There is a new kid on the block (or is it on the blog) called Spirituality, and I wonder whether 99% of the people who go for this new gimmick, really know what it is and what they are letting themselves in for. It is quite nice and hip and cool and fashionable these days, when you are not religious, to at least say or admit that you are spiritual. It is even more hip to state that you are trying to come into contact with your spiritual side, much the same as people get into contact with their sensual side.
Religion is quite easy to understand. The dictionary states the meaning as : The belief in a personal God.
It is also well known that there are only three religions in the world who purport to believe in a personal God - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - and even some of that conjures up images of idolatry as it is practised in some quarters. How much more idiolatry, then, is present in philosophies such as Buddhism and all those other -isms who have no personal God but themselves, or some guru that has been dead for many centuries, believing in some untouchable fallacy> Talking of a pie in the sky - that is one if you have ever wanted to see one.
When one becomes spiritual, it means that you enter the arena of the spirit, of which we know too little to venture in, and make fools of ourselves, as we normally do, when we pretend to know more than we actually do. Scripture encourages us to practice in this field by discerning those spirits, but few people I know are competent at this.
The scripture in Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. .... has a meaning in the spiritual world as well, where millions of evil spirits dwell. Scripture spells their names as god, not God - which is already a dead give-away as to their nature.
If I thus want to enter this realm spiritually, then I must be prepared to come under the scrutiny and influence and even spells of those evil spirits as well - and there is not much good they will tell you of the only Living God and His son Jesus Christ - although they know Him well - the same dilemma we have here on earth - people knowing God, but not wanting to serve or trust Him. Their testimony of Him is one of fear as in :
Mat 8:29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
If we wish to enter the realm of the spirit, there is only one way in which we should do it - and that is in the company of Jesus Christ who conquered death, hell and the grave. If we do otherwise, the outcome is clear as day to me.
Although the concept of spirituality is somewhat clear and somewhat turbid, we all need to confront its deeper meaning in an exploratory fashion, trying to get behind the reasons why people would rather choose spirituality (the serving of onesself) than Religion - the serving of God.
If you have some profound thoughts or experience on this - please feel free to participate in this blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment