Jacksons Jottings
Hello there! Here are my "Jottings" for February - perhaps a bit controversial!
You see, it's this business of religion. Some people ask me, "Are you religious?" And they get a bit of a shock when I say, "No, I'm not into religion." I know what they mean when they ask that question, but what they fail to understand is that the word "Religion" has been hijacked by world systems. Let me explain: If we want to know what religion is, we can't do better than to go to the Bible - after all - that's surely where you'd expect to go. And this is what it says: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." That's a whole lot of difference from the word's usage today. It has to do with doing religion, as opposed to being religious. The origin of the word is an interesting one. It literally means to bind strictly. One is bound to do good works - that's what religion is all about. However, when it comes to pleasing God, we have a problem in that we, as merely human, cannot impress the divine Majesty. We cannot earn our way into His favour, using the currency of good works. Remember a word in the Bible definition: "God our Father". Therefore, religion should be the fruit of relationship: we must belong to God as His children, and then we can be as religious as we like! Religions are man's way of trying to reach God - as Jesus put it: "Climbing up some other way" rather than coming into Christ, the door, on street level. If you are honestly trying to do good in and for the world, that is to be highly commended. But make sure it all stems from a relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ who said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." God bless you!
Updated January 29th
We send greetings to all of you who have exercised great patience with our Website. I can hardly believe that it was almost a year ago since the old one was scrapped - it being so unsatisfying. Our friend Richard has totally re-constructed it, and our daughter Beth will edit and update it as needed. It's been a learning curve for both, and we want to place on global record our sincere thanks. Margaret and I are much happier with it, for now, we feel that we can keep it in good shape. By the end of this month, there will be another "Jackson's Jottings". In the fairly near future, too, we hope to have more audio on the Website. Please do keep looking in on us. A God-blessed New Year to you all!