I HATE religion!

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for my FREEDOM! Thanks to everyone who's served in our armed forces, we can all be thankful for that! Americans love freedom! Freedom of the press, freedom to bear arms, freedom from religion...

It's actually freedom OF religion, but I'll go along with it. I hate religion, too!

People are amazed when I, a pastor, say that, but it's true! Religion sucks!

Religion doesn't care about people: it cares about rules. Religion doesn't care about your circumstances and your tough breaks: it cares that you broke the rules. Religion says "No" and then makes you feel like a jerk for asking. Religion finds out about your flaws and broadcasts them in front of the world. Religion is sure your innocent mistake is some deeper flaw that's infected your humanity and made you UNACCEPTABLE as a person, as a whole. And then Religion makes sure you forever know you messed up, you are a mess up, and maybe you're "forgiven"...but, really, Religion never forgets.

It's terrible that Jesus is mistaken to be Religion! Jesus doesn't operate in guilt and condemnation! He doesn't hold things over our heads! He's not into physically or mentally tormenting people or ruining our day for the fun of it! He's not al-Qaeda--just another example of American freedom: freedom of speech! 

In fact, when we mess up, all we have to do is tell God we're sorry. Period. We don't have to feel guilty to pay for our mess-ups--Jesus already paid the whole debt. With His blood. His blood is a big deal!

This is so cool: do you know why Jesus' blood is symbolized by wine? Because wine (not grape juice, water, or pop if you had a youth pastor like me) symbolizes intoxication in the Holy Spirit! In 355 AD, there was a huge church council that decided it would be bad to use anything BUT wine in communion because of the parallels between wine and Jesus' blood:

• drinking natural wine makes us feel happy=Jesus' divine mercy makes people feel amazingly free & happy
• drinking natural wine lifts our sadness=our past is lifted, forgiven, and we become brand-new when we say YES to Jesus

So Jesus' blood  gives us life, removes our sin, makes us complete, helps us overcome obstacles, makes our connection with God closer than our breath, gives us eternal life, cleans out our guilt, allows one-on-one with The God Of The Universe, redeems us, brings those who were far away from God near to Him, and it brings us peace and reconciliation to God! 

Jesus turned water into wine and the church has been trying to change it back, eversense! Just sayin'

I know Jesus has this image as a pale, frail, plastic-y kind of do-gooder who's hard to relate to. But that's just the 2000 year old urban legend-garbage that's only a shadow of the truth that was painted by men who never saw Him (remember: there were no photographers back then...now we know). The real Jesus can relate to us! Jesus knows how it feels to see the bigger picture when nobody around Him had a clue. Jesus had to work in the family business for a time even though He had different dreams. Jesus' friends never really got Him. Jesus knows how it feels to be a laughingstock and beat down by His enemies. Jesus knows how it feels to be publically declared a criminal. Jesus knows how it feels to be innocent yet charged with all kinds of wrongs. He rode a donkey at the height of His fame. His friends deserted Him when He needed them most. He often disappeared to go pray--maybe because the disciples were driving Him crazy... Jesus can relate to the insanity of living on this earth! You are not alone! Jesus gets you! More than you know...

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people — free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free!He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need,letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ --Ephesians 1:7-10