April 1, 1992, on the floor of my dorm room in the middle of the night at Drake University, I cried out to God in response to God’s goodness and grace. He opened my eyes to the truth that Jesus died for my sin, paying the penalty that I deserved, and rose again, conquering sin and death once for all. I repented and believed.
Jesus is my Savior and King, and He is my only hope for heaven.
I like to say on April Fools Day, I became a fool for Christ.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, a worldly church that thought it had it all together but was rotten.
He said, “For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hou we hunger and thrist, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; we persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat, We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things,” (1 Corinthians 4:9-13, ESV).
Obviously, Paul is sarcastic. The Corinthian Church was not wise, strong, or honorable, quite the opposite. We see in the following verses that he said what he said to admonish them.
“I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children,” (1 Corinthians 4:14, ESV).
Paul was considered a fool. He was called a “babbler” by some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens (Acts 17:18). Paul, a babbler?
He was preaching Jesus and resurrection. That didn’t make any sense to those who were worldly-wise. The gospel he preached seemed foolish to the Corinthians.
“For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God,” (1 Corinthians 1:17-18, ESV).
He continues this theme.
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men,” (1 Corinthians 1:22-25, ESV).
So the world’s “wisdom” was its stumbling block, and the answer is to become a fool.
“Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God,” (1 Corinthians 3:18-19a, ESV).
Become a fool that you may become wise.
Fools for Christ embrace a message that is not popular in this world. They have priorities that are not aligned with the world. Fools for Christ find joy even amid hardship and suffering.
We are not conformists; at least we shouldn’t be, so the world considers us fools.
And that’s ok. I would be concerned if they didn’t.