Ok here is part 4. You will need to read the introduction, part 1, 2 & 3 first or you can just start here and then go backwards. Lol

James 1:27

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

So now in my walk of life I am back to being married, working a job, working in my local church, and living for God. I am dedicated and really looking to the future of what God has for me. I am about 23 or 24 at this time of my life and I know that I am called to help those around me find the truth of God’s freedom through Jesus Christ. To get a good picture of how I viewed myself at this time you will need to read the following.

Philippians 3:3-6

“For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If others think they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”

So that was pretty much how I viewed myself. I was raised in the Christian home in fact I was a preacher’s son, preacher’s grandson, and the nephew of a preacher. I faithfully attended church, paid my tithes, sang in the choir, and I was an outstanding preacher also. I knew there were other preachers jealous of my great talent and ability! I had never been drunk, on drugs, in jail, at a wild party, or any of that worldly stuff! I was pure and clean through and through. Or was I?

Here is the amazing thing about a religious person. They are consumed with testimony and outward appearance. Think about all the rules we have in the church. What do 90% deal with? Yep you got it! It is the outward. We are obsessed with it. We always hear these statements, “You have an obligation to have a pure testimony.” “If the world sees you looking like them then what will they think they need to change to be a Christian?” “If you walk, talk, and look like the world, they will never see the need to become a Christian.” Of course I say all of this with my most sarcastic, squeaky church lady voice! lol

We constantly bombard folks with the need to get up to a higher level. I agree that we should walk closer with the Lord but why should the measurements always be from the outside? With this constant mindset we fall into a terrible trap. We begin to think that our outward accomplishments bring us closer to the Lord. We begin to see ourselves as successful because we are living up to a standard that is accepted and praised by the church and it’s leaders. We pat ourselves on the back because we made $337.25 and out tithes check was $33.73 (we of course know that it comes out to 33.725 but we round up because we don’t want to short-change God) Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in tithing and giving but we are just so predictable when it comes to reputation!

As we continue to make sure we are putting on the right face and appearance for everyone we get deeper into the abyss. Why do I say abyss? It is because this cycle we are on is never ending. It will just go further and further no matter how good we get. We make sure if the preacher is watching we have the right stuff showing. If the leaders of the church have taken notice of us we make sure to keep up the stuff in public all week long. We continue to grow in our self-praise and our arms are hurting now from all the patting ourselves on the back that we have been doing. We are talking right, dressing right, looking right, acting right, and we are climbing that ladder of outward success at a rapid speed! We have worn a trail in the carpet at church that leads from the front door to our seat. When the singing starts we are the first to rise and make our way to the choir and everyone watches us to see when to turn the page in the hymnal!

Now comes the recognition we have been striving to receive for so long. Are you ready? One of the little old men or ladies of the church says this about you, “It just blesses my soul to see a young person like you holding up the standards of the saints of old. I know that when I am gone you will be keeping the standards alive. You keep it up and hold the standards high.” Oh wow we are in the club! I mean how much more could you ask for? I am now in the “Old Fashioned” club. The church will survive now because they have me keeping what all the old people have entrusted me with.

For a moment I would almost apologize here or try to clarify but if you don’t know where I am coming from by now you probably should stop reading so you don’t get mad.

Ok here is the problem with all of this stuff and a great time to share the next building block of how I survived religion. All of this stuff has nothing to do with a relationship with God. It is all outward and superficial. The church for years placed so much importance and praise on how good we looked and acted on the outside. It became a race to the top of the mountain to see who could praise themselves the most for what they had done! The major trap that this thinking causes is this, “I am on a level higher than others that don’t live like me!”

Which brings us to building block number four – “We Are All On Level Ground!”

I love the saying that states, “The ground is level at the foot of the cross.” Why is this such a popular saying? It is because it makes access to Christ the same for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you have lived for the Lord fifty years or two days God views you just as saved and just as righteous! When we start the measuring game someone has to lose. There will always be someone that doesn’t measure up. If you are the one holding the tape measure, well you won’t let yourself lose so you will pick someone that you think is beneath you.

Here is how the Lord taught me this lesson.

I was working in the construction business and my boss didn’t go to church. I began to invite him to my church and explain the importance of living for the Lord. He had been in church before when he was a teenager but hadn’t been in quite a few years. I knew I had been sent by God to help him get his spiritual life together because I was the perfect example. I was dedicated and blessed, why wouldn’t he want to be just like me? As time went on I eventually got him to come to church with me. As time went on he rededicated his life to God along with his wife.

