When Intelligence Turns Foolish

 

Tuesday of Holy Week, March 30, 2021

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.  As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”  So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters?  God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.  Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.  It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven.  And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.  So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.  But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.  1 Corinthians 1:18-25

There is a lot of intelligence in the world.  From Albert Einstein, to all the medical, political, and social scientists, added to space engineers, agricultural wizzards of GMO fame, and those who put astronauts in space (particularly those who bring them back safe to earth), the wisdom of humanity has a handle on a quantum truckload of intelligence.

But there is a limit!

The question, answered by Apostle Paul’s message to the Corinthian believers, is when does man’s intelligence turn foolish?  Paul’s answer is that humanity’s intelligence places itself in the trash can when it starts to battle against faith, and, in particular, faith regarding the cross, tomb, and resurrection.

In Paul’s Jewish frame of reference all humanity was categorized as either Jew or Gentile.  And both were guilty of the foolishness of denying the cross. 

To the Jews, who were looking for a Messiah to rule over earth, it was an offense to imagine he would be hung on a cross like a common criminal; it was a curse.  To the Gentiles, particularly the philosophers, thinkers, and debaters, the whole idea of power without human intelligence that can be proven and held in hand, was just pure nonsense.  In other words, faith, genuine faith that trusts God to handle our biggest problem is unnecessary; we can figure it out, thank you very much…no higher power needed.

For humans, endowed with sentient life – an awareness of both sensory and abstract dimensions of existance – dependence on some unseen “Creator” is a nonsequitur – there isn’t anything we can’t do for ourselves, so creating a creator is for the foolish and weak. 

However, for those who care to admit the truth, we don’t have nearly the intelligence with which we credit ourselves.  Chief among the evidence is the most basic question (and, arguably the most important question), that question of what happens when this life is over.  To deny the continuance of sentient existance solely on the basis of flesh decomposing, is to push an argument from silence.  No life seen is only proof that you cannot see with human eyes, or measure with human intelligence, what lies beyond the grave.  There are some things the 0’s and 1’s of aritificial intelligence cannot measure.

For that you need faith.

For You Today

We’re into the sacred season of faith known as Holy Week…the passion is unfolding, and the faithful are seeing the evidence of things not seen.[1] 

All true intelligence is born of, and lives-in faith in God, the author of faith[2].

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Hebrews 11:1

[2] Hebrews 12:2

The Evidence of Things NOT Seen

 

Friday, February 26, 2021

Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”  But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son?  Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth.  You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”  Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.”  Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”  And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.  Genesis 15:1-6

There is so much more to this story than whether a good man like Abram gets a blessing from God.  In fact, Abram said it plainly, that all the wealth, position, and power that was lavished on him was useless without fulfillment of God’s plans. 

The unspoken part of that is whether Abram was going to be patient enough to see God’s plan through.  At this point in the conversation what was unmentioned was faith, the evidence of things NOT (as yet) seen.  Of course, Abram had no choice but to wait; neither do we.  None of us can push time ahead; we only think we do so when we rush around like chickens who’ve lost their heads, assuming our hyperactivity will somehow pay off in the end with a better life.  And such activity only proves the opposite of faith – it shows our nervousness about what will happen.

Abram had some of that nervous angst about the future.  He looked around at the sea of God’s blessing on his life, but, as most lonely people do eventually recognize, all the stuff and perks in the world is meaningless.  One of Abram’s descendants, King Solomon, found that out.  From his diary (Ecclesiastes), we find out that the King tried it all, had it all, and all of it was empty as a puff of smoke:

God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die, and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth! This is meaningless—a sickening tragedy.  Ecclesiastes 6:2

So, what sense are we to make of such a truth?  Is life meaningless?  Not according to God’s “end” of that story in the last verse of today’s Scripture:

And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.  Genesis 15:6

Reading all of Abram’s story we find that Abram’s belief was faith, that substance of things hoped-for, the evidence of things not seen.[1]  God promised Abram a heritage of so many descendants he could never remember all the names; he might as well have tried to count and name the stars.  And Abram, possessor of so much stuff people chase after on this planet, decided trusting the God with no face to see, and no name other than I AM, made more sense than trusting his portfolio.  This is what caused God to count on Abram as one who was righteous, a person in right-standing with his Creator, a person of true faith.

