Yes, your 'church' is about you - not Jesus

Ok – back to our chronological walk through the Gospels. We're seeking and finding the real Jesus as He presented Himself to us – and not in the sinful human ways those who've so long called themselves His "Church" have reinvented Him (as He warned us they would). 

As always, you can find all our previous posts in this series, going through the Gospels chronologically to find the real Jesus, here.

And as always you'll find the scriptures for today are here. (Note that you can change the human-translation version on this scripture page, as suits you. I have NO theological or other tie to the online-bible site I use for this blog – it just lists many human translations to choose from, including the NASB, KJV, The Message, and the NRSV, which are the ones mentioned by those I chat and email with.)

This week, we see Jesus back among those He grew up with – and we find them so ignorant of God's truth they not only refused to recognize God standing right in front of them, but also refused His blessing and healing. If we look, we can easily see the same thing in ourselves, and in what's most loudly called itself "The Church" through the centuries.

Now, at least partly we can understand their failure to really see who Jesus is. They had known Him when He was just a boy, watched Him grow up, known Him as part of His biological family and the social culture of this town. In some ways, it may have been harder for them to recognize who He really was and could do because they'd grown accustomed to understanding Him within a certain mold: son of Mary and Joseph, brother to His brothers and sisters, a craftsman low in social and financial status who made and sold simple, practical things of metal and wood with His family.

Indeed, when Jesus came back He was anything but the guy who used to sit in the dirt and repair plows for the local farmers. Now Jesus was a miracle worker and a wise man, far different from how they wanted to keep understanding Him. And they didn't just ignore or write Him off – they actually got offended. And as we learned last Gospel study, Jesus' healings and blessings matched what people were willing to believe about Him. Therefore, those who should have been closest to Him got almost nothing from Him at all.

Today we make huge mistakes like this all the time, with all sorts of people. We often continue to understand people in the awful ways they were before, ignoring or getting crappy if they seem to be above and beyond that now. In some ways, it's offensive to us when someone stops boozing it up, or backbiting, or stepping on others to get ahead, or rejects living the materialistic lifestyle we're taught to see as "success" (and even as "God's blessing"), if that's the thing we still want to keep doing. Like, how dare someone prove what a life of falsehood and crud I'm choosing, by choosing what's better than that!

But there's another way we do this, a way easily far more dangerous to our souls, if we've been raised in what calls itself "The Church".

For those of us who've grown up in "The Church", or who came to it later and have embraced it long enough to absorb its way of interpreting Jesus, the message of the real Jesus can seem incredibly foreign – and even threatening. We've grown up in the "hometown" of what most loudly calls itself "His Church", and we rest our whole identity on our "hometown" understanding of Jesus, certain beyond certainty that OF COURSE we understand Him better than anyone else – WE GREW UP WITH HIM!

But that understanding is just as flawed as was the understanding the people of Jesus' physical hometown had 2,000 years ago. And when we're confronted with the huge difference between the Jesus we think we know better than anyone and the real Jesus of power and wisdom, oh boy can we get offended! People of "The Church" have turned their backs on, kicked out, born false witness against, attacked, tortured, and even slaughtered people for centuries, all because these other people challenged their "hometown" understanding of Jesus Christ. Sometimes that's just been "hometown" people fighting other "hometown" people over some stupid theological doctrine that means nothing to God. But sometimes it's been "hometown" people just simply refusing to allow Jesus to be who He really is.

Why? Why would "hometown" people refuse to accept Jesus for who He really is?  

• Sometimes we refuse because we like the gilded dirt hole we've committed years of our lives and our egos to. We like the human hierarchy, the remakes of the old covenant temple, the live-in-a-box spirituality that tells us we're doing God's work even though we're not doing it, or we're passionately doing it for all the wrong reasons (which Jesus says doesn't count). Those things make us "feel spiritual" and "connected to God" – even though they are exactly opposite anything Jesus and the rest of the New Testament said to do or live. We forget or ignore that all religions make their members "feel spiritual" and "connected" – so it isn't the feeling that saves us, but following the real Jesus and doing what He says, that actually makes us real Christians.

• Sometimes we refuse because our "hometown" "church" has taught us to fear any thinking that would challenge its authority over our minds and hearts. We shake our heads when we hear of cults that have lead their members even to death – but then we follow, just like the people of 2,000 years ago, our "church" when it leads us even to spiritual death. 

• Sometimes we refuse because if we accepted the real Jesus, and did what He really said, then we'd have to give up pretending to live godly lives, while our hearts were just full of ourselves. So-called "ministers" are most guilty of this. "If I actually accept the real Jesus, then I'll have to give up the position, authority, money, retirement fund, extra-respect, and extra-honor I went to minister-school to get!" But others do this as well, "If I actually accept the real Jesus, then I'd have to give up my pride of position in church, and I'd have to stop chasing money, and I'd have to do more than just kick in a few bucks in the collection plate to be right with God." In this case, we don't "get" the real Jesus, and we even get hugely offended by Him, because our worldly goodies depend on our not "getting" Him.

This is all just another reason it is SO dangerous to just join or stay in a "church", if what we want is the real Jesus. The "Church" we see most easily around us, with its "sanctuaries" and seminary-educated "ministers" and centuries of accumulated and trumpeted doo-dads, is simply a pagan remake of the old – and by Jesus' death on the Cross cancelled – Jewish temple. So it doesn't even have the real authority and God-connection the Jewish temple had!

Instead, the "Church" we see most easily around us, and which we may have spent many years growing up in, is a purely human reinvention of God's real plan. It uses Jesus' face, and pretends to do His work with His heart, but points those who live in its "hometown" to the Jesus IT knows, and the Jesus IT isn't offended by. If you want to understand why "The Church" so easily supports and participates in war, economic oppression, sexism, racism, homophobia, materialism, and more, the answer is here: that "Church" is not and never has been about the real Jesus. Instead, it's primary function has been to enjoy, pass on, and protect its own limited and sinful understanding of Jesus.

So it's no wonder this "Church" only gets and falls for "miracles" from the devil, if it gets "miracles" at all. It's no wonder its members feel so comfortable in a "faith" no different in real substance than any other pagan faith, full of good religious feelings but completely devoid of the real Jesus Christ. "The Church" today, whether it calls itself "Roman Catholic", or "Methodist", or "Baptist", or "Nondenominational", or whatever, is no less God-rejecting and pagan than is polytheistic "Mormonism", Jesus-denying "Jehovah's Witness", Bible-twisting "Christian Science", or New Age "Ascended Masters".

The real Jesus Christ offends these "Churches" – and so the real Jesus has nothing to give them.

What about you? Where are you in moving out of the limited and sinful "hometown" mentality that finds the real Jesus something to ignore at best, and offensive at worst?

In my own life, I spent a lot of years in that "hometown". I soaked in all the teachings of the False Church, in its various manifestations in Roman Catholicism and its Protestant daughters.

First, I didn't even know enough to realize I'd been duped. I was quite comfortable in what my human elders preserved for and taught me. Sure I was living the godly life, I was most in danger of hellfire at this time – not because God wanted me there, but because, despite my insistence to the contrary, I wasn't really choosing God. I was like someone who claims to be going to Boston, but keeps insisting on traveling a road that only goes to Sacramento.

Later, God blessed me with a growing dissatisfaction with "The Church". Something was wrong, though I couldn't figure out why. Something was "missing". I wasn't as "fulfilled" any more. At first, as you might guess, I thought the answer was to become MORE in and about "The Church". I didn't just do the learning, I learned it all. I didn't just do the Roman or Protestant rituals, I did them ten times over. I didn't just pray, I prayed all day. And at first, it seemed to work – but it would always fail again and that nagging dissatisfaction came back into my heart. I prayed for God to make it go away, even to restore my "faith" - but He proved His love for me by making it grow worse and even more nagging, with each passing day and year.

