A letter to nowadays church (chapter one)
- Grace and peace to the contemporary Church and to the all saints in Jesus
Christ, our Lord and of all.
- Brothers, I feel the need to warn you that we live in a
difficult and dangerous times for our faith. And the danger is not in
persecution and suffering, but in a form of godliness without the power (2
Timothy 3:5) - in other words, many of those who say they are Christians, are
just religious.
- Oh, If we would have even
a little persecution! Oh, if we would be a little bit compelled for faith to be
delivered at least from hypocrisy. Oh, if we would be sifted and winnowed to blow dry religiosity and
pseudo-spirituality of us.
- Brothers and sisters, turn your sight to God. He is the One that
knows us on the inside as the outside. Seek to let be influenced, built and
encouraged by Him, because He loved us so
much and He wants the best for us. Jesus Christ paid with His life so He
could build a church not a religion. Be careful to not be religion men, but
contrary, to be living Christians and spiritual ones.
- Between a religious man and a spiritual man
is a huge difference, as between heaven and earth. To be religious is human
while to be spiritual is godly. Religiosity is exterior and is just about
things that you can see while spirituality is a matter of heart.
- A
religious christian can pray, read the Scripture, attend the church, be
involved and do good works, but at the same time to seek people’s appreciation, to be selfish and egocentric,
to love money and to gossip.
- If you are more interested in going to
church than in crucify the flesh (Galatians 5:24), then you are religious, but not spiritual.
- If you are more interested to read the Bible every day, than
keep your tongue and body controlled
whole day, then you are religious man, not spiritual.
- If
you are more interested to arrange your life and make a career, than being free
from love of money and boastfulness of this life, then you are religious not
spiritual.
- If you are more
interested in charitable projects, than in personal consecration, you are
religious and not spiritual.
- The religious christian justifies his behavior,
blaming others, while spiritual Christian will never seek to justify himself.
- The religious christian is passionate more of
people’s opinion, than God’s, while the spiritual christian is passionate just
of God’s opinion.
- The religious christian will often say words
of praise in his address, or good works that he did, while the spiritual
christian will refuse to receive praise for himself.
- The
religious christian will dig the pit to his neighbor finding respectable excuses,
only to be higher than others, while the spiritual christian is crushed by God
and remains humble as a life style.
- The religious christian asks himself, what is
the least I can do to please God, while spiritual christian asks himself, how
much can take God from my earthly life.
- Often, the life practice of a religious
christian is not bad itself but to be spiritual is a question of priorities. Because
the correct order of priorities helps a man to be spiritual.