My wife and I had them over for dinner several times and always talked about how we needed to be dedicated to church and faithful attenders. Can I say that at this stage of my life I wasn’t even sure of why I went to church three times a week except for the fact that I had been raised that way and I knew it was expected of me. lol So I continued to pressure him about why he only came on Sunday mornings. I explained that he would never grow or mature in God if he wasn’t a faithful attendee. Can you believe he had the nerve to ask me one day this question, he said, “Cant I read my Bible at home on Wednesday night with my wife and still draw close to God?” I of course told him the religious answer, “NO!” I told him that God wanted faithfulness and that God could only bless those that were faithful to His house. WOW! Now that is some shoutin ground right there. I mean I waxed eloquent on him and explained how I was so spiritually mature and the perfect example of a Christian because I even went to church sometimes when I was sick! Remember I thought I was just like Paul in Philippians 3!

What happened next over a few weeks changed me in this area forever! I was driving home one day from work and with the most sincere heart I was praying for my boss and asking God to help him be dedicated just like me. As sure as I am typing this right now the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said this, “Your friend is not as faithful to church as you are but do you think he looks at the same stuff on his computer as you do?” WHAT? God what are you saying? Now Lord you know I have some struggles but hey people see me at church and see me in the choir and I never miss a church function. My friend needs to be more openly dedicated. It just isn’t the same thing.

Now isn’t it funny how we have conversations with the Lord. it is like we forget He knows everything. lol

what I realized that very moment and many other moments to follow was that I had built and outward testimony that had no cracks, but my private testimony before the Lord was like Swiss cheese! Who had I been fooling? I had built a public image but was not that person by myself and alone. I was hiding sin in a dark closet and all the while making others think I was above them because my outward testimony was almost flawless!

We are all on level ground! I am not higher than you and you are not higher than me! Denominations and religion along with their man-made standard set us up for the biggest trap ever set by the enemy. We put ourselves up on a pedestal because we can obey all the stuff. Paul said it. He said he could boast more than all of us! But listen to how he comes back to say this…..

Philippians 3:7-9

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

NOY HAVING RIGHTEOUSNESS OF MY OWN THAT COMES FROM THE LAW! Read it again! Read it again! Read it one more time so you can see it clearly. God doesn’t care how much you do, He cares how much you believe! We all exist on the same level ground. What makes the difference? It is our faith. I can believe more than you or less than you based on my faith!

Maybe you only go to church once a week and I go three times, but maybe you read your Bible every day and I only read mine three times a week. Who is better and which one of us is right and which one is wrong? Neither because we are on level ground and responsible only for ourselves and not each other! Now can I be an encouragement to you? YES! And you encourage me.

It is time we break away from this religious need to try and live above each other. The church has existed like this in America for the last two hundred plus years. It is taking a toll on us now. Others are turned off by the need to measure up, or the need to get up to the level you think you are on. Let’s show the world that we all live on the same level field and that each of us has free access to the one that can fix us all. Christ Jesus!

James 1:27

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

I need to back up and revisit a time in my life when I was eighteen years old. I know in the last blog I had already moved into my married life, but it was years after I was married that I looked back and God showed me a part of my life that I didn’t truly recognize at the time that it happened. So let’s go to March 1990………………….

I was a senior in High School attending the Christian school at my Dad’s church in Houston, TX. I was the pastor’s son, I was popular, and I was on fire! lol I did however have many struggles in my life at this time and the main one was trying to remain free from sin.

I would of course have good days and bad days. In my heart I was so on fire for God that everyone could sense my zeal and desire to just charge hell with a water pistol. I believed I was unstoppable and that I was headed for the greatest ministry anyone had ever seen. I was courageous, committed, and WEAK!

At this time I believed that I had to have more good days than bad days or I was just going to split hell wide open. I would be so committed to God on Monday and Tuesday but then something would happen the next day and by Friday I was down again under the difficulty of sin. My life’s verse I believe had become Romans 7:18 “I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” That was me for sure. Listen I tried and tried to do what was right but my fleshly desires would overcome my spiritual will power!