It was that blessed irritation, that sanctified dissatisfaction, that slowly began to make me realize my spiritual life and heart was full of human junk – not Jesus. It was God's gift of stamina, and my willingness to go it alone at times, that helped me wander out of the gilded dirt hole of what most loudly calls itself "Christianity" so that I could seek and find the real Jesus Christ.

What about you? Are you still in the gilded dirt hole, or wishing you could be? I'd guess that if you're here, reading this blog, then you at least have a tiny bit of that blessed irritation, that sanctified dissatisfaction, that God's using to get you up out of the dirt and into Jesus' (real) arms. Otherwise, you'd be too offended by my "disrespect" for what claims most loudly to be "The Church" and its "ministers" to stay.

Are you afraid of going it alone? Of being without "a church"? Jesus said He would be with you always. He also said His real followers would have to give up even their closest relationships if those relationships block His followers from Him. Trust Jesus! And look for those others who are also wanting to be just about Jesus. They are His real church – they are your real family.

Are you still craving the religious doo-dads and goodies you get from only-faking-Jesus "Christianity"? Are you TRULY willing to trade eternal heaven with God because you like the pride, the trancing out, the rituals and do-goods you could get from participation in ANY religion (which means all your "godly" feeling is actually nothing special at all)? Jesus isn't kidding around – and neither is the devil. Drop those religious things and titles and so on like the hot hell-rocks they are, and fill yourself with the real Jesus!
If you'd like to talk more or pray about this, and you don't have a local no-junk-just-Jesus sister or brother to fellowship with, email me and let's talk. Going after the real Jesus can be a shorter walk when you don't have to find the whole way yourself without others who've already made more of the trip and can help you with the signposts along the way.

Jesus didn't come to earth and die so that we'd be stuck in fake temples and wearing Jesus-masks. He came to earth to completely shake things up – to heal people others don't believe worth healing, to put first people others think should be last, and to cancel religion and its inevitable path to forever-death.

Find and keep the real Jesus Christ.

He's waiting for you! 
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Merry... "Christ" mass?

We're coming close to December 25th again – Christmas day. Just what does that mean? What should it mean?

Most people know that Jesus wasn't actually born on December 25th. Based on descriptions of what was going on in the Bible around the time of His birth, it's likely He was born around springtime.

It was Christian "Good Religious People", as part of establishing "Church" power over the top of other people's religions and regulating "Church" time, that set December 25th to celebrate Jesus being born into the world (the word "Christmas", of course, is created from "Christ" and "mass", via the Roman "Church"). Unlike many of us today, however, the original Christians just weren't interested enough in the actual day Jesus was born to celebrate it (they also didn't care much about what He was doing when He was a kid). Far more important to their lives and hope was understanding Jesus when He was active as the Messiah – the Christ.

So are we right to celebrate "Christmas"?

As always, it depends on where we're coming from in doing so, and how it defines us. The current bloat-fest of commercialism and materialism that the larger culture (including the "Christian" larger culture) calls "Christmas" couldn't be further from Jesus Christ. It just doesn't matter how often we point to the "Three Wise Men" and their gifts to "justify" what we're doing each Christmas – nothing in the story of Jesus' birth has anything to do with our Christmas gift-giving. In fact, if we were to take any lesson from the gifts brought by the "Wise Men", we'd be using Christmas to – not give to each other, or ourselves, or the "Church" – but to give to Jesus and what's actually important to Him. And that just doesn't happen.

So, is it wrong to celebrate what our culture calls "Christmas" or give each other presents for it?

Depends. Are we pretending that by doing so we're doing something Christian – meaning, that by buying each other TVs and Starbucks gift cards we're following the commands of Jesus Christ? If so, then yep, it's wrong. In fact, it's SUPER wrong, because it simply perpetuates the whole "Jesus died so I could buy cheap crap at Walmart" concept that's so rampant in our "Christian" culture we don't even realize it's there.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with the actual gift-giving and so on (as long as we aren't elevating commercialism and materialism above Jesus, of course). People in all cultures, for all of human history, have found ways to add some fun and joy to the dark, cold time of each year. Putting up pretty lights that dazzle our eyes, "planting" a living tree in our living rooms, and adding a little fun with some gift exchange are what our culture enjoys doing when winter brings extra darkness and shivering cold to our lives.

We just shouldn't be pretending it's all about Jesus, because it's not. Not even when we throw in some extra "church" services, or toss a few extra coins in the bell-ringer's bucket.

What is or would be about Jesus?

• How about buying and sharing blankets with homeless families this season – not because it's "Christmas time", but because you are a Christian and it's freakin' cold out there for a lot of folks these days?
• How about giving your time to help feed hungry elder-people in your community, or your money to help rebuild the lives of brothers and sisters who've been fire-bombed in their communities because they're Christian – not "for Christmas", but because you're a Christian and your Bible-based faith commands you to care for these people every day or your life?
• How about gathering in the home of your local Christian sisters and brothers, and getting on your knees, raising your hands, and singing songs of praise to God for Jesus – not because "it's Christmas", but because your Christian life belongs to Him every day?

I wish you all a wonderful holiday season.

I pray that more and more each day we will all come to reject the false and illogical connections that Good Religious People and their "Church" continue to make between what are simply expressions of our human culture, and what are things, ideas, and practices really about Jesus as He's revealed to us in His Bible.

I pray that as we add some holiday fun and color to our winter season (something I intend to do!), we also just refuse any longer to pretend those things are part of following Jesus Christ and doing what He says. Every Christian in the world comes to God with their human culture attached - and must learn to stop confusing their human culture with what God requires of them.

I pray that we will continue to mature far beyond what "The Church" as defined as fulfilling our duties to God, and thereby actually earn heaven (something "The Church" never has and never will accomplish).

I pray that you remain safe, and warm, and filled – and that the true joy, fun, and happiness that comes from the real Jesus in your heart leads you daily to find ways to help others also be safe, and warm, and filled.

Have some fun and give gifts this year, sure! But mostly BE the gift that God has made of you to the people around you. Anything else? It's just not Christian.

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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Who is (really) part of God's family?

Yep! We're still going through the (chronological) Gospels, seeking and therefore finding the real Jesus – the one that not only doesn't require any church or "clergy" or "denomination" to know, but who can't be known if those are the spiritual "tools" we're using to discover and follow him.

As always, you can find all our previous posts in this series, going through the Gospels chronologically to find the real Jesus, here.

And as always you'll find the scriptures for today are here. (Note that you can change the human-translation version on this scripture page as suits you. I default to the NASB to get the more literal translation, but do use the one that works for you. Note also that I have no theological or other tie to the bible site I list above – it's just one that lists the NASB, KJV, and The Message, and most folks I've corresponded with seem to use one of those. However, another brother likes the NRSV human translation, and says you can find that at bible.oremus.org. Send me yours, if it isn't already listed!)

Today we're looking at: Who does God (not "church", not "denomination", not "minister") define as His family, and what are the requirements for being part of it?

In the very short scripture for today, we see Jesus is once again surrounded by a big, pressing crowd of people. So big, so pressing, in fact, that when His biological mother and brothers (and possibly His sisters, as well) show up, they can't push through to get to Him.

In that culture 2,000 years ago, so fiercely obsessed with biological ties and the unending power of the biological family over the lives of those in it, of course people in the crowd passed on the message to Jesus that His mother and brothers were here and trying to get through to Him. And of course the people in this crowd (and His biological family) would have had no doubt whatsoever that Jesus would have immediately dropped everything else to tend to His biological family. In Israel 2,000 years ago, to not obey and fail to put one's family before everything else meant risking one's place in the family – and that could cost someone a huge economic and social downfall (that's why women who were divorced by their husbands were at such risk, and why Jesus spoke against such divorce).

Yet, once again we see Jesus stunning the crowd with His very different response. Jesus, we see, redefined who He belonged to, and who belonged to Him. He changed that relationship from something defined by people, to something defined by God. "MY family," He said, "is made up of those who do what God wants."

