Real People, Real God, Real Religion

What you mean by “real” depends a lot on the context. 
As an adjective to describe a friend, for instance, it can mean authentic and lacking pretense. “My friend is so real; she had me over but there was so much laundry on her couch we had to sit on the porch and all we had to drink were juice boxes she had bought for the kids.”
Or real can mean actual and not imaginary. “I know that you’ve never met Bill or seen a picture of Bill or met anyone who has met Bill, but I’m telling you, my friend is real.”
Or real can mean “very.” “When my mom died she sat with me for hours while I cried and the next day she took my kids to school and cleaned the house. She’s a real friend.”

So when I say that at Furnace Brook we have “real” people, I mean it in the first sense, that of lacking pretense. While all of us are eager to be more like Jesus, none of us are desperate to be less like ourselves. You see, when people are convinced that God loves them it frees them up to be fond of themselves. And when you feel some fondness for yourself and your foibles and your human shortcomings it’s just hard to find the energy to maintain all those pretenses. We’re real people, and on our best days that’s real nice.
And when I say that we have a real God what I mean is that our God is actual and that we know him. I understand that it’s easy to not believe. Not believing is always easier than believing. But from history to science to our own experience we have collected a thousand data points that all confirm our belief that there is a God, that he is knowable, and that he loves us. And while having an imaginary god might be better in some ways than having no god at all, I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have a real God.
And when I say that we have real religion what I mean is that our religion is earnest and gets expressed in the best sort of devotion. The Apostle James says in his letter that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” In other words, religion might involve things like going to church and raising hands in worship and participating in religious ceremonies and such. But if that’s all it is, it’s not religion that God accepts as pure and faultless. When love tells us to go to the House of God and sing our hearts out, we do that. When love tells us to go visit someone at the nursing home and read them their mail, we do that. When love tells us to delete the app taking us down an unwholesome path, we do that. We do real religion at Furnace Brook.
So if being among real people worshiping a real God in a manner that feels like real religion appeals to you, we’d love to have you join us!

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