Religion is God.

Religiously.  A word so casually and overly spoken in our society, used in a wide spectrum of contexts from, “He plays his Xbox religiously” to “she uses her phone religiously”. Breaking down the meaning of the secular slang statement the word religiously reveals a common definition—extreme, always, large quantity, much.  It’s a word used to describe an action done a lot and for a long period of time.  When using that word and definition in relation to the original Webster dictionary definition (set of beliefs), it fails to correlate. The majority of the church today cannot be viewed with the definition of religious the secular world uses.  We lack a radical and always commitment to a thing that the boy playing Xbox even has.  He is committed to his video game, never stopping, never resting but continuing in the times of frustration and doubt.  My analogy may be lame, but 14 year-old (and even 40 year olds) can understand the idea of being addicted.   The church has begun to turn God into a Sunday morning commitment rather than an everyday, all day lifestyle controlled by the One most high.  We fall back into the idea that God has created this world to satisfy the things we want instead of realizing we were made to glorify Him; all of him 24/7, forever and ever—religiously.  We have lost the true definition of religion.  It is not an aspect of our life, or personality trait, but rather the central essence of our being.  It is everything we are and live for.  Religion is God.  He is ours to make known to those who do not yet have a relationship with Him. 

The word has been altered and I seek to understand the original meaning and lifestyle it is meant to define. Colossians 1:17-18 states “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” God is the beginning; He is the brain of the operation, the controller of all things. At first glance it sounded self-explanatory; God is above all. Since He created the world it is only fair he becomes the ruler. But to decipher what this statement looks like is complex.  God is above all and rules all…what does that mean for His people? If we are His grasshoppers, what are our duties to satisfy his reason for His creation?  God owns all and one day every knee will bow to His power and truth, but life is meant to willingly give away our failed humanity in order to receive the Spirit of truth and fulfill glorifying Him in every part of our life. 

I know I sound repetitive, but I offer no apologies because this truth is the answer to living the minutes on this earth, yet it’s a topic vastly disappearing in the present days of our Church.  We are called to be a body controlled by the Almighty.  Called to love Him religiously.  Glorify Him religiously.  Follow Him religiously.

Freaks in a Jesus way.

It's a beautiful thing seeing so many freaks in the prayer room. You have your shakers, your jumpers and your screamers. Or the one that gives me most joy: this old man who wears the same jean shorts, white crew socks and bleached spotted slippers (Est. Before my birth). This man defies all culture popularities, but he knows it doesnt matter, he just raises his hands to the Lord, hours on end. These people become a reminder to my soul about the reason of our existence...to give God glory in everything we do, to love Him with all our mind, soul, heart, and strength, to speak the unpopular message, to rejoice in worship over the beloved in anyway that looks. Jesus calls us to be freaks in the eyes of our nation because to him it's normality. We are in love with a God who's entire being is set apart from that of the majority of this world. We are called to live a lifestyle that looks normal to a supernatural God.

I can't help to think of the thoughts that were going through peoples' head when Noah was building an ark. Noah was building a foreign object for a nonexistent rain flood for an invisible God for 120 years. Oh how (if they had them in his day) he must have looked like a perfect candidate for an insane asylum. Or how about the time Joshua was instructed by God to lead his people around the city of Jericho for six days then on the seventh day walk around it seven times, blow trumpets, shout and only then will the walls of Jericho come down. What!! What freaks they must looked like, men of war walking around the walls for seven day so they can shout and in that instant destroy the city. Then Jesus, the man that walked on water, fed five thousand off of two fish and five barely loaves, the man that says, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me..." And also says "whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." What kind of message is that? Okay follow me, give up your family, your job and die to this world, then you will find the meaning of life. They must have thought he was nuts because everything he believed in contradicted everything they lived in.

The truth is the guy with the bleached shoes, Noah with his ark, Joshua with his shouts, they are all doing something right-they're worshipping, and acting in obedience, giving up everything and leaving all dignity outside the spiritual realm of loving Jesus. When we do this, when we act in full obedience and devote ourselves to worshipping an invisible God, thus giving Him all the glory, it will look different to the darkeness that surrounds this world. I want to be that freak that people say is not okay. Not for self-glory, but because if I look like a freak in this world, my heart is set completely on the things of an eternal one, living a normal life in Jesus' eyes. I cry out for God to destroy those last parts of my dignity. I want to live fully in His world, the world He created us for, the world He desires us for to rest in.