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Writer's pictureClare DeGraaf

The Rule of the Fool


Saint Francis of Assisi was one of the greatest blessings to Christianity. He once said this, then lived it out;


“ I prefer you not talk to me about any other rule, nor recommend any other ideas or manner of life, than that which the Lord in his mercy has given to me. He told me I am to be a new kind of fool in this world.”


Francis, “Rule of the Fool” in all its simplicity turned the world upside down. Francis simply obeyed Jesus for the rest of his life and in the process, returned to the gospel with such force that it shook the entire Christian world.


“But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” Matthew 7:26


So, what does a Christian fool look like? 500 years after Francis, the Order of the Mustard Seed was founded by a young nobleman and his friends at a boys school in Europe. This group of courageous young men saw their order as a kind of spiritual order of knighthood, not dedicated to personal honor, or self-advancement, but to radical service to Jesus their king.


They had three rules and a motto that summarized them.

1. To be true to Christ.

2. To be kind to people.

3. To take the Gospel to the nation.


Their Motto: None live for themselves.


Their order became such fools for Christ that they formed a prayer movement that had people praying 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for more than 100 years! Some of their members actually sold themselves into slavery in the Caribbean, in order to bring the gospel to slaves.


That got me thinking, what must Jesus think of Christians today, including me? I have never shown anywhere near that level of devotion to God. I was reminded of these words from Jesus.


“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:13-14, 21


These verses are not there just for information about other people. They are a warning. “Few” will enter into the kingdom of Heaven. We modern day Christians are confident we will enter Heaven because we’ve “trusted Jesus” whatever that means. Dallas Willard, one of the most influential Christian thinkers of our time said this in The Divine Conspiracy.


“They (Christians today) have been led to believe that God, for some unfathomable reason, just thinks it’s appropriate to transfer credit from Christ’s merit account to ours and wipe out our sin debt, upon inspecting our minds and finding that we believe a particular theory of the atonement to be true – even if it appears that we trust everything but God in all possible other matters that concern us. In other words, how is it possible that one can rely on Christ for the next life, without doing so for this one? Is this really possible? Surely it is not!”


So, this blog is as much for me, as you. What am I trusting in today, more than God and what does my life tell God who and what I truly love?


“Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become ‘fools’ so that you may become wise.” 1 Corinthians 3:18


So my resolution for this Christmas and the next month and hopefully this year is to be a greater fool for Christ. To do that I'll not only need to engage in deeper self-examination, but be willing to be "foolish enough" to live it out. Does Christ consider me his fool?


Jim Elliot, martyred for Christ at 29, famously said this, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Will you join me in daring to give Jesus, this Christmas the gift he wants from everyone who claims they love him? Foolish obedience.

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4 則留言


clareword
clareword
2020年12月24日

Rainie, of course works do not get us into Heaven. But for all true followers of Jesus, living like him, foolishness to many, is to be our life’s mission.

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Carlos Hidalgo
Carlos Hidalgo
2020年12月22日

Thank you, Clare. It is convicting because I want to appear to be anything but a fool. Yet, in the end, I am, when I do not live in a posture of bended knee before Christ.

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rainie1964
rainie1964
2020年12月22日

I hope ur not saying that it’s works that gets us into heaven and not the pure grace of god and the saving blood of jesus. As no way are any of us righteous enough to deserve to enter heaven apart from accepting Jesus into our hearts. And as far as at Francis’ life is concerned it is ONLY GOD who gave him the ability to live his life as he did not cause he was more righteuous than anyone else.


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kimmers1713
2020年12月21日

Thanks for sharing this morning Mr. DeGraff!! Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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