"Religiosity" -2

"Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." (S.O.S. 2:15)

  To tell the story, we must make it His! Plain and simple, there is no other way; yet that is what is so often missing from religion, it becomes more about us and less about Him. To make this something easier to comprehend, Matthew Henry has a few little examples of what these "little foxes" might be. The first of which is little things that "are an obstruction and prejudice to the interests of his kingdom in this world and in the heart." As he describes them: "though they are little, they do great mischief."
  In our personal lives, "those sins that seem little, for they often prove very dangerous." In the lives of the church, "to oppose and prevent the spreading of all such opinions and practices as tend to corrupt men's judgments, debauch their consciences, perplex their minds, and discourage their inclinations to virtue and piety."
  Without getting too carried away, there is no better way to say this, than to simply point to Jesus in every single matter of our faith! In Him is everything, and without Him we are nothing, can do nothing, and we are all about nothing, without Him! That is not me being critical, because it starts with a very little assumption, whether we are talking as an individual, or as a church, that we are somehow in control; as if the Lord has handed us the wheel, and given us the right to fly this thing on our own!
  That is pretty much the trap of religion: it starts out with very little changes in direction, that ends up becoming way off the mark as time goes on. That is all it takes! Just move the wheel ten degrees, and before you know it, you are totally up-side-down and headed into a state of destruction. Wake Up! Is the call from above to all that sleep the sleep of death!
  Don't ask me where that came from, because I think I might have had something rub off on me; or maybe I just needed little jolt or a tug, as smooth sailing usually requires...

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet preadventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commandeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8)