Let me start by saying; I understand that the words religion and religious are used by many as an expression of a quality that is in a certain person. The word actually & simply means METHOD.
It was because of religion that Jesus the Christ was brought back to the world. Religion, or should I say mans’ methods, had perverted the true “WHO” and “WHAT” that God truly is. The letter of the law, and the structure that man was placing on the external events and places of worship had caused many, if not all, to pervert the very Being of our living God; Thus Jesus was sent to rescue us from our-selves.
“God is Spirit, therefore those that worship must worship in Spirit.” But man, as he was then and continues also to be, feels that he has to put his carnal thinking and his fleshly ways into a man-made system to strut his superiority and to gather those that will follow him, even creating with his own hands and mind, an external building and calling “it” church. The true Church is a people, not a place. As many as respond to His Spirit are placed into this living Temple. None have to go someplace, or do something, or be a certain way, to enter into His Gate; we are already in His presence. We are already acceptable, already loved, and already ‘paid for’ by the redemption that God has given from the beginning, it’s already there, and there’s nothing we have to do or no place we have to go to receive it; it’s already ours. But to walk in His fellowship, we have to reach up and take what’s already ours.
A long ways back, many centuries ago, ‘the so called men of the cloth’ began scheming to find as many ‘would be followers’ to join their man-made efforts and developed again a system that missed the mark. Even stooping to create entertainment centers and calling them ‘church’, anything to bring in the masses to their efforts. These places of so-called worship centers are more for the amusement and enticement so they can gather a gathering to their inflated egos.
Religion, in its true form, is an idea that hinders mans’ relationship with his God. Man needs no center-piece, nor bait to follow, nor any enticements to hear the inner voice of Gods’ Spirit, we are already His children.
When we seek the WAY, we find the TRUTH, which leads to LIFE. There is no other Way except thru Christ, for He is the expression of Gods’ Love, He is our Rescuer.
When Malachi was spoken to by the Lord and told to forward a message to the priest. He was told to tell the priest that they were robbing Him, (our God), with their tithes and offerings. For the leaders were taking money from the poor, the essence of their lives, and feeding their own agendas, and told the priest that they are cursed with a curse.
This habit of mans’ intervention that has been going on for these many centuries, and the addictions so strong from it, have proven that it will never change; but it can in you and me. All things are possible thru Christ our Lord.