God Decided, Through The Foolishness Of Our Proclamation,

To Save Those Who Believe.

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Every night, Howard and Mel frequented the cheap bars in Grand Rapids, Michigan, hoping to drown away another miserable day. Finally, the pain of a wasted life was too much, so Mel hopped a train for Chicago, where he hoped to end it all. In Chicago, he walked barefoot through a Chicago snowstorm in 1897, headed for a self-imposed demise in Lake Michigan. But he was stopped by a worker from the Pacific Garden Mission. Mel went inside, heard the gospel, and accepted Jesus as his Savior.

Later, Mel went back to Grand Rapids to start a mission. However, his old friend Howard did not want to hear the message and eventually Howard committed suicide. More than 100 years later, the Mel Trotter Mission still welcomes people who need a place to stay and who need Jesus. Like Mel and Howard, we all have a choice.

To choose Christ now is a choice for eternity.

Our Daily Bread – January 17, 2007