love misconception epidemic.
We have robbed ourselves as Christians by losing the meaning of the word love.

Look through Scripture and find an instance when the story goes something like this,
And Jesus said, "God, I love manna. It's so delicious."
And Jesus said, "God, I love hanging out with you guys. You're so cool."
And Jesus said, "OMG I love this song!"

(Now if you notice, I also brought up another one of my pet peeves, which is the improper use of God's name, but that's for another day)

I don't think that we will find any of those phrases in Scripture. Why? Because that's not what the word love means. But I myself have said all three of those things. This week. Well, I said bread, not manna. You get my point.

I've also said, "Lord, I love you."

Ouch. So I love bread. I love hanging out with my friends. I love a song. I love Jesus.

Why in the world would I use a word to describe how I feel about my Savior to also describe bread.

More often than not, what we mean by love is really like or enjoy.

But the word love has become a universal term to show appreciation or enjoyment for something. The reason we cannot define the word love is because it's used for everything.
If we knew what the word truly meant, I think we would be more weary to use it improperly.

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us"

What Paul just said is that love is an agent that drives us to set aside ourselves completely, even to the point of brutal, torturous death for the object of which we love.

And we say we love pizza.

But that's God's love,

you might want to argue, as I did in trying to justify myself. That is true, this is Godly love. But God Himself commands us as Christians to "Be Holy as I am Holy", and to follow the example of Christ. So this is the love that Christ commands us to have.

Do we understand that when we say "Gosh, I love this song", truly we implying that we set aside ourselves completely, even to the point of brutal, torturous death for this song"

In my opinion, the Love Misconception accounts for almost everything that is wrong with the world. People "fall in love", but get divorced after 30 years of marriage. People "make love", but are left with a brokenness. 

This isn't the love the Bible speaks of. And although my mind doesn't even begin to comprehend God's, I would assume that it's a slap in the face to one minute profess our 'love' for pizza, or a song, or even another person, and the next proclaim that same 'love' for YHWH.

If you cannot tell, I am pretty convicted and torn up over this. And because I never want to be a Phariseetian (yes, I made this up), I am going to put action to my words. I am, starting now, going to take a few extra breaths and say that I "really really like" pizza.
If I truly love the Lord, then everything else should look like hate.

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple."
(Luke 14)

Obviously Jesus isn't encouraging hatred, but what He is saying is that your love for God should be so immense that everything by comparison looks like hate.

So join me, if the Holy Spirit has so convicted you, to become sensitized to the word love and it's meaning, and see how radically your view of love changes.

The Parable of the Lost Coin goes something like this, [Jesus said], "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she call together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
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I stumbled upon this verse today in my New Testament class (imagine that!), and I had an epiphany. To tell you the truth, apart from my teacher's relatively bad puns, I cannot remember much of what was said, and class just ended. I cannot remember because God was speaking to me today, through Luke.
Read through those words one more time.
It hit me like never before that God is never a passive God. Ever.
Although admittedly it's a little strange that I interpret God as the woman in this parable, nevertheless the meaning still stands.
Like the woman and her coin, God finds intrinsic value in us as His children. What fool idly stands by when he looses money? If you are anything like me, you usually seek after that pesky penny that jumps out of your wallet or purse and rolls under something, usually a counter or refrigerator or something else irritating. Or Heaven forbid a dollar falls out of my back pocket.

Why do we do that? Why do we not just leave the money on the ground?
Because it's valuable.
So why does God not leave us when we are lost?
Because. We are valuable.
This parable says that the woman diligently sought for the coin she had lost, going as far as to light a lamp [implying darkness], and sweeping her whole home until  she finds it.
Likewise, God diligently seeks after His lost children, lighting a lamp in our darkness and He sweeps across the world to find us. God does not wait for us. We do not operate on His time table. Instead, He does everything He possibly can to seek us.
And if that is not reason enough to praise Him, read on further.
The woman gets her friends and basically throws a party. For one coin. ONE. COIN. I'm thinking, come on lady. You have nine other coins. Talk about frugal. Why do you have to have the tenth?
Because it's valuable.
And just as the woman in this parable most likely planned to use that coin to accomplish a goal, so our Father plans to use us similarly.
God is not idle.
He does not stand around, moping that He has lost His coin. No, He diligently seeks it, and rejoices with all of Heaven when one of His children returns.

What a beautiful God we serve.

