Faith and Foolishness

Chuckle: "The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes."

Quote: "Wise men learn more from fools than fools from wise men." --Cato

"But people who aren't Christians can't understand these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means. We who have the Spirit understand these things, but others can't understand at all. How could they? For, 'Who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who can give him counsel? But we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ" (I Corinthians 2:14-16 NLT).

Often, the "wise," by the world's standards, have a difficult time accepting what God says in his Word? In fact, it seems that the more educated we become, the more difficult it is for us to accept anything by faith. "I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, 'I will destroy human wisdom and discard their most brilliant ideas' " (I Corinthians 1:18-19 NLT).

As we think about this serious topic, we should consider this verse from Hebrews 11:6 NIV, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

To the non-believer, it is foolishness and nonsense that the Spirit of God lives in believers. Therefore, many will not understand your decision to follow Christ. It just seems silly to them. In the same way a tone-deaf person cannot appreciate fine music, those who rejects Christ cannot understand the truths from God's communicated through His written Word.

This unbelief is prevalent in our time, even though "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right" (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT). "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried (moved) along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21 NIV).

Some people praise human intellect and exalt themselves because of pride in what they have accomplished. Still others seek supernatural signs to point the way to God. But divine wisdom is from another nature, not human intellect, and cannot be comprehended without divine intervention and assistance. No words that I could conjure up would summarize this message nearly as well as this quote from God's Holy Spirit inspired Word.

"So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world's brilliant debaters? God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save all who believe" (I Corinthians 1:20-21 NLT).

Love, Jerry & Dotse