OCTOBER 24 "ARE YOU A FOOL?"

I was reading Proverbs today with a little trepidation. Thinking, "I hope I'm not a fool?".  What a negative discourse this is. If the first four books of the New Testament are called "The Gospels" ie: Good News, what would we call Proverbs 26?  As you are reading through this proverb, you don't get the sense that there is much hope for a fool. It's sad because I know a few fools and so do you! Not only does it pretty accurately describe a fool, it also describes or alludes as to how we may try to work with a fool and you know what, I have tried them all and true to this proverb, the results have been as stated in the scripture. Let's look at the idea of "honoring a fool". Verse 8 deals with that. You may ask "who would honor a fool?", I have!  And obviously others have too; otherwise it would not be addressed in our text. I honored a fool in hopes that in honoring them, it would encourage them to change and just like it says, it came right back to hit me in the face! I have trusted a fool with responsibility, I have tried to trust work to a fool and it has always back fired. It's interesting that a whole proverb on "a fool" takes on the subject of laziness too. As if the author is now going to pick on somebody else. However, the author is not picking on somebody else, the fool and the lazy person are one and the same! And as I keep reading, now a few more people come to mind and I am even more discouraged. For some, they are reading this proverb and thinking of a son, a daughter, a parent, a brother, a husband, a wife, a friend.....people will all love so much, but they are "fools" and as we read Proverbs 26, all we can think about is them and how tragic it is. A foolish toddler affects nobody else but himself, but a foolish adult affects all those around him. We are the ones being called, we are the ones having to show up at the police station, we are the ones having to bail him or her out, we are the ones having to go pick up their children, we are the ones having to make room for them in our homes, we are the ones having to lend or should I say, give them our money, our car our time and to what ends? It never seems to payoff. If we invest in a fool, we get a fools return on our investment. Proverbs 26 is clear, there is no hope for a fool. Of course this proverb doesn't talk about the hope of change through Salvation in Jesus Christ, but then again, the New Testament adds to this, "that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is foolishness to them that are perishing". And so yes, let me add to your discouragement, to say that the fool is also a perishing soul. That's probably the saddest part. The fool lives a miserable life here on earth, often hates God or gets to a place where he dismisses God all together (the fool says in his heart this is no God) and then when he/she dies, they perish into everlasting judgement, to make matters worse. Maybe you are reading this today, by some miracle and you are that fool! Well there is "good news" that as long as you're still breathing, there's hope for you to change! "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation".  If you are reading this today and you realize you once "used to be" that fool, but by the Grace of God, by a miracle you changed....I wouldn't let a day go by, that you don't thank God for that. Don't EVER take it for granted that you are not a fool, keep in your mind and heart the idea, next time you see the fool, "there go I; except for and by.......the Grace of God!"