POWER

1 Corinthians 4: 18 – 25


The word of God has great power. Power that can heal, strengthen, bring comfort, and bring people into relationship with Jesus.

18 The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out.
19 It’s written, I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I’ll expose so-called experts as crackpots.
20 So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense?
21 Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.

When we read these words for the first time, we find them to kinda confusing. The wise foolish, the foolish wise? I know that I couldn't make head nor tails out of it. After all, I was still too smart to understand what was being written on these pages. Hey, I was the guy who was once called a visionary philosopher after taking an I.Q. Test.
So why couldn't I understand this with clarity?

22 While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom,
23 we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd.
24 But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one.
25 Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s "weakness."

There it was. The reason that I couldn't understand what was being said in the word was that I was looking for the miraculous and also looking for the philosophical.
Once we get it. Once we can really read what God has written just for us, oh how freeing it is.
We get to know that those who take the word as it is written on the page, and let God write it on our hearts, are the truly wise. Even though the world thinks that it has all the answers to every question. Even though the so called educated think the Word is a fable for the weak minded.
Once the Word enters their hearts instead of their heads, they, like me, will be driven to their knees in awe and wonder.

There is a song by Marty Stuart, one of my favorite now, titled, “I can't even walk without you holding my hand”'

I thought that I could do a lot on my own
I thought I, I thought I could make it
All, all alone
I thought, I thought of myself
As a mighty, mighty big man
But I realize I can't even walk
Without You holding my hand

Lord I can't even walk
Without You holding my hand
Because the mountains are so high
And the valleys are so wide
I'm down on my knees
I had to say,
Lord I can't even walk
Without You holding my hand

talks about a change in our lives. Reminds us of how foolish we were to think that we were all that there was.

So, yeah. Count me among the fools'
How wonderful it is to be a fool for Christ.