In our culture, we can't even imagine how that would have shocked the people who heard it. Their mouths would have dropped open, their faces curled up in offense, their tongues wagged in agitation. Obviously (to them), once again He was being a "bad" guy!

But first of all,was Jesus poo-pooing His biological family? In some way, yes, He was. He stayed connected with the crowd of seekers, and didn't do anything that made those who felt they had the biggest ties to and hold on Him any special treatment whatsoever. Does that mean His biological family had no place with Him whatsoever? Oh, no – they had the same place in God's family everyone else does. His biological family was just also invited to be part of the seeker-crowd, no better, no worse, no more or less special than everyone else who was seeking after Jesus and doing what God says to do.

This shines a big God-spotlight on those "Christian" practices that hold some "Christians" as "higher", "more special", "more holy", "more worthy", etc than others. The Roman "church" and its centuries of elevating human beings in "saint" worship – especially of Jesus' biological mother – is an absolute rejection of how God's defined our relationship with our fellow believers (both present and past). But just as big a God-rejection is the Protestant and Roman "church" elevation of some human beings as "clergy" (the pastor/priest/pope syndrome). Jesus didn't give even the tiniest hint of special treatment even to the woman who gave birth to Him. Yet Good Religious People just LOVE LOVE LOVE to give special education, special seating, special housing, special deference, special attention, special titles, special clothing, and innumerable other special honors to those who are truly no more than anyone else (and who, in fact, make themselves Jesus-rejecters and LESS than any in God's true family, because of their acceptance and love of being "special").

Once again, Good Religious People – for all their centuries of self-congratulation regarding their "special" place with God, and with all their centuries of "Christian" scholarship, and with all the years and years each of their "clergy" people spend memorizing and regurgitating all that "scholarship" – prove by their lives that they have once again completely missed Jesus' point. Once again, they have absolutely nothing of real-God value to share with anyone!

Of course, there's nothing wrong with looking up to someone who's a (real) elder in the faith, or gaining wisdom and strength from someone who's going through trials we relate to or are spiritually impressed or humbled by. But there is a problem with thinking we find those things within Good Religious Churches or Good Religious Denominations and their centuries of saint and clergy worship, so that they become somehow "more holy" or "closer to God" or someone we should follow with little/no question. Then we're putting human beings in the place only Jesus is supposed to occupy.

Does your heart crave looking up to and venerating a human being? Then look up to and venerate the Only One worthy of your praise and respect: Jesus!

• Many Good Religious Christians today are almost as obsessed with their biological families today as were Good Religious Jews of 2,000 years ago. They spout off all the time about being "Family" oriented, don't they? They make it seem as if the biological family is THE most important thing about being a "Good Christian". Does that even make sense, when we look over Jesus' life and His relationships? 
• While Jesus never put human family above God's (real) family, He also never told us to reject or not take care of those of our biological families, either. What does this say to you about the various priorities you have in your day-to-day life? How can you satisfy the requirements of being a real part of God's family, and also taking care of those who depend on you, as well?
• What human beings have you elevated above yourself or others in your life? Did you learn to do so from "church" or other Good Religious Sources? What prevents you from putting only Jesus in that high place? 
• When we try to be part of God's Family by belonging to some church, we misunderstand Jesus' whole point just as badly as the Good Religious People do – and that's the most spiritually dangerous position we can be in! Have there been times in your life (perhaps now?) when you've missed Jesus' point, as well? Who taught you the wrong way? Are you letting Jesus teach you His right way? 
• We've already seen that Jesus says no one can accomplish good through evil – and putting oneself or someone else in Jesus' place IS evil. Yet Good Religious People continue to believe fiercely that elevating some of their people above others (making them "clergy") is a good, Godly thing – even though it puts them on the level only Jesus is supposed to be at, among His (real) people. Were you infected with "clergy"-worship at some time in your life? Did you at some point decide to step up into being "clergy" yourself? Are you ready to repent of those blasphemies? 
• It's not surprising that it only took three years for Good Religious People to murder Jesus (it's probably more surprising it took them that long!). Every way He lived, and everything He said, was a constant irritation and rebuttal to the true-God rejecting way Good Religious People lived. He refused to elevate them to the spiritual heights they imagined they inhabited. He never stop illuminating just how empty of God and how full of themselves and demons they actually were. And so they tortured and killed Him. After Jesus went back up into heaven, though, His rejection of them remained – but He was no longer around to murder. Is it hard to figure out why Jesus' TRUE message, then, would be "murdered" by the Good Religious People over the next twenty centuries? Is it hard to imagine why Good Religious People work so hard to re-write (through "translation" and interpretation) the parts of the Bible they want to say something different than what God intended? Is it even surprising that they would ignore, fight against, and bury the hugely simple and Good-Religious-People-Condemning message of Jesus Christ under their centuries of "theology", "scholarship", "tradition", "hierarchy", and "clergyhood", and then train people through their "seminaries" and "Bible studies" to memorize and push forward the complex mass of sewage they call "Christianity"?

A final thought for today.

If you've been following along with our Gospel study, have you noticed how often the message is that human ways of being religious are not only completely opposite how God wants us to be, but are actually dangerous, because they entice us to believe we've got the right answer (after all, it's the same answer the "educated" people believe, and it's the same answer Good Religious People have believed for centuries!), when actually we couldn't be more wrong?

There's a reason we're given the Bible – but just reading it, just absorbing the "official" Good Religious People message of what it means, and just accepting the translations and interpretations "The Church" gives us, means we're following sinful God-rejecters, and conforming our lives to what pleases the sinful nature of human beings, and not what pleases God.

• Today, come up with three ways you can squeeze the Good Religious Slime from your and others' eyes, so that the real Jesus and His real saving message becomes visible.

• Repent of your desires for those pretty Good Religious ways of being "Christian" or part of the "Christian Church", and ask Jesus to help you and your heart to find and live in the true beauty of a life in Jesus Christ.

• Look around and see what you can do to join or create fellowship that doesn't settle for "church" buildings and "clergy" and "tithes", but instead reaches out for the true treasure Jesus came to make sure we can have – if we'll only choose it.

Take care until next week! :-)
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

It's safer being a sinner than a Good Religious Person

That sinner, the Queen of Sheba, getting God-wisdom

We're continuing today through the (chronological) Gospels – taking a good look at who Jesus really was and is, outside of the way He's always been portrayed by what most loudly calls itself "Christianity".

Last week, we started a look at (among other things) demons in the New Testament. Today, we'll look at a few more, and talk about the demonic in relation to Good Religious People.

As always, you can find all our previous posts in this series, going through the Gospels chronologically to find the real Jesus, here.

And as always you'll find the scriptures for today are here. (Note that you can change the human-translation version on this scripture page as suits you. I default to the NASB to get the more literal translation, but do use the one that works for you. Note also that I have no theological or other tie to the bible site I list above – it's just one that lists the NASB, KJV, and The Message, and most folks I've corresponded with seem to use one of those. However, another brother says you can also get the NRSV human translation at bible.oremus.org. If you prefer yet another human-translation that isn't on one of these other pages, do send it to me. I will also list it here).

Today we see that "demon-possessed" people were brought to Jesus. What does that mean, "demon-possessed"? Does the Bible or science tell us the real truth about demons? Or is there perhaps truth in both – or neither?

To modern human philosophies, which discount everything that doesn't fit within a certain narrow way of testing and thinking about the biological and psychological world, demons just don't exist. The modern cultures with the most power in the western world today teach us that "demons" are only psychological or mythological mind-creations of "backward", or psychologically disturbed, or "overly-religious" people (who are often presumed by the most insistent believers in modern philosophies to be "backward" and "psychologically disturbed", as well).

