Deadly Religion

I once witnessed a long line of hundreds of people crawling up a two thousand foot mountain slope on their hands and knees. They started their climb well before dawn and reached the sumit at around mid-afternoon when the sun was hot and the air was dry. Meeting them was a priest of a particular religious order who would bless them and receive money from their hands. No meal awaited them, no cup of water. Just a spoken blessing and a gesture of the hand.
They did this for different reasons. Some wanted to get that blessing for the upcoming year in which they would face poverty and violence. Others wanted God to forgive them of sins. Still others did it in order to gain enough merit points to get them a ticket into heaven if they should die.
The sincerity of those masses was awe inspiring. The deception that motivated them to such a hardship was saddening. I could not help but feel deeply for them. I also had to muffle the bile rising up from my heart that wanted to utter a curse toward the source of their deception.
If you don't know it yet I'll say it loud, "RELIGION KILLS!" It'll make you deader than the fake corpses on CSI. In fact, spiritual rigor mortis will set in while you are still breathing, walking, and doing life. The reason religion kills is because its foundation is wrong; it is an honest yet faulty attempt to show God how good you really are. Like the poor folks climbing the mountain, trying to prove ourselves to God with works of service or self-sacrifice cannot work. Why? Try this. You may see a nice pool of cool clear water, you're thirsty and need a drink, so you dip you hands in and take a gulp. Problem is, the water is filled with itty bitty microscopic parasitic creatures. It looks good, tastes good, and seems to do the trick. Belive me, you will pay within about six hours. Well, our good looking efforts make God sick too!
Real works and sacrifice cannot come from the contaminated 'water' of our soul. Get this; Jesus stood up at the end of a special feast where thousands were doing their religious duty and said something cool. "If you are thirsty, come to me. I will give you water that will become like a spring, welling up inside you." (That is in John 7) In other words, the one who comes to Jesus gets the pure springs of pure water that will produce life, acceptance, and an eternally guiltless future. And it all comes simply by the application of faith that he is who he says he is and will do what he said he'll do. His grace does the rest.
Guess what happens after that; good works! Acts of service and sacrifice! You naturally begin to act like the pure watergiver and he does amazing works. You hardly have to try.
So, it all comes down to drinking the right water. You can drink your parasitic religious water or you can seek Jesus and become a well-spring of living water. If one really wants to use his knuckles and knees, one should find a quiet place, get down on them, and thank Jesus that he climbed up a mountain and did the only acceptable work and it was for all of would simply believe. Just something to think about! Happy Day, Pastor Jim