Renounce Religion! Seek Only the Kingdom of God!

Before I begin this blog, I need to thank our church cleaning person. She does a great job keeping up with our very over-used building, but that is not where I need to thank her the most today. I need to thank Penny Hagar because she inadvertantly pointed me to a book on my shelf with an of off-hand reference she made in an e-mail this morning. She was talking about the author, Dr. Myles Monroe and his recent teaching on the Kingdom of God. She said it reminded her of what I was preaching and teaching at church. That little comment refreshed my memory of his book that I had given to me as a gift about a year ago. I pulled it off the shelf, read the preface and danced around my office. I'll get around to reading the rest of the book this week.

Here is a taste of what set my feet to jumping; "The greatest threat to the future of the world is Religion. Nuclear weapons, terrorism, AIDS... are simply tools used by religion. More wars have been fought in the name of religion than any other influence. Millions have died over the past 2,000 years under the destructive hand of religious zeal. Misplaced and misguided religious passion has produced such historical scars as the Crusades, the Inquisition, ethnic cleansing, and the horror of the Holocaust." Why did I dance? Because I love confirmation of God's Word in my heart.

Jesus did not come to start a new religion. He did not come to take sides politically. HE CAME TO TAKE OVER! His Kingdom is what He is all about. Jesus' proposal to us about His Kingdom is so expansive, that He promised that if we seek the Kingdom first (to aim at, strive for in all our pursuits) that every need of our life will be met. Read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6 and 7; it's Constitution of King Jesus and His Kingdom. No religious trappings, no religious bigotry and no religious big-headedness here. We are to think of birds and grass and flowers as the basis of our life and living. Forget about religious appearances, think perfume, fish and trees. And when it comes to the art of "preaching" (a personal favorite of mine) think of an authority that bounces the heads of current religious power brokers.

So, if there is a religious bone in your body that keeps you from living in the Kingdom, REPENT NOW. Change your mind and join me in a wild dance into the Kingdom of God!