{"id":2398,"date":"2011-09-22T09:58:07","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T13:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fbclafayette.org\/?p=2398"},"modified":"2014-07-21T10:16:10","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T14:16:10","slug":"me-ism-tailoring-religion-to-fit-your-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/me-ism-tailoring-religion-to-fit-your-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"“Me-ism”: Tailoring Religion to Fit Your Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I never wanted to be a tailor, probably\u00a0because\u00a0I am afraid of needles. But I can imagine that having clothes that fit perfectly is pretty comfortable. (A tailored suit has some appeal to me, even if I’ll probably never own one.) That is probable true when it comes to clothes, electrical gadgets, and ordering your food just the way you like it. The bottom line is we like things to be customizable to suit our needs (pun intended).<\/p>\n

Think about it: we customize our phones, our computers, our desktop, our cars…but what about our theology? How much do we\u00a0adjust\u00a0our view of God to meet our\u00a0perceived\u00a0needs?<\/p>\n

The Rise of “Me-isms” – Personally Tailored Religions<\/h2>\n

We must remember that God’s infinite\u00a0nature is sufficient and that we don’t need to customize him to ourselves; instead, we need to see how we can change.<\/p>\n<\/div>I read a recent article in USA today entitled, “More Americans tailoring religion to fit their needs<\/a>.” In it George Barna was quoted as saying, “America is headed for 310 million people with 310 million religions.” Based on his statistics, he sees people acknowledging God and\u00a0the Bible, but believing\u00a0whatever they want.<\/p>\n

In the article, a book is referenced where a person\u00a0referred\u00a0to her religion\/theology as\u00a0Sheila-ism, as her name happened to be Sheila. She very candidly said, “I listen to my own little voice.”<\/p>\n

So I’m Not Nuts. But Am I Still Guilty?<\/h2>\n

I wonder how often I do that. Probably more often than I would like to admit. Sure, I’m not about to start my own religion bearing my name complete with t-shirts, but inside my heart, how often is that false religion the motivation of my actions and thoughts?<\/p>\n

Jeremiah 2:11 comes to mind. It states, “For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”<\/p>\n

God’s people tend to forsake him, and create\u00a0their\u00a0own “cisterns” or sources of refreshment, pleasure, and provision; and the sad thing is that we forsake the dynamic omnipotence of the true God that can address each and every real and\u00a0perceived\u00a0need we may have. We pursue “cisterns” that we made ourselves, so we think they will suit us perfectly, but in fact they can’t hold water.<\/p>\n

God has revealed himself, and part of trusting him is\u00a0believing\u00a0that he as our creator knows us better than we know ourselves. We must remember that his\u00a0infinite\u00a0nature is sufficient and we don’t need to customize him to ourselves; instead, we need to see how we can change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never wanted to be a tailor, probably\u00a0because\u00a0I am afraid of needles. But I can imagine that having clothes that fit perfectly is pretty comfortable. (A tailored suit has some appeal to me, even if I’ll probably never own one.) That is probable true when it comes to clothes, electrical gadgets, and ordering your food… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4458,4460,4265],"yoast_head":"\n"Me-ism": Tailoring Religion to Fit Your Needs - Faith Church Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/me-ism-tailoring-religion-to-fit-your-needs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Me-ism": Tailoring Religion to Fit Your Needs - Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I never wanted to be a tailor, probably\u00a0because\u00a0I am afraid of needles. 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