RELIGION VS RELATIONSHIP

Last night my husband and I were watching the History Channel when Brad Meltzer’s show Decoded came on. The title: Vatican

The show was about decoding what happened to Pope John Paul the First, who died just thirty-three days after he was in office. He died of mysterious causes and was taken away by the Vatican officials, never leading an official investigation on how he really died. It was also interesting because it shared that this Pope was at the center of a banking scandal involving Freemasons and even Mafia members operating from within the walls of the Vatican.

The show was interesting. There was scandal of the murder because it was foretold in a prophecy delivered by Our Lady of Fátima (which is the title given to the Virgin Mary, when she appeared in apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal.) The Virgin Mary appeared to the three shepherd children on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, beginning on May 13. The names of the three children were: Lucia dos Santos and her counsins Blessed Jacinta and Franciso Marto.

Many say that the scandal and the murder were foretold in a prophecy delivered by the Virgin Mary that the Vatican conspired to withhold from its followers. The whole show was simply about Pope John Paul the First, who vowed to reform corruption in the Vatican— was he murdered by the criminals he vowed to expose?

When the show was over, there was no conclusion, and viewers were left with their own thoughts!

My thoughts always bring me back to the question of organized religion. As they were showing the Vatican and how it’s its own state, I was intrigued. I was baptized as an infant  in the Catholic Church, raised in the Lutheran, re-baptized (as an adult) in the Baptist church, but it wasn’t until I realized that each one of these churches had something to say about the other when I left them all.

I’ve read my Bible a hundred times over. I have a Bible in each room of my home. One in my room, kitchen, office,  and I even carry one in my purse, but within the Holy Bible I’ve never read about “one” specific religion that is the “one” and only true way to God.

What I’ve read is Jesus is the only way, and that makes sense to me. What if a person didn’t live within walking distance of a Church, and had no way to get there. They were at home, reading their Bible that was handed down to them from their great-grandparents, and they read a simple verse that told them that all they had to do was accept Christ within their heart, and when they did something wrong, they had to ask Jesus for forgiveness.

Within every denomination there are people who run them. Sinners, who make mistakes daily,  and hidden secrets that will never be revealed.

That is why I believe that the church is not located within a building, but located with the hearts of those who believe that Jesus is the way. He’s the only one who was perfect, and I can’t believe how many “religions” believe that their way is the right way. That will never make any sense to me because if Jesus was really who He said He was, than the only person I need to follow is Him.

And, I do believe in going to church. It’s wonderful to get together with like-minded people who share the same love and affection for Christ and compassion for others.  I just wish I could find one that didn’t talk about the “others!”

This is what Jesus says… I can’t find a religion to follow anywhere, only the Holy Spirit!

John 16

¹ “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, ⁵but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ about sin, because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

The Disciples’ Grief Will Turn to Joy

¹⁶ Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

¹⁷ At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and‘Because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

¹⁹ Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? ²⁰ Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹ A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²² So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. ²³ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ²⁴ Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

²⁵ “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

²⁹ Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.³⁰ Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

   ³¹ “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. ³² “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

   ³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

ONWARD TO HAVING A RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS!