On answering questions about attending/not attending church............

Every now and again I run into someone who will ask me the infamous question of, "So where are you going to church these days?" Most often it is someone with whom I used to attend the same church. I also get the question of "why don't you go to that church anymore?" The first question is easy to answer but hard to explain. The second question is hard to answer, due to the sensitive nature of not wanting to in any way criticize a church, yet to be honest, but it is easy to explain. So here goes.....

What I told a woman just today, in regards to what I am looking for in a church, is that no one is radical enough for me. She thought I meant I need them to be more into the gifts and such. A year ago, I was exploring with all of that and realized there is so much more to be experienced, but it's not through 'charismatic' church. It's through the VERY LIFE OF CHRIST THAT NOW INDWELLS ME!!

When I say radical, we have to remember the Gospel IS radical. It's foolishness, the Bible says! Most churches have not SEEN the entire radicalness of the finality of Jesus work on the cross! The truth of how not only have our sins been forgiven, but our sin natures removed, and we were plunged into Christ's death with him, and raised into newness of life with him. Most christians don't even know what it truly means to be 'born again'.  I sure didn't! 

If we have been born again, become new creations in Christ, seated in Heaven with God, why are we not talking about this AMAZING reality in church? Instead, we focus on how to live our earthly lives in our earthly bodies. Folks we are not our flesh and body. We ARE who we are in our spirit, I mean that's how God sees and identifies us. We are told to look not to the seen but to the unseen. What does that mean? Can you see your spirit? I can't! But it's in our spirit, where Christ lives. He is our very life and identity. Our spirit needs to be fed and nourished with the 'living' word. The truth of who we are now and how everything in the word points to Christ and His finished work. But the problem is, most churches are 'feeding' their people with practicals, how to's and principles to live on this earth as mere flesh and blood. When what they should be doing is fixin their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of their faith. When our spirit is fed, our spirit breathes life through our mortal bodies and we are transformed from the inside out. We live in union with Christ. We have become divine partakers of His life and co-laborers  with him on this earth. 

So that is what I mean when I say radical. I choose to live my life from my TRUE source, JESUS. Not my flesh. Church most often feeds fleshly needs, earthly needs. And some of those earthly needs and principles are important, after all we do have to live here and relate with others. However, if we focus on the spirit, walk by the spirit, who brings freedom and life to our mortal bodies - we will be led into ALL truth. Including how to live out our life on this earth and in relationship with others. You see when you live in union, in relationship with Jesus, the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, you begin to flow out of that union. You live as ONE, with Him. Just as a married couple takes on each other's traits, qualities, finish each others sentences and read each others minds, so do those who are married to Jesus grow into His image and likeness. Not because of 'doing', practicing or having convictions, but because of living in constant intimacy and relationship to Christ, to His very spirit within you. 

Most churches don't get that. What they offer is religion. Let's see what exactly religion is, I will allow Wikipedia to explain for me; 

"A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendent quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, God orgods, or ultimate truth.^[1] It may be expressed through prayer, ritual, meditation, music and art, among other things. It may focus on specificsupernatural, metaphysical, and moral claims about reality (the cosmos and human nature) which may yield a set of religious laws, ethics, and a particular lifestyle. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith andreligious experience.

The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction. "Religion" is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system,"^[2] but it is more socially defined than personal convictions, and it entails specific behaviors, respectively."

 After looking at that meaning, I sure don't want to get to the end of my life and say I lived by personal practices based on faith or conviction, ie; religion.  NO, I want to say I lived my life married  in union to Jesus, the author, perfector and finisher of my faith. The One who lavishly loved me and saved me to carry His very life. I lived fixed on the prize, not on my behavior or my good intentions or practices, but on HIM!! That's what it means to let Jesus be my all in all.

Simply because Jesus has chosen to dwell in me by His very Spirit, he has tabernacled with me and I have become His temple. Therefore, I am the church! He is in me and I am in Him. Church is not a place we go, it is a place Christ dwells in by His Spirit. He chooses mere man, earthen vessels to do His work, but it's only first through getting to know Him and seeing what He is doing. Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing, while He was on earth and He did that out of countless hours of intimacy with him. So we need to realize we are in a divine partnership with Christ. He chooses to move in us and through us, that is how we are the light and salt of the world, by His life within us flowing out, seasoning others by His grace in us. He doesn't need buildings and organizations to try and attempt to do, what only He can organicly do and has already done. (it's just that most believers don't know it yet.)

So to all those out there who don't understand why people leave church, and you're tempted to think they left their faith, and have run away from God, think again!! They have perhaps just run to God completely- more than you will ever know!! (unless perhaps you decide to join them......)