The Creator Will Judge

The Creator Judges

Mooster: Good evening boys and girls! Y’all enjoying this sun shiny weather we’ve been having? It’s so pretty! Makes me want to sing. Hey – I wonder if I could get Monkey Moe out here to sing with me? Help me call for him! MOE!!! Moe! Come on out here, Moe!

Moe: (I can hear from here. You go on with your talking…I’ll just listen from back here! )

Mooster: What? Moe – I can’t have a conversation with you when you are hiding back in the tree house. Come out here! Besides, the girls and boys want to see you!

Moe: (I can’t. I’m hiding. )

Mooster: You playing hide’n seek?

Moe: (Not that kind of hiding.)

Mooster: Why are you hiding?

Moe: (Because I am in big trouble! The principal is looking for me.)

Mooster: Moe! The principal? What in the world did you do?

Moe: (Mooster…can you see him out there? If not, I’ll come out and talk with you.)

Mooster: Nope. No principal out here!

Moe:  {Slowly pokes his head through, looking all around} well…I guess the coast is clear…

Mooster: So what in the world did you do?

Moe: Okay, so you know how I have this absolutely horrible time remembering dates and times and people and all that other history stuff?

Mooster: Yes, you’ve mentioned that before. I think you said you were getting a D in history last semester and your mom told you that you had to bring it up to at least a C or you were going to lose all your computer and video games for 6 months.

Moe: RIGHT! Can you ImAGGGine how awful that would be?

Mooster: Terrible.

Moe: Exactly! So, you know, cute little adorable monkeys such as myself just have to be creative sometimes in how we try to obey the rules set down before us.

Mooster: Creative? Why can’t you just obey your mom’s rules? It’s not that hard. Plus your teacher AND your dad have offered to help you with your homework and memorizing your presidents and state capitals and stuff. What’s the problem?

Moe: Mooster. YOU are a moose. Not an adorable cute little monkey with a darling face and well-manicured tale. You couldn’t possibly understand. You have a bad hair day EVERY day and it doesn’t matter. I, on the other hand, must spend hours making myself so adorable. Cuteness is something that has to be maintained you know.

Mooster: Uh-huh. So what you are telling me is that you spend too much time making yourself cute and adorable and not enough time studying your history?

Moe: Something like that. I mean, what does it really matter if Washington crossed the Delaware or the Danube? They’re both rivers!

Mooster: Yeah but one’s here in America and one starts in Germany.

Moe: See? You have German ancestors, so it shouldn’t make a difference. And why should I care if Christopher Columbia sailed to America on the Nina, the Pinto Bean, or the Sand Paper? He got here and that’s what matters.

Mooster: Ohhhh brother! I can see why you are getting a D. So what happened TODAY Moe?

Moe: Well, my history teacher, Mr. Evil and Rude himself --

Mooster: WAIT – your teacher’s name is Evan Truitt, not Evil and Rude! You have a bad attitude about history.

Moe: Whatever! Anyway, he scheduled a test for yesterday at the very last minute! I had no chance to study for it.

Mooster: That can’t be right…your syllabus shows you when you have a test weeks in advance.

Moe: Whose side are you on, anyway?

Mooster: Nevermind, just tell me what happened.

Moe: (Moe launches off and says all the following as quickly as possible and doesn’t pause for sentences.)

          Well, the teacher said to get our pencils out and I raised my hand to go to the bathroom because I just had to get out of there and the teacher said yes but hurry and so I ran out of the classroom door and raced down the hallway toward the bathroom, trying to figure out what I was going to do because of course I couldn’t take the test because I didn’t have time to study and it would look terrible for me to flunk another test and while I was walking down the hallway I suddenly spied the fire alarm and I gave it a good tug and then all the noise started happening and children were lining up at their doors so I ran back to my classroom and snuck in line and marched out the door with my class and then we all ended up in the parking lot and waited for the fire department to come and make sure the building wasn’t on fire and by the time we were all allowed back in the building it was almost time for school to be over so I grabbed my books and ran home but I know they have surveillance cameras and so I know I was caught on camera and the principal is going to tell my parents and I’m in a huge amount of trouble and do you have any money that I could borrow because I’m thinking maybe Venezuela would be nice this time of year.

Mooster: Goodness sakes, Moe! You pulled the fire alarm at school? That’s against the rules! Of course the principal is going to want to talk to you. You have to answer for your actions. What you did was wrong!

Moe: But it got me out of the test!

Mooster: That’s right, and now you have even more trouble that you are in. Moe, the school has rules about things like that to protect everyone. What if a child got hurt because you pulled the alarm? What if every child pulled the alarm once in a while. No one would pay any attention to it when there really was a fire and someone could be hurt or killed. Rules are made to protect you, Moe, and the other kids, too.

