When Spirituality Substitutes for Reality

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I would not have titled this as such if I did not believe it is so.  For several years now I’ve spent my time with people of relatively similar backgrounds and interests, except for the Koreans, and I find they seem to have little or no connection with real life.  They quote statistics that I know are false, they repeat the ex cathedra utterances of Hollywood stars as though they were gospel, and brush off any suggestion that life might be more than Hand and Foot games.   What is more arrogant than ignorance!vangoghschurch

My acquaintances seem to have a warm fuzzy feeling about life.  I wonder where they get this.  After spending a lifetime looking at the human race on several continents I find very little either warm or fuzzy.  I’m an optimist only because I have read the end of the book (the Bible) and we win!

“My religion just suits me fine.”  or “There are many roads to God.”   or “I don’t know what the future will bring but I am sure it will be heaven.”  Really?  Don’t you think something as crucial as life after death deserve more than a wink and a nod?

Religion saves no one

First, religion saves no one.  Religion is a vehicle to bring information and revelation to the world.  But religion is not necessarily truth because not all revelation and information is true.   We could not have learned any truth without groups such as churches or missionaries to preserve those words for us.

The deception of religion is that it masquerades as an end in itself, and we become stupefied, like half asleep people looking at a blank TV screen.  As one woman said, “I went to church to get my ticket punched.”  God does not have tickets and you don’t need them punched.

We travel many roads; God has only one

Second, if there are many roads to God He would have told us so.  There are many roads people travel before they get to God, and He is there along the way ready to step in when you are. All human beings are God’s creation, individual and sent with a specific plan for their lives.  Surely the most important task you have is finding that plan.

Some people are reared in Christian homes, others in depravity.  Some have means, others are in poverty.  Environments  create personalities, but they do not define God.  God prefers to define Himself.   He created a Bible, watched over it for centuries, and allows us to look for Him in it, most often through great loss or need.  

I wonder if my present friends who seem satisfied with card games have ever been in want, or had a need which drove them to their knees long enough to look beyond religion for the one True God.  Has the American free enterprise system robbed them of the pain and suffering to produce in them the desire for unqualified change?

Today the world is in turmoil everywhere you go.  Surely this is a time for each of us to “examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.”  During Jesus’ worst time in His life, the hours prior to the crucifixion, His disciples slept.

He spoke to Peter, “Couldn’t you three keep awake with me for a single hour? Watch and pray, all of you, that you may not have to face temptation. Your spirit is willing, but human nature is weak.” Then he went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to pass from me without my drinking it, then your will must be done.” And he came and found them asleep again, for they could not keep their eyes open. So he left them and went away again and prayed for the third time using the same words as before. Then he came back to his disciples and spoke to them, “Are you still going to sleep and take your ease? In a moment you will see the Son of Man betrayed into the hands of evil men. Wake up, let us be going! Look, here comes my betrayer!”

Let’s wake up. America has been asleep too long.

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