Contradictions...

Contradictions...they're all over the place, aren't they?  Yes, even in the Bible!  [Am I allowed to say that?  I mean I guess I could try and spin the verbiage and call them "paradoxes" or better yet "theological hapax legomenon" but we'd all just see right through that junk, wouldn't we?]

So let's try something new.  Let's try actually embracing some contradictions.  Because after all, contradictions aren't always bad.  Contradictions don't always lead to fallacy.  Pascal said it well, "Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth." 

And here are some contradictions I've been thinking of lately: God uses the foolish to shame the wise.  He uses the weak to shame the strong.  More specifically:

1Cor. 1:18   For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
1Cor. 1:20   Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,  23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,  24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.   

And with that in mind, the past several weeks throughout the Rock God series (read: sermonic "foolishness" ; ) people have actually been accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior for the first time!  [Read that last sentence again.]  Seriously...how crazy is that?  People coming to Christ after a message laced with Bon Jovi, U2, and Nickelback?!?  How is that even possible?

...I may not be Scotch-Korean but I'm definitely starting to like these contradictions!  ; )