So what was I going to do? I was surrounded by people that lived such holy and pure lives. I was supposed to be the one that had it all together and be the leader of the youth group and to beat it all I was a preacher. How was I ever going to have a ministry if I couldn’t get my sinful nature under control? I of course had those great spiritual leaders around me that would remind me that if I truly repented of my sin, and repentance meant to turn away from it forever, I would not struggle with it. So if I was still struggling then I hadn’t truly repented and that is why I struggled. They loved to quote me the scripture that said, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” – Luke 13:3 Hey that was me! I guess my problem was I hadn’t repented. I wanted so bad to serve the Lord and I continually asked God to forgive me and I even would say, “I repent!” but you know what the desire was still there!

This went on for days, weeks, and months. I was on a rollercoaster that wasn’t bringing me excitement. I wanted so bad to be the person that everyone expected me to be, but I just couldn’t. I was just too weak. I had the knowledge and desire to live for God but that one sin that wouldn’t go away had a complete strangle hold on me. So I did the only thing I knew to do. I went completely into the world just like diving off the high dive at the public pool. No turning back and no regrets. I had tried to serve the Lord but I just couldn’t do it. I wasn’t made of the same stuff those around me were made of. I was just destined to live in this world as a regular sinner and that was that.

I left home and quit school all in the same day. I plotted for about three days how I would do it because I couldn’t leave with my parents knowing, so I packed up what little possessions I had and left in the cover of night. I still almost cry to think about how my mom must have felt when she went into my room that next morning. I am to this day so sorry for what I know she must have felt, but you have to understand I was already damaged goods. I had too many worldly desires; I had already given into this flesh too many times. I was a dirty hypocrite because I would preach against sin and then go out and commit it. I had gone too far too many times and I couldn’t go back now.

I had two friends pick me up in the middle of the night and they were the only ones that knew where I was. I was now beginning my new life in sin because that was where I belonged. I was now the poster boy for Hebrews 10:26 “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,” I was without any hope now because I was a deliberate sinner! I had left in the middle of the night to start a new life’s destiny. I couldn’t be the person that all the church people wanted me to be because I was a sinner!

For a few days I just lived it up. All the freedom of an adult man I was experiencing at eighteen years old. I was running head long into this new life and was taking it all in with the same zeal and passion that I had previously tried to serve the Lord with. I don’t think the phrase, “Go Big Or Go Home!” had been coined at this point in time but I was the epitome of it. I was finally immersed in the life that I had been destined for and for two or three days I was living the high life at last. No stress or pressure to rise up to a level of expectation, no one with me cared what I did or how I acted.

Now what happened on the third day I was gone would later serve as the third cornerstone of my journey to survive religion. I didn’t recognize it as a building block until ten years after this incident but when I did a new level of living for God emerged in my life and I have never been the same since. Are you ready for it?………

Block # 3 – God wants me with my dirt!

Let me explain. I was sitting in the house where I was living now in my new life of sin and worldliness. It was late at night and the phone rang. I didn’t think much of it, the phone rings all the time. My friend entered the room and said the phone was for me. Now understand only two people knew where I was and they were both in the room with me, so how could the phone be for me? I didn’t give anyone the phone number because I didn’t know the phone number. My friend proceeded to tell me that the person on the phone claimed to be my grandpa from Tennessee. I got on the phone and sure as I am typing this right now it was him. My grandpa from Sparta, TN was on the phone talking to me.

It is important that at this point I tell you that the entire conversation with my grandfather was full of love, patience, and compassion. Not a single time did he ever condemn me or make me feel shameful. Please take this advice from me at this point. When and if you ever have to try and minister to a person that has left church, God, or home be compassionate, loving, patient, and non-condescending to them! If you want to help restore them and be the loving hand of God reaching out to them do it just like Jesus would do!

I asked him how he got this number because I didn’t even know the number. He told me that he had been praying for me and that the phone number appeared to him on the back of his eyelids as his eyes were closed. He opened his eyes and dialed the number and now he was talking to me. He proceeded to tell me that he had a dream about me the night before and that in the dream I was being squeezed by a large snake. This snake had me all wrapped up and was coiled around me and looking at me in the face and just laughing at me. He told me the devil had deceived me and was just trying to destroy my life and laughing all the way! At this point something in me changed and it would never be the same. I called another friend later that night and I had them pick me up and I left that house and never looked back.

I began to ponder what happened to me that night. Here were the facts of the entire situation.

1. I was fully involved in complete and constant sin.
2. I was not even thinking of how I could serve God or ever going back to church.
3. I had completely left God and the church in the dust behind me.
4. I was a complete backslidden dirty rotten sinner!

