
‘Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens…”’ Genesis 11:4
Don’t you hate being called ‘religious’? I regard myself as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, not as a religious person. How about you? I guess the reason I don’t like being called religious is that I associate the word with things like traditions, rituals, and rites that seem man-made rather than God-given.



2 thoughts on “What on earth is religion?”
Hi, how would you regard the Bible as part of a relationship with Jesus? It seems to me that in todays standards four thin books outlining key points in a persons life (the gospels) are such a small insight into his life. The gospels, therefore, can get boring and repeditive especially if a person has been a Christian for a long time. I wonder if the right way of reading the Gospels is to use them similarly as Paul did as a starting point in a broad view of who Jesus is and then like he did when he wrote his letters broaden it in our own lives to get a deeper more personal insight into who Jesus is?
Just a thought…
Hi Lance. Of course, we can find Jesus in the Old Testament (for instance His pre-incarnate appearance with Abraham) and in the book of Revelation. Also, Paul describes His divinity in places like Colossians 1:15-20. However, I never tire of reading about Jesus in the Gospels. What I do is change the way I read and this keeps it fresh. Sometimes I read several chapters at one time to get a sense of the movement and scope of Jesus’ ministry. At other times I take just one incident or teaching and re-read it several times over a number of days until it all sinks in. But my favorite way of reading a Gospel account is to put myself into the story. I see the surroundings and the players in my mind. I try to smell and hear and feel. Soon the scene becomes vivid and dynamic. Then I simply wait to see if the Holy Spirit will highlight something to me or ‘speak’ to me in some way through the passage. He often does!