LRC, Houston - the weekends-free church in Houston, Texas

What’s the difference in being religious and being spiritual?

I was asked that question recently. It comes up every now and then; usually when things are getting heated over church doctrine. Aren’t they both the same? My answer is usually in the form of a question back to them. It’s like asking, what’s the difference between a taxidermist and a veterinarian? I mean in both cases you get the dog back!

Living a spirit-filled life is like walking the dog where living a religious life is like admiring the dog standing in the corner next to the sofa. Someone needs to dust him off! Too many people still have the family Bible sitting on the coffee table, or in the magazine rack on the floor.

We have “stuffed” the Bible, and usually down someones’ throat!

We have mummified our beliefs. We’ve wrapped our lives in so many formulas and doctrinal beliefs that we don’t have time to walk the dog, have a relationship with the Spirit, or get in touch with the God who resides within each of us. After all, only the GOD IN US can recognize and communicate with THE GOD of the universe. We can’t reach Him with our minds- our intellect. That does not say that we can get a frontal labotomy and play brain dead.

God gave us a brain to think with and to submit that thinking to the Spirit. Ahh, but getting the ego out of the way isn’t a pretty or easy thing. The biggest problem that I see to advancing the Kingdom is not humanism, but Christians . I have to agree with Sidlow Baxter who said, “Whenever Satan gets to Christians, eight out of ten times, he does so through other Christians.”

Take some time this week to “walk your dog”.

Yours can still walk can’t he? :-)”