As I pondered those facts I was puzzled by another fact that just wouldn’t leave me. Here it is, GOD CAME AFTER ME AND I WAS DIRTY! Now hold on just a minute. I was not in a place at all to serve God. I wasn’t praying for God to deliver me, I didn’t want to be delivered! So why was it that God came after me? Was it that God wanted me with all my sin and shame? Could it be that God wanted me just like I was at that moment? How could that be? I needed to be repentative, and dedicated. I needed to be at the altar pouring out my heart to God that is the people he wanted. I needed to be like Abraham and David not like Sampson! Was I pleasing to God with all this dirt? Could I make it living for God, I mean He knows my struggles and that probably in a few days I will commit the same sin again! Why, why, why did He chase after me? I dint want to come home!

Now let’s fast forward ten years and now I am twenty-eight years old. I have fallen into the same mindset that I have to be perfect or at least try to be perfect if I am going to be used by God. My ministry is probably not growing because I still struggle with the same sin that I struggled with at eighteen. I know that is a shock to you but hey I am just being real here! I felt myself being oppressed by this religion I had formulated in my own life. I began to focus on my failures once again and what compounded the situation now was I had a child. I mean come on; I should be over this stuff. How could I be the father I needed to be and still struggle with these things?

It was at this point that I realized all those many years ago God had chased me down in my horrible pit and miry clay because He knew what I would one day become. I truly had a destiny to serve the Lord and be a successful Christian. If that was the case then how many more were out there just like me? And there it was! The light went off in my mind and I realized to the fullest extent how God would go after someone and take them with their dirt and all the baggage that came with them. I realized if God wanted me then with all the junk He must still want me know because He came after me then knowing how I would be ten years later! This was a freedom and empowerment for me.

From then until now my sin no longer dictates who I am. Do I fail God? YES!!! But I never let my failure lure me to discouragement! I never look back and I never regret. Am I sorry for the sin I commit? You better believe I am. Does my sin make me sad and ashamed? Yes it does, but it no longer stops me! If God came after me in a house located in Houston, TX when I didn’t even ask Him to look for me, He must have wanted me with all my dirt!

This idea that the church has pushed for so many years that you have to be perfect to get the blessings of God is just not the way it is. I do believe that God wants to bless us but we don’t have room for those blessings. We need to get rid of parts of our old lives to make room for the newness and blessings of God. But make no mistake about this, God wants you and I just like we are right now! I don’t have to change today to be a child of God, but being a child of God will make me want to change for my Heavenly Father. Let the legalistic religion that requires you to be something you’re not way too early in your Christian walk just fall away. I can tell you from experience, God wants you with your dirt, and He will give you time to clean up as He reveals the spots to you.

Block number four is just around the corner……………………………………………

If you haven’t read the Introduction, Part 1 this might be a little confusing. I advise to read those two first.

James 1:27

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

After I got out of college I married the woman of my dreams. We began a life together that has been so blessed by God I can’t even begin to thank him enough. I remember before my wife and I got married we were at her apartment talking and I made mention of some of her clothing. Not the right thing to do.

Let me take a break and advise soon-to-be-husbands. Leave your fiancés closet and clothes to her and just let time, God, and His Word make any changes you feel are necessary. You will be busy enough taking care of changing all the stuff in your life that is a mess!

Ok back to it. I of course was in the group that associated holiness with outward appearance. I had plans of a great ministry as an evangelist and youth speaker so my wife would need to present herself as a picture of holiness and dedication to God. She had a particular sleeveless dress in the closet and I said, “That will have to go when we get married!” She of course replied with something very intelligent, but I ignored it because I was the man and I had a ministry to build.

I explained that we had an image to uphold. My grandparents and my parents had toed the line with their appearance and I wasn’t going to disappoint them. It was time the church saw young preachers and their wives holding to the standards of the old fashioned way. Remember these standards were being lost in the modern day church. God wanted people to get back to the standards of years past so they could experience the power of God once again! The church has lost the power that Grandpa and Grandma experienced. We need to get back to holiness and keeping the standards so we can get that power back into the church. The world is going to hell in a hand basket and we are losing our standards and forfeiting the power of God! lam – laugh at myself