Today I spent some time with my sister, and, after I did some pretty weird things, she looked at me and said, "I am so surprised that you are single". I found this extra comical because, and my camp roommates can attest to this, I say this all the time! (jokingly, of course)
But it got me thinking about what I am looking for. Once I was told to make a God-centered list of what I look for in a duderino, and never waiver on it. Although some of these are goofy, most of them are actually pretty legit for me. I'm not looking right now, so to the dozens of potential suitors that will reply to this: I'll keep you in mind, but I can't make any promises right now. (I feel like I should mention that this was my attempt to be sarcastic via interweb).
Also, ladies that read this: I urge you to make your own list of things you look for- and not settle for anything less! No, men aren't perfect- they won't always say what men say in Nicholas Sparks books, and maybe they won't surprise us randomly with flowers (Hey bros, PS, we like that a LOT!) and they probably will never willingly want to talk about their feelings or whatever. But they're are certain things that aren't up for discussion.
So here's my list. I am looking for:

1. a Christ-follower. (2 Corinthians 6:14)
2. a long term relationship. I believe that the purpose of  "dating" is to find one's mate. And I ain't playin' no games.
3. a believer in True Love Waits for a ring! (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5)4.
4. Be my best friend.
5. someone funny. Fo' real. If you can't make me laugh, then that's just crazy, because I laugh at things that aren't even funny. (Proverbs 17:22)
6. someone who will love me despite all the weird crap I do. (1 Peter 3:7)
7. A man to lovingly laugh at me. (1 Peter 3:7)
8. A man to step up to the responsibilities of being a man. (Ephesians 5:23)
9. Someone who wants to pray for me.
10.                      wants kids. Three-ish.
11.                      wants to adopt. This one deserves stars around it. It's kind of a big deal to me.
12.                      will keep me accountable.

So, first off, God and I have been dealing with some serious things lately. For about a  month. And I have been bringing His judgment into question a lot lately. Now let me add that I believe that it is okay to question God, to ask Him what is going on, to ask Him why something is going on, and so on.
You ask questions when you are in a relationship. That's how it builds and grows.
What's not okay is when you don't stop at questioning- you question, but then  you run away before an answer can even be uttered. I find too often it is easier to point and question, but sometimes the answer is not as easy to receive.

"Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." (James 1:15, NIV)

This verse became relevant in my situation like never before. And it was dark and scary. It wasn't me. But with all that had happened, I was beginning to feel like I didn't actually know who me was. Confusion is one of the Opponents greatest weapons. And he taunts me with it. And how often have you been mad at someone, and then someone else comes over to complain about the same person you are, and it's so easy just to say I know! and vent with them.
Well venting with the devil is probably the worst idea I've ever heard of.
Satan took my frustration and confusion and pity and took these things that aren't of God and somehow led them back to Him. And I ate it up.
I wallowed.
As shameful as it is to admit, it is what it is. I couldn't understand- and if I'm going to be honest, I still don't understand. And when God throws you a curveball, it's hard to keep saying God is Good.Is He? Is God good?
That's the question it came down to for me.
Would a good God
...take family members away? Suddenly. It's part of life to die. But what about my grandfather? He died of a heart attack. Before I was even born. My mom was in her twenties. And what about my friend, who lost one of her parents when she was six? Or what about the Winter's family, who lost a husband and father two years ago? What about two couples that go to our church- both carrying their babies inside of them only to deliver them and lose them days later?
There were some other pretty big things God and I had to get through together, but for the privacy of others that were involved, I am not going to disclose them. But two big things were happening in my life, and I could not find God. 
How does that equate to a good God? I'm not quite sure.
I don't understand why sometimes God chooses to take people in such a way that it's like death is stabbing us right through the heart. I don't know why any of anything happens right now. My lack of knowledge is the root of my weakness. But here's where God meets me where I am: 

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Did you catch that?
Perfect.
Here's the Ashlee Abridged Version: (and I don't mean abridged. Mine is twice as long)

Here's what he said to me. "My grace- it's big enough. I can handle this, I promise. And I will carry your burden for you. When you relinquish this weakness, that's when I can show you just how awesome I am. So let me show you. " So I'm going to let Christ take this heavy burden off my shoulders. I'm going to shout my faults and weaknesses because that's what makes Christ so great- He can handle all of the darkness that I cling to.

So here I am, shouting.

I don't understand you, God. I don't know why you do what you do, why what happens to me happens, and why sometimes I run from you. I don't know.
But I know what you say, you mean. And if you say that you are a good God, I believe you. If you say there's a purpose for all this, then I believe you. If you choose not to explain yourself, then I'll drop it. I'll trust you with this. Because I've tried everything else. And there's no where to go.


There's my burden. Here's my heart. 


Before I began to write this, I was sitting at my sister's house (I'm housesitting) and I felt like I needed to memorize the book of James. To be honest, at time I didn't know why. But something (hello! It was God I bet ;) in me just said, James. Memorize it. The whole thing.
In the same breath I began to write down all the verses, and I began to memorize it. I only have the first six verses. But after writing this, I now see why James needed to be such a big deal in my life. 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds. For we know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish it's work, so that you may mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

And there you have it, folks. He's gone and done it again.