A recent controversy has occurred over Pastor Joe Nelms prayer at a NASCAR race when he thanked God for his wife. In his prayer, “Lord, I want to thank you for my smokin’ hot wife tonight, Lisa" followed the example given by Will Ferrell in the racing movie, Talladega Nights. “I want to get somebody’s attention, so that’s been our desire every time we’ve been up there, to try to make an impact on the fans and give them something they’ll remember, and maybe they’ll go home on a Friday night or a Saturday night and say, 'Maybe I ought to get up and go to church in the morning,'" Nelms said. (Fox News.com) Of course there are those who may grumble under their breath at what this pastor has done. We never see the image of a laughing God. He is seen as stern, expressionless, and void of any emotion. Did Jesus, who is God in the flesh, ever crack a joke with his disciples; did he laughed or smiled in his lifetime here? In Psalm 2, God is said to laugh at the thoughts and plans of sinful man. I was told by a seminary professor when Jesus told his disciples to give the hungry something to eat, it was stated in a joking manner since he knew they could nothing about the need.
In the world today someone is going to be offended by a believer's prayer. A veteren's cemetary in Houston, Texas has a director named Arleen Ocasio who has banned the name Jesus or God in any service conducted at the cemetary.
“Local veterans say the Department of Veterans Affairs is consistently censoring their prayers, banning them from saying the words “God,” and “Jesus” during funeral services at Houston National Cemetery. Three separate organizations have come forward complaining the cemetery’s director and other government officials are violating the First Amendment. Members from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The American Legion and the National Memorial Ladies all complain of “religious hostility” at the cemetery.” (Kaffir Kanuck)
God is definitely laughing if man thinks they can stop anyone from saying his name or the name of Jesus. When the Berlin Wall fell, Western Christians presumed they would have a bountiful harvest of converts from seventy years of communism. Suprisingly they found an underground church movement alive and well, and all the while God laughed at the communist government's futile attempts to stop him. I may not have thanked God for my "smoking hot wife" on national television but I am thankful for Vicki. God knew the pastor would say what he did, and I wonder if God is more like the Morgan Freeman's character of God in Bruce Almighty, with humor and a smile, and less like the picture of God as a heavenly cop with a baton waiting for us to mess up. You decide.
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