MOCKING GOD 

Have you ever gotten that email entitled "Untimely        Deaths"?  It includes the Galatians verse about God not being mocked and it lists different people and their mocking statements (like John Lennon and Marilyn Monroe, etc.) right before they died.  Well, I got that email again recently and it made me think...

And as I chomped on those big thoughts, I was also watching a commercial for Bill Maher's new movie RELIGULOUS.  I have read several reviews and watched clips, but haven't seen the whole movie.  But the clips sure seem to set the "mocking bar" up high.  I saw one place in this "Borak-like" film where Maher speaks to an actor who is playing Jesus at a Christian theme park.  Maher sarcastically poses the question "well, why doesn't God get rid of the devil and put a stop to evil in the world?"  And the 'Jesus' says..."He will!"  Maher replies "oh, yeah...he will? What's he waiting on?"

Mr. Maher, I can answer that.  Although your sarcasm makes me angry, I want to move beyond that to say that God is waiting for the last one to come into His kingdom and that includes YOU.  Imagine how the Lord puts up with all that garbage, giving Maher the last possible chance to come to Him.  And when that last chance occurs (and BTW the last chance is unknown to anyone other than to God who sees all the future choices ahead for man, although He graciously extends free choice)...and Maher has run his string of chances...God in His infinite kindness will remove Maher that the man might not accumulate any more incriminations against himself. 

Neither God nor His character ever changes.  He is infinite in LOVE (not wishing for any to perish), infinite in PATIENCE (putting up with Bill Maher's continual best shots at Him), infinite in KINDNESS (preventing Maher from hurting himself any further).  I have no idea why God loves us all this way.  Bless God.

But God also is infinitely JUST and would have the right to zap any of us because we all continue to sin.  Thankfully, that is not how He works.  He sent Christ to hang helpless for the things (sin) that keep us from Him.  Does that mean Jesus died for Maher and John Lennon? He did...regardless of their choices.  But God weeps when their choices transport them to hell.

Now I will have to hand it to Maher that he gets some good jokes off in the movie.  A joke about real truth is the only humor that really 'works' because it is truly funny. And to his credit, Maher is an equal-opportunity jokester; he pokes at Christianity and Judaism, but also at Islam.  That took a chunk of chutzpah.  The god some in Islam serve (whose very name means "submission") does pack a zapgun for people who mock.

All of this to say, the Scripture in the email is true.  God will not be mocked.  If Bill Maher leaves us today, or next year, or in ten years...it will be because his time was complete.  Maher's death will not be untimely.  He will just have received his last chance to choose God.  And God can use Maher's life even without Maher knowing it.  After all, it caused me to have big thoughts today.

The ironic part about the email is this:  it evidences by the examples of John Lennon et all that their mocking was punished immediately.  Perhaps.  The truth is that we can't see any of their hearts at the last moment and God only knows.  But the email goes on to offer an interesting solution to the dilemma by offering a prayer that would "cover" folks so the same fate might not befall them.  And that prayer solution is "Lord, I love you and I need you, come into my heart and bless me, my home, my family and my friends".  I might humbly offer that THAT PRAYER gets close to doing the very thing the email decries...mocking God.  How?  

Read the words again and see if the prayer sounds like a "gimme" prayer or like a contrite person falling on their face before God because they see themselves as God sees them and are then begging Him to cover up their sin with Jesus' sacrifice.  Only the latter prayer saves.

The Galatians verse also goes on with a second section that shouldn't be forgotten.  "God will not allow Himself to be sneered at-scorned, disdained, or mocked.  He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God. For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap."

Bill Maher seems to fit that bill by sowing scorn in his movie.  His choice so far is to live independently of God and encourage others to do the same.  Truly, he will reap what he sows. Unfortunately, the kicker is...Maher's chosen independence from God will be now and also for eternity.  Let the Reader not delude themselves with the gimme prayer.  Eternity is a reality ahead for EVERYONE.  We either see our need of Christ and humbly reach for Him on this side...or never acknowledge our need and get that default choice and face eternity alone.