Evangelism Part IV: Slamming the Kingdom Door
Where’s the life? One of the major claims of Jesus was that he came to give humanity life and life to the full-- abundant life; life overflowing; life that comes through God and awakening to the kingdom of God within us. He came to allow us to be living organisms filled with God, or perhaps better stated, to recognize that we are living organisms filled with the Divine.
And yet, many who claim to follow him seem to be weighed down in fear, dread, and heavy burdens heaved on them by the rigors of religious life and church doctrines. The story of freedom, grace and love that has drawn folks to the feet of Jesus has often been translated by particular doctrines of the church into laws that people cannot bear; rules and regulations that oppress people and take life.
For Jesus, love gives life. It is love of God, self and others that Jesus encouraged and demonstrated by his life’s example. That is the greatest command. Love sums up the whole law.
Too often love is blinded by religious laws. There’s talk about freedom and grace but many within the walls of the church seem to be blinded by the rules that one must adhere to or else run the risk of falling from this grace. To think that parts of the church hasn’t taken the command of love and life and turned it into a law of death and fear is denial.
Many religious leaders have rejected Jesus’ idea for life in God and settle for their brand of religion. I meet people every day who seem to love God and want to open their souls to the Spirit but are literally afraid that somehow they have made God angry. There is this prevailing fear that keeps them in bondage to some human-made religious laws. And despite the talk of grace within the church, many have become modern day Pharisees who slam shut the door of the kingdom in others’ faces. Many go to great lengths to convert people to their brand of religion only to make some of these folks a child trapped in the hell of religion and law.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."
It is hard to draw near to God when one is trapped in law and religion. Too many folks feel like children trapped in hell by their religion. As his followers we are not the gatekeepers of the kingdom. To think taht we are gatekeepers is to stand in opposition to Jesus' life and ministry like the religious authorities did.
The door to the “kingdom within” is not opened for some and closed for others who do not think, believe, follow and satisfy our religious laws. Jesus has kicked open the doors to the Kingdom of God and all people are invited in. That's Good News. Evangelsim is pointing toward God's open door. He said I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but through me. Jesus’ way was love. Jesus’ truth was love. Jesus’ life was love. That’s the way to God-- Jesus' way-- love, not law.
You have been set free, don’t allow yourself to become in bondage again with the yoke of slavery. Break free from the grip of religious authorities and run toward the open door. Jesus is there with his arms stretcheded-out wide to welcome you home.You are no longer slaves to the oppressive legalism of religion and church doctrines but have been set free and are now friends of Jesus.
Walk in your freedom and know that when you do, you walk with Jesus.
15 Comments:
"Break free from the grip of religious authorities and run toward the open door. Jesus is there with his arms stretcheded-out wide to welcome you home.You are no longer slaves to the oppressive legalism of religion and church doctrines but have been set free and are now friends of Jesus."
That's basically how it felt for me, when I quit regular, traditional normal-type Church-going. I felt trapped, then I felt free.
Since then, I've managed to keep out of the path of the religious~ it's been so long since I've had to worry about it, it seems like a faded memory. I had such a dramatic improvement in my relationship with God/Christ, I wasn't ABOUT to go back to the chains that bound and dried my soul!
by reading several of your posts...it seems to be you that has not been set free.
for if freedom brings what you claim, why is it that you sound so mean and miserable?
it goes back to that projection thing.
since you have moved, maybe you should look for a church to get involved with, and in, rather than continually project your views of an anti love attitude toward every one.
after all, you too have been set free. right?
Well, I don't agree with anonymous at all. I have been following your writings for about 3 months now. And I find them refreshing...freeing...and lots to ponder. Especially these latest posts on evangelism. So thank you much.
It is true. Sometimes it feels worse to be a Christian, what with all the guilt about sin and not doing enough to "evangelize". It's a relief to know that this isn't what being a follower of Christ is about, that love prevails over all. Thank you for this post.
Thanks Christine, Crissi and Julie!
Dear anonymous,
I find you humorous. Thanks for making me laugh when I read your comment.
I am going to refer to you as Virgina. You remind me of someone from that state who is very emotionally hurt.
So Virginia, I encourage you to keep coming back.
Blessings,
Rick
P.S. Dear readers, Virginia is looking for some attention here. Please take no offense at Virginia-- just pray instead.
oops! Thaats "Imagine July" not the two Julies here... sorry.
Thank you again for your supportive comments.
Hi Rick,
Keith Drury wrote about the spirit of legalism a while back here:
http://www.drurywriting.com/keith/legalism.scale.htm
Very good read, similar to your series here. However you two took very different angles. You are chiming in with Goerge Barna in his "Revolution" and beat the problems of institutional church to death (may be because you used to be from the outside and you have different perspective). Keith on the other hand, has a more tolerable views on the problems of the church and why he continue with it: http://www.drurywriting.com/keith/Beheading.Christ.htm (but once again, it may be because the guy spent his whole life in the church anyway and so his perspective is different...)