For You Today

If you’re looking for meaning in this life, skip the lifetime experimentation with all the glitter, gold, and getting; that will be wiser than Solomon’s approach.  Instead, start with the evidence of the unseen; start with God’s love for you.  That’s where you’ll find the greatest response of your heart, because that’s how He designed and created you.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Hebrews 11:1

 

Good News

Sing to the Lord; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.  Psalm 96:2

This advice from the Psalmist is hard to hear while 2020 is still ringing in our ears.  After all, how do you say Good News when people are being carted off to the hospital and the morgue is so full there’s a waiting list?  On top of that the November election results are, according to whichever extreme point of view you choose,

a.     A fraudulent stealing of the presidency

b.     Under attack by unscrupulous liars

Now, before your eyes glaze over with O man, I can’t stand to hear one more bad thing about Coronavirus or the election mess…this verse has much more Hallelujah than Hell for us today.  The last two words the Psalmist offers should give us a hint:  he saves!

So, what does that have to do with the mess that characterized 2020, and seems to offer little hope for 2021?  Where’s the good news?  If He saves, to what are we being saved?  The short answer is, we are being saved from ourselves, our selfishness, and (to call a spade a spade), we’re being saved from our sin, and being saved to His presence, where there is safety, peace, and joy forevermore. 

Now, short answers are always, by nature, somewhat simplistic, or surface, and we need to dig a little deeper.  So here’s a thesis-bone for us to pick on this morning, about the kind of mess this world is in:

2020 was/is a test

…and that’s Good News

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.  James 1:2-4

Jesus warned his disciples that in this world we’d always have trouble, even if we stick closer to him than a shadow.  Jesus probably gave that an eyeroll when He said it, because, sometimes, we have trouble because we are following Jesus. 

But here’s the good news about being that kind of follower who gets clobbered by COVID19, elections that seem to be controlled by Darth Vader, a jealous co-worker who lies to the boss about you, or a bully who picks on you for being a Christian.  Jesus knew it would be that way, and He’s already made a pathway for the Good News to travel your way:

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.  John 16:33

So, knowing we are always being tested in one way or another, we have a strong hope in which to face 2021.  And, that being settled, we should let our endurance, our patience, grow in any opportunity for great joy. 

The question for the follower of Jesus isn’t what’s happening, and why do I have to suffer like Job; it’s more a matter figuring-out of how I can recognize tribulation, or testing, and live so my walk with Christ will bear fruit!

And isn’t it grand that we have that question before the house this morning?  Because my very good friend, Apostle Peter has more than political talking points for that; he has a few life-handles for us to grab-on and grow in our patience.

Here are three of the handles:

Life Handle #1 in troubled times - Humility

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.  1 Peter 5:6-7

If there is one person who knew something about learning humility it was Peter.  You remember him; he was always the one speaking-up, messing-up, and giving Jesus a case of indigestion.  Peter eventually learned humility when he stood before Jesus after the resurrection and found out he was forgiven.

The reality about this in troubled days like we’ve seen recently is that the power of God is ready to go to work on what ails us in our homes, businesses, schools, and government…if we’ll just get down on our knees.  Remember the formula:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14

Life Handle #2 in troubled times – Spiritual Warfare

Stay alert!  Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.  He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.  1 Peter 5:8-9a

Spiritual warfare is a matter of trust and worship.  I know people who worship fishing; everything else comes second.  The same can be said for many other things, but when anything comes before God, a follower of Jesus Christ is not really a follower or disciple, he’s merely a fan.  He likes Jesus, but not enough to worship Him.  And that sets us up for that prowling evil one who’s looking for a Christian dinner. 

If you’re going to be ready for spiritual warfare in troubled times, your prayer life, study of Scripture, worship patterns, and sacrificial love of people will have to look more like first century, not twenty-first.

Life Handle #3 in troubled times – Family Strength

Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.  1 Peter 5:9b

This last life handle is connection with God’s people…particularly the ones in your own home, and church, and community – but also the church around the world.  The church is taking a huge hit in the organizational sense…buildings are closed, programs are on-hold, and the budgets are getting tighter.  But the worship and witness of the true church is unaffected. 

Here are two principles about that:

·       You can take the believers out of the buildings – they won’t miss a beat worshipping and serving the King of Kings

·       If you take make believe believers, pretenders out of their buildings and programs, you’ve taken away the only Jesus they know.

