April Fools' Day

April 1

Today is the First of April, April Fools' Day. Be alert for the little pranks your family and friends will try to play on you. Enjoy the fun of it, but don't let yourself get tripped up too many times in the trickery of the day.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember on this day which is dedicated to and a celebration of fools is that the Bible, the holy and inerrant word of God says, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God,'" Psalm 14:1.

In fact, when the unflattering term, 'fool,' is used in the Bible, it usually references a person who disdains the idea of God or His holiness or His lordship over man. An example is the story of the wise and foolish virgins. The wise young ladies were waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom with their lamps trimmed and their supply of oil fresh. The foolish girls had their lamps trimmed but had neglected to have spare oil. (See Matthew 25:1-14.)

They are indicative of the believer who is waiting for the arrival of the Lord but has lost the fervor, the passion of his initial expectation that Christ's return would be imminent. He no longer senses the presence of the Holy Spirit within his hearts he no longer anticipates the soon return of Jesus, he refrains from sharing his faith with the lost, he preoccupies himself with temporal pursuits. The Oil is gone.

Then there are those who spend themselves sharing the word of the Lord but they do it for selfish ends rather than for the purposes of Christ. They will be the ones who, on the day when all men's works are tried by fire will say, "Lord, didn't I prophecy in Your name?" "Lord, didn't I cast out demons in Your name?" "Lord, didn't I heal the sick in Your name?" And He will say, "I never knew you." (See Matthew 7:21-23.)

If we expend our energy on propagating the words of the Kingdom of Christ without the heart of Christ at the center of our motives, we are fools, for He is not interested in watching us succeed in propagating our own little religious fiefdom so that we may be aggrandized in the eyes of men.

Our Jesus cares about the souls of men and His desire is that we, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," Mark 16:15, not that we go into all the world to make a name for ourselves and accrue a fortune by selling God's unspeakable gift (see II Corinthians 9:15) for our financial gain.

Today, April Fools' Day, is perhaps a good time to assess ourselves, to discern the heart of who we are and the foundation of the faith in Christ that we profess. Today is a good day to lay hold of the only foolishness that is accounted to be wise--that of I Corinthians 1:25 which says, "The foolishness of God (that one Man would die for the sins of all men) is wiser than all the wisdom of men..." And that passage goes on to affirm, "...the weakness of God (Jesus crucified on a cruel Roman cross) is stronger than men," for in His weakness and in His foolishness, He enabled all who believe to become strong and wise.