Luke 11:46, Matthew 23:25 "Hard Life Harder"

“And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them." (Luke 11:46)

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence!"  (Matthew 23:25)

Religion is, of course, not necessarily a bad thing. Religion is believing in God. Religion is tradition and ceremony. Religion is learning the difference between right and wrong. Religion is praying and celebrating religious holidays and reading the Scripture and coming to church and giving our tithes and offerings.

Those are all things that I affirm and have made a part of my life. Religion is not a bad thing –unless we simply practice religion instead of entering into the relationship that God wants to have with us.
Jesus told one of the most religious men of His day that unless a person is “born again,” he will never see the Kingdom of God. Unless I allow Jesus to transform my heart and mind, it really doesn’t matter in the big picture if I know how to act religious.

Religion might change my behavior, but only Jesus can change my heart. Why is this important? Because acting religious doesn’t forgive my sin. Being religious doesn’t take away the emptiness in my soul. Being religious doesn’t take away my sense of guilt and shame. Religion without relationship only treats the symptom, it doesn’t cure the disease.

It seems to me that religion often makes a hard life even harder.  Because religion cannot change the heart, it tries to control people with laws and expectations.  Religion is good at describing high standards of right behavior –but only a right relationship gives hope and mercy to those who realize they don’t measure up.

When we finally get to the end of ourselves and begin to understand that we hurt, that we are empty inside, that we have deep spiritual needs that we can’t meet ourselves, that there has to be more to life than we are experiencing –when we finally admit that we have made a mess of things and we need divine help, if we turn to religion, we only get the added burden of additional laws that in our hearts we know we can never keep.

Religion makes a hard life harder. But a relationship with God through Jesus gives mercy and hope.

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James 3:15, James 4:4 "God's Enemies"

 James 3:15 Such wisdom does not come down from heaven; it belongs to the world, it is unspiritual and demonic.
 James 4:4 Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

None of us would intentionally declare ourselves to be God’s enemies. Yet, when we choose our own way instead of God’s ways –when we choose the world’s wisdom over God’s wisdom –when we choose to side with the world instead of siding with God, that’s exactly what we are doing.

The world’s values are carnal and unspiritual; they are, in fact, influenced by the devil. So, when we choose these values over God’s values, we are quite literally choosing the evil one over God. 

Whether we have thought this decision through or not, the result is the same: when we side with the world, we declare ourselves to be God’s enemies. And just to make sure we understand, James says it clearly again: “anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” 

It is not an option that God leaves open to us for us to be vaguely religious. We cannot be “kind of” Christian.

When it comes to spiritual things, God wants us to be fully surrendered to Him, living our lives in His Spirit, choosing His ways over our own ways. Clearly, there is a choice here that we must make.

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Genesis 1:27 "In God's Image"

Have you ever wondered why universally women all want to be beautiful and men want to be strong and courageous? In every culture on the face of the earth for as far back as we have recorded history, women have wanted to be beautiful and men have wanted to be strong and courageous.

I know that evolutionists would say it’s because of how we evolved so that the human race could survive. But I think a better answer is found in the verse , Genesis 1:27, “God created people in His own image; God patterned them after Himself; male and female He created them.” 

Courage and strength and beauty are all characteristics of God –and we were created in His image. We were created with and for God’s glory.

Satan would love to destroy God’s glory –in fact, to destroy God -but that isn’t possible, so he has made it his mission to destroy those created in God’s image. What difference do we make to Satan? None. The only reason he cares about us is because God cares about us.

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John 10:10, Isaiah 61:1 "Matters Of The Heart"

I think that we forget the importance of our hearts. We forget that Jesus told us the greatest commandment is to love God with all of or hearts. We forget that we are to hide the Word of God in our hearts. We forget that God’s commandments and promises are to be written on our hearts. We forget that although man looks on outward appearances, God looks at our hearts. We forget that it is out of our hearts that authentic praise and worship flows. We forget that our hearts are the very wellspring of life. We forget how central the heart is, but our enemy hasn't.

Our enemy knows how important our hearts are –and that’s why he is so intent on destroying them –that’s why he is intent on breaking our hearts –on twisting our hearts –on deadening our hearts. If the enemy can break our hearts, he has broken us. 

The enemy twists our hearts and deadens our hearts and breaks our hearts –but listen to this prophecy from Isaiah chapter 61:1 that Jesus claimed as His own mission statement: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for prisoners."

Here, then, is the situation. The enemy (according to John 10:10) robs and kills and destroys, but Jesus gives life, binds up the broken-hearted, and proclaims freedom and release to those in bondage. He came to take away our damaged, unresponsive, broken hearts –and replace them with new hearts –hearts fully capable of loving God. Jesus came to give us back our hearts.

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Romans 5:20 "Fall Down, Get Back Up"

But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.  Romans 5:20


There is nothing good about sin. But it is the nature of God to be redeeming, and because God is a God of grace and mercy, He has found a way to make even our struggles and our failures into valuable, redemptive life-lessons.

The very cycle of falling down and getting back up is what creates in us the perseverance it takes to eventually overcome. It is not the falling down that is good; it is the getting back up. It is turning back to God when we realize that we have sinned, again. 

If we continue to fall down because we are trying to overcome sin on or own, through our own strength, through our own will power, through our own efforts, we will eventually realize that whenever we try on our own, we I fail.

We are not strong enough. We don’t have enough will power. We are too weak. But, then, that is the point where God wants us.

For those who truly love God, the very cycle of falling down and getting back up eventually brings us to full surrender to Christ. Out of our weakness, God’s strength is shown.

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John 13:34-35 "If You Love"

"And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.”  John 13:34-35

Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples –if you love one another.”

Think about the incredible implications of that statement. The world will not know the truth just because we hold correct doctrine, or because we go to the right church, or because we are knowledgeable in Scripture, or because we use our talents and abilities and spiritual gifts for the Kingdom, or because we are faithful to tithe, or because we follow the rules, or because we know a lot of religious jargon. 

Most of these things are good things –they are positive things –they are even things that usually accompany a right relationship with God. But none of these things are authorized by Christ to be the trademark for Christians.

The one and only identifier that is endorsed and authorized by Jesus is that the Body of Christ exhibits true love.

If the Body of Christ can truly love, the world will believe; if we cannot truly love, the world will never believe.

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Psalm 51:4 "God Loves Losers And Sinners"

Everybody loves a winner; nobody wants to associate with a loser.  We live in a very competitive culture, with everyone striving to be on top. But stop and think about it for a moment.   In order for there to be somebody on top, somebody else has to be on the bottom.  The only way for one person to win is for someone else to lose.   And I just want to say I'm glad that God doesn't limit his love to a select few who out perform others.  I'm glad that God loves losers. 

The Bible tells us plainly that all of us have sinned against God. We are, each of us, equal in that respect.  If God only loved the winners, we'd all miss out.

Psalm 5, however,  reminds us: "Against You—You alone—I have sinned and done this evil in Your sight. So You are right when You pass sentence; You are blameless when You judge.....God, create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not banish me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me....You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; You are not pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God."

All God has ever wanted from us is honesty, and a broken heart before him. All God wants from us is for us to admit our failure, and allow Him to show His strength through our weakness. Just as we are equal in our sin, in Jesus, we are equally accepted and forgiven in our repentance.  Because God loves us.  God loves losers and sinners like you and me.

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