I also told my soon-to-be-bride that if we had a daughter one day she would not wear pants! (Deuteronomy 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.) My mother didn’t wear them, and her mother didn’t wear them and her mother didn’t wear them and I wasn’t going to stop the generational blessing with my daughter! We have standards and those standards have to be maintained. If I water down the standards, and I move the line, where will we be in twenty years? The church will just vanish away and no one will be able to tell the sinners from the Christians! We have a heritage to keep in place. The problem with the church now is that people just come in dressed any way they want. No wonder God doesn’t move in our midst anymore. No wonder no one wants what we have. We have become the world in the church and I will put a stop to it. My daughter will be holy and everyone will be able to look at her and tell it! lam

So what happened from then until now? Sorry to tell you I have lost all of that thinking and it happened very innocently one night during a revival. I had just finished playing the drums for the choir singing and went and sat down on my second pew spot on the left of the building. hehehe The evangelist said his title for the night’s sermon was, are you ready for it ……… “How I Survived Religion” Can you believe that? What an awesome sermon title!

Now at this point God laid a second cornerstone in my process of surviving religion.

Block # 2 – OLD DOESN’T MEAN GOLD!

This preacher made a statement that changed my life forever! He said, “Folks I want to let you in on a secret, Grandpa & Grandma didn’t have it all figured out, Mommy & Daddy didn’t have it all figured out, and you and I won’t ever figure it all out!” What? Did he just say what I think he said? Did he just disgrace my parents and grandparents?

I began to think about this statement. Is it possible that grandpa is flawed in his beliefs? Is it possible that dad still has some things to learn? Can I tell you that something came over me in that moment that I can only describe as a true freedom from a bondage that I didn’t even know I had. You see almost all of my decisions up to that point had always been measured against grandpa and dad. When I measured my life I measured my accomplishments by where they were when they were my age. If I perceived myself to be further along than them I was ok. I held to their standards, I kept all their statutes and continued the tradition of the family. But what if they were wrong in a few areas?

Now let me stop and say this. Some people will never lose the bondage of religion because they can’t admit that their parents and/or grandparents weren’t always right. The failure to do this will hold them captive for the rest of their lives. I will say something very harsh right now so you may want to stop here!!! If you make a deathbed promise let it die with the person. Ouch! I know that seems so insensitive, but really? Can I live the rest of my life trying to make good on a promise God may not want me to keep. Do I now govern my whole life off of a promise to hold some standard that mom had and it wasn’t even mine? Understand you can love and respect someone but admit to yourself they were not perfect. There I said it, grandpa, grandma, mom & dad were not and are not perfect. Guess what, I am not perfect either! My children see the imperfections in their father all the time.

I had taken the standards of my fathers and made them a bondage to myself. God was trying to grow me into someone but I wouldn’t go because I had to measure at every turn with my mom and dad. We have said so much in the church, “If we could just get back to the good old days when the church had power.” Are you seriously kidding me? I have a couple of problems with that and here it is:

1. If grandpa & grandma had such a grasp on the power of God back in the day, why don’t they have it now? I mean come on, if they had it in 1950 where did it go? Did the loose standards of all of the young people in the church render ineffective the power of God that was bestowed upon the grandpas so many years ago?

2. What was different from then until now? Were people being saved from their sins back then? Were people being healed back then? Were people being delivered back then? Were miracles being performed back then? The answer to all of these questions is YES! But what about now, ask all those questions about today and what is the answer? YES! What? You mean to tell me that the same power that saved souls back in 1950 is the same power saving souls today? YES, YES, YES!!!

Our problem is we believe the forefathers of the church struck gold and took it all with them. Now we are on a quest to find their buried treasure. We will only find their gold if we do everything they did, say what they said, and dress like they dressed. Have we really reduced the power and will of God to a set of formulas we must work out to gain this golden power grandma had? It is no wonder Christians are frustrated with living for God. They are on a gold hunt and when they have done everything right and followed the rules, they find no gold!

I love grandma, grandpa, mom and dad, but I can’t keep trying to get what they had or what they have, I must press toward the mark set before me to claim the prize God has placed before me! We would never advise a person to go out to the lake where their boat sank and point a stick over the water and declare the waters to part so the recovery squad can walk on dry ground to retrieve the boat. We would tell the guy to hire a recovery crew and then hope the insurance paid out well! If we would think it ridiculous to tell someone to expect waters to part, then why do we try to live in the past accomplishments of the forefathers of the church? It is time we move on and move into a new path!

The methods of 1950 to promote and spread the gospel probably won’t work in today’s time. They didn’t have twitter, facebook, internet, blogs, or smartphones in 1950. There are some today that won’t even use the modern media because their grandpa preached it was of the devil. Let it go because old doesn’t equal gold. We are not trying to earn the power of God. We are not trying to convince God to bless us with His mighty hand. We are empty vessels. Empty of ourselves, our past, and our future. We stand and declare to God, “Your will be done.”

