Quote:
Originally posted by Rain Man
A. I define being religious as doing everything prescribed and in a rigid manner with no sense of flexibility along with an inability to discern the spirit of God in which He may want you to deviate from the "normal routine" for reasons only knownst to Him. Being religious is going through the motions of being a Chrisitian (or whatever religion you may be) but not growing and maturing in God. In a nutshell, it is "playing church"
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Just my input.
RM
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I completely respect your opinion. However, I don't think that everyone that is religious is playing church. Also, religion teaches us to ask for a "spirit of discernment", and it also teaches you that if God is moving you in a certain direction ~ no matter how senseless it may seem to us, we have to listen to Him (hence the importance of discernment). Sometimes that may involve moving out of our comfort zones or "normal routine". That's not actually discouraged by religion, but encouraged. In reference to rigidness and no sense of flexibility, I don't see it that way. We all have many different talents ~ religion grooms us to use them for the Kingdom, rather than the world. I think many dislike the
discipline that it may require to accomplish this, but if the ways of the world is what is considered "normal" vs. the ways of God, then I'd have to follow Him.
This is why I think that spirituality and religion
should at least go hand in hand. This is why I asked about John Edwards and Ms. Cleo. Many people say that they are spiritual, but
what spirits are they referring to? Everyone that is spiritual is not necessarily following the spirit of God.