the ride was over
The Brass Ring
C.S. Imming, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
I used to wonder about the verse below, but with the advent of social media, one understanding became plain. Of course, a scripture can have layers of meaning. Human words can have multiple meanings and intent as well.
For example:
- “Johnny, come here, please.” (Mom happy and smiling)
- “Johnny, come here now. (Mom stern)
- “John middlename, lastname, come here right now! (Mom yelling)
With the advent of Google algorithms and data scraping that learns what your preferences are, everyone has had the experience of looking at something on the internet, for example, the latest price of a wheelbarrow, and then all of a sudden all popup ads are about wheelbarrows. If you change that search to the price of hot dogs, then hot dog ads appear.
Revelation 22:10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
For the current season anyway, it still seems possible that if someone is caught, say, in pornography searches, that that individual may still be able to access information to the gospel, information about Jesus, from time to time. What happens if the day comes and a person is locked into certain searches and can no longer find the way out?
John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
The trendy, woke crowd may disdainfully ignore certain information and ridicule it. The day may come when that information may no longer come across a person’s/crowd’s pathway.
Isaiah 55:6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
The way God dealt with the children of Israel when they would not obey is that he let them wander in the wilderness until the disobedient generation died off. The two who had been obedient, who had faith, had to wander for forty years with rest. Finally, those two, Joshua and Caleb, could enter the promised land along with all the younger children who grew up in the wilderness.
As the Lord God experienced rejection from the children of Israel, similarly, Jesus experienced rejection.
Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
There used to be merry-go-rounds with a brass ring. If you successfully grabbed the brass ring, you got another ride for free. If you didn’t, the ride was over.
A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.
Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.