How Do It Know?

“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually approached, or examined”.  But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one” (1 Cor. 2:14-15).

Hey Gang:  Is that verse not a perfect picture of an ever-growing number of folks in our country?  It reminds me of a neat little ditty that I used many times when I was on the cold-roast beef and watery mashed potato circuit.  Don’t forget the peas! 

It seems three boys were sitting on the curb discussing some of the finer points of life when one the lads asked the question, “What is the greatest invention of all times?”  After pondering a bit, the first boy suggested it was the invention of the wheel.  He added thee are not many things in our world that do not have a wheel of some type that makes them tick.

The second lad spoke up and agreed that was surely an awesome invention, but he thought it was the ‘chip’.  He then went on to explain the many inventions that have been made possible through this tiny device.  I mean, it totally revamped communication to the point where not only can we talk to someone in a remote part of the world, but I can see his pictures while talking to him. 

Well, both agreed that this was a very powerful choice; but the third suggested there was a far great invention that has impacted our world, the invention of the ‘thermos bottle’.  Astounded, the first two contributors questioned the sanity of their young friend, but he remained adamant in his answer with the following comment: “If you put hot stuff in the thermos bottle it remains hot, but if you put cold stuff in, it remains cold. “How do it know?”

Well, you might question my sanity for using that illustration, but let me share a very common illustration of our Scripture this morning, “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him”.   In our Family Seminars we always began with the ground rules that were the foundation of what we were going to present; number one on that list was that we use Biblical Principles.  There was always the guy who was sitting in the last row, on the outside seat with arms crossed and a scowl on his face to let me know, he was there under duress and he would have nothing to do with those principles. 

In one class the cross-armed guy with the scowl on his face let me know that he did not believe in that stuff.  My question, “What stuff?”  “That Bible Stuff”.  “What Bible stuff?”.  “You know?”  My response, “You are telling me you don’t believe in something but you have no idea what you don’t believe in?”

We could always determine the pain level of the class participants by their willingness to listen and apply the principles that we take straight from the Word of God; principles that work whether you believe in the Author or not.

It was always interesting to me that those who were going through the wars with their children were often called weak and ineffective.  To that I reply, ‘Balderdash”.  True, I referred to them as my “agony and pain” club for they choose not to “Accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually approached, or examined”. 

But, what joy there was when a cross-armed, scowling man came to the realization that what he was doing was causing him great agony and pain, and he decided there must be a better way and realized that Jesus is that way!  I pray there are no cross-armed and scowling faces out there.  If so, bite the bullet and give Jesus a chance!

Blessings,

Gramps