Jesus and Religion (Part 1)

Blogging my thoughts and feelings on different subjects is different for me. But, I feel it will really enhance my faith as I learn to put into words what God has revealed to me through scripture, friends, acquaintances, and news articles.

Today's subject is what I introduced yesterday. The video of a young man describing what a Millennial Generation person thinks about the larger church in today's culture. The link for that video is at the bottom of this post. To be honest when I first viewed the video I thought most of the things he stated in his poetic way were right on and accurate. After thinking on this for awhile I realize that he does not give the church credit for what it does do well. Being part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) I see many good things the church does. In the ELCA there is a campaign to eliminate malaria. This is a highly preventable disease that needs to be eradicated from the planet. Without the assistance of the ELCA and the larger church, malaria might continue to take the lives of many children throughout the world. The Youth of the ELCA are also doing their part! During the summer of 2012 thirty-five thousand youth will be joining hands in the city of New Orleans to lend a hand to the city and get the "Big Easy" back onto its feet. During that time the Youth will be collecting $250,000 to help drill 100 wells in sub-Saharan Africa. Without the vision of the larger church projects like this might not ever get done and even more importantly the Gospel might not reach the people members of the ELCA will come into contact with during these campaigns. These are just 2 examples of what one denomination is doing to help reach the world the the grace of God.

But, what I think the young man was mostly frustrated about was the emptiness of many so-called Christians. Those who are quick to judge, quick to act harshly, and intolerant of behaviors of people different than them. So, today as I continue to read through the book of Romans, I found myself starting chapter 10 which is titled "Israel reduced to Religion" in The Message translation. It talked a lot about how the Jews during Jesus' time thought of themselves above the rest because of the correct type of Religion they had in their lives compared to those of lesser intellect. The Bible says that the Jews pious attitudes were keeping them from living a life of grace. Their religion kept them from being the hands and feet of our Lord because all they could think about was protecting their own religious philosophy's. So, are today's Christian's doing the same? Are we being blinded by our religion? I encourage anyone reading this to give me some feedback on this. Feel free to comment below.

My next posting will dig deeper into the accusations of this young man and the perceptions of the Millennial Generation has for the larger church our religion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY&feature=share