God isn't religion.

The Spirit of Religion has come, day and night I strain for freedom. For his ways are just like bondage, they are ways of silence and oppression. Religion has seeped his way in, declares himself 'Church' and the Accuser is pleased. For there is no room for the Spirit of Love when Religion still reigns.

When I first heard the phrase,
"He doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called" 
I was unsure of what the implications meant. You see, I didn't grow up going to church or practicing any sort of religion with my family, but my parents did afford me the sweetest gift and that was my freedom to choose. So once I encountered God, face to face, at 15, things were never the same for me. My encounter with Him was so divine I ran to wherever I thought I'd find Him and I wound up, quite literally on the doorstep of a church. Very soon I become disillusioned by the people and the message and the political agendas that those in authority where preaching. I began to despise church, and the more Religion was revealed to me the more I wanted Jesus, the more I cried out for freedom from condemnation, judgement, and bondage, the more my gentle God beckoned me. In High School, I was propelled into rebellion for the sake of boundaries and expectations the church had placed on me and my generation, I spiralled for years, unwilling to conform and unable to find others alike.

And so it goes, the phrase of a young, wild rebel who holds no qualification in the realm of church, is called. I have been called since late June 2008 and have fought and cried and begged against it. My poor parents, damaged, abused, lied to and led astray by the confines of The Church and Religion. I'm sure most any other path would have pleased them more then to have a daughter live a life of abandon in the name of a man who was twisted by others and brought only pain and turmoil unto them.

To my parents, friends who I grew up with and those that find their way here- I want to apologize on behalf of those of us who have been deeply moved by the love and spirit of Jesus and refuse to conform to the ways of Religion. I am sorry you have been abused, I am sorry you have been lied to, I am sorry you have been rolled over, ripped off and ransacked. God isn't religion. Jesus came to free us.

God calls the broken, damaged, wounded, lost and says YOU ARE WORTHY. YOU ARE PRECIOUS. YOU ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD! He calls all those who look and are completely unqualified by the world's standards and calls them sons, calls them daughters, believes in them and entrusts them with the hearts and souls of the world.

I still am in a state of rebellion- I will always rebel against religion, conformity, and bondage to a checklist of rules on how to "get into heaven." God isn't religion. Jesus came to free us. But now I have found the greatest way of rebellion, most clearly represented as Jesus Christ's life on earth. And that is to radically love, radically forgive, and to never give up on anyone! There is always gold to be seen, reconciliation to be had and love to be shared.


-Walk in Love