Thursday, August 27,
2026
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but it is the power of God to us who are being saved. For it
is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the
intelligence of the intelligent. Where
is the one who is wise? Where is the
teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God
made the world’s wisdom foolish? For since, in God’s wisdom,
the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who
believe through the foolishness of what is preached. 1 Corinthians 1:18-21
Gordon MacDonald, chancellor of
Denver Seminary, tells the story in one of his books, about Charles Berry:
In the late 1800s, Charles Berry, an English preacher, became
the pastor of the great Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. One day Berry described
how earlier he had come to Jesus Christ. There had been a time in Berry's early
ministry when he preached a very thin gospel--really no gospel at all. As did the Corinthians, he looked upon Jesus
as merely a noble teacher but not as a divine redeemer.
Late one night during his first pastorate, as he sat in his
cozy study, there came a knock. He
opened the door and found a typical Lancashire girl with a shawl over her head
and clogs on her feet.
Are you a minister? she asked.
Getting an affirmative answer, she went on breathlessly. You must come with me quickly. I want you to
get my mother in. Thinking it
was a case of some drunken mother out in the streets, Berry said, You
must go and get a policeman. No,
said the girl, My mother is dying, and you must come and get her into heaven.
Berry got dressed and followed her for a mile and a half
through lonely streets in the night. He
knelt at the woman's side, and he began telling her how good and kind Jesus was
and how he'd come to show us how to live.
Then the desperate woman cut him off. Mister, she cried, that's
no use for the likes of me. I'm a
sinner. I've lived my life. Can't you tell me of someone who can have
mercy upon me and save my poor soul? I
stood there in the presence of a dying woman, said Berry, and I
realized I had nothing to tell her. In
the midst of sin and death, I had no message.
In order to bring something to that dying woman, I leaped back to my
mother's knee, to my cradle faith, and I told her the story of the Cross and of
a Christ who is able to save to the uttermost. The tears began to run down the woman's
cheeks. Now you're getting it,
she said. Now you're helping me. Berry concluded the story by saying, I got
her in, and blessed be God, I got in myself.[1]
For You Today
Salvation is a matter of being right
with God. Do you believe the
Gospel? Do you believe Jesus is the Son
of God, and that He is the only way to God?
There are a lot of religions,
and so-called spirituality out there today.
Many folks claim there are many ways…you have to find one that fits for
you.
But I say to you, with what Paul
called the “foolishness of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ”, that there is one size that fits all…His name is
Jesus, and there is salvation in no other name.
It is the only name under heaven; given among men whereby ye must be
saved (Acts 4:12).
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title and Other Image by Stefan
Keller from Pixabay.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible©
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