Christians are called to be lightning people:

Tiny bugs flying
And flashing light
In the night
Bring delight
To my sight.
They don’t hide their light!

Christ’s light, shinning in your heart, doesn’t need a covering. Uncover it for all to see. Be a lightning person who removes the light-blocking bugs from your heart. See Matthew 5:14-16. Too often the light of the risen Jesus is covered up and blocked by religion.

When a Christ-filled person, who overflows with His hope, voluntarily steps into and embraces a hopeless situation in an incarnational way, it is no longer hopeless. Sometimes the best thing you can do in a situation that you can’t fix is to open your heart to people’s suffering and “weep with those who weep.”

People who are passionately in love with the living Jesus are automatically drawn together and to those who are suffering. They don’t require religious rules but are led to heart-to-heart connection by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus isn’t dead and gone, confined to history or Heaven. He’s present and active 24/7/365 and He wants to be your now Lord! Too often Christians would rather find a church that makes them happy than to live to please the Lord. Churches divide Christians into denominations, but Jesus wants to unite us! When Christianity was confined to and defined as church, it lost much of its power.

To identify with and step into someone’s painful situation has been called “incarnational ministry.” I know a couple who many years ago moved into a violent, inner-city neighborhood with their children so that they could shine the light of Christ there. They crossed racial, cultural, and economic lines to fully embrace the people there and to open their home and their lives to them. I’ve been in awe of how they have given so much to demonstrate the love of Jesus and continue to do so as they still live and are entwined in that neighborhood.

Jesus writes on human hearts. Let Him be the “author and finisher of your faith.” We can hide from church people and preachers, but no one can hide from Jesus. He sees it all! When the risen Jesus is allowed to rule in someone’s heart, religious rules aren’t necessary!

The writings of the first Christians show how to encounter and walk with Jesus like they did. The Bible’s a handbook for light not a textbook for analysis.

If you’re spirituality dead, a Sunday religious life-support system won’t do you any good. We need the risen Jesus, not religion. Organized Christianity too often resists the direct leadership of Jesus and instead relies on institutionalism, tradition, and human authority.

If you don’t maintain an interactive relationship with the living Jesus, your religious rules can be ruthless. The Bible says move beyond church as usual! Hebrews 6:1: “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity . . .” Get moving!

Paul told first century Christians that Jesus “is powerful among you.” 2 Corinthians. 13:3. Are we willing to surrender our religious control and to let Him be powerful among 21st century Christians?

The Protestant Reformers are praised because they pointed out problems with church. Today few people want to follow their footsteps. Protestant Reformers tried to re-form church, but the proper “form” for the body of Christ is to be led by His Spirit. Romans 8:14.

Christians need to do doxology,
Heart-felt expressions of praise,
More than religious methodology.

Spiritual life,
The risen Jesus
Living in you,
Doesn’t require
That you be continually hooked up
To a religious life-support system.