Anyone who knows me knows I love words.  I love reading and learning ways to communicate, so I can do a better job of sharing God’s Word.  I even belong to several websites devoted to helping your vocabulary.  I get a new word every day.  One day this past week I got a new word that (I’m certain) most of you have never encountered.  It is a slang expression heard mostly in Great Britain.  Are you ready for this?  The word is coddiwomple.  It’s so alien to the U.S. brand of English my spell checker didn’t recognize it.  It means to travel purposefully toward an as-yet unknown destination.

This is exactly what Paul wrote to the Hebrew believers about serving without seeing first:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1

An example of this word would be the meaning of faith.  It was by coddiwomple Abraham obeyed God.  God told Abraham to go offer Isaac as a sacrifice.  What did Abraham do…he coddiwompled…loaded the backpack with firewood, a sacrifice knife, and headed out for Mt. Moriah!  It wasn’t an easy time of it, but his faithful moving towards the mountain (coddiwompling) meant the power of God was carrying him through.

Peter’s life-handles for troubling times, humility, staying on alert in spiritual warfare, and counting on the family of God…these are the ways you do what the Psalmist said, to sing to the Lord, praise His name, and proclaim the Good News each day, building your endurance and experience the assuring peace and joy of God’s presence each day.

Listen to what Peter said would come of all that:

In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus.  So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.  All power to him forever! Amen.  1 Peter 5:10-11

Beloved, while COVID and the Political and economic crises are cleaning everyone’s clock in the U.S. and around the world, believers who have learned to coddiwomple to God’s will are excited and looking forward to His next chapter.  For us, that is Good News!  In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Our Prayer

Father, help us to never lose sight of the direction to which you’ve said we’re marching…all the way to Zion, that city on a splendid hill, where there is a temple made without hands, and the doors are open and unguarded, and the light of your welcoming glory are always on!

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father. 

Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!   

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com W  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation 

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Wondering About the Big Stuff

 

Friday, January 1, 2021

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Your glory is higher than the heavens.  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.  When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Psalm 8:1-9^(NLT)

When you’re little the big questions always begin with “why”.  Children want to know why they can’t have that whole gallon of chocolate chip ice cream.  They want to know why they must go to bed now.  They want answers!

The questions usually expand with age and curiosity.  If the curiosity continues to grow, and never finds its home in faith, the questions tend to lead down the path to cynicism and despair…and more wrong answers. 

But if faith in the Creator leads anywhere at all, it always comes back to this basic question of WHY; why…me?  Why am I alive: what purpose does this life serve?

The cynics who have come up empty and devoid of faith will say there is no purpose; we are meaningless blobs of protoplasm that have managed to evolve and pollute the earth to the point where it will eventually fold us back into a tangled mess with all the other useless, meaningless beings of all time.  One day this planet will explode or implode; just choose your poison!  

Those who choose to believe this kind of nonsense will also find a way to make a complex answer to every other simple question like two plus two equals seventy-one, unless its Tuesday, in which case I want the answer to be different…I’ll let you know what that answer is if you will just be quiet about God.

But those who have taken the leap of faith will eventually arrive at a more meaningful discovery to the question of “why” – that answer is:  because…God! 

Going back to the beginning of human existence we find the answer to life’s most basic question:

So God created human beings in his own image.  In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them….Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”  Genesis 1:27, 2:18^(NLT)

We are created in God’s image, with a hunger for relationship (the response God hardwired in each of us because He knew it is not good to be alone).  And since that is so, it is also true of the One in Whose image we are created.  This is the portal of understanding for every other question that begins with Why…? 

It takes faith (and a little common sense) to begin with the answer (God) and work back to where your questions live…but that’s the substance of things not seen; the evidence of things hoped for…that’s the magnificent path of discovery you’ll find when you ask God “why” like a Psalmist!

For You Today

If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable with not having the answers, try resting in the purpose for which God created you in the first place…relationship with Him!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy  Pixabay.com

[2] Hebrews 11:1^(NLT)

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on this text see Wondering About the Big Stuff - Part 2 and Wondering About the Big Stuff - Part 3  

This devotion first appeared on Rocky Road Devotions Friday, August 28, 2017

 

Germ Warfare

Wednesday of Holy Week, April 8, 2020

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.  Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.  Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.  Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.  Hebrews 12:1-3

A Christian couple had a missionary family visiting.  When the missionary children were called in for dinner, their mother said, "Be sure to wash your hands."  The little boy scowled and said, Germs and Jesus.  Germs and Jesus.  That's all I ever hear, and I've never seen either one of them.^[1] 

The writer of Hebrews has given us a no-nonsense definition of faith:

Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see.  Hebrews 11:1(GWT[2])

It is not so strange that faith is invisible – there is some pretty wide company. According to one source 98% of all the matter in the universe is invisible.^[3]  The little boy was right, like the wind, faith is an invisible quality; like the wind, however, you can see its results when things start happening! 