Is it weird that I could see that both you you are right???
Now, back to your series. I think the summation of your thesis is this: Evangelism must be love-driven. When we missed that, we missed the whole thing.
How do we love better? Would Joel Osten love better than John MacArthur? It's going to be hard for me to say, especially with my twisted bi-focal pomo vision so far...
Dear Bumble,
Thanks for your comments.
I am unfamilair with the gentleman you mentioned.
God's love for humanity is the the Good news. God has not abandoned the world;God has come near; turn toward God and believe the good news. Join in God's movement in this world through self-emptying love. Love is the only power that can transform this world into the kingdom of God.
"Thy kingdom come, oh God, thy will be done here in our world as it is in your heavenly utopia. Jesus has shown us the way,the truth and the life. He has overcome the world. May we have the faith, hope, and love to follow him."
Dear Rick
I've been reading your blog for a few weeks now, trying to figure out where you are coming from. I'm going to try and pick my words really carefully, as it seems comments which are at all critical of what you have to say get dismissed out of hand. But here goes, I guess I keep coming back to read what you have to say because it seems you are genuinely on a journey with Jesus and have a heart that desires the things He has for you. However, there is something I can't quite put my finger on that I find troubling about what you are writing. A little bit I found myself agreeing with anonymous above.
I don't know your story other than what I have read here, I don't know what experiences you've had with religious church-types. I do perceive from the other side of the Atlantic that the Christian right in the US has done a lot of damage. Your message of love and freedom in Christ is a positive and important one, but it seems like there is a whole section of the church for whom you don't have very much love, which kind of undermines your basic message. Perhaps you are angry, or have been hurt, and may have some justification for what you say. I wonder if the message wouldn't be more powerful if you supported it with examples of how to live free lives rather than, as you seem to have done here, framing it within an angry, accusatory dismissal of all you feel to have got it wrong.
I don't know if I've made myself clear and I apologize if I am misunderstanding you. It just feels like there is a lot of negativity in what you are saying, desipte it's seemingly positive message.
The Kingdom of God is going to be built through relationships, not a lot of words. I teach a young singles class and we had a young man come for the first time...seeking God. He was confused and questioning. My lesson that day was on relationships and how outsiders see the church. He was very interested in what we were talking about and had a great perspective. Immediately after class, four of the college guys (his age) surrounded him with their Bibles and began "witnessing" to him. Later I asked if any of them got his phone number and were they planning on calling him up and developing a relationship with him. None of them had, or seem to care. The guy has never come back. How sad.
BTW, I've been enjoying your posts - I know where you are coming from.
His peace.
B~
Dear Kamsin,
Thank you for taking the time to write. I appreciate the sensitivity that you bring here.
You are right. Much of my ministry is dealing with those who have been hurt and abused by parts of the church. So, much of the perspective I bring to my writing is through that lens and those experiences. I often write with intensity and passion. In many ways, like I told my wife, it feels like some of my work is like "de-programming" folks who have been trapped in oppressive cults.
As best I can tell, Jesus was often extremely angry at the relgious teachers who used their religion to exclude, control and manipulate others regardless of their intentions in the name of God. The times that he was most intense and angry was when he was contfronted by these people. I suspect it is because of what it did to people. (MT23)
I imagine that if you are having this experience of my writing that others may as well. I regret that you (or others) experience my posts as angry and negative.
I want to "hear" you. So I will sit with this for a while.
Thanks for taking the time to write and spending the past few weeks reading what is on my soul.
Bruce,
Thanks for sharing this story. I hear stories like this daily. I wonder where this kid will end-up?
He's the kid that I went in minsitry for.
Bruce's kid ended up in my church too. But only after years of me beating up on the head of the similar college kids. But once you have a consistent stream of "seekers and friends" in the church, the whole atmosphere changed a lot. Now, they are beating up on me, for not "being real" enough. (Which something I am not going to pretend. If I don't like bars, beers, or cigs, then I am not going to pretend like I do...)
But I digress. The issue is how are we going to model a different kind of church. I even try to avoid the term "church" because it inflicts certain bad conotations with it. Instead, I found myself making up words like "the community of the people of God" to mask the churchiness of it all too.
What a shame!
Thank you for this post. It validates what I've experienced over the last several months.
I've stumbled on this site and I've just read the 4 parts of Evangelism. The last paragragh sums up my feelings - it's been a long time but after more than 40 years in the wilderness it's only recently that I've experienced the freedom and liberation from the slavery of legalism.
I'm not into blogging (yet) and I couldn't see any way to make direct contact with the author.
I'm looking for some feedback on my web site - hope it's OK to ask - http://uk.geocities.com/oldpete66
Pete
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