Problem is, being made of fallible human beings just like religion is made up of fallible human beings, what most loudly calls itself "Science" has degenerated in the last century into a mess no more logical than "Religion". In fact (and to my great sorrow, since I have a lifelong love of real science), "Good Science People" today are really no different from "Good Religious People". Both:

• Either don't make a study, or make a poor one, of those parts of their base wisdom-materials (world or Bible) they accept as "reality", and then
• Either consciously or unconsciously decide what they will find, and then
• Use their base wisdom materials to "prove" what they decided was the truth, and then
• Refuse to think outside the tiny box they've invented for their minds.

This is true all over, in physics, biological sciences (including medicine), geology, and more – just as it's true in fundamentalist Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and the "tweeners" like denominational Protestantism, emerging/emergent "churches", and so on. Why is it true? Because human beings are human beings, and without a lot of self-reflection and being willing to give up our self-focused crap, we naturally gravitate to ways of thinking and understanding that back up and "prove" our crap. There are people, both among those interested in science and in religion, who truly work to find the real thing beyond their own garbage – but they are few and far between, and in science just as in religion, they are ignored and trashed and even punished by the science/religion majority.

So what we’ve ended up with – in both "science" and "religion" realms – is a lot of exceptionally educated people who know crap. They're "educated idiots", heads full of years of documented study the majority conformity-culture says is "reality" – but what they've really done is just memorize a particular human philosophy, and then gone out into the world to help coat and re-coat reality with their philosophy.

So, what does all this have to do with demons? Well, the truth of the matter is, the Bible doesn't tell us a whole lot about demons, and almost all of what passes for religious "knowledge" about demons is simply human philosophy about demons – not demon-reality. Unfortunately, what most loudly calls itself "Science" today has nothing more to offer in helping us understand demons than "Religion" does, because in the slap-fight it started with its sibling "Religion" several centuries back, it decided that anything that Religion even talks about is automatically NOT REAL.

So we have two large, self-focused, domineering human philosophies, neither of them doing any real work to figure demons out based on the evidence that's there or might be there, telling us what to believe about demons. What a mess.

So all we "non-experts" can do is do our own work and decide for ourselves what we believe. And hopefully we do that in a way that isn't as full of our own crap! Several years ago I did discover a book that goes more specifically and only into what the Bible actually says and doesn't say about demons. Check it out if you're interested!

• Have you made an actual study of what the Bible itself actually says and doesn't say about demons? Where do you get your understanding of who they are (or aren't) and what they can do (or can't do)? Does your understanding need updating or refining? 
• If you decide demons don't really exist, or decide that they do exist, how does that change or set your understanding of the various forces at work in the world today? 

In our scriptures today we see that when Jesus healed someone who was demon-possessed and also had a physical ailment (like blindness), the physical ailment went away when the demon did. One of the important things to see here is the strong reaction this caused among those who were witnesses to it. The miracle-healing and throwing out of demons made them think, made them debate within and among themselves as individuals and as a collective people:

Is this God or God's power standing right here among us? Or is there something evil going on?

As we talked about last week, of course, Jesus reminds them that if evil was using evil to remove evil power, then evil would fall – and evil isn't that stupid. So here again is God visibly and powerfully using supernatural power in the world so that the people He told to look for these kinds of supernatural events to prove it was Him (and not some huckster pretending to be Him) with them would be able to recognize Him. We know, of course, that in the end very few of His Chosen People were even willing to recognize Him, even as He stood right there in front of them doing things no human or demonic power could ever do. Remember what John (the disciple/Gospel writer, not the Baptist) said? 

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. [John 1:9-13]

Almost all of the Jews of the day believed that simply being Jewish made them one of God's people, as if nothing more was required of them than religious rituals and attendance. And believing so, their hearts and minds weren't willing to see the greatest miracle of all: God standing right in their midst. In the end, nearly all the Jews of that day rejected God, and so they made a mockery of believing they were "God's People". And who ended up really being God's People? John tells us: those Jews and non-Jews whose hearts and minds were willing to see and accept God as He lived among them. Suddenly, being one of God's People didn't require anything from the Old Testament Mosaic Law, and didn't require being of a certain people – it just required being willing.

• We also have to ask today when we see miraculous or big spiritual things happening, "Is this God's power at work here, or is something evil going on?" Jesus and others in the Bible tell us to always question and test to make sure what we're following or seeing is truly from God, and not some evil fake. So the question itself is good. The Good Religious People back then just made it a reason to reject the real God because their fake-"God" suited them better. When in your life have you questioned whether something's really about God or not, for the right reasons? When in your life have you questioned like a Good Religious Person, and therefore done it for the wrong reasons? 
• "Churches" and "denominations" today are rank with the insistence that we have to join up with them to be saved or one of God's People. It wasn't too long ago, in fact, when Good Religious People even had the power to torture and murder people who refused to submit to their version of "God" and being "God's People". Yet by filling their hearts and minds with their own version of "God" in the same way the Good Religious People 2,000 years ago did, they can't even recognize and accept the real One. Have you been guilty of this in the past? (I have!) Have you since recognized the error and sought healing and the true Jesus? 
• The institutions and philosophies that Good Religious People create can be intensely addicting and absorbing, so that it can seem impossible to be free from the fear, guilt, and/or shame that keep us attached to them (physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually) even long after we've otherwise rejected them. One could even say that their complete possession of especially (but not only) those of us who were raised in their "reality" seems demonic, because of the dominating power they can have over us. Does Jesus need to heal you of any Good Religious Demons? Are you fully aware of the physical, psychological, and/or spiritual ailments you will also be free of, when Jesus drives the demon of religion out of you?

When Jesus confronted the Good Religious People in today's scripture, He told them something else very interesting – something He'd warned them about several times before, and would warn them about again, in other ways:

It's safer to be a repentant God-rejecter, than a Good Religious Person.

Why safer? Because the sincere repentance of even the evil pagans of Ninevah, and the sincere search for true-God-wisdom made by the idol-worshipping queen of the South, actually produced people able to recognize the true God and the need to live in His ways. This so much so that those who had been God-rejecters now had enough God-understanding to recognize and condemn the kind of false-God-connection the Good Religious People lived.

Good Religious People accused Jesus of being demon-possessed and demon-powered, yet who really was? Here again we see talk of demons – also called evil or unclean spirits – but this time in relationship to Good Religious People (go back and check today's scripture again, if you missed this context). Jesus says that giving ourselves a good spiritual housecleaning means nothing toward really making and keeping us spiritually clean. When we simply empty ourselves of evil (say, at a revival meeting, or during a church service, etc), but don't turn around and fill ourselves with God, then we stay religious – and Good Religious – but then end up even more evil than when we started.

Those of us not still trapped in this kind of Good Religious Trade-One-Devil-for-Seven Spirituality certainly can see this. We automatically curl our lip or step back defensively (physically, emotionally, financially, whatever) from those we find out are Big Christians or big churchgoers or big Bible-readers. Good Religious People like to pretend that people only reject them because they reject God, but in fact the Bible says that (many) people actually reject God because of Good Religious People.

Whether we are female, Gay, poor, a citizen of a weaker nation, or just an Average Joe on the street or in a workplace or family, we suffer under the huge amount of self-righteousness, self-centeredness, nation-worship, violence-worship, hate, condemnation, sexual and other kinds of abuse (of adults and children), Bible-twisting, clergy-elevation, and even just plain old lying, cheating, and stealing we see on a regular basis from Good Religious People (Christian and otherwise). And all of the evil ugliness we see in Good Religious People – whether 6,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago, 1,000 years ago, or today – is all part of what Jesus is describing here: religiously cleaning out one demon, but then ending up with seven demons. Starting out as a Level 1 Jerko, and ending up a Level 7 Smiling Ass. When we go the Good Religious Route, instead of the real Jesus route, our condition does go from bad to worse. It truly would have been better had we never become Good Religious People in the first place, but just gone from simple sinner to simple repentant sinner.

