Radical Religion

For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. (John 5:20)

I have been listening to an audio version of a book the last few days that is having a profound impact on my thinking and perceptions. Much of what I am learning is not necessarily new to me; much of it has been coming more clearly into my consciousness over the past few years. But this author is putting many things together into one place that allows me to see how much of this all fits together so much more clearly than I have been able to perceive before.

The book is called So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore by Jake Colsen. I don't know how many may have heard of this book, but if you have read it I suspect it probably either makes you very compelled to rethink a great deal of assumptions about your relationship with God or it may well have made you very upset. Either way, I doubt you could ever think quite the same about religion as how you thought before being exposed to this book.

The author's perceptions about God and his insights about God's character and desires for His children is refreshingly advanced from what nearly everyone else projects that I am aware of. His picture of God challenges many of the dark assumptions that religions teach and instill in the hearts of billions of people today. But I am seeing a growing movement everywhere that is being inspired by the Spirit of God that is going to ultimately expose the incredible glory of the real truth about God to the whole earth that is foretold in the first few verses of Revelation 18.

Jesus was in the business of doing that very same thing. He came to this earth to reveal the truth about how God relates to us in sharp contrast to the terribly distorted notions and teachings of the religious elite and those in power. As a result of this distinct difference in Jesus' view of God and that of the religious leaders, He found Himself in ever increasing conflict and tension with those who resisted His clear messages of love and life. This passage is one of the clear examples of the stark difference between the dark views of God cherished by most religions and the almost unbelievable message of God's goodness and desire for close intimacy with His children as taught by the very Son of the Highest.

Earth-bound religions generally view God as rather distant and ineffective or possibly very close but angry and vengeful when disobeyed. Either way, the whole notion of having a healthy, loving relationship with a caring Father as Jesus portrayed in these verses struck the religious people of His day as totally out of line with nearly everything they believed about God. And because they were more keen on justifying and clinging to their own beliefs about how God should relate to people through power, threats, inducements and favoritism instead of the way Jesus related to people, they refused to embrace the very love and grace that is so necessary for a sinner to come close to God to be transformed by His love deep in their hearts.

The reason that the Jews had such a hard time accepting most everything that Jesus had to say or reveal about the Father was because of their deeply entrenched views of God that they would not question in their own hearts. As a result they had lost sight completely of the whole reason that God gave the Sabbath to humanity in the first place and had substituted God's intention of spending that time together to enhance the intimacy of a personal relationship with strict external regulations that tended to suffocate all possibility of any such intimacy every happening. Likewise, their pictures of God as a stern judge and punisher of those who sinned or strayed from the straight and narrow precluded any view of God as a loving parent eager to nurture and mature His children into healthy adulthood and close friendship with their heavenly Parents. Any such notions were viewed as threats that would likely undermine their whole system of religious dominance over many other people and would expose their own thirst for power and the pride that filled their own lives.

But Jesus refused to soften His purpose to bring light into the gross darkness of this world's ignorance about the true God, our Father in heaven. He refused to accommodate our confused teachings and control mechanisms that keep people in fear of Father God but instead openly spoke of a loving, caring, passionate Father who is so different than what most people have ever considered that it appeared downright scandalous to most. That is the very same message that I am getting from this book we have been listening to as well. And just like the reactions that came from the religious enforcers of Jesus' day I suspect that many today will react with anger and view this book as a threat that will undermine much of the systems in place today if it gets into the hands of too many people.

But God will not be kept inside our little boxes for very long. The glory of God and the truth about His goodness and unconditional love for us will overwhelm every obstacle and every teaching set up against it and will ultimately triumph over all the lies of the enemy that permeates all of our hearts still today. Jesus is the only true representation of how God feels about lost sinners and as I carefully meditate on His example and teachings in these passages I continue to marvel at how different His message is from what religion has taught me all of my life.

From these words of Jesus I can see that even though people may resist the truths that Jesus reveals about God that those very truths will inevitably cause all of us to marvel sooner or later. Love will overcome in the end no matter how many millions of lies the enemy piles up against Him. The false representations of God promoted by every religious organization on earth cannot suppress the living fact that God is passionately pursuing a close, personal and intimate connection with each one of our hearts. He is deeply desirous that we allow His Holy Spirit to be the steering force from deep inside and that we will allow that Spirit to transform us more and more so that others will become attracted to experience the same kind of joy that they sense in our lives. I want to have that experience of joy much more comprehensively myself so that others will be drawn to want to get to know God for themselves and enter into a deeper trust relationship with the One who loves them and wants to satisfy them like no one else could ever do.