Religious conformists

I am so taken with the phrase RELIGIOUS CONFORMISTS, for I believe that is what the church has become; a group of people that conform to a religious liturgy instead of people who are passionate followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and all aspects of Him. I have been wondering lately how we got to this point. Jesus was not a religious conformist. In fact, He stood in the face of all religion and proclaimed that those who were religious conformists were pharisees and lost. He continually accused those who were conformist of not knowing Him at all. And yet, churches today are full of religious conformist-people who conform to a form of religion, who honor them with their lips, but with their deeds deny Him. Pious people that look down upon "sinners" and long to have things their way. People who are more concerned about form, method and fashion instead of seeing where God is at work and joining Him there.
Jesus could not stand such-and so I am wondering if He is saddened in what He sees in those who claim to wear His name. Are we merely religious people. And if we are not, how do we look, act, live differently from those who are? What sets us apart-the religious activity is the same.
It is a matter of the heart-one who is passionately following-not at a distance, but chasing after, refusing to be conformed to anything except the Image of God, knowing that apart from Him we can do nothing, reflecting His glory in all that is done. Not conformists....but renegades for the Kingdom.
Maybe it is time for a remnant of renegades to rise up and slay religion only to unleash a journey of relationship with the ONE who created us for just that! After all, it was the religious who nailed Jesus to the cross in the first place.
ALL FOR YOU