{"id":686,"date":"2015-09-16T00:44:21","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T00:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/?p=686"},"modified":"2015-09-16T00:50:31","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T00:50:31","slug":"religion-is-not-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/?p=686","title":{"rendered":"Religion Is Not Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

This world is full of religion.\u00a0\u00a0Religion is man\u2019s plan for god. \u00a0Most of it involves some type of activity to please a god or some type of search to find a god. \u00a0<\/strong>Actually the one being pleased is man himself as he creates his own god to worship in his self will. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Every culture has intertwined into its roots, some sort of religious belief and practice meant to soothe and bring relief to man\u2019s troubled conscience. \u00a0This religion pleases the people because it allows them to do something to secure their religious obligations and then quite often, to live as if there is no God at all. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This religion is not God centered. \u00a0It is man centered and it focuses on what man can do to secure his soul. \u00a0It is full of religious tradition and religious activity which is external and powerless. \u00a0Religion often parades in the clothing of Christianity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Man is not seeking or searching for the true God. \u00a0Scripture tells us that \u201call we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned each one to his own way\u201d, \u201cthere is none that seeketh after God, no not one.” \u00a0 Even so<\/em>, mankind knows there is a God. \u00a0The laws of God are written on man\u2019s heart, so that he is without excuse. \u00a0Man loves darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Religion is not a new problem. \u00a0It has been around since the beginning. \u00a0Cain worshiped God, but he did it his way. \u00a0He was rejected by God, because he brought the fruit of his own hands, showing that he did not accept God\u2019s provision for his sin. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Israelites had God dwelling among them with His presence manifested in the tabernacle and in the temple.\u00a0 How quickly they turned their worship into a religion. \u00a0Their hearts grew cold and their worship external. \u00a0Through their self will and disobedience they incurred the judgment of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Jesus\u2019 day, Christ confronted the Jewish religious leaders concerning their outward religion. \u00a0They had pedigrees that they could trace back to Abraham. \u00a0They followed their religious traditions to the minuscule letter,\u00a0<\/strong>but the Lord called them whited sepulchers (white washed tombs), full of dead men\u2019s bones. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

These religious leaders knew the Scriptures. \u00a0The Pharisees even believed in the resurrection, but they did not have a personal relationship with God\u2019s Messiah. \u00a0Instead they hated Jesus Christ, the very one the Old Testament scriptures prophesied would come and deliver them from their sins. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

They were the blind leaders of the blind. \u00a0They made every effort to discredit Christ, to frame Him and to kill Him. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lord said to them, \u201cAnd ye have not his (the Father\u2019s) word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. \u00a0Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. \u00a0And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.\u201d<\/em> John 5:38\u201340.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what about you and I? \u00a0 Do we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or are we just religious?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This world is full of religion.\u00a0\u00a0Religion is man\u2019s plan for god. \u00a0Most of it involves some type of activity to please a god or some type of search to find a god. \u00a0Actually the one being pleased is man himself as he creates his own god to worship in his self will. Every culture has … Continue reading Religion Is Not Enough<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":692,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions\/692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}