1 Corinthians 1:25 (ASV)
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
My cousin's grandmother was truly a wonderful and loving woman.
We often saw her at family functions and occasionally we made the seventeen mile trip just to visit with her.
When I was still very young, I heard my parents refer to her as "Grandma" for the sake of my cousin. Well, it only seemed proper for me to do the same.
I am certain that my parents and other relatives found this cute and fortunately for me, my cousin never expressed any jealousy in this matter.
Although this dear lady was not my grandmother, I believe she genuinely liked the idea that I had adopted her as another grandmother.
Each year when my birthday or Christmas would come around I always received a gift from this dear lady along with a card which she signed "With Love, Grandma".
Everything was fine until that fateful day when we began studying plurals in grade school.
The plural of shoe is shoes, the plural of bird is birds, and so on.
"What is the plural of grandmother?", the teacher asked.
"Grandmothers," we replied.
"How many grandmothers do you have?", she asked one of my classmates.
"Two," he replied.
"Correct," she said.
I raised my hand.
"Yes, Jim, what is it?", she asked.
"I have three grandmothers," I stated confidently.
For reasons unknown to me at the time, everybody laughed.
"No, Jim. You cannot have three grandmothers," she said. She then offered a very logical explanation as to why it simply did not make sense for me to have a third grandmother.
"Do you understand?", she asked.
"Yes, Ma'am," I replied (I just wanted us to move on).
I really was unable to focus on the rest of the lesson.
My mind was preoccupied with why it did not make sense for me to have this loving woman as a third grandmother.
"I don't care if this does not make sense to anyone else," I concluded. "After all, I have her birthday and Christmas cards to me that prove it!"
That was many years ago, but I wonder... is my situation all that different today?
If someone who does not believe in God were to ask me how many fathers I have, my answer would not make any sense to them either.
"Two," I would reply.
Perhaps they would laugh or shake their heads disapprovingly.
They might even try to explain that it Is impossible for me to have two fathers and that believing so simply does not make any sense.
Yet, I do have two fathers.
One was my earthly father.
The other is my Heavenly Father.
I don't care if this does not make sense to anyone else. After all, I have the book He wrote for me to prove it!
1 Corinthians 1:21 (ASV) - For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeet.byethost3.com on Friday, September 3, 2010.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I'll be back here on Friday, September 10, 2010.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Why is There Only One Way?
John 14:6 (NET)
Jesus replied, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
A few years ago, I got caught up in the Sudoku craze when it was at its peak of popularity.
I enjoyed them because they were a kind of puzzle that relied solely on reasoning to solve.
I remember one puzzle in particular that, try as I might, I simply could not solve.
After filling in virtually the entire 9x9 grid, I was left with two pairs of empty boxes and two options for filling them… two and seven.
After hours of reasoning, I was forced to do something I found extremely distasteful. I had to resort to guessing.
So, for the first pair, I tried two and then seven leaving seven and then two for the second pair.
This combination worked and the puzzle was complete.
I am not the sort that could simply walk away at this point.
If this combination worked, then logically speaking, the other combination would not.
So, I reversed the numbers.
To my great surprise, this combination worked as well and yielded an equally correct solution.
This, however, violated one of the rules of Sudoku in that a puzzle had to have one unique solution.
I felt a certain amount of satisfaction, because I now knew why I had not been able to solve the puzzle.
There was simply no way to solve it using reasoning alone.
By now you're probably asking what the connection is between this analogy and the opening scripture.
When it comes to salvation, Jesus not only gives us a clue, He gives us the answer.
He tells us that He is the way.
Hypothetically speaking, what if He had said that He was a way?
That would imply that there were other ways.
Let us suppose then, that someone decided they would choose one of those ways instead without knowing what they were?
Let us further suppose, someone had chosen one of those ways sincerely believing that they had found a way to their salvation.
What if they had chosen incorrectly?
Sadly, they would be unaware their choice was incorrect until judgment and then it would be too late.
Fortunately for us that will never be an issue.
Jesus made it plain that He is the only way.
That is the only choice that must be made.
Acts 4:12 (NET) - "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved."
Now there are those detractors who claim that this view is too narrow.
They ask how anyone could believe in a God who provides only one way to be saved.
My response is twofold.
First... Jesus is the only way, but, He makes Himself available to anyone. Does that seem narrow?
Second... Look closely at human history. Mankind has proven himself capable of committing of all manner of atrocity and evil. In that light, it is nothing short of miraculous that we are provided with one way at all.
Blessings,
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeet.byethost3.com on Friday, August 20, 2010.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I'll be back here on Friday, August 27, 2010.
Jesus replied, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
A few years ago, I got caught up in the Sudoku craze when it was at its peak of popularity.
I enjoyed them because they were a kind of puzzle that relied solely on reasoning to solve.
I remember one puzzle in particular that, try as I might, I simply could not solve.
After filling in virtually the entire 9x9 grid, I was left with two pairs of empty boxes and two options for filling them… two and seven.
After hours of reasoning, I was forced to do something I found extremely distasteful. I had to resort to guessing.
So, for the first pair, I tried two and then seven leaving seven and then two for the second pair.
This combination worked and the puzzle was complete.
I am not the sort that could simply walk away at this point.
If this combination worked, then logically speaking, the other combination would not.
So, I reversed the numbers.
To my great surprise, this combination worked as well and yielded an equally correct solution.
This, however, violated one of the rules of Sudoku in that a puzzle had to have one unique solution.
I felt a certain amount of satisfaction, because I now knew why I had not been able to solve the puzzle.
There was simply no way to solve it using reasoning alone.
By now you're probably asking what the connection is between this analogy and the opening scripture.
When it comes to salvation, Jesus not only gives us a clue, He gives us the answer.
He tells us that He is the way.
Hypothetically speaking, what if He had said that He was a way?
That would imply that there were other ways.
Let us suppose then, that someone decided they would choose one of those ways instead without knowing what they were?
Let us further suppose, someone had chosen one of those ways sincerely believing that they had found a way to their salvation.
What if they had chosen incorrectly?
Sadly, they would be unaware their choice was incorrect until judgment and then it would be too late.
Fortunately for us that will never be an issue.
Jesus made it plain that He is the only way.
That is the only choice that must be made.
Acts 4:12 (NET) - "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved."
Now there are those detractors who claim that this view is too narrow.
They ask how anyone could believe in a God who provides only one way to be saved.
My response is twofold.
First... Jesus is the only way, but, He makes Himself available to anyone. Does that seem narrow?
Second... Look closely at human history. Mankind has proven himself capable of committing of all manner of atrocity and evil. In that light, it is nothing short of miraculous that we are provided with one way at all.
Blessings,
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeet.byethost3.com on Friday, August 20, 2010.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I'll be back here on Friday, August 27, 2010.
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