When religion can make you worse than you were

Here are just a few scriptures.

Lu 11:24 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.
Lu 11:25 And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.
Lu 11:26 Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

Jas 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Jas 1:23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
Jas 1:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

I believe that Jesus is saying that unless we are regenerated by His Spirit (instead of being reformed) and unless we continue in his word by the spirit we are an open target for the devil.

It seems to me that Satan doesn't care how religious one is or how moral one tries to be (or thinks he is), he wants a place in our lives. I believe the devil enjoys living in a religious persons life more so than a drunk in the bar, because he can do more damage to more people.

He hates God and his creation (man). He doesn't want people to experience God's love in Christ Jesus. The one thing an (unregenerate) religious person can not experience is the love of God and neither can he show it to others. Jesus said we must be born again!

How do we think we can love God? It is impossible, we cannot. But, God in His perfect plan gives us the true desire of our hearts and gives us the Love by His Son that we might return it through the Holy Spirits groanings that we cannot understand, that God might receive the just and only love He deserves. That is the Love of Jesus Christ in us, by the renewing of our minds to the mind of Christ, that the Holy Spirit may take that love and return it to the Father that our Joy may be made full, knowing that we can love the Father through the life of the Son birthed in us and by the words of the Holy Spirit praying and loving in us and through us, even though we don't comprehend it all yet, we can love our Father as He so justly deserves from a lost and worthless wretch as I.

Praise God that the prayers of the saints reach the golden altar before the throne, by whom the Christ in us has given us the life in the Spirit that we can pray this way. Thank you Holy Spirit for praying for me when I don't know what to say, may You offer up to the Father the Love He so richly deserves, even through a nothing like me, through the Spirit of the living God receive the Love back that you first love me with.

Re 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Re 8:3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
Re 8:4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

John 16:27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

We have the Spirit of Christ in us and by that Spirit we can truly say Father I love you, through the power of the Holy Spirit that is in us. Not by my works that I should boast, Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

In Christ, then we can love the Father and each other: Phillip

It seems to me that Satan doesn't care how religious one is or how moral one tries to be (or thinks he is), he wants a place in our lives. I believe the devil enjoys living in a religious persons life more so than a drunk in the bar, because he can do more damage to more people.