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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25, 3:18-20
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Our bodies are amazing structures. Do any study on anatomy and it doesn’t take long to draw that conclusion. It also doesn’t take long to know that only someone with amazing creative power could have designed us and the Bible tells us that God was that Creator. He knits every person together within the womb of a mother, a procreation process He also designed by the way, and a central part of that bodily formation is the brain, the body’s central processing system as well as its control and command center.
Of interest, the brain controls certain functions immediately at birth but for the most part it is grossly underdeveloped, right? A baby learns to comprehend words spoken, then will start to try and speak those words before achieving the ability to speak without prompting. Within their preschool years, they will learn to read and learn from the things they watch. Their brains begin to fill with knowledge.
Children then reach school age and sit in classrooms for at least twelve years before adulthood, receiving instruction from teachers who work hard to provide them information to help them in adulthood. Through the latter part of this twelve year period, when children advance into their teen years, independent thought emerges so much so that teenagers on the brink of becoming an adult start to think they know more than those that are older, those who have a lot more life experience.
This emergence of independent thought is fully encouraged when young adults choose to attend college but this is typically within a certain intellectual framework established by the institution of higher learning. College professors, a fresh voice in the ear of a young impressionable adult, often indoctrinate their students into a liberal mindset on the world. I can speak with experience as I observed it myself as I earned first an Associates, followed by Bachelors and Masters degrees. Within a majority of our universities, conservative thinking is rejected and even intentionally repressed which makes it very challenging for young people raised with Christian values, values that lead a person to rely on the Lord for knowledge and wisdom instead of on oneself.
Consider these verses which form the most fundamental primer in regard to what God desires when it comes to the way His people approach understanding and wisdom:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Proverbs 3:5-7a
God expects us to rely on Him with full submission. No one is to try to be wise on their own or to let anyone else dictate what wisdom is to them unless they are sharing God’s word and the wisdom it contains within.
So what happens when we do this? What do we gain when we refuse to lean on our own understanding?
We can be certain that the Lord will make our paths straight. In other words, we will always do or say the right things at the right times because God is dictating everything we do and He will always lead us to right and righteous living.
How does He view someone who rejects Him and seeks their own wisdom, either internally generated or from other worldly sources?
This quest for freedom is viewed by the Lord as being foolish and as we see in our scripture passages from chapters 1 and 3 of 1 Corinthians, He will take action against anyone who snubs Him. Look at these words again now:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, 3:18-20
Want to depend on yourself, relying on your own wisdom and intelligence?
Then expect those efforts to be destroyed, leaving you frustrated for the Lord has and will continue to make foolish the world’s wisdom and that would make anyone who leans on that wisdom a worldly fool for doing so. Interestingly enough, the world considers someone who would rely on the Lord fully as a fool in their eyes but this “fool” is actually the one with more sensibility. He way to true wisdom is through surrendering one’s own thoughts so the Lord’s thoughts can inhabit that vacant space. In other words, the Lord desires that we think as He thinks and we can do that when we relinquish our thinking for His.
When we do this, when we give up our will and wisdom in exchange for the Lord’s, then He will lead us to Jesus where His wisdom and power were perfectly manifested in human form. And when we come to Jesus and place our hope in Him, then we gain not only wisdom and understanding but eternal life.
And that’s how it works?
Trust in God with all your being and He will lead you to believe in His Son Jesus, the Savior of the world and the only way one can get to everlasting life with God, His Father and ours.
Choose to do your own thing, living as if you don’t need the Lord?
Well, that would be nothing short of foolish. The scriptures tell us as much.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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