Skip to main content

I’m Not A Smart Man



    I always had a soft spot for Simon Peter.  As a person of limited intelligence, he has been a good role model for me.  In the Bible, Peter doesn't come off as the brightest bulb in the bunch.  First, his nickname is Rock.[1]  It takes three times before he gets it anything (Matthew 26:75, John 21:15-17, Acts 10:16-17).  Peter is always saying something he shouldn't (Mark 8:33, Luke 9:33-39, John 13:9-10).  And he is kind of slow on the uptake (Acts 12:6-10[2]).  Peter doesn't always handle things the best way (Galatians 2:11-14) and even say he finds some scriptures “hard to understand” (2nd Peter 3:16).

    You don’t see those mental flaws however keep him from being a powerful force in the cause of Christ. You can’t read the Gospel without seeing Peter, warts and all. You can’t imagine the church’s rise in the Book of Acts without his influence.  He serves as apostle, elder, spokesman, preacher and pillar in the church.  He may be ordinary average guy but because of Jesus he becomes amazing (Acts 4:13). 
    
    It doesn't take a big IQ to serve the Lord.

    Don’t get me wrong I think we need people of intelligence in the church but I have noticed something interesting. You don’t see people not being saved because they can’t grasp the simple message of the Gospel, but rather you see people that are too “smart” to submit to it (1st Corinthians 1:21).  I've seen it over and over again; people raise themselves to such a “scholarly” level as to explain away what the word of God say rather than accepting that it “says what it means and means what it says”.

    Rather than accept the plain simple teaching of the word, men that should be smarter will invent all kinds of ways to get around it. The Bible warns those that think they are wiser than God in 1st  Corinthians 3:18-20. “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, "He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS"; and again, "THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS."

    You can’t outsmart God; you would be a fool to try!



[1] How many mathematicians do you know nicknamed “Rock”?
[2] When the angel is breaking him out of jail, he tells him to be quick, then has to remind him to put his shoes and coat on. Peter doesn’t even figure out what is going on till he’s already standing out in the street
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Does A Lion Tamer Use a Chair?

  Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair   It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission.  It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Right to Arm Bears

  In the book of 2 nd Kings 2, we have one of the most unusual, violent and curious passages in scripture. It involves the prophet Elisha siccing a couple of bears on some kids that were mocking his bald head.    As a guy that is a little light on top that has been around some surly kids, I can feel for the guy. But seriously a bear attack? On kids? What is going on? ….young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, "Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!"  When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number. 2 nd Kings 2:23-25  It might help to explore the passage a bit more. The baldhead statement: This was an identifying mark of the prophet as opposed to Elijah who was hairy (1st Kings 1:8) a jab to say you are not him. The taunt to go up: Elijah has just been taken into heaven by the Lord a sight seen by ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mighty Gulf

  It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding.  To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two.   Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God?   In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...
Post a Comment
Read more