"Religious" -Twain

"For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion." (Psalms 137:3)

  We that have the Truth living in us, know the voice of God; clearly He speaks to those that are His children, and the more we listen, the more clearly we can hear Him speak. This is not just about listening to God, this is clearly about us not listening to anyone else when it comes to truth and spiritual matters; especially when it comes to matter that involve worshiping God and giving glory to His name. Here is what I believe God has shown me; literally, He showed me this around 1:30 this morning, as I was awake and trying to make sense of all the stuff running through my head. As Paul was sharing, those that are lost cannot see the Truth; they cannot understand the power of God's free gift of salvation, because it is no where close to their understanding. This is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) The kingdom of God is established within the life of a Believer; it is the New Birth of that Believer which brings a spiritual awakening, because at the moment of his or her New Birth the Holy Spirit enters into their heart. From that moment on, the voice of God speaks into our lives; giving us direction, instruction, Scriptures, boldness, and love, the likes of which we have never known before. There are so many more gifts of the Spirit to cove, but I think you get the point. Using this Verse as a reference, I believe it shows us the difference between the religious aspects of doing God's work, based upon us being told by the world; and the difference to be applied when it is God that is telling us what we should do. The world tells us to do it for their entertainment or profit; if they cannot see the Truth, then anything we do that gives glory to God is nonsense and foolishness. They are only doing so to be entertained or because there is something in it for them. But when God says for us to do it, it is because He wants His glory to be revealed, whether to show off His treasure or to add more treasure to it! Oddly enough, the Title of today's post was given to me by reminding me of something I learned in school, at least 50 years ago. It was about Samuel Clemens, who was known by his pen name, Mark Twain. The picture given me as a child was on how he came up with that name, based upon how they measured the distance between the bottom of a ship and the ocean floor. This is the picture God gave me about how we must measure Truth with God's Word; each and every step we take, with every situation, and with every new thing that we enter into: Is it going to give glory to God! The religions of this world are just that; they are religions for the people of this world; but we are not about having religion, we are people that have a relationship with the Creator of this world; who, not only is the Creator, but is our Heavenly Father, and has shown us how much He loves us; something that not everyone can see clearly, because the world is in the way. Not only are we called for a purpose; we are called by God for His purposes, the purpose of reconciling the world to Him, and not for the purposes of this world...

"For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory to the Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)