• People decide to focus on a lot of different things in the Bible. For example, Good Religious Heterosexuals like to pretend that the Bible is mostly about God blessing and obsessing on what their sex organs can do. Good Religious Power Worshippers like to pretend the Bible is mostly about domination, violence, and acquisition at home, work, at war, etc. And so on. But one of the things that fills a good deal of the Bible, but is rarely talked about (or even seen) by Good Religious People, is the amount of effort God has put in to trying to get Good Religious People to be and do what they claim to be (His real followers, doing His real things) – and how nearly every time Good Religious People have absolutely refused to do anything but their own way. Oh, they turn around now and again, usually after a huge punishment takes away all their material goods and feel-good religious rituals. But then they go back – again, and again, and again – to doing things their own way. How has this happened within your own life? How much effort has God had to put into trying to get you to be His (real) follower, instead of a Good Religious Person? What can you do to stop getting in the way of His efforts?

See you next week, when we'll talk about who Jesus counts as His family, and who Jesus says "gets" His message and doesn't - and why.

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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Don't even camp near Good Religious People City

Assuming my internet connection stays up (it's been going up and down all week), today we're moving further into our weekly "through the (chronological) Gospels" series. We're still learning about Jesus from Jesus, rather than through the interpretation of what calls itself "The Church" today.

As always, you can find all our previous posts in this series, going through the Gospels chronologically to find the real Jesus, here.

And as always you'll find the scriptures for today are here. (Note that you can change the translation version on this scripture page as suits you. I default to the NASB to get the more literal translation, but do use the one that works for you).

So – what's Jesus been talking about the last several posts? He's been telling us (and the people 2,000 years ago) about how Good Religious People (including the church-goers, the bible-memorizers, the seminary graduates, and "clergy") are not going to make it to heaven – and neither are we if we don't do BETTER than they do.

Does Jesus have even more to say on how we can actually do better than people who are already so expert at being Good Religious People? You bet He does!

Do good always to impress God – never to impress other people (including yourself)

First Jesus talks about the problem of doing good things so other people can see you did them. Good Religious People (from the "Right" and the "Left" and everything in between) simply overflow in doing good things everyone else gets to see them doing, don't they? Whether it's preaching the Gospel to other lands (or to a television/radio/internet audience), or feeding hungry people, or caring for the sick, or being "nice" to people, or even menacing "sinners" at Gay Pride events or running voter campaigns of misrepresentation and lies (in other words, bearing false witness against their Gay neighbors) to block legal protection of Gay families – no matter what it is, we all get to witness the "good deeds" of what most loudly calls itself "Christianity", and in all its finery and glory, don't we?

And if we aren't sufficiently impressed (and fewer and fewer of us "sinners" are, quite naturally), Good Religious People are always impressing each other, and even giving and getting rewards of praise, good feeling, promotion, titles, clergydom, money/salary, etc. from and for each other. "All for the glory of God!" – or so they say.

Thing is, though, Jesus says right here in the Bible that all "Christians" claim to believe in and follow that if anyone but God knows you're doing these good things, then it's really YOU getting credit / reward for them, and not just God.

I know, I know – Good Religious People believe they’re doing good for God (even when they do all those evil, ugly, anti-Christ things), and they teach others to believe the same. They say things like, "God's just using us as His instrument!", and "I'm just being the Hand / Heart (or other body part) in the Body of Christ!" (funny how no one ever lays claim to being what the Bible calls the "weaker" or "less honorable" body parts), and more.

• Then why is it the only way to get those good things done is for Good Religious People to be sharing His limelight? 

• How does it happen that when other people SHOULD be praising only God for food, shelter, kind words, care for their sick bodies, and so on, they're actually praising God for Good Religious People or their "Church"? 

• How is it even possible that doing good works turns people in gratitude or praise to the Roman church, or the Lutheran church, or the Presbyterians or Methodists or Non-Denominationals or Baptists or Emerging people or (name any other "denomination" or "kind" of "Christian"), but not directly and only to Jesus Christ, with no more thought to the Christian who's simply doing what Jesus said to do?

In another part of the Bible we'll cover later, Jesus warns us to make sure we aren't deceived by people who claim to come on Jesus' behalf, but then also claim to be Christ.

When we do anything that gives us any part of the reward or praise or honor or title or other good or elevated thing that only Jesus Christ deserves, then 

• We are claiming to be as deserving as He is.
• We are claiming to be His equal.
• We are claiming to be Christ.

In such case we are acting as one of the "many anti-Christs who have appeared". And even the possibility we might be should scare the dickens out of those claiming to be "Christian", sending real Christians to their knees, repenting ever having done so (even if only because they didn't understand better, before).

So, how do we do this right, since doing it the Good Religious People way is such a complete, ridiculous, and hell-bound fail? Jesus gives us several examples:

• Give to those in need – yes! But only in ways so only God can see your hand or heart at work. Then you're actually working for God, and not your own glory!

• Pray – yes! But don't do it where others can take note of how great a pray-er you are. Instead, go where it's truly only you and God, and just share your heart, asking for your basic needs and for God's way to be done always here on Planet Earth too.

• Forgive – yes! But don't just forgive those who deserve forgiveness. Each time you forgive someone who doesn't even begin to deserve it, you remind yourself how God forgives you even when you don't deserve it either.

• Fast – yes! But don't let others see or hear how crappy you feel so they know how "dutiful" you are in your religious devotions to God. Instead, keep your smile bright and share what you're feeling just between you and God. It's the only way to make your suffering mean anything real at all.

In other words, do all your good stuff in ways that don't reward you here, now. Otherwise, it's like selling your winning lottery ticket to some guy on the corner who gives you three dollars, because you can't stand waiting for the real million-dollar payout next year.

Instead, make everything you do count for God, and let it all be something that boosts your relationship with Him. That's why God called you to be a Christian in the first place!

• What are some of the ways you've seen "Christians" do good things in ways that others could praise "The Church" or some other manifestation of themselves, instead of only God? Are there ways you've done similar things?

• What ways do you take rewards today, instead of waiting for the reward from God in the future? Do others know you give money to the needy, for example? Do you write off your "charitable contributions" to the IRS to get a break on your taxes?

• The Bible often tells us that God's real people are humble – and it means really humble (not in that fake, irritating, arrogant-humble way we see from most "Christians"). What does it mean to your life to be humble? How does that change how you present yourself – and God – to the people around you?

• We're not often taught by Good Religious People that the Bible warns there are already lots of anti-Christs running around (usually they either want us to focus on the one Big Kahuna AntiChrist still coming, or they want to pretend there are no such things). The Bible warns us that anti-Christs do all sorts of things – including coming in Jesus' Name but then taking all or part of His glory to themselves, thereby deceiving people into worshiping or believing things that are about devil or human being, instead of about God. Who in your life has been an anti-Christ? Have you removed their influence from your heart and mind? Have you ever been an anti-Christ yourself? How? How can you live differently, so you're not thumbing your nose at God any longer?

You just know you're going to camp where you put your gear

Next Jesus talks about where we put our hearts and focus. He tells us not to bother worrying after or storing up things on earth, because there's nothing here we won't lose for some reason or another (death, theft, rot, etc). If we keep our focus on these kinds of "earthly" things, it's like wearing scratched up eyeglasses that have a completely-wrong prescription: we're going to be stumbling down stairs and crashing into the coffee table, our inner vision as scrambled as our outer one.

He also warns us that we simply can't serve God and money-stuff at the same time. Isn't humanly possible. And while all so many "Christians" say (with their lives, if not their mouths) that it's not so, Jesus tells us that truthfully if we love God we'll hate money, and if we devote ourselves to money we'll trash God – so why not just leave all our needs to God and rely on whatever He provides? Doing anything else makes us believe that what we're going to put on or in our bodies deserves more of our attention than what we're going to do for God, and how much we're going to trust Him. In other words, doing more than simply trusting God in whatever He provides makes a "Christian" no different than a God-rejecter.

