THE FOOL SAYS…

When the famous preacher, D. L. Moody, was conducting evangelistic meetings, he frequently faced hecklers. In the final service of one campaign, an usher handed him a note. It was from an atheist who had been giving Mr. Moody a great deal of trouble. The evangelist, however, supposed it was an announcement so he quieted the large audience and prepared to read it.

Opening the folded piece of paper, he found scrawled in large print only one word: "Fool!"

Moody, however, was equal to the occasion. He said, "I've just been handed a memo which contains the single word 'Fool'. This is most unusual. I've heard of those who wrote letters and forgot to sign their names, but this is the first time I've ever heard of anyone who signed his name and then forgot to write the letter!"

Taking advantage of the unique situation, Moody promptly changed his sermon text to Psalm 53, verse 1, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God!'" 

-- Source Unknown

#5590

THE CORE TO WISDOM

If you want wisdom, don’t try to obtain it all by yourself. Get wise counsel. Get around people whose character you trust, who have good judgement, who love you, and who care about your well-being. Tell them, “I have this decision to make. Speak into my life.” Very often God speaks wisdom into us through somebody else.

Solomon, the icon of wisdom in the Old Testament, wrote Proverbs 12:15: “The way of fools seems right to them.” Why? Because they’re fools. That’s part of what it means to be a fool, and there is a fool in all of us. There is a fool in me. There is a fool in you.

“The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” A coachable spirit is core to wisdom. We all need this. 

-- Adapted from John Ortberg in “All the Places to Go… How Will You Know?”

#4876

THE WAY OF A FOOL

The writer of Proverbs says that the opposite of wisdom is foolishness and the opposite of a wise person is a fool.

Today the word fool often means someone with low intelligence, but in biblical usage, fools may have a high I.Q. and a reputation for success.  What makes them fools is that they ignore God's wisdom, preferring to follow the shifting dictates of the crowd or their own fallible opinions.  While fools often consider themselves clever -- people who know how to beat the system -- their cleverness all too often leads to their ruin.  Their penchant for distorting the truth, their lack of discernment and discipline, their unwillingness to exhibit self-control and their apparent delight in throwing caution to the wind put them on a path to disaster.

-- Bill Hybels in Making Life Work: Putting God's Wisdom into Action


#3273

FOOLISH CHOICES

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Psalm 111:10)

Some time ago, a good friend of mine who has been far from God his whole life finally admitted that his own path, his own choices, his own foolish impulses had led him into a royal mess. In a private setting, he emotionally -- and with unprintable words -- described the crash of his entire life. He ended with this brief summary statement: "I have blown it!"

I told him that I couldn't disagree with a word he had said and that the current mess he was in was nothing more than the predictable consequence of twenty-five-years of folly. What could he expect after making one foolish choice after the next? "But," I said, "listen to me. There is a way out of your chronic case of the follies. You can make a really smart choice in the next five minutes. You can make a choice that is so wise it will redirect what is left of your life here on earth and redirect your entire eternity. If you're ever going to make wise choices, here is where you have to start. Fling open the door of your heart to God; put your hand in the hand of Christ extended to you; accept the forgiveness that is offered to you. The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.

-- Bill Hybels in Making Life Work: Putting God's Wisdom into Action


#2273