You want the power of God? You want to see the move of God? You want to see the miracles of God? Go out today and witness to a lost person. Accept them for who they are and how they look. Tell them you place no rules on them, only encouragement and a glimpse into the transforming power of God in your life. Invite them to pray with you and receive salvation. If they take that opportunity today or another day it doesn’t matter. When they do, you will see a powerful, miraculous, delivering move of God!

Have you had enough yet? If not there is still way more to come. Until next time ……….

I started going to church nine months before I was born, because my parents were evangelists that traveled all over the country ministering the gospel. The only real life I know has always revolved around church. Most would agree that I have lead a sheltered life. I have never been arrested, drunk, high (other than the stuff you get from hospitals and the dentist) lol divorced, beaten up, at a wild party, and the only children I have are with my wife of nineteen years. Now if you have experienced these things I am not condeming you I am just laying groundwork for where my real problem came from! From the time I was six years old I have been on the stage at church playing an instrument or preaching.

I grew up in the best church and home you could ever imagine. My parents exemplified the true love of Christ in every aspect of their lives. My parents grew up in an era of true conservatism in the church. The church wanted such a separation from the world in which it lived that it came up with practical commitments that were meant to help Christians show the transforming power of God in their lives. This zeal and true desire to be separated ( 2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,) was birthed in a true heart of evangelism. It did however become the gospel for many and began to take the place of pure religion. What was a suggestion of how to live a life for God above criticism became the foundational principles on which legalism religion was built.

I remember growing up and seeing a lady in church with pants on and thinking she is going to hell! I remember watching ladies and men in the altar and thinking only the ones that looked the part were truly being blessed. If a peron came into church and got saved I expected them to show up at the next service dressed right with the right haircut. Long haired sinner men should cut that hair before they come back to church. That woman that got saved should throw away those pants when she gets home and flush that makeup down the toilet. (1 Corinthians 11:14-15 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? 15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.; Deuteronomy 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.; 1 Timothy 2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array) If I saw a man come into church and you could see the round circle in his pocket you knew that was dip and he needed to be saved! I remember one time a lady got up on the stage to sing and she had ear rings and I thought she needs deliverance before she can minister! I am by no means saying I was taught to exist in this mindset, but that is how it manifested itself in me.

How many people that read this can tell a testimony of how someone in a church was made to feel convicted because of what they looked like. How many could tell the stories of those so-called spiritual fathers and mothers of the church that went to that unsuspecting man or woman and explained to them that they were welcome to come back to church but they would need to get the proper attire, haircut, and outward appearance! How many times did those original suggestions of how to keep your testimony pure become the LAW? Come on people we still have some today that will quote verses from the book of Leviticus and put that law into effect today and opress the people of God with it! I have seen men that had to shave their beards, goatees, and mustaches before they could preach or teach. (Leviticus 19:27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.) Really?

Growing up we weren’t allowed to go to movies, swim with the opposite sex, or wear shorts. My sister didn’t wear pants, jewelry or makeup. I remember getting a high school ring and two men in my church came to me and told me I was setting a bad example to other young people. I remember taking it off any time I preached because these two men would eyeball me the whole time. This carried over to my early years of evangelizing after I got married. I would remove my wedding ring so I would make sure to be accepted by the people I was preaching to.

After I graduated high school I went to the most conservative college I could find. I wanted to study the Bible and cement my conservative foundation for a future ministry to those people that had fallen away from true Christianity! I could see the church slipping into its worldliness. Women and men coming to church dressed like they were unashamed of the fact that God was watching them and their decline into a lifestyle of dressing like the world. How many times did I shout when the preacher would declare that the current church is now where the world used to be thirty years ago! He would get a hearty amen from me. I would look around the congregation and pick out the ones that I wanted to see in the altar. They were easily chosen because of their appearance. I would pray for them the whole service, “God help that lady three rows up to be delivered and wipe off that makeup and throw away those ear rings. In Jesus name!” (sorry but I do have a smile on my face right now laughing at myself – LAM) I loved to preach like my heros and declare that it is time we get back to how Grandma and Grandpa served the Lord. (if you didn’t know old Christian grandparents and forefathers never did anything wrong and they knew everything there was to know about God and the Bible) “If we could just get back to the old fashioned way we could reach the lost and experience the power of God once again”, I would preach. LAM
It was while I was at Bible College that I had my first eye opening experience when it came to religion. I met a group of people more conservative than my parents and home church! Now what would I do? Agreeing with this new level of conservatism would mean that my parents needed deliverance. I would now have to be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for deliverance all my home church people, because God has sent me away to come back and share the good news of deliverance for you!” LAM (this is great stuff people) You see my parents taught me relationship with Christ before anything else, but the dean at college said it was outward appearance that told the truth of inward dedication.

