impinged

Paul quotes Isaiah 29:11

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent

He calls the message of the cross foolishness. It took me days of mauling this over before it made sense. In a conversation Trina and I had at dinner on Friday night, all of the sudden this verse came to me and made perfect sense. As Christ followers there are things we do that logically make no sense - like tithing and loving others. For those of us who tithe we know the power of sacrificial giving. We give in faith hoping that a God we cannot see will provide for our needs as we believe he promised. And he does! And we find out that our God is a generous God and that no one can out give God.

Or take love for example - the world says that in order to love others you must first love yourself. Most Christians even believe this because of poor biblical teaching that misinterprets the second greatest commandment that says to love others as yourself. Our sin nature has a hard time interpreting that command so we wrongly put the emphasis on the fact that the command says to love ourself. The truth is we are to forget ourself to love others. When our focus is taken off of ourself and we love others we find ourselves living in a never ending well of love. Don’t believe me? Ever heard of Mother Theresa? She was a selfless lady and do you think she lived without love? No way, the entire world loved her. Want more examples? Read a book on martyrs or look at the perfect example of love - Jesus Christ. He wasn’t consumed with loving himself so that he could love others. He loved us first and now, 2000 years later, millions still love him with all of their heart. It makes no sense, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us being saved it is the power of God.

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