• Worrying over the things of this world is epidemic – especially these days! As we get closer to the End Times, and things get more and more dicey in our global and local world, it's going to get even worse, as the devil pushes more and more of his agenda onto the rest of us (and too many people go happily along with him). What prevents you from simply being happy with whatever you have, and spending your heart and mind energy on Jesus and the people around you, instead of on paying bills for things you don't really need, or worrying after things you do need?

• What does it mean to your own life, when Jesus says to let today's worries (and not tomorrow's) be on your mind each day, letting each day be trouble enough on its own?

Final thoughts for the week

• Jesus is painting quite a picture of just how different from the rest of the world – including the Good Religious Christian (and Jewish) World – we have to be, to get into heaven. In every case so far, He's said our hearts have to be in order – and not our religious duties. What are the ways you still cling to religious duty (because you fear not doing so, or even because you like it)? What ways are you still claiming to come in Jesus' Name, while actually not doing or living the ways He said you should?

• For all their talk of being so very "literal" in following the Bible, conservative, evangelical, and related "kinds" of "Christians" obviously do not really believe the Bible at all. If they did, they wouldn't only quote or live the parts their human neurosis likes best (like the parts they think condemn Gays and keep women a lower part of Creation), while ignoring or reimagining those parts they don't want to be there (like not serving money, and not being outwardly religious so others can see, and not supporting war, and not hurting back, and – and – and – and!). How has your understanding of God and what He wants from your life been twisted by "literalists" who prove by their hearts and lives that they themselves don’t actually believe in the Bible? What things can you do to shed their neurosis from your own spirituality?

Next week we'll finish the "Sermon on the Mount", going over what Jesus says about judging others, wasting your time on people who'll only hurt you, expecting good things from God, and putting His words to real practice in your every-day life.

See you then!

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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Is Jesus on your side?

Amazing – but my work life is actually settling down so I can start to write more again. I'm very pleased about that! :)

Before we get continuing on with our walk through the Gospels again today, I have some notes to pass along:

First, the whole purpose here is to explore: If we rip off the blinders and gauze and mud "churches" and religious traditions have taught us to see Jesus and ourselves through – just who the heck is Jesus, and why is knowing the real Him so important (and liberating, and comforting, and refreshing) to our lives?

Second, I have been and will continue to go through the Gospels chronologically, so that's why you see clumpings of scriptures from all four texts as we go.

And third, do read the scriptures referenced each time, or you're not going to "get" what you're after here (which is God's Word, and not just my words about God's Word). I never reference more than a short bit at a time, and I give a link to an online bible you can easily change to whatever translation you'd like to read it in.

[Today's scriptures are here]

Ok – on to it...

Last week we looked at how Jesus interacted with some of the people around Him. This week, let's continue that but also look at some of how others viewed Jesus, and how Jesus saw Himself.

When the disciples returned from getting food, they found Jesus actually talking (and normally, respectfully, with personal interest) with a woman despised by Good Religious People and pagans alike (heck, even her own people rejected her, which we can know because she came to the well alone in the heat of the day, and not in the cool of the day with the other women). We can only guess at the life choices and/or misfortunes that left the "Woman at the Well" outside of "proper society", what with her past five husbands and current "living in sin" (unmarried). Perhaps she or her family just choose real losers for her? Or perhaps something in her personality (like not liking being treated like dirt, which is what women of the time were trained to accept without question, or even just being hard to live with herself, or...?) caused her to end up in a merry-go-round of relationships. In any case, we'd have to think in our modern day of the revulsion most people would have for a down-and-out prostitute, to get any sense of how the disciples and others of her day would have felt about this woman. Then add her religious and racial background on top of that, and it's pretty safe to say "amazement" (or "surprise", etc) was an understatement to what the disciples thought finding Jesus not only standing there talking to her, but also with the same dignity and open care that He gave to "good" and "normal" people like themselves. 

No matter who people think you are, or how others judge or categorize you, Jesus has always and will always approach you as if you were the "cream of the crop". Despite what human religion has most often taught, Jesus will always recognize you do indeed have brains and can and should use them, and He'll always want that interactive relationship that can only exist between those who care for and respect each other. How does that change or affect how you should or do see yourself and the relationship you can and should have with Jesus?

The "Woman at the Well" was truly the first Gospel evangelist. Having been blessed with an opportunity to speak face to face with God Himself and see His plan at work in the world, she couldn't wait to share the Good News. The result? Many others of her people heard about Jesus, learned the truth of who He is (and therefore learned past the human religious ideas about "Messiah" they'd been taught before), and came to trust in Him. Then their experience with Jesus became their own, and no longer just through what the woman had to share with them. Their salvation truly became real.

Nearly all "Christians" today and in centuries past have believed they have a true relationship with Jesus, when actually all they have is the word of other human beings about Jesus. They pray to Him, do good works for Him, and even tell others about Him – but they still only know Him through their human "intermediaries" otherwise known as pastors, priests, popes, denominations, traditions, seminaries, theologies, and more. 

Where is your relationship with Jesus only second-hand – and therefore second-rate? Where do you need to grow beyond trusting in God through your trust in other human beings?

Jesus told people to repent – but there are a good number of "Christians" today who announce that God accepts us without change. Is that true? No!

Now, it is true that our nature and personality are ours, gifts from God – but we must hone and mature them out of the narcissism of spiritual childhood to do right by Jesus. We must also turn away or repent from those parts of ourselves that are not properly part of who we are, that are simply choices we make to satisfy our weaknesses and lusts. Choices we make to use/abuse chemical substances (from marijuana to prescription drugs), and habits of thinking (from religion to politics), and so on – all work to hedge or turn off some part of our full engagement with God's reality, and our full awareness of God's plan at work in the world.

When Jesus talked about repenting, He meant to turn back from our own ways of being for this world and turn towards God's way of being to this world. Repenting is NOT about seeing ourselves as pieces of garbage, but about no longer choosing garbage for our hearts, for our lives. 

The Bible says that those who were previously living in spiritual darkness back then got to see a great light that shown on those living under the shadow of death. Where is the spiritual darkness still in your life? What is the threat of death in your life? What does it mean to your life that God has gone to so much trouble to make sure you have a Jesus-lighted way out of both those things?

When God's handing out "stuff" we want or appreciate, we're usually liking Him, aren't we? Jesus did all sorts of miracles back then, and the Good Religious People were by and large impressed. He was doing the kinds of things God had used to prove Himself to their ancestors, and look – here they were going to get in on the goodies, as well! Cool!

But then some Good Religious People started to reject Jesus. What happened? Well, first He let them know that He wasn't just some new human prophet come to entertain them with tricks, tell them to clean up their acts, but then not really change a darn thing. He let them know that God Himself was sitting there among them now, having placed Himself into the world specifically to turn it upside and make it once again about great stuff for the poor, imprisoned, disabled, and oppressed.

Now, first the Good Religious People hearing Him thought that was pretty keen, didn't they? But the second thing Jesus did was the worst thing you can do to a Good Religious Person: He cut right through their religious bull.

Jesus already knew these Good Religious People would reject Him – and indeed, since they were living lives about "Good Religion" and not about God, they had already rejected Him. So He told them that just like years before (in Old Testament) when God had done great stuff for people that Good Religious People rejected and looked down on – but wouldn't do the same great stuff for the Good Religious People – in the same way He was going to do great Jesus-stuff for the people Good Religious People still reject and look down on, but still wasn't going to do a dang thing for Good Religious People.

What was the result? Did the Good Religious People feel guilty about their jerkdom and pledge to do better? Did they feel horrorstricken, finding out that despite all their previous good feelings about how "godly" they were that actually they'd done/believed nothing of any real value to or with any real respect to God?

Nope. They tried to kill Him (and this was only the first time). 

Where are you in this story? Are you among the poor, the imprisoned, the disabled, or the oppressed that Jesus is promising great things to and for – only perhaps since you've only been listening to Good Religious People before you didn't understand what He really does mean TO and FOR YOU? 

