Man is said to be religious in nature, that is, we are drawn to engage in relationship with the divine. This relationship is one of dependence, deference and devotion directed to what one perceives and recognize as the Supreme being. Properly speaking, religion deals with the sacred and calls on adherents to devote time and resources for such enterprise.👌

According to Wikipedia, “religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements.”   

Religion, that is meaningful is not a part time affair, it is all encompassing.  It ought to shape a person’s outlook on life, relationship to the world and one’s interaction with those around us. Religion thus sets the pace for one’s being and forms the principles that one is allowed to shape one’s thoughts, deeds, and values.📌

In the area of worship, religion invites us to surrender to the supreme being, the “Totally Other” because we are mere creatures and he is divine, we are weak, and He is strong. We are finite, he is infinite. He reigns supreme and we are subject to him. When we conduct ourselves becomingly in his presence, the divine one comes to our aid an provides for us in all our needs. If it happens that his laws are violated, then one can expect grave repercussions.  This fact is true of all religions including the Christian faith.

Today, religion seems to be losing its sacral nature. Many would want religion to be less mysterious and become another woke-culture.  It this attempt to become ordinary, some religions are becoming banal, irreverent, and mundane.😔

Sadly, in many quarters, Christianity is not spared. While Rudolph Otto said that the divine is tremendum et fascinans, mysterious and terrifying, attractive yet, repelling, many people have stripped Christianity of its sublimity. For instance, worship is no longer what we do for us, it has become what we do for ourselves, to make us feel good. While we should go to Church to adore and worship God, many would feel empty, if energetic songs are not sung and people allowed to engage in dancing of their choice, in a spectacle where people are free to display that monstrosity. ☹️

Much of Church dancing today is not about giving glory to Church but all about feeling good. Yes, for some brief moment, people feel good, almost as if drunk with joy and excitement. But it does not last. Reality always dawns again, and people are left empty and bleak. This happens because many are not engaged in true religion, but in “Feel-good- rituals. The Bible long ago, warned us of this as we read about the early Christians, “They have a zeal for God, but not according to accurate knowledge. For because of not knowing the righteousness of God but seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” (Romans 10:2 -3) Even today, things have not changed much and many pastors and teachers continue to “teach commands of men as doctrines.”( Mark 7:7), or their own desires and practices.😥

We have also found that many members also prefer to display their own practices and call them practices of religion. This is not right! Hence, Jesus in Mark 7,7 again says, “In vain do they worship me.”
Religious preaching is not left out. Many people are interested not in the message but who is preaching it. Even if their beloved pastor preaches heresy, many will still flock to some churches and defend irrationally what should not be believed. It is all in the same trend of “Feel-good-religion”. The excesses and irrational behaviour of pastors are condoned and even justified, yet similar actions by others are castigated and ridiculed.

True religion is not just laws and code of conducts, it is not just rituals we perform; true religion is a relation with God and such religion must respect the nature of the one we enter into communion with.💯

True religion teaches the truth even when it is not acceptable to the people because it is not based on people’s view but on divine revelation and God’s truth. (Jn 4:24,17,17).💯

True religion is not about building an empire on earth, it I not about the cult of celebrity, its main goal is to build up the kingdom of God and help human beings to attain it.💯

True religion is not a special jacket we put on once in a while, it is a way of life. We must become what we preach, light to the world and light in darkness for unbeliever.💯

Feel good religion will lead to decay and destruction and it is not the way to salvation. What does it profit us if we feel comfortable here and now, but groan with the pain of damnation because we have not been true to God or to ourselves? A religion that does not discomfort sinners, but lulls them in their sin, raise their ego with erotic and hypnotic songs in the name of worship, leaves Zebulun and Naphtali in the shadow of death. (Mt. 4:15-16, Is 9:1-2). Which will you choose: that old time religion or the feel-good-religion?🤔