Rituals—acts performed to reflect and reinforce commitment to deeply held beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Religious rituals—acts performed to reflect and reinforce commitment to deeply held beliefs about God (gods), including how to approach Him, how to appease Him, and how to be right with Him when we die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many other categories of rituals that people engage in—shall I say ‘religiously’—that may add meaning to their life, or may rob them of meaningful life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are things we do, things we spend time and money on, things we sacrifice for, that we believe will make our life better, or even make someone else’s life better.
– – –
Stop for a minute.
Think of rituals in your life.
Are some good ?
Are some bad ?
Are some ugly ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good–
+ holidays
+ with family
+ with friends
+ with like-minded believers
+ with God
+ with yourself for health, fitness
+ funerals—knew Jesus?—YES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bad–
— working for unpleasant person
— fixing others’ mistakes, again
— fixing your own mistakes, again
— cleaning up after another disaster
— sin, consequences, repentance
— funerals—knew Jesus?—? ? ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ugly–
X losing job (not your fault), looking for another
X obeying bad government
X paying taxes for abortion
X bearing others’ intentional attacks, hurts
X cancer, chemo
X funerals—knew Jesus?—NO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I live in Central Texas, fifteen miles from I-35.
Every time I watch the traffic on I-35, it feels like everybody’s doing a ritual.
It’s a ritual developed over time, simple at first, to a massive lifeline for our survival, that we can’t do without.
Well, that’s nothing new.
– – –
We recently completed a major expansion of this artery, and now the nation’s lifeblood flows much better (for the most part).
– – –
Then I think of how fragile this system of transportation really is.
No one talks about it, because no one can deal with it, if I-35 (etc) goes down.
– – –
We deal with accidents and delays fairly well, and accept the cost.
But someone is waiting to shut down our life-sustaining system that keeps our transportation system alive—electricity.
– – –
Oh, we know all about that, and we know we can’t do anything about it.
SO, . . . ? ? ?
– – –
– – –
Religious rituals invoke God to help—performed at all times, so we can count on His help when disaster strikes, hopefully.
Frankly, I don’t see any religious rituals now that would count with God when electricity is out permanently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ritual poured into I-35 (24\/7) has no provision, no recourse for the day it fails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Question—
DOES ANYBODY REALLY THINK IT WON’T FAIL ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Question—
Does anybody have provisions for when it fails ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Question—
Does anybody know any leader talking about this ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Question—
Does anybody know how we’re going to eat when we can’t buy food ?
– – –
The only religious ?’ritual’? I ever observe is a comment when this subject is raised—
We just have to trust God when that happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hmmm.
Noah comes to mind.
We like the Bible story.
We know there was wickedness, like we have today.
They knew there was impending judgment—Noah told them.
Who in their right mind would spend a hundred years PREPPING ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nobody
NOBODY
N O B O B Y
considered repentance.
So, not a chance for revival.
So, not a chance for survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is it really any different in America today, really ?
I only hear about hope—if only Christians would just vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1- Rituals, especially religious rituals without repentance, make God sick.
2- Sacramental abominations on children make God angry.
3- Anyone who curses Israel guarantees God’s promised curse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
America is full of all three.
America is judged.
The Judge’s sentence is underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need preaching, teaching, instruction now for survival in Babylon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rituals—acts performed to reflect and reinforce commitment to deeply held beliefs. Religious rituals—acts performed to reflect and reinforce commitment to deeply held beliefs about God (gods), including how to approach Him, how to appease Him, and how to be right with Him when we die. There are many other categories of rituals that people engage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,3,4,14,7,9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-family","category-financial","category-health","category-inspire_lifter","category-political-cultural","category-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7018"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7019,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7018\/revisions\/7019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}