Or perhaps you're among the Good Religious People today who do all the "godly" things but are still so far from God He'd have to be God to even know your name? Keep in mind that God doesn't reject Good Religious People. Rather, again and again and again they reject Him by keeping evil and sludge in their hearts while waving around their religious doo-dads. But God's not going to force you to be true. The Bible says He WILL let you walk your religious parade all the way to hell if you think that's better for your life. So, do better - repent / turn around! 

Or perhaps today you're both an oppressed person, and a Good Religious Person, needing to process the lessons God means for both?

One thing that remained true for Jesus throughout His time on earth 2,000 years ago: when people listened to Him, they recognized that He had wisdom and presence like no human being had ever had. They recognized that there was something sorely missing from their human religious teachers and guides that Jesus had in abundance. Those who would hear Him were drawn to Jesus like people who'd been stuck in the desert for years, tired of sucking on pebbles and pretending their own spit is good water, and then one day finally finding an unending cool, clear, clean stream of real water.

What have you missed in your life by relying only on what other religious human beings could teach you about Jesus? What does Jesus offer to your life, today? 

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Are you gonna follow that church leader all the way to hell?

Church leadership just keeps coming up again and again in my circle these days. No doubt because it's church leaders (or, at least those human beings count as church leaders, whether God does or not) who determine where most Christians will go in their spiritual walk. It's church leaders who describe and draw the boundaries for the various paths most Christians will follow.

And it's sorta-kinda supposed to be that way. According to the Bible, a "church leader" (also described as an "elder" and such, in the New Testament) is supposed to be someone like your football coach, or your older sister, or someone else who, yes, is also just another sinful human being like you are, but who also has real-world experience and knowledge in living as a true follower of Jesus Christ. A church leader's shared experience and wisdom, offered with corrective love and hope, is supposed to keep us all continually re-pointed back to Jesus Christ (while everything else in the world keeps trying to point us away). Their function within the Body of Christ is to help keep themselves, each other, and all their "younger siblings" on that narrow Jesus-path until Jesus comes again. 

But anyone truly paying attention to what's happened to the "Christian Church" in the last 1,900 years or so can see how quickly "church leadership" degenerated after those who'd learned firsthand from Jesus Himself died (and so were no longer around to call B.S. on nonsense) – and how "church leadership" stayed degenerated even into today. Despite the Bible's direction, even today almost all "church leaders" are only truly about Jesus Christ (and making the sacrifices and going through the trials following Him demands) when doing so does not conflict with or counter the human-created religious traditions, cultural norms, social expectations, attendance counts, and job and ego security understood as "core" of the religious organization or group they belong to. And that's just as true of "fundamentalist" churches as it is of "progressive" ones. Just as true of "evangelical" churches as it is of "emergent" ones. Just as true of "modern" churches as it is of "post-modern" ones.

We're so proud of ourselves, and we remember always to praise God -- right after we get done thinking so highly of ourselves for how much "better" we've made the religion of "Jesus" in the last 2,000 years.

And all that means if we just go along with whatever "old" or "new" church fad that tickles our fancy, or better addresses our politics or our emotional needs, then we're just wandering around a cheap carnival fun house that has Jesus' face painted on the front and some hymnals scattered around the back.

And that's because most practicing and preparing-to-become "church leaders" today have a "calling" from their own ego, or from a severe misunderstanding of Jesus' truth -- and not actually from the Holy Spirit.

For true church leaders, though, who aren't simply memorizing (and benefiting themselves from) human-crap-of-death that was based on human-crap-of-death which was itself based on human-crap-of-death all the way back to the human-crap-of-death the first disciples named as anti-Jesus, what's really God-required for church leaders to be and do is right there in the Bible. Right there for our understanding to soak in, once we pump the spiritual bilge water from our hearts and minds.

Take a look at Acts 20, for example. I'm starting at verse 17 (end about verse 35). Then look over Titus 1, reading from about Titus 1:5 to about Titus 2:1 (my text below will follow those sequences, if you want to follow along in your own Bible). Compare Paul's Holy Spirit-led, real world experience and wisdom-sharing about what church leaders are to truly do, know, and be – and then compare that to what we see today in "church leaders", whether those "church leaders" are on television or radio or internet, or in local pulpits, megachurches, "creative" churches, "house" churches, and so on.

I'm just going to grab here at the most obvious examples:

Paul says he served Jesus not only with humility, but also through all the tears and trials that came via evil plottings of "good religious people".

Discernment opportunity: Which "church leaders" today are actually the self-satisfied "good religious people" doing the evil plotting or working against those that don't conform to their own ego-boundaries or human-inspired doctrines, instead of being those grieved and suffering because of trying to be about Jesus in spite of them? 

Doesn't matter how "good" or "spiritual" or "religious" they are -- they do not have their hearts on the real Jesus -- and therefore don't qualify as God-chosen church leaders.

Paul says he never shrank from publicly testifying to everyone about (1) the need to repent to God from evil choices, (2) to keep faith in Jesus Christ, and (3) the good news of God's love even for those who've never deserved it for one millisecond. 

Discernment opportunity: Which "church leaders" ignore the need for us all to repent because telling people they're making evil choices "turns people off" (and therefore lowers the ministry's follower numbers and/or tithes) or just doesn't match how they've imagined "love" to be? Which church leaders push people to keep faith in their own particular human denominational/doctrinal/etc interpretation of Jesus Christ, as if that were the same as Jesus Christ?

Doesn't matter how "good" or "spiritual" or "religious" they are -- they do not have their hearts on the real Jesus -- and therefore don't qualify as God-chosen church leaders. 

Paul says he's innocent of causing anyone else to end up in hell, because he's taught God's whole intent and not just picked and chosen what he liked and ignored the rest. 

Discernment opportunity: Which "church leaders" – of "right" or "left", "evangelical" or "emergent", "modern" or "post-modern" – only pick and choose what they emphasize about God (like, for example, teaching that God is about hating sin without also showing from their lives God's boundless love for all humankind, or teaching that God is about nothing but love without also showing from their lives God's triumphant justice and rejection of evil?).

Doesn't matter how "good" or "spiritual" or "religious" they are -- they do not have their hearts on the real Jesus -- and therefore don't qualify as God-chosen church leaders. 

Paul says church leaders need to be on guard for themselves, each other, and for everyone God has seen fit to make them an elder-sibling over, to make sure they properly shepherd what God shed His own blood for to buy us back from destruction.

Discernment opportunity: Which "church leaders" claim to "guard the flock" but actually help fleece the flock of dollars and adoration that belong only to God, while enforcing human rules, human traditions, and human ideas as if they were from God?

Doesn't matter how "good" or "spiritual" or "religious" they are -- they do not have their hearts on the real Jesus -- and therefore don't qualify as God-chosen church leaders. 

Paul says that after he's dead, evil-minded people are going to emerge from inside churches, and are going to be ripping up and ripping off those people within them, teaching things that pervert the real Good News of Jesus Christ, and getting people to leave real fellowships and follow them instead.

Discernment opportunity: Which "church leaders" (past and present) are doing just this, while using Bible quotes and church law and appeals to tradition to "justify" it, so that people even  believe this kind of "Christianity" is "normal" and "healthy" and "godly"?

Doesn't matter how "good" or "spiritual" or "religious" they are -- they do not have their hearts on the real Jesus -- and therefore don't qualify as God-chosen church leaders. 

Paul says church leaders therefore must be on the alert, expecting these anti-Jesus wolves to show up, and tearfully warning each other of even possible slipups.

Discernment opportunity: Which "church leaders" simply "go along to get along", not "rocking the boat" in their fellowship, church, denomination, or world so things still have the appearance of being godly and cozy, even when people are being taught a false way to salvation, when children are being raped, when women are stuck in battering relationships, when the poor and oppressed are suffering, when people are being convinced God hates them, when people are being convinced that human-add-ons are requirements of the Gospel, and so on? 

