In 2013, I want to be more religious?!

It's true, in 2013 I want to be more religious. I want to make sure I pray every morning and evening. I have signed up a new mentor so we can hold each other accountable to read through the entire bible this year, with daily readings. I am sure I will got to church every Sunday without fail. I want to memorize prayers, commandments, creeds and scriptures. In this journey of faith, I am living religiously, worshiping liturgically, and seeking enthusiastically my Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier in a fresh new way. I am doing this by joining the historical church in their practices of worship and discipleship, very similar today to the way they were hundreds and even thousands of years ago.

It's taken a bit of humility on my part to get to this point; to be able to see the benefits to living this way, religiously that is. So much is said against religion, from both inside and outside of Christ's church. I read a few articles in 2012 ("its not religion it's relationship" for one)  that explored this topic, and I have not stopped thinking about it since. I can't understand how Christians could think that throwing other Christians under the bus would be somehow attractive to perspective Christians they are trying to woo into accepting Jesus. I have done far more than I would like to admit myself,  until I realized how exhausting it is to war against God. At several points in my life of faith, I have felt strangely similar to the apostle Paul, whom at his conversion was told to basically to quit warring against God and his church.

What began as a campaign by Jesus himself against the religious of his day who had lost the meaning of their religion as they focused more on going through the right motions has become fuel to pour on the fire of burning all things religious. What this ends up doing is breeding a rebellion in our hearts that very easily begins to transfer to God himself. We began to idolize rebellious zealots in the bible like the prophets, especially John the Baptist, and proceed to rip into all things religious as we grow more into their image than Jesus'. Then we go to Neodenominational churches and sing songs to Jesus, some of which even denounce religion. What? And tell people things like this:

Accepting Jesus Christ to the fullest extent means accepting his family, too. Guaranteed in every church in every time and style, they are both true believers and phonies. What happens to conversations as they deepen, when they are based on God not being God, and religion being a bad thing? They end, without making disciples, which is the great commission!  Shallow conversations, deep relation with worldly things and habits, when faced with deep study of the scriptures, these things expose themselves: "Friendship with the world is enmity with God."

God is God, the bible is his word, and I want to pursue him in such a variety of ways that when I travel anywhere, to anyplace of Christian worship that I will feel comfortable worshiping God whatever form it takes!

One of the ways I have recently investigated religion is to read some of the works of Martin Luther, the great reformer. Basically, before him every Christian was Catholic. They were the Christian religion. Along his journey, Martin Luther got a hold of an entire bible, and was deeply enlightened when he was able to read the whole thing, not just the selected portions read during mass. He found some inconsistencies, 95 of them actually, between what the bible said and what the church was doing. He was also greatly appalled a the lack of knowledge among believers and even some pastors. He eventually became responsible for us being able to have copies of the bibles ourselves, instead of them only residing in the church.

One of the ways he desired to change things was to assemble a set of simple biblical doctrines that every believer should be taught. These were put together in the small catechism. It contains The Ten Commandments, The Apostles' Creed, The Lord's Prayer, sections on baptism, confession Eucharist (communion), sample morning and evening prayers, and a blessing for meals. It has explanations and commentary on each of these things. It is quite an in depth yet simple manual on how live in faith. It has endured since the 1500's and is still taught today in many churches, as basically, "Christianity 101", and is often a prerequisite for official church membership.

With all the discussions and situations in society today, an in-depth study of the essential elements of faith such as Luther's is time well spent. Every person who has faith in Jesus Christ would due well to study up on the small catechism, and consider the implications of the moral doctrines contained  in it.

 Small Catechism

From the small amount I have spent studying them thus far, I am amazed at how it has drawn me closer to God by pondering what I believe and why. I have also found Luther's directions for the head of households to teach these principals their family to be a great motivation for making that a priority in our home. They will continue to challenge me for some time, and they are a subject I wish to write about frequently in this blog. I have found thus far that following his instructions precisely can make for a simple joyous experience of faith. 

Perhaps my fascination with these religious things is do to not growing up in church, by I also know it is comforting to realize I am joining with the church of the past, present and future in these things. Humility is good in this life of faith, and today I can join with millions of others as we study the basics of faith.

While I recognize that a traditional commentary on the liturgical calender would start in the beginning of December with Advent, it's my blog and I'll start it anytime i want! I actually love that it was started on Christ's birthday, with the start of a life that forever changed the world, which I am sure no one was truly ready for and I would doubt any of us are ready for today, if we are honest. 

So this whole religion thing has gotten some press recently, and it seems far more would be beneficial.  After hearing and being taught how 'bad' religion is, upon further investigation I have found it to be more of what I need. Who doesn't need more discipline in their life of faith? How many of us actually do devotions every morning? How many of us actually live out the things we so passionately sing about and get taught every Sunday? When we say "I'll pray for you", then do we actually do it? Our follow through on relationships, especially with our Savior, often suffers in our fast-paced technology laced society. 

It is my precise purpose in this blog to reconcile all of us back to our God, and also back to his church; past, present and future. It's seems for us to move forward in maturity as "Christians" we must embrace all that is Christ's. I know it frequently seems easier to deny being allied with traditional religion, it's inherent baggage,  and try to then demonstrate these ways that our type of faith is superior or somehow easier than the rest. In attempting these tactics  we also water down the true message of the gospel. 

We commit the greatest sin by refusing to acknowledged our alliance with Christ's entire church! This not only causing a tremendous amount of confusion to outsiders but a tremendous amount as well to those proclaiming faith. Perhaps the greatest ironic truth is found in this battle we wage against each other as God's people, in direct rebellion to the unifying effect the Holy Spirit brings! The message of Christmas, "peace on earth and goodwill to men" most certainly applies to us. I'll be love to any and all others whom I share faith with, don't share faith with and all others too.