Saturday, August 17, 2013

It's No Joke

The other day, I received an e-mail to which I have given some thought.  There is more to think about than to consider it just another joke.  I don't find it particularly funny.  See what you think.

‘One day God was looking down at earth and saw the entire rascally behavior that was going on...
So He called His angels and sent one to earth for a time.  When the angel returned, she told God, 'Yes, it is bad on earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not.  God thought for a moment and said, “Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion.”

So God called another angel and sent her to earth for a time.  When the angel returned she went to God and said, “Yes, it's true. The earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good.”  God was not pleased, so sHE decided to e-mail the 5% who were good, because sHe wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them keep going.
Do you know what the e-mail said?

Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.’  -By an anonymous person

This forwarded e-mail has such an important message.  The intention of the person who wrote it was to have us laugh, and yet I didn't find it funny.  Actually, I thought, because it was most likely designed to cause a laugh, that it was just the opposite.  Think about it and you will see that everyone, according to these figures, is destined to go to Hell.   Consequently, all are ineligible for the promise that God gave us, which is, as most of us have read in John 3:16; "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." 

If everyone is misbehaving, as the story says, and disregards God, then that's "curtains" for him or her.  I can't make a joke of something so wonderful as the gift of eternal life.  It was given to us simply because we believe in God having created all things and that He loves us so much that He sacrificed His Son to pay for our forgiveness for misbehaving.  Those who are misbehaving, (which is just another word for sinning), are turning their shoulders to God.  It is if they are saying, " I don't need you; I'm having too much fun just doing what I want to do.  Besides that, I plan to continue after I'm done with this world, by cavorting with my friends in Hell, the place about which we like to joke.  There, I'll have a great time with all my friends.  Yes, in Hell I'll have a great time!"

Well, think about it.  We can't expect to find any friends there.  Who could we trust?"  "Everyone knows it's the place where murderers and thieves end up, and besides, it's described as a smoldering ash pit where sinful people abide forever and ever.  Could you say they would be enjoying their days? 

I wonder if this article was meant to be a joke or to be considered as something to provoke our sensibilities into thinking that we should appreciate what God has given us, and to be reminded that God so loved the world?  Should we not remember that we must love God too?  Some will laugh about this "joke" and others, like me, will read it with sadness and think about those who will be missing out on being with their Lord and Saviour forever.

In the Bible, God is referred to as He.  We remember the prayer that Jesus taught us, beginning with, "Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name."  He never, ever, referred to His Father in Heaven as sHe, whatever gender that is?

You might thank the author of the "joke" for at least provoking me, to write my thoughts about it.  As the expression goes, "It ain't no joke!"  We see it as it is, and that Jesus gave us the order to protect our friends from this kind of thinking, by saying, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel."  We have a responsibility for our friends and to those who aren't our friends just yet, but who will thank us some day for warning them against such falseness as we saw in that Email.  A final thought is about what Jesus taught when He said, "Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends." Soon afterwards, He did just that, for He gave His life for His friends and even for His enemies.  That is, for all who would believe.

By the way, who is this person called, sHe?

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