From Foolishness to Power

1 Cor 1:18-19
“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.”

Or the way The Message puts it:
1 Cor 1:18
“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.”

Think about it. God saves the world by making Hi son put aside His God-like attributes so that He can become human. He then proceeds to teach a philosophy that stands in direct opposition to conventional wisdom. Then to top it all off He has His chosen people accuse Him of heresy, hand Him over to the Roman occupiers who can’t find Him guilty of anything but kill Him anyway by hanging Him on a cross like a common criminal.

Now, if it weren’t for your faith, would this make any sense or would you think, like so many do, that Christianity is just silliness? Come on, be honest?

Not silly enough for you? OK then, think about this, Christianity tells their followers that they need to die, be washed in blood, be born again and then drink His blood and eat His flesh. What kind of macabre religion is this anyway?

Instead of ‘don’t get mad, get even’ it’s ‘turn the other cheek’. We are supposed to ‘love our enemies’. Seriously?

When you think about it there are a lot of things that if you are truly going to be a Christ-follower you have to live in “opposite world”. The Christian walk is counter intuitive.

It is interesting that Jesus is almost universally praised for being a good man, a teacher and a prophet. By the same token, these same people reject His teachings.

The natural mind simply cannot process the message of Christ. To the natural mind the message of the Cross is foolishness, silliness; it doesn’t make sense.

If this is so, then how do people become Christians? How does foolishness suddenly become wisdom? It is only through the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Think of why you became a Christian. Was it because of some clever argument or because some presented to you a logic that you couldn’t argue with? No, you came t believe in Christ because you saw the difference that Christ made in someone’s life or you experience it first hand. You got to the point where you came to the end of yourself, where what you were doing was no longer working for you, where your own wisdom was failing you. You turned to God and through His power He transformed your life.

From that point on you began to see the wisdom of God as it is demonstrated daily in your life.

I’ll be honest with you. While I have seen countless miracles and God has intervened in my life time after time over the years, I need a fresh revelation of His power in my life every day.  The good thing is that He doesn’t expect us to live off of yesterday’s blessing.

Lam 3:22-23
“Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

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