Refreshing Love and Burdensome Religion

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Jesus said, "My yoke is easy, and My burden light." So, he offered comfort and refreshment to people who, trying to do what is right, suffered under crushing and unnecessary religious burdens. There are many similar people in our time. They want sincerely to "serve God," but believe that the only way to do this is by, and through, organized religion. This is simply not so. Jesus, for example, did not "belong" to any modern church, for they had not yet come into existence. So, beware ignorant liars who claim that only their church has the "truth"!

The traditionalists of nearly two thousand years ago loaded down the people with time-consuming and energy-draining burdens of hundreds, or even thousands, of laws. For many forms of Judaism, precisely like many forms of Christianity and Islam, are "legalistic" faiths.

That is, they lay down the "laws of God," which can number in the thousands. And anyone who does not obey each and every one is judged as inadequate, or even evil.

Jesus effectively replaced the huge burden and complexity of all these laws with a single law. This one law was not religious, but spiritual.
It is: Thou shalt love.

This guides every possible behavior in the cosmos, and gives a matrix and framework to life by giving our lives meaning: We can not only speak about "God" on earth, but can actually manifest God through every act of Love, "great" or "small." (Actually, there is never a "small" act of Love, since each arises from, and is interpenetrated by, the divine Essence or God.)

Does the Way of Love live at peace with religion, or does It replace religion? It can do both, or either. If your church is openminded and tolerant enough to "allow" you (without hassling you) to live by the Way of Love, and fully to embrace It, you can easily stay in your faith.

But if it is so strongly, unbendingly uncompromising that it says, "Our church or mysticism," then you are faced with a serious choice-- perhaps the most serious of this life!

For many people, discovering that God is Love, have been forced to abandon the faith of their childhood. This is not always necessary, for being a person of the Enlightenment Tradition can make you the most excellent Catholic, Buddhist, Baptist, or Methodist. But, especially in some of the smaller denominations, or cults, they are incompatible with the Way.
And they often know it.

Why? The answer can be as simple as a group is "Jehovist." That is, it insists that the false god of the Hebrew Scriptures ("Old Testament") is the Lord of Love of Jesus. This illogical conclusion, not supported by textual or historical data, confuses everything in the religion, and tries to force you into worshipping a false god. To worship this false god is, further, to betray Love.

This archaic god of the past is nearly four thousand years old. "He" is always male, and violates all the premises of Love with repeated genocide, murder, war, and favoritism. He promotes a legalistic religion, instead of true, Lovebased spirituality. Unlike the Lord of Love, this parochial and primitive god has a "chosen people." He seems at times never to have heard of Love and forgiveness, the twin nuclei of Jesus' message. In fact, the "loyal people of Jehovah," the defenders and professional teachers of religion, conspired in the murder of Jesus.
If nothing else even existed, this one blazing fact would set Jesus and Jehovah at opposite ends of the spiritual spectrum. Jehovah is a god of fear, Jesus the Lord of Love-- one of Her many forms!
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