People develop a “feel-good” religion when they do what is right in their own eyes without Biblical standards. In a 2009 year-end report, George Barna writes, “Bible reading has become the religious equivalent of sound-bite journalism. When people read from the Bible they typically open it, read a brief passage without much regard for the context, and consider the primary thought or feeling that the passage provided. If they are comfortable with it, they accept it; otherwise, they deem it interesting but irrelevant to their life, and move on. There is shockingly little growth evident in people’s understanding of the fundamental themes of the scriptures and amazingly little interest in deepening their knowledge and application of biblical principles.
You see similar dynamics occurring the time of the Judges. Danites were seeking land as an inheritance. While five men spied out the land, they recognized Micah’s priest and asked him to inquire of God to determine if their way would be prosperous. The priest said, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going has the Lord’s approval” (Judges 18:3-6). Common sense, expediency and pleasing men trumps hearing from God through His word and the Holy Spirit.
Five men came to Laish and saw people living in security and quiet. No ruler humiliated them and they were isolated from everyone. They reported back to their brothers that they should go up against this people with spacious land since “God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything on earth” (Judges 18:7-10). Success, prosperity and being the best you can be becomes the goal of “feel-good” religion.
From family of Danites, 600 men armed with weapons of war set out. The five men and 600 warriors took the graven image and household idols from Micah’s house. The priest asked what they were doing. He gladly became a priest to 600 men instead of one man and took the ephod, household idols and graven image and went among the people (Judges 18:11-20). Ministry will idolize numbers and impact when Biblical standards aren’t followed.
People around Micah’s house assembled and cried to sons of Dan. Micah said, “You have taken my gods which I made, priest and what do I have besides? How can you say, ‘What is the matter with you?’” When Micah saw they were too strong for him, he went back to his house (Judges 18:21-26).
“Feel-good” religions fails and won’t deliver in times of trial.
After they took his idols and priest, he was angry. And there was no one to deliver Laish, a quiet living in security. The Danites struck them with the sword and burned their city with fire. There was no one to deliver them because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone (Judges 18:27-29). Doing ministry independently from others feels good and is much easier, but without unity and teamwork in the body of Christ. defeat becomes inevitable.
Sons of Dan set up graven image and Manasseh and Gershom were priests to Danites until captivity. They set up Micah’s graven image he had made, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh (Judges 18:30-31). Without guidance from God’s word, you degenerate into “self-styled” and “feel-good” religion.
Barna wrote that “by the time most Americans reach the age of 13 or 14, they think they pretty much know everything of value the Bible has to teach and they are no longer interested in learning more scriptural content. It requires increasingly concise, creative, reinforced, and personally relevant efforts to penetrate people’s minds with new or more accurate insights into genuinely biblical principles.”
Consider these Scriptures from Ps. 119 to learn how beneficial and practical God’s word is to your daily life:
Ps.119:14,18,22,24,28,37,45,61,66,69,92,98,99,
105,111,117,127,130,133,143,157,161,165