Now at this point God laid a cornerstone in my process of surviving religion.Block # 1 – MAN’S RELIGION IS SUBJECTIVE!

I was dating a girl in college that didn’t attend the college. She came one Wednesday night to our chapel service. Now she didn’t wear pants, nut she wore a black leather jacket, makeup, and large earings. The next day I was called into the dean’s office. He began to explain to me that he was disappointed in my choice of girls. He believed me to be conservative and from a conservative family and was surprised that I would lower my standards and date such a spiritually immature girl. Of course I went on the defensive because this was personal. He explaind to me that if I compared this girl with his wife I could see the difference spiritually because of how each of them dressed. Of course his wife came out on the top side of the spiritual maturity scale. I agreed that his wife was more spiritual but not because of how she dressed but because she was over twice my age! My eyes were opened and I saw the first block clear that day – subjectiveness, because his wife obeyed according to his beliefs and my girlfriend didn’t, his wife was thus more spiritually mature. A light bulb went off and I understood that my mom was more mature than his wife because my mom didn’t wear makeup or jewelry and his wife did, so my mom must be more spiritually mature. I of course explained my new found knowledge with him and he refuted it with some lame reason why I was wrong.

Subjective has a definition of this; modified or affected by personal views, experience, or background. The religion that had me bound was totally subjective. Let me show you? Earlier I referenced  Leviticus 19:19 to not round your beard. Some people,still believe that but do theybalso belive and abide by Leviticus 19:19 “Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.” Why not? It is only a few verses befor the other one. The reason, subjectivity. One person or a group of people agree with one verse but say the other was not meant for us. Here is a little secret ……… NONE of the book of Leviticus was meant for us except as a guide to show how God established His people after they fled Egypt! Now I know you extremists out they are just nawing your fingers off and your veins are bulging. You want to tell me, “So we just throw out the Old Testament, what part will you throw out next?” with some it is an all or nothing point. I am not saying that we only take bits and pieces of the Bible, but men have done it for years and thus defiled religion with their subjectivity!

Did you know if a woman prays without her head covered she should be shaved bald? Here it is, 1 Corinthians 11:6 “For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.” now I have your attention! Now you and I both know that if I preached and taught this as how you should live I would be criticized as taking one verse out of context and manipulating it to fit my religion. Notice the use of the words “I” and “my”? I thought you did, that is the number one sign of subjectivity as the basis for man’s religion. Take some time to read the entire book of 1 Corinthians, take time to study the setting, the people, the problem Paul was addressing. The difference in time and culture from then to now, the principles of God’s nature being displayed, and how those principles relate to your current Christian walk with God! I know that takes time and effort and we would rather just have someone tell us what is right and wrong. The problem with that philosophy is everything that person would tell you is according to their subjectivity.

There are Christians that used to preach and teach against certain things but now they don’t. What happened? Did God change or His Word? No, that person got to a place with God where they began to see that what they believed was subjective and not pure. If it was wrong for Cain to murder Able, it was wrong for David to murder Uzziah, and it is wrong to murder today. If it was wrong for Abraham to lie to the king of Egypt, and wrong for Ananias and Saphariah to lie to the Holy Spirit, it is still wrong for us to lie today. Murder and lying are not subjective.

I pray we can get to a p,ace where we understand practical life enhancements that are ok to be subjective and pure religion and undefield.

Can you handle more? There are other blocks to expose that lead me to freedom!

During the course of this blog I will make references to my parents, my church growing up, and the people that have influenced my life over the forty years I have lived. Understand I love and appreciate these people, and the opportunities that I had. I will also make it clear I would not change anything in my life’s experience either bad or good because I believe and know that each experience has built upon the other experience to make me the person I am today. The new experiences will build upon the old and eventually I will become more and more of the man, husband, father, and pastor that God is molding me to be.

If you love to read and have an open mind, let me begin ……..