Doesn't matter how "good" or "spiritual" or "religious" they are -- they do not have their hearts on the real Jesus -- and therefore don't qualify as God-chosen church leaders. 

Paul says that God Himself is able to build up church leaders, to give them what they need to be sanctified and true.

Discernment opportunity: Which "church leaders" rely on themselves, their denominational position, their theological education, their religious doo-dads, or something else besides God to "prove" them holy-living godly church leaders who should be followed or even "obeyed"?

Doesn't matter how "good" or "spiritual" or "religious" they are -- they do not have their hearts on the real Jesus -- and therefore don't qualify as God-chosen church leaders. 

Paul says as a church leader he never had a thought about gaining others' money and such, and that with his own hands he took care of his own needs and the needs of the other ministers working with him. He says that by working hard like this, church leaders can and must help those who are weak, remembering always that Jesus Himself said that it's better to give than receive.

Discernment opportunity: Which "church leaders" have made or hope to make a good career out of ministry, especially in "administration" of buildings, programs, "ministry teams", college courses, and denominational politics, as if anything like that means diddly compared to the simple Jesus-acts of personally getting someone in need a meal, hugging someone covered in filth, or teaching lost people about the Good News of Jesus Christ?

Doesn't matter how "good" or "spiritual" or "religious" they are -- they do not have their hearts on the real Jesus -- and therefore don't qualify as God-chosen church leaders. 

(Now I'm working my way through Titus 1):

Many churches (especially but not only "right-wing" ones) like to believe they've satisfied the requirements for church leadership -- but what they actually do is pick as "church leaders" people who satisfy worldly standards (like picking business people to "run" the church and its "finances"), and/or by picking church leaders who conform to their own human doctrines, traditions, cliques, biases, and politics -- but don't conform to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it was given by Jesus Christ.

Consider:

How many "church leaders" are said to be "above reproach", but by their ugly and/or empty hearts and their "church over Jesus" belief systems they've brought tremendous shame on the Body of Christ? Well, that means they are not "above reproach" at all!

When "good religious people" are said to be in "rebellion" in the New Testament, it means they are in rebellion against God's way of doing things. So how many "church leaders" even just today are easily accused of being in "rebellion", since they put more value on religious deeds and doo-dads that only make show (even though they don't fool God, of course)? How many run "churches" and teach things in complete opposition to things Jesus taught, yet still count what they're doing as "according to God's will"? These are people in rebellion!

Do we even need to cover "prosperity preachers", "televangelists", but also all other "church leaders" who've managed to make a huge living at representing the God who said that those who have good things in this world won't get squat in the next, and who said you simply cannot have your mind and heart on God and money at the same time? These are people fond of "sordid gain", and who are stewards of their own interests, not Gods!

Paul wrote someone qualified to be a church leader will "[hold] fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching" passed down from Jesus to His first disciples, so the church leader is "able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict [it]." How many "church leaders" of the past nineteen centuries have even pretended to stick only with the simple Good News of Jesus Christ, as taught and commanded by God Himself, and not instead added and/or adored the human accretions layered on top of it like muddy dirt and filth on gold? How many church leaders – "right" or "left", "evangelical" or "emergent" or "catholic", "modern" or "post-modern" – won't correct or chew themselves or each other out when they're following or teaching human-crap-of-death, refusing to stand up at all costs to themselves, "their" ministry, "their" church, and so on to counter those who twist Jesus Christ and His message into their own human-shaped pretzel? These are not people faithful to God's Word.

How many "church leaders" of any brand won't even acknowledge that church people who don't do things God's way, who spout their own nonsense, who deceive people, or who obsess on only parts of the Bible message are – Paul says – supposed to be made to shut the %)#@*% up? How many "church leaders" just continue to absorb (or seek) all the bennies promised to their human church position and assignments, doing right by themselves while ignoring, passing off, or justifying the loss of all those turned away from the Gospel or otherwise hurt by "the Church" (no doubt they are "prayerfully working on the problem from within" -- for years, decades, centuries...)? These are not servants of Jesus Christ.

How many "church leaders" won't severely accuse destructive, anti-Jesus "Christians" (even though that would give them an opportunity to get their spiritual heads on right and stop hurting other people and blaspheming God)? More, how many won't call wrong wrong because they don't want to risk the political poo-storm it would cause to stir up the sleeping demons in their "church"? How many won't do this because "God is love" and therefore they are going to demonstrate "God's love" by letting the devil destroy people's lives and faith? These people reject God's way.

How many "church leaders" – instead of knowing and standing up for Jesus and doing what He said to do – actually themselves "profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed"?

As always, it all comes down to this:

Whether we count ourselves as "church leaders", or as followers of "church leaders": do we take Jesus and (real) His teachings (as given us through His first disciples) seriously, or don't we?

The fact that the vast majority of those calling themselves "Christian" do NOT take Jesus seriously is demonstrated continually in our support of politicians (republican, democrat, whatever -- all the same), religious figures (protestant, catholic, emergent, whatever -- all the same), business leaders and their various economic systems (all the same), and others (all the same) who start or continue or don't act against war, torture, oppression of the poor and minorities, falsification of the Good News of Jesus Christ, and other demonic practices.

And we learn to be "good Christians" who defy Jesus Christ to His face and happily do the exact opposite of what He says (while still expecting His praise, of course), from following and learning from "church leaders" who may be very nice people who want to love and serve the Lord but who just don't qualify according to the simple standards set out for us by God in His Bible. 

So, what's the Jesus-deal? 

The deal is: take Jesus as seriously as He takes you. And only follow and learn from those other human beings whose lives and faith lead and point you only to Him. 

• Remember, as you look for real "elder-siblings" to help you out, that they may or may not be found in actual church buildings (or even in "house churches", etc), because these days few such places have enough Jesus left in them to do anything but (at best) wear people out spiritually, and the real Body of Christ is found everywhere. Keep an eye and heart out in all the places such folks might be found: online, at your work, in a Bible study, and so on. God's been amazing in all the places He's dropped "elder-siblings" into my life. 

• Remember that nothing in the Bible says being an "elder-sibling" is supposed to be some kind of ritualized or formal relationship. That's how human beings like to do things -- not like Jesus did or does things. Look for friendships and fellowships, not someone with a title or collar or organizational position. Most of the time, it won't even be recognized as an "elder-sibling" thing at all, but as simply a neighbor-thing, or a friend-thing, or whatever. Lots of the best "elder-siblings" are found amongst the "least of these" in the world, because they've actually gone through real trials (often at the hands and hearts of the "good religous people" in their lives), and they've learned through Jesus Christ how to deal with and be better despite such things. 

• Remember that if you yourself are a "church leader", you also need God-chosen church leaders to keep YOU on the right path, because you're just as human as everyone else, and you also will for the rest of your life need to learn from and listen to only those who actually match what the Bible says qualifies someone to be an "elder-sibling". This ridiculous and shameful ego thing of pretending to be so "holy" you (unlike everyone else) no longer desperately need strong counsel and a good butt-kicking more days than not is exactly what makes so-called "ministers" into drunks, drug addicts, perverts, ego-maniacs, spiritual-masturbators, wealth-chasers, and God-trashers. If you aren't willing to be the truly humble person first in line each day for godly correction and teaching, then do the rest of the world a favor and "minister" instead in a Church of Satan, where you will at least be honest about who you're really serving. 

• Finally, always remember that having (real) "elder-siblings" in your life is a very nice thing to have, and can sometimes keep us from doing a face-plant into the thorn bushes along the narrow path -- but elder-siblings aren't required for our salvation. Only Jesus is required for that. He'll provide all the other stuff as we're willing to look and to accept them, and as He determines we need them. But in any case, He's our ultimate safety, only real Teacher, and only true Elder (pastor, priest, etc).  

Until next week -- God continue to bless and keep you, and to grow you, and to open your mind and heart in all the ways that make Him more and more your only Source, each day!

In God's love,

Lynne

---This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.