Faith and Religion

The water in this little creek will eventually end up in the ocean.

A friend of mine and I were recently talking about the new church home her family has found. They feel very comfortable there and inspired and are excited about getting up to go to church on Sundays. The only drawback, is they can’t yet join as a family because her two teens were baptized as babies and not completely immersed.

We had a short discussion about one versus the other and it really struck me how sad it is when Christians get hung up on certain religious practices. I’m talking about things like whether you use grape juice or wine for communion and whether you have communion every Sunday or once a month or once a quarter. I’m thinking about things like whether you kneel at your pew or whether you do responsive readings. The kind of music that gets sung is another big bone of contention for many people.

When we get angry at fellow Christians about these kinds of things, I think the devil is delighted. If he can get Christians mad at each other, then there’s not room to do the work of the Holy Spirit.

Interestingly enough, even the earliest churches like the one in Corinth, that Paul helped to start, had new believers squabbling with one another. The Jewish converts fought with the Gentile converts on how much law the Gentiles should have to follow and about circumcision and about and about; the list is long. This is one more good reason why reading the Bible can be enlightening for us.

Arguments among Christians are nothing new and Paul found himself wearing a referee hat for a good amount of time. Jesus makes us passionate and that’s a good thing. The Book of Revelation even warns us about having “lukewarm” faith, but I think we should be careful about judging others in how they carry out their faith walk.

If we love God with all of our hearts and we read the Bible and follow its teachings, if we believe Jesus is our one and only savior and we pray and listen, I believe in my deepest soul, that we will be lead to where we need to worship. We will be planted in a community that is perfectly suited to our calling and for His purpose for us. When we get there, it’s up to us to grow and thrive and become part of the fabric that makes that particular community.

However, we should keep in mind that our next-door-neighbor may be lead to an entirely different place. And you know what? That’s okay. On that fabulous day when we are called home to live with Jesus forever, I can’t imagine there being a gatekeeper inquiring whether we were Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, etc….

No, if you are a believer and a follower, He’s going to say, “Welcome home faithful servant; we’re glad you are here.”

Isn’t that all that really matters? I’d love to know what you think. Feel free to comment.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