We are in one of those crunch-time moments.  It’s been more than a month since we were given the word to hunker-down and not leave home without an essential reason.  No travel or mingling down at the Post Office, or even a Sunday School class party.  And no sports on TV, other than a golf tournament replay from 5 years ago.  For the average American we’re already tapping the table with impatient fingers…will this never end?

Enter Holy Week, the time of preparing to suffer the Gethsemane betrayal, kangaroo court of a mock trial, scourging, trudging through the stations of the cross dragging your own gallows, and, for all that labor, stretched-out naked and bleeding between crossbeams on the town garbage dump.  Could the timing be more precise?  We have been told this next week to 10 days will be the toughest, most death-filled time of Coronavirus anguish. 

Whatever truly Heaven-ordained purposes are being worked-out by Sovereign God in this time of purging, where the unimportant toys and baubles of life are being sidelined in favor of a desire for relationships unimpeded by face masks and sterile gloves, the suffering caused by an unseen enemy, and the care offered by an unseen God speaks volumes to me about both.

For You Today

Like the writer to the Hebrew Christians giving some hope and encouragement to people who were undergoing some unimaginable persecution and privation, I also want to point us to the endurance and perseverance of Jesus.  He bore every part of what was laid before him for our benefit. 

Whatever you’re facing in this time of crisis, whether it’s the germs you can’t see, or the stack of bills you can’t not see, try to keep in focus the Jesus, whom your heart has convinced you, you don’t need to see in order to follow.  Keep your spiritual eyes on Him; he will never leave or forsake you.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Hebrews 12 see Can You Give Me a Reason to Go On? and Strength to Go On

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[1] Vesper Bauer, Audubon, Iowa, Christian Reader (Sep/Oct 1998)

[2] God’s Word, Copyright © 1998, Parsons Technology, Inc.

[3] Harper's Index, Harper's (May 2002), p. 11

God's Math

[1] 

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church:  the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.  This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.  Then we will no longer be immature like children.  We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.  We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.  Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.  As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.  Ephesians 4:11-16

The old saying is so simple and so true: 

Give a man a fish and you have fed him today.

Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.

Something of a corollary to that maxim is related to the life span and health of churches:

If a pastor grows a church it will die when the pastor leaves.

If a church learns to be healthy it will grow and live.

Pastors do have a responsibility to help churches learn how to be healthy.  But it’s something like your doctor who has responsibility to contribute to your health; the doctor must be faithful, but the patient must cooperate. That is how God designed the church, His vineyard; we stay healthy and grow, or die on the vine!

Growing healthy in the ways of God is not complicated; obedience and commitment are the primary ingredients.  The facts of possibility for growth of an exponential kind, fast, healthy, and breathtaking are all around us.

Consider E. coli bacteria.  The numbers are staggering.  If a single E. coli cell can get enough food, it can reproduce itself every 20 minutes.  In a single day that means 72 cycles of doubling.  1 cell becomes 2 in 20 minutes; 2 cells then become 4 in another 20 minutes, and so-on.  Repeated 72 times in 24 hours (2^x72 power[2]) the result is 2.3 trillion-million cells.  If E. coli was building people that would be enough material for 76 trillion people (roughly 1,000 times the total of earth’s current population) …in just 24 hours…starting with just one lowly cell.

Now, if God can do that with a deadly virus, just think what He could do with the life-giving virus of the Gospel…IF God’s people were sharing it, dividing it, letting the evidence of things not seen[3] do its saving work!

For You Today

Paul showed us God’s kind of math the church needs to change our culture.  Apostles, Prophets, Pastors and teachers all exercise their spiritual gifts, and God’s people grow, mature, and produce kingdom fruit:  gentleness, meekness, love, joy, peace, longsuffering; the fruit of the Spirit. 

If the enemy can grow a miserable crop like E. coli, God’s farmhands have the power to overcome whatever ails this old planet!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

[2] See the chart of The Power of 2

[3] Hebrews 11:1