What Is It About God?

 The new season of the Netflix series "Lucifer" has aired. In one of the episodes, Sharon Osbourne plays herself and passes along her husband's gratitude to Lucifer for all of his help over the years.

Now I am already just kind of bemused that there is such a show and that it romanticizes Lucifer. The whole point of the show seems to be to portray the fallen angel as any other sexy and appealing bad boy. What really gets me is how many people like this show and don't seem to be bothered that it is about Lucifer. Here are some of the highlights:

• Just like the "hero" of any trendy plot, he has attracted a seemingly accomplished and smart woman who is in love with him to the point that she would cheerfully follow him into Hell.
• Some of the "good" angels (although only Michael and Gabriel are the only holy angels mentioned by name in the Holy Bible) are featured. One of them, 'Amenadiel' plays a major role. He's good but he's not; he's possibly fallen; he has a child with a human; he helps run a bar in Lucifer's absence. At one point, he babysits Hell for Lucifer.  His character is a muddling of truth and clear lines about anything.
• We are prodded into sympathy (not just for the Devil as Mick sings) for a demon named Maze as she deals with her very human-like issues of abandonment and a need for love.
• There is a trained psychologist who is the mother of Amenadiel's child, by the way. So, again, they are portraying smart, educated and, I guess, emotionally stable people as being fine with this whole Lucifer-is-a-good-guy scenario. 
• The psychologist has a conversation with the female demon and reassures her that they will be together eternally in Hell someday. The demon was fretting about losing people in her life.
• The idea of Lucifer being the Devil is often discussed in public - including the police station - with no one being surprised, upset, or even slightly curious about it

It goes on and on. And, of course, God is blasphemed with a giddy kind of confidence. I am not surprised by the people who are involved with the writing and production of the show. I shouldn't wonder about the actors but I can't help myself. I wonder if they are thinking that they are just earning a harmless paycheck or getting some television facetime. I wonder how much a career means to some people - like just how far will they go?

There is no reverence. This show doesn't even pretend not to be openly blasphemous and dismissive of God. I was so surprised when I heard a while back that there was even a "Save Lucifer" (get it?) campaign among fans to keep the show in production.

I was most surprised by some of the actors working on this series. I am guilty of sometimes assuming things about people I don't know. People in the public eye usually have the job of portraying themselves in a certain way and I will often buy into that facade. The first role I ever saw the actor D.B. Woodhouse in was as Melvin Franklin in that miniseries, The Temptations. As Franklin, Woodhouse was a gentle giant with a kind heart; someone you would think of as a church-raised mama's boy. 

What I did not know about this show before deciding to write this post is that it is based on a D.C. Comic character. 

So I come back around to this: What is it about God? Here are some things to think about as we live in a world that claims to be so "evolved" and among people who believe in their own immense intelligence and high morals.

• What is it about God that so many people claim not to believe in Him but constantly attack and blaspheme Him?
• Why is God under so much attack and ridicule but not Buddha or Allah or... name your other gods?
• If man doesn't believe in God, where do they think they get the idea of right and wrong? Was that something that 'evolved' with the ability to walk upright and think logically?
• If there is no God, as so many people believe, why not at least cut Christianity the same slack that is given to Scientology, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.? 

The one thing that always hangs me up with understanding vehement atheists, agnostics, or former Christians is this: why is it so hard to believe in a God who created the universe while it's so easy to believe in ghosts, demons, and other supernatural phenomena?

I once worked with a woman who laughed when I talked about there being a literal unseen spirit world all around us. The same woman loved ghost stories and always dreamed of going on a ghost-hunting trek. She believed in the Ouija board and she talked often about her kitten who was very "sensitive" to things happening in her apartment. 

Did you understand what I just wrote? The woman who laughed at me for my beliefs in a spirit world was literally fascinated with the spirit world.

Can we just stop and consider for a moment how stubbornly illogical people can be? I am now convinced that disbelief in God is not really a matter of logic with most people. Some people would just rather not believe. 

One Bible teacher made the remark that, if you don't believe in the danger, you don't believe in the need for salvation. I wonder if some people aren't just afraid. Afraid that, if they dare believe, they will have to change on their own power; afraid that believing in God means obeying lots of complicated rules and rituals; afraid that they don't have what it takes to be a Christian.

All "it takes" to be a Christian is to admit that you are a sinner in need of salvation. That is it. You don't need your own strength or ability. If you come before Him and ask for salvation, God will take care of the rest.

I think that some people think that they will have time to come to salvation "later" - when they are old or sick or at their rock bottom. The problem is, we don't know if we will live to take our next breath. We don't have to watch for signs of "The End" or for some kind of doomsday signal; Our own personal "end" is coming at some point.

Please pray for those who are still not come under the blood of Jesus. Pray that they won't die in an accident or some fast illness before they have heard you tell them about the Lord.

Peace

--Free