Moe: But I’ll have to stand before the principal. And maybe even talk to a police officer!

Mooster: Very likely, Moe. There are consequences for your actions. It’s like if your dad was late to work and he was speeding. If he got pulled over and the policeman gave him a ticket, do you think the officer is going to NOT give him a ticket just because your dad says he’s late for work?

Moe: No…he’s not as cute and adorable as I am.

Mooster: MOE! That has nothing to do with it! And then what happens?

Moe: Dad would have to go to traffic court and stand before the judge.

Mooster: Right. And if the judge finds him guilty of speeding, he has to pay a fine. He is punished for breaking the law.

Moe: Yeah, and I’m gonna stand before principal Meyers and he’s going to make me talk to a police officer or the fire chief and I’m probably going to have to scrape gum off the school desks and sidewalks for a month. That’s what happened to Luey Leopard last year when he pulled the alarm….

Mooster: Well, Moe, you should have thought of that before you pulled the alarm.

Moe: But I’ll get eeewy gooey nasty already been chewed gum under my fingernails! YUCK!

Mooster: Again, you should have thought of the punishment before you did the crime.

Moe: {Sigh} I know you are right. But judges scare me and the principal is kind of like a judge to me.

Mooster: Moe, a judge isn’t a bad person. A judge just makes decisions based on the laws and issues punishments for things that people do wrong. Just like God – the Bible says that God is the perfect Judge. He holds us accountable to His laws. Remember we learned last week that God makes laws for us to live by? Well He also acts as Judge and has to issue punishments for when we’ve done wrong.

Moe:  That sounds scary, too.

Mooster: Well, when we do wrong, we can expect God to allow us to reap what we have sown. But God is a more righteous judge than any earthly judge. Did you know that sometimes people get accused of doing wrong things, when they really didn’t? Here on earth, it might be hard to prove your innocence. But God sees everything! He knows when we are at fault for something and when we are not. He knows when we are innocent of a crime and He will never punish us for something we did not do.

Moe: Oh yeah…and sometimes God lets people see when they make a mistake in judging someone. Last month, our gym teacher punished Mike McKowsky for stealing Bethy’s shoes, but Mike kept saying he didn’t do it. The gym teacher didn’t believe him because there was no one else around who could have done it. Then Bethy’s mom found the gym shoes under Bethy’s bed about two weeks later. Bethy had to go and apologize to Mike and so did the gym teacher.

Mooster: Yep – in that case, God saw that Mike was innocent and He chose to make his innocence known to others. Sometimes in our lives, it may be that only God knows when we are telling the truth, but we know God will always judge rightly. Part of Genesis 18:25 says, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” God is the Judge of all the earth.

Moe: Well, I’m glad God is a perfect judge. I hope my principal can borrow some of that knowledge and be merciful to me.

Mooster: I hope so, too. Did you know that there are other kinds of judges, too? They don’t punish people – they reward people!

Moe: OH – you mean like in poetry or art contests? Ohh – and in pie eating contests and banana eating contests and gymnastics? My mom said I should try out for the tree swinging competition because I’m very talented in my tree swinging.

Mooster:  Yep – judges in contests decide who is the best and then they give them trophies or awards or money or some kind of prize. God will also be handing out rewards one day in heaven. He will be judging our works to see if they were done righteously or not.

Moe: Wow – how can we know if our works are right or not?

Mooster:  Well, if we are doing things for selfish reasons, they are not being done for the right reason. But if we do good works and we want to honor and glorify God, then they are done for the right reasons.

Moe: Wow…I have a lot to think about. I guess I better go home and tell my mom and dad what I did. I will just have to trust my principal to be a righteous judge.

Mooster: That’s a good idea, Moe. And I hope you learned some things – First, being cute and adorable isn’t as important as studying for your history test. Second, breaking the school laws by pulling the fire alarm when there is no fire is wrong and you will be punished.

Moe: Yep. I also learned that God is our Righteous Judge. He sees when we do bad AND when we do good, even if no one else does. And I learned that judges aren’t always a bad or scary thing. Sometimes judges hand out rewards! I’m going to try for that tree swinging competition. The next time I stand before any kind of judge, I want it to be for a reward, not a punishment!

  

Mooster: Hahahah – that’s a great idea, Moe. That makes a lot of sense. Boys and girls, remember that God made laws for us to live by. Because He created us and because He made the Ten Commandments, He has the right to be our Righteous Judge and we must all stand before Him one day. Some will be judged for their sins if they have never accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Their punishment will be eternity in the lake of fire. But for those who have Jesus as their Savior, God will be their Judge of their works, and they will be given rewards for things they have done for His honor and glory. Let’s all try to be doing things for which we will be rewarded this week, and not punished.

Bye!!!