Religion v Spirituality

*Disclaimer: the content of this blog post is my OWN personal view and may offend

Over a month ago a YouTube video entitled " Why I hate Religion but Love Jesus" went viral. I agree with the message that the poet conveys in this video about Christianity. From the outset it seems that the title of this video is contradictory, especially because Christianity is a religion right? Let me explain my answer to this.

I believe that being a true Christian is having your own personal relationship with God. To maintain any relationship in life you regularly communicate with the person and spend time with them in order to get to know them more. This is also applicable to having a relationship with God. This means regularly communicating with him (praying) and spending time with Him by reading the bible in order to get to know Him more. If you are consistent with this then with time your relationship with God will develop and become stronger. You'll allow God into your heart and hopefully accept Jesus Christ as your Lord. This is what I call Spirituality because this develops your spiritual life. Afterall when you die your body will perish but it is your spirit that will live on. Hence, why I describe myself as a spiritual person and not religious.

In the YouTube video the poet describes 'religion' as being man made, which I also agree with. I believe that people take a faith, twist it, add on their own opinions/culture to it (or take the faith completely out of context) in order to make a set of behaviourial rules for people to follow and label it as 'religion'. Religious people are those who focus on these rules and behave in a "self-righteous" manner. They are quick to criticize those who deviate from these rules. During Jesus' life the Pharisees were religious people who  constantly criticized Jesus' actions. They were self righteous men who thought that they were better than everyone else. I have seen many people in my life like the Pharisees. Jesus was very vocal about his opinions on the Pharisees:

²⁵ Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. (Matthew 23:25 NIV)

Do not get me wrong, the Bible does give us guidance on how we should live our lives that we should follow. However we should not do this because we feel that we are being coerced but because we actually want to. God looks at our hearts and our intentions behind our actions.  "The LORD does not look ... at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). Like my Pastor said in one sermon in relation to offering, if we give our offering unwillingly then our offering is meaningless to God, even if it is a big offering. But if we give because we genuinely want to, then yes it is meaningful to God. It is not about the size of the offering that matters but the manner in which we give the offering.

I think that we live in a world where people have deviated from the true foundations of faith and have used Religion to commit many atrocities. For example, starting wars and causing the death of thousands (i.e Christian Crusades and Islamic extremists).  Religion has been used as a tool to oppress women in Arab countries and was used to justify the enslavement of Africans during the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. Even nowadays many false religious leaders are out there decieving thousands of people. I believe that the ideology of  "Religion" has had a detrimental effect on this world. Even today many people still use religion to justify their evil actions.

That is the reason why I detest 'Religion' however I do encourage Spirituality. That is why if you are a Christian aim to develop your own relationship with God. Do not compare yourself to other 'Christians' because you do not know and will never fully know the true nature of their relationship with God. Furthermore, on judgement day God will judge us all individually. Therefore aim to be Christ-like. What I mean by this is to love, to give, to encourage and to help others. Not to judge, belittle, criticize or start telling people in a threatening manner that they are going to hell if they do not convert. After all we are ALL sinners, nobody is perfect, I am far from it and that is the reason why Jesus came on earth in the first place, to die for all of our sins. Here is one of my favourite poems called "I am a Christian" by Carol Wimmer

When I say, “I am a Christian” I’m not shouting, “I’ve been saved!”

I’m whispering, “I get lost! That’s why I chose this way”

When I say, “I am a Christian” I don’t speak with human pride

I’m confessing that I stumble - needing God to be my guide

When I say, “I am a Christian” I’m not trying to be strong

I’m professing that I’m weak and pray for strength to carry on

When I say, “I am a Christian” I’m not bragging of success

I’m admitting that I’ve failed and cannot ever pay the debt

When I say, “I am a Christian” I don’t think I know it all

I submit to my confusion asking humbly to be taught

When I say, “I am a Christian” I’m not claiming to be perfect

My flaws are far too visible but God believes I’m worth it

When I say, “I am a Christian” I still feel the sting of pain

I have my share of heartache which is why I seek His name

When I say, “I am a Christian” I do not wish to judge

I have no authority I only know I’m loved

Written By Dinah

R.I.P Whitney Houston - What can we learn?

This morning  as I was preparing to go to church my mum knocked on my bedroom door and said "You know the singer Whitney Houston?" and I replied "yeah what about her?" and my mum then said "she's dead". That moment my jaw dropped, I was in complete disbelief. I then took my phone and went on twitter and saw many tweets about her death (breaking news hits twitter before anywhere else). I couldn't believe it.

Unless you live in a remote village in the Amazon rain-forest I am sure you know who Whitney Houston is. She is one of the most talented singers to have ever graced this earth. There are very VERY few singers out there whose vocal abilities can even compare to that of Whitney's. She was really blessed with a God given talent. She started singing in the church and then progressed into having one of the most successful music careers which included her winning over 400 awards.

In 1992 she married Bobby Brown which I believe was the biggest mistake she made in her life. He had problems with drugs and alcohol as well as having numerous run ins with the law. After Whitney had been with him for a while, she too started having a drugs problem. This started affecting her  behavior and performances. This beautiful talented woman who had everything going for her had now become a drug addict which eventually cost her career. From this I realised that as people we need to be very careful with who we allow into our lives. People can either be an asset or a liability. In Whitney's case Bobby was a liability. Whitney was someone of a high value whose worth had dramatically depreciated.

"He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed" (Poverbs 13:20 NKJ)

I can't tell you how relevant this verse is. You have to make sound choices when you choose who you associate with. As someone who has worked in a criminal Law firm I have seen young guys who have been charged with crimes, not because they are bad people but because they associated themselves with the wrong crowd. Being around the wrong people can cost you so much. That is why when someone always brings negativity to you, you should cut them out of your life or at least keep them at a distance. In life people come and people go, some people are not meant to be in your life. The people that I currently choose to be in my life influence me in a positive way and help me to become a better person. I do not have time for those who are a liability, negative or detrimental. I will not hesitate to cut them off, after all I only have one life why waste it on someone who doesn't even care about my well being?

My message to you is choose the people you surround yourself with wisely. I will leave you with my favorite Whitney Houston Track

Written By Dinah