Comfy Religion

Religion is comfortable.

I want to be discipled by wise and knowledgeable teachers who've spent years studying scriptures and can give me the real meat.

I want to be held accountable for the way I think, and be pulled back into line if I drift into heresy.

I want the company of like minded believers so we can encourage and build each other up in correct doctrines. To search the scriptures together with the same vision as our leaders.

I want to have clear guidelines for what's right and wrong, for godly living.

I want clear understanding of what the bible says about the way we should live.

I want good boundaries, wholesome fellowship, biblical standards, strong leadership.

I want to be comfortable and safe in my beliefs.

NOT!

Really, despite my "natural" inclinations for the above, God wants something entirely different. He wants us to walk a narrow road, a difficult road.

He wants us to think for ourselves.

He wants us to be accountable to no man.

He wants us to be so tight with him that we don't need any guidelines, rules or principles.

He wants nothing more (and nothing less) than to walk in love - allow HIS love to fill us and affect all we are and do.

He wants us to forget all about right and wrong, good and evil, sin and righteousness. He just wants relationship.

Everything else comes from that relationship. What that looks like is God's business. How that works for each of us is totally different. Sometimes it can be a challenge, sometimes it means running the gamut of human emotion as we are confronted by the depths of the love in that relationship.

But all he wants is for us to allow him to love us. Its that simple.