I sent out a text to a few friends asking, “Where does religion get its power?” I got some excellent responses: “insecurity”, “seperation”, “from you and me – not from God”, “fear”, “shame”, and even “free will”. Obviously the issues of religion run deep. It reminded me of the book The Final Quest (by Rick Joyner) 
where a huge battle is waged between Christians and against Christians that are being riden like horses by various demons… Christian vs. Christian?
A counter to this was I had a friend text back after my original question and ask, “Where did King David get his power?” I smiled and felt a wind of peace blow over me gently. He texted back again and said, “Describe King David in one Word?” I responded…. connected!
Religion has such a negative connotation. I have gone through several episodes of, as REM would say, “losing my Religion.” My mother was Jewish, as a kid she had us all become Mormon, as a teenager I attended a Baptist church and then converted to Adventism. I worked in Adventist churches and then Methodist Churches and then an Assemblies of God Church, then back to a Methodist Church and now attend North Point Community Church. Religion has no power for me . . . My wife and I have decided that Religion or Denominations are, for us, meaningless.
Power, real power comes not from Religion, but from relationship . . . thus the church or Religion we fall under is where is our relationship is best being built and where do we have the most opportunity to share the benefit of that relationship with others . . .
The relationship that I, in my heart, most want build and in the deepest part of me most seek is a relationship with Jesus. My God, my Savior, my Friend.
That is where I get my power.
I believe that is where David got His power as well.
I love the story of Enoch in the Old Testament – one day he just walks out of this wold and in to God’s. He had developed such a close relationship with God, that God could not stand to be without him.
I want to get to a point where I can’t stand to with out God and He me.
Brother Kyle, I can sense such longing in your heart. The bible says, “Give and it will be given unto you a good measure, shaken together…overflowing.” Don’t fight the call of intimacy with god in your life. I have in my hand five envelopes, each one with a different monetary amount: 100, 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000k. My question to you Kyle is can you hear god calling out to you? He’s calling you right now! How badly do you want to know him?
Confused by the envelopes with $ – how does that apply?
The whole thing was a religious farce. I tried to make it obvious; I would never actually say things like that to you personally. It was (and unfotuntely still is) common for any religion to use emotional manipulation to acquire money. I was using your genuine desire to be in relationship with god to manipulate you to give more. Of course the greater the monetary amount envelope (or all the envelopes) you pick to “fill” will directly correlate with how close your will get to be with god. I’m surprised, but relieved that you didn’t understand the envelopes. What I listed above is almost exactly what I’ve heard in my current church.
Fortunately I may the only one here that has had the “envelope” experience.
Sorry I missed the sarcasm (I am really a big fan of the art form). Relieved to hear it though. I have not heard of the envelope manipulation before – that’s incredible . . . in the name of religion . . .
Your reply reminds me of a scene I witnessed at a privately owned Plant and Tree Nursery a couple years ago. I was there with my family picking out vegetables and flowers for our garden. There was a huge selection of trees, bushes, flowers, and vegetables for everyone to choose from. This car pulls into the parking lot all frenzied like and this guy comes barreling out and walks right up to the owner and he says “I want to buy that tree!” The tree he was pointing at was a permanent tree planted in the front yard of the nursery and was clearly too big to be moved (or sold). The owner says, “I’m sorry that tree is not for sale, we have smaller versions of that kind of tree for sale though.” The guy then says “GOD TOLD ME HE WANTS ME TO HAVE THAT TREE AND THAT YOU WOULD SELL IT TO ME IF I ASKED SO YOU HAD BETTER THINK TWICE AND SELL ME THAT TREE!” I loved the lady’s response:
“Oh, you can have it then….as soon as God tells me too!”
BTW, I thought it was facinating that the blog magically put the picture of Rick Joyner’s Book The Final Quest. I didn’t do that.
The book link was me…hope you don’t mind. I have also been adding TAGs and Categories to other peoples posts. Just tell me if I’m taking too many liberties. BoB
AHH MAN, that’s how I got disoriented with religion in the first place. What I thought was magic ended up just being somebody doing something behind the scenes…shoot!
I loved the book insert and if you guys haven’t read the book, it’s very entertaining. Rick Joyner is actually one of the main authors that helped to pull me out of “religion”. His has a minor book actually called “Spirit of Religion” and another one called “Spirit of Withcraft” that were very good (can read in an hour tops). His book “Two Trees” was excellent in dileniating between religion and relationship with The Christ. I would probably rate him as one of my personal most influential authors.
I have added it to my reading list…probably be a little while before I get to it but I’m looking forward to it. BoB
Which One? The Final Quest? If you got the funds, I highly recommend buying the overcoming series (22bucks). Lots of “meaty” tid-bits that could change your life forever. Here’s the link:
http://www.morningstarministries.org/store/other-items/overcoming-strongholds-series-special-buy-1-set-get-additional-sets-12-price-free-
If you do decide to read the final quest, let me know and I’ll read it with you.
I will read all of them…someday. As I hear about good books I just add them to my list. Depending on my schedule sometimes I go through a book pretty quick and other times weeks go by between chapters. I am currently trying to finish the Integrity book by Henry Cloud. I will order the Final Quest and move it to the top of the list…right after “Integrity”. I will let you know when I am ready to start and we can read through it and discuss on OSFT. I was also thinking about starting the “Love Dare” book on OSFT and seeing if you and Kyle and others would like to work through the book together…I will probably make a post later today to see if anyone else is interested.
I’d be interested in the Love Dare.
I just wanted to write inthis small space
Drew,
I enjoyed your post and thought it was interesting that this afternoon’s headline on CNN was about the Vatican welcoming Anglicans back into the Catholic church:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/20/vatican.anglican.church/index.html