Ecclesiastes 12:10

  It’s a popular new credo in the world today, ‘ I’m spiritual but not religious’ . Whereas religion is seen as old fashion and conformist, spirituality is seen as individualistic and hip. A person defines their beliefs by themselves and not by what some group lays down. The motto comes from the idea that people don’t want to view themselves as vapid in terms of moral thinking and merely physically minded yet don’t want to be hindered by adopting a preset set of convictions.     Yet it doesn't seem to be working out well for people. A study in The Journal of Nervous Disease by Jeffrey Vittengl found that those that define themselves this way may not be happy about it. The risk of depression was over a third greater than for those saw themselves as spiritual but not religious [i] . While religion has been shown over the years to have significant positive effects on people’s mental well-being, this study showed that just being spiritual didn’t have the same results. ...

  You remember in school when they taught you about the states of matter. How water can exist as solid, a liquid or a gas.  It’s still water but has very different properties and behaves in very different ways depending on the state it is in.  I guess it is a lot like religion in that way.   Some religious are liquid.  They are very fluid.  They move accordingly when the world tilts right or left.  While they have a form of substance, but that substance is shaped by whatever surrounds it.  They conform to the world. ( Romans 12:1-2; Colossians 2:23 )   Some religious are gas like.  They are just a lot of air.  They can only be felt and contain nothing solid.  They drift from here to there, and unless you’re paying close attention, you would never even notice that they are there.  On occasion, the air gets really hot but that is something else entirely. ( Ephesians 4:14, 5:6 )   Then some religion is ...