Religious, good or bad?

I'll be honest with you, when I hear the word religious, my thoughts tend to go to the negative side. Before I became a Christ follower I thought of people who went to church every time the doors were open and seemed to have the perfect life and looked down on those that didn't. And if you have a different opinion than them you were "of the devil".

Now that I am on the other side, I hate to say my opinion hasn't changed much. Just the word turns people away and I can't really blame them. In a lot of cases, the religious folk act and do the same things non-religious people do, they just stand behind their religion and say it is ok because they are forgiven. And then we say "Those other people, you know the sinners, well they are going to hell in a hand basket". (best southern fake voice I can do)

But we have put that stigma on the word because we don't live out our religion! We should stand out and instead we blend in.

The Word religious means manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity. Doesn't sound bad does it? Because it isn't. It would be like having a bad experience at a fast food restaurant (maybe that's not so far fetched) and saying all fast food hamburgers are bad based on one experience. That's just not fair. Besides we are all human and have bad days. So if you've had 1 bad experience or even more with religious people don't let that keep you from making the best decision you could ever make by making Jesus Lord of your life. Yeah, I know that sounds religious but He changed my life and I just don't know of a better way to put it :)

Lastly, an insert from today's study on James (Beth Moore).
You make up your mind who you want to be and daily die to the rest. You surrender yourself to living in the tension where you'll always be stretched and often broken. Religion pure and undefiled is grit without the grime. You accept that far easier ways to live exist, but you were born for nothing less.