Too Wise For God

I finally made some much-deserved time to study a Bible verse that caught my eye this morning as I flipped open the sermon pamphlet my dad had given me from last Sunday-

"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." - 1 Corinthians 1:18

I read Matthew Henry's commentary of it, and he as usual made good points:

"Christ crucified is a stumbling-block to the Jews. They could not get over it. They had a conceit that their expected Messiah was to be a great temporal prince, and therefore would never own one who made so mean an appearance in life, and died so accursed a death, for their deliverer and king. They despised him, and looked upon him as execrable, because he was hanged on a tree, and because he did not gratify them with a sign to their mind, though his divine power shone out in innumerable miracles."

 "[The Greeks] laughed at the story of a crucified Saviour, and despised the apostles’ way of telling it. They sought for wisdom. They were men of wit and reading, men that had cultivated arts and sciences, and had, for some ages, been in a manner the very mint of knowledge and learning. There was nothing in the plain doctrine of the cross to suit their taste, nor humour their vanity, nor gratify a curious and wrangling temper: they entertained it therefore with scorn and contempt. What, hope to be saved by one that could not save himself." 

Does this sound familiar to you? Much like our modern society, does it not?

The Jews to me are reminiscent of the watered-down Christians (or "Water Christians" as I call them) who have submitted to the world instead of God. The Jews back then wouldn't accept a Savior of such humble birth, who hung out with rabble, despite His many miracles that proved He was indeed the Son of God. They just wanted a magic prince cloaked in splendor.

The Greeks remind me of both atheists and some other Water Christians. Not always the same kind as above who are too vain to truly accept the Gospel, but ones who are too arrogant to, which is definitely the problem with most atheists today as well. The Greeks scorned the Savior who (supposedly) couldn't even save Himself. Why, they were so advanced in the arts, sciences, and knowledge in general. Clearly they knew better than some guy who lived simply, told his friends to give away their worldly possessions, and preached revolutionary yet simple sermons. Nothing about this plain gospel appealed to them, exactly how the anti-Jesus atheists and so-called Christians of today are, the former of whom pats themselves on the back for their religious-like faith the vague, monolithic Science deity; the latter of whom sneers at true believing Christians trying to follow the Word even when it clashes with society's opinions to do so. These worldly 'Christians' might actually have a faint belief in God or go to church to hear a nice sugar-coated sermon that doesn't challenge them to live a different life than the comfortable one they're used to, but they have no interest in serving Jesus and tackling obstacles the world throws at anyone who will do so.


These people think themselves too wise to believe in or follow God wholeheartedly. They're too good for that. They know better.

Keith Krell also made a point I'd like to quote:

"The Word of the cross is that salvation is freely granted by God's grace, not human merit or intellect. Furthermore, salvation is extended to all people. This levels the ground at the foot of the cross. Everyone comes to God through faith, based upon the work of Jesus Christ. This offends man’s pride."

Unbelievers and false Christians who shun the Gospel do not want to be equal with people they dislike (especially followers of Jesus, but this can apply to anyone). They're better than them. Those losers are lesser than they are. It also means they're no excuse to not accept God if it's free- and they don't want to. They want to worship themselves, the world, money, anything that appeals to their pride but God.

So it all just comes down to human pride getting offended. And as such, these groups will be left to perish in their own stubborn pride.

Hearing God's Voice

OK, so in my last blog entry (which was only made a few minutes ago, because I'm afraid if I wait to write this later I'll either forget or be too lazy to), I mentioned how my dad and I had recently taken Wednesday evening classes at church called "Hearing God's Voice". Most of it involves us watching this Canadian preacher's sermon on hearing His voice, how hard it was for him at first and how it took him many years to learn how, and him describing each step on how to do this. The rest of the class, unfortunately for me, is getting into groups and discussing what we wrote in our "question journals", which is where you ask God things or talk to Him and write down what He says to you.

So, follow these steps (no skipping any):

1. Stillness: Find a quiet place where you won't be distracted by people, phones, the TV, etc.

2. Vision: Fix your eyes on Jesus, and use your eyes and heart to hear Him.

3. Spontaneity: It may be hard to believe that God doesn't speak in the thunderous voice of a mountain that many expect Him to have, but God most often speaks to us in our own voices, like a small, spontaneous thought in our minds.

4. Journaling: Write out the flow of thoughts and pictures within you.

The preacher (forgot his name) recommends that you try to imagine yourself actually with Jesus, sitting with him or whatnot, talking to him, then ask the question.

Though you may think it doesn't make sense to feel uncomfortable about sharing my questions with the group yet now with blog readers, but I don't personally know many of you nor will I probably ever see you in real life, so it's much easier. I first tried this the morning after the class when I stayed the night with my grandma and tried this up in her bedroom while she worked downstairs. Here is the first question and answer I got:

Q: God, what am I supposed to do this whole semester? I'm discontent with my work, miss school, and live so far from town.

A: Take the time to get to know Me. I'm here for you. Don't be afraid to ask anything. What I want you to do is stay at [your job], save up for school, and in the meantime learn about Me.

There was actually a lot more than that but I couldn't type it all out. But let me tell you, I was very surprised and impressed that it worked! I really felt like it was God speaking to me. And when I for a second thought maybe it was just my own personal thoughts, I looked back at all 6 pages in my medium-sized notebook I'd written in and pointed out to myself that I could not have come up with all that spontaneously and so quickly and still have it make perfect sense like it did, in such an amount of answers. Especially on my very first time trying this.

So how about you? Will you try it out? Believer or not, give it a try, if you really believe it could work.