MANNA:  July 20, 2012

Read: 1 John 4:1-21

Over the last few years there have been reports from various organizations such as Gallup and the like that confirm what we within the church have sensed for quite a while.   There is a dramatic shift in the way American's worship and in what we think of the role of organized religion.  Consider the people you know who have said, or who would say if you asked them, something like this, "I stopped attending church years ago, but that doesn't mean I've stopped believing in God."

More people are exploring ways to remain spiritual, while at the same time abandoning ways of identifying themselves as specifically religious.  According to the American Religious Identification Survey of 2008, some 2.8 million Americans now say they identify with new religious movements like Wicca, paganism or spiritualists.  It has become trendy to think of religion in our pluralistic society more as a smorgasbord...a spoonful of Jesus, a helping of Buddha, a side of Mohammed, and a little New Age all thrown onto one single plate.  We add or take away as we choose, as our plate becomes a kind of spiritual meal of our own choosing.  This kind of spirituality today makes us sound so "with it"... so chic....so P.C..    

But it leaves us empty.  For it becomes an amalgamation of things, rather than the truth.  We end up creating an identity for God that is of our choosing, and of our personal likes.  The god we end up with becomes one of our design.  

We don't choose God...God chooses us! (John 15:16)

This way of thinking about religion is fundamentally dishonest.  It is an insult to each religion, for it is like spiritual looting.  It is a refashioning of God into our own image.  And it is a reminder that there are many intellectual airheads today.  Make a decision for crying out loud!!  But, don't be a phony trying to claim that you believe every religion out there is the same as the next.  They don't say the same things.  They don't teach the same things.  They don't believe the same things. 

Jesus said,  "I am the Way, the Truth, the Life."

I believe this.  With every fiber of my being I believe this.  C.S. Lewis' classic quote from Mere Christianity comes to mind here: 

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” 

Either Jesus lied, or he was terribly insane---or he is who he said he is.  This is in direct conflict with every other religion out there.  Every other religion seems quick to accept Jesus as a great teacher, but none are willing to accept that he is the Son of God, crucified and risen.


I believe he is the Way out of bondage to the slavery of sin, out of fear, out of darkness.
I believe he is the Truth about who God is; that God is love, and His love is like that of a providing, nurturing and comforting father.
I believe he is the Life that is eternal, and the life that is free and abundant now.


Since you're reading my posts, I'm probably preaching to the choir here.  But, the bottom line here is that there can be no smorgasbord of religion.  Make a decision...All or nothing.  Don't insult all religions with this pseudo-sophisticated practice of claiming that all religions are somehow one in the same.


Don't try to put your faith in every god and religion.
Trust in the One God who is the source of every blessing.


Prayer:  Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace; streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.  While the hope of endless glory fills my heart with joy and love, teach me ever to adore thee; may I still thy goodness prove.  Amen!