Religion is like BAD BREATH... - Page 3

U376977 · #21 02-25-2009, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scotty

Ok

Now that you have vented your personal problems with organized religion. (and please, refer to "we" as "people", I'm quiet sure "I" don't share in the broad brush problems you have painted here, thanks)

I go back to the original question:

What is the meaning of the word "religion" in the scripture that is quoted ?

James 1:27 (KJV) Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

So sorry, I did not mean to "vent" on you. I don't see what I wrote as "personal problems." Just a statement of fact. I still go every week. I am just questioning, Why do (we, I, people) do what we do and is it really a "service" to God. I think there are a whole lot of people who have the same mentality--perhaps they can say it more elequent than I. But don't take it personal...I was not directing toward you.

"Pure religion" in the context of the scripture was to care for widows and orphans. I take that to mean "outreach." Ministry to the rejects and street people that nobody wants. IMO.

edjen01 · #22 02-25-2009, 10:36 AM

WOW!!
James is wrong....the church is dying....and most people will miss the next "move" of God!!

this thread is getting interesting.

Glenda B · #23 02-25-2009, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UrbanMissions

We sat by a man in church yesterday that had such halitosis that you could feel warm air in a fog state !! I was like " I am glad my wife is sitting by him and not me !!! "

Religion is a lot like that - a nasty warm fog of bad breath that causes recoil !!

Do you attend the same church I go to?

edjen01 · #24 02-25-2009, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by U376977

Please... almost everything we do in "church" has nothing to do with the practice of the primitive church. We:
1. Treat buildings as sacred when there is nothing holy about a building; that is Jewish and pagan, not Christian.
2. Sit in pews, silent.
3. Listen to a preacher speaking behind the “sacred desk” pulpit.
4. We go to “church”—instead of being the church.
5. Follow an “order of Worship” to the determent of “letting God have his way.” God is forced to move within our order or it does not happen.
6. Dress in white shirts and ties!!! Don’t you know Jesus wore a three piece suite!
7. Shave that facial hair! (I guess Jesus was close to committing sin because he had is beard “plucked.”) He must have just not had time to shave.
8. Come to the “alter” and accept Jesus. If Jesus would have had an alter with him he would have made everyone kneel down—Zacchaeus, Peter and Mary and the thief on the cross did not actually get saved since they did not have an alter and did not get “baptized.”
9. Treat the “pastor” as if he were “god.” After all he is the final authority on everything…
There are many more examples of “religion.” This is what has killed the effectiveness of the church and why it is dying.

The next move of God will come outside the walls of a church building and most will miss it because it did not come in our “order” or thru our “denomination.”

you really believe ALL of these things listed are facts...not just opinions?

your reference to things being "Christian" and not Jewish or pagan...you do realize that Jesus was a Jew...and that most the first Christians were Jews...and that they often went to the Temple...a building that was very sacred to them.

I think people being silent in church is simply polite...if someone else is talking...you don't interupt. imagine the mass confusion if everyone started talking at once...actually i believe Paul talked about that.

as for the church being dead...not a chance...as for most missing the next move of God...since the tower of Babel most have ALWAYS missed the next move of God...if by most you mean the entire population...so I agree this would be a fact.

but most of the other "facts"...i think are just opinions.

U376977 · #25 02-25-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by edjen01

you really believe ALL of these things listed are facts...not just opinions?

your reference to things being "Christian" and not Jewish or pagan...you do realize that Jesus was a Jew...and that most the first Christians were Jews...and that they often went to the Temple...a building that was very sacred to them.

I think people being silent in church is simply polite...if someone else is talking...you don't interupt. imagine the mass confusion if everyone started talking at once...actually i believe Paul talked about that.

as for the church being dead...not a chance...as for most missing the next move of God...since the tower of Babel most have ALWAYS missed the next move of God...if by most you mean the entire population...so I agree this would be a fact.

but most of the other "facts"...i think are just opinions.

What I was trying to say is that the primitive church did not treat a building as sacred. The church is made up of many members. It is a body, not a building. Christianity does not have a sacred "temple." That was Jewish. In Christianity God got out from behind the veil and into his people.

When people make references like, "It is good to be in the house of God tonight." They are treating a building as sacred and it would sound foreign to the ears of the first christians. They understood they were the "house of God."

scotty · #26 02-25-2009, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by U376977

What I was trying to say is that the primitive church did not treat a building as sacred. The church is made up of many members. It is a body, not a building. Christianity does not have a sacred "temple." That was Jewish. In Christianity God got out from behind the veil and into his people.

When people make references like, "It is good to be in the house of God tonight." They are treating a building as sacred and it would sound foreign to the ears of the first christians. They understood they were the "house of God."

Just my opinion, but I think your reading too deep into things. Or maybe there is something else that is sitting on your shoulder.

The "house of God" is a "church"... the "church" are the people. There for yes, it is good to be in the house of God. See the semantics ? If you dissect a butterfly too much you destroy the beauty of it.

And yes, God did tear the veil, to have a personal relationship with us. But , even Jesus felt a need to rid the temple of the thieves, if it were not important, then why bother ?

Mark 11:17
And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Acts 3 says Peter and John went to the temple to pray. After a miracle and teaching they were run out of the temple for preaching the gospel.

I would challenge to say that the NT church was house to house because the Word of God was cast out of the temple. Today, in my temple, the Word of God is welcomed, taught, exercised. If the building is no subject, then what matters of whether I meet at home, in the streets or in my temple as long as I am "in the church" ?

LUKE2447 · #27 02-25-2009, 03:51 PM

Jas 1:25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
Jas 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
Jas 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled (IN LAW)before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Pretty simple context.... worthless religion("observance" of God's law) is a servant not submissive unto the leading of God. Thus he does not bridal his tongue and allows the flesh to take reign. Pure religion though is the opposite and is to do the works of God, which is faith through the leading of the Spirit which is works! Thus we fulfill law unto God as he abides in us and we are submissive to his will. God living through us is pure religion.