Hashtag

What makes a thing cliche'?  I was reading in a comment section today that I saw while checking out a new song by Hillsong Y&F Fet. Lecrea (did I just type all of that? and all of this?) and I saw the use of the term CCM (Christian Contemporary Music) like it was a bad thing, like the meaning of CCM had changed to showcase all of the Christian artists that were of poor quality.  It got me to thinking as I went upstairs to finish getting dressed, about me.  About the uses of words that I have abused. About the things that I, in my past would not see, listen to, or participate in because they had become cliche'.  What I find foolish about this behavior, is that in order for something to become cliche' it has to be really cool at first.  It has to be really fun to do, or listen to, or be a part of.
 People had to pave a way at some point to push whatever it was out into the lime-light and to get all of our attention it had to be drastic, promoted, driven, things had to be given up.  Then I thought about religion, or rather the word Religious, about how Tertullian said, when they they were slaughtering thousands of Christians, and the name Christian was a bad mark put on a group of individuals who had a life changing event with the one who created them and gave His life for them, Tertullian said that the blood of the Martyr was seed.  I thought about how he was right, and how, because of those sacrifices, our religion spread to what it is today.  (before any of you freak out, I know that it was the Holy Spirit spreading it as well)  But, I look at what the word "Religion" or "Religious"  means today and I see emptiness, and cliche'.  Even though the Word of God talks about what Religion is in James 1:22-27 when he says this:

     Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.  Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

     And Webster's Dictionary defines it this way:

 ~relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity~

     We throw it around like it is something bad or wrong our parents and grandparents did, the hymns, the going to church on Sundays, and Wednesdays and Bible study...etc.   But didn't they change the landscape of the world?  Didn't they help cause change in people's lives?  Didn't they affect that change?  It was not until us younger generations stepped in and said, we don't need this and this is not technically wrong, instead of realizing that they knew themselves that it was not technically wrong, they just knew the outcome from years of trying to do it another way and decided to bypass it.  (Because, after all we all know that intimately dancing with the member of the opposite sex does natural things in our body and causes us to begin to go down that path to sin and people observing the dancing it also draws them down that path, so why not avoid that kind of dancing outside the marriage and in public?(Sorry Swayze)

     We see it as meaning, The rules, The law, but the description of Religion or Religious, I should say, really indicates love.  A love so strong that you should want to sing hymns, and go to church and follow rules that are put there bu a loving Creator and not try to find some loophole out of them.  Why? Because God freed us from bondage and sin and death!  I want to be religious, I want to have a faithful devotion to God!  I want to do what I say I am going to do and prove that I am a Christian instead of merely attending church, I want to be a part!  God set me free, He made me, He loves me so much that He sent His Son to die on a cross for me, just so that I could spend Eternity with Him!  That is AWESOME.  That is not bad, being religious is not bad, being a faker is though.  So, to all of you fakers out there, maybe you should begin to stop making religious a bad word and do become a doer and not a hearer only because all you are doing is lying to yourselves.  (Me too in some instances)

     I want this word to mean something good again, I want us to use a different word for what we now abuse this one as.  Like stuck up, or a fake religiousness, or something else.  Because, to me, it seems like Religious is a word that I want to have be a good description for me, for all of us.  Too many people were martyred for me to know Jesus, too many people had to walk around with a big red C figuratively painted on their shirts just so that I can live in a "Christian Nation."  So yes, I am Religious, I am a part of the only True Religion, and I am honored to be that way.  I love God with all of my heart, and yes I fail, and yes get things wrong but I am deeply devoted to Him, and I have a closer everyday relationship with Him and it causes me to not want to do the things that I did when I was not this way and the only two words that sums all of the up is Religious and Christian.  So in the words of Lecrae;

This is living the life I've been given is a gift

If Imma live it Imma live it to death

So whats the dream of? Whats the hope in? What's the doubt for? And live to no end

This is living the life I've been given is a gift

If Imma live it Imma live it to death

You can check out the new single "This is Living"  By Hillsong Young and Free by clicking the play button on the embedded video below.