The Religious Never Get It

Jesus replied,“Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.
‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead.”
I had and still do struggle with a particular area of pride.  Karen and I got married right out of high school.  My scholarship paid for our rent and I also got a job working at the physical plant.  We were able to apply Karen’s work study income to bills and food also.  We saved and bought our first car.  Everything we did was from our work and saving from the day we got married to today.  We “bootstrapped” our way to where we are.  As I type this I am almost pounding my chest with pride.  That’s a severe level of pride in self-sufficiency.  Not a good thing.
The Sadducees were also extremely self-sufficient.  They denied God’s involvement in their lives.  Life was all on them so I am certain that they also experienced bootstrapped pride.  Their self-sufficient pride did go beyond mine.  They denied God’s involvement, his blessing in everyday life.  The Sadducees didn’t look for God in the everyday.  This life of self-sufficiency and pride is life completely independent of the spirit.  This is the life of the natural man.  Paul tells us of the thoughts of the natural man (1 Corinthians 2:14) and if we think and walk as natural men we will not understand the things of the Spirit.  Self-sufficient men don’t walk in the Spirit.  They walk in religion with the mindset of the dead.
The Sadducees didn’t get it and if I walk in the life and mind of the natural man I don’t get it either.  The mind focused on what we experience and see is dead.  The bootstrapped mind is dead.  The mind focused on the Spirit, not the natural, is renewed and alive.  Religion is of the natural man.  It is the bootstrapped approach to the spirit.  Thus, it doesn’t work.  Religion manufactures pride.  Religion makes perfect sense to the natural mind.  God must require work from me for Him to receive me.  I must have to bootstrap myself to God.  The natural mind doesn’t get it.  Those who rely upon their effort.  The religious are of the natural mind.  The natural man. The religious never get it.  
  1. Are you self-sufficient?
  2. Do you try to bootstrap your approach to God?

--Zine Smith

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Comfort Trap

Image
'One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure, the picture of good health, vigorous and fit. Another person dies in bitter poverty, never having tasted the good life. But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots.' Job 21:23-26 One of my favorite music groups of all time is a little-known group, House of Heroes .  I had them in for a fundraising concert several years ago.  Early in the show, they performed one of my favorite songs;  The Comfort Trap .  Here are just a few words from that song: I'm gonna get nice things and get my way Even if it means there's hell to pay I'm gonna have my cake and eat it too And what I don't eat I'm gonna force feed you I'm not looking for consolation Maybe I can settle for compensation Have my cake and eat it too And if it's all a lie, I'm gonna say it's all true It seems to be a universal state of our world that if what we think is a l...
Read more

People of Vision

Without revelation, people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy. Proverbs 29:18 I have had excellent vision for most of my life.  My sight was better than 20/20.  When I was in late high school, I was told by my optometrist that I was going to have a hard time as I got older.  I asked, "Why?"  He said, "Your eyesight is going to get worse as everyone's does.  You're going to think you need glasses, but no optometrist is going to give you eyeglasses for 20/20 sight."  My vision didn't last as long as I would have liked due to MS.  I now see an ophthalmologist annually which I visited this past week.  They have the worst games!  "One or two?"  "Which line can you read?"  "Better or worse?"  Augh!  If I could see well I would tell them?  Isn't that why I went to the eye doctor?  To correct my vision that I know is flawed?  And my eyes are fine.  My eye shape and lense...
Read more

Death Precedes Life

Image
"So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” But when Jesus heard about it he said,“Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days." John 11:3-6   Author Henry James said, "Life is a predicament that precedes death." The caterpillar appears to be a full animal. It eats on leaves. It crawls around and tries to avoid being eaten by birds and other predators. From a passing glance, the caterpillar appears complete. From an anthropomorphized view, the caterpillar thinks itself complete. We know that the caterpillar is but a butterfly pupae; an immature form. It is nothing like what it will be. The caterpillar must go through a metamorphosis that resembles death. The outer-layer dies forming a chrysalis that inside the butterfl...
Read more