“When Man Becomes A Fool”

When a person turns away from God, they’re claiming they are above God; that they are too wise to believe in God or the Bible, that they are too self-sufficient to rely upon God, and they are too rational to follow God’s plan of salvation.

The Apostle Paul says that in their rejection of God they make a basic mistake.

They become fools, because they know there is a God because their conscious convicts them and creation proves His existence (Romans 1:20; 2:14-15).

But when men’s hearts become void and empty of God, and their hearts become blinded to God’s reality, they have to fill the void with something, which usually is some other god, one of their own making. They have to replace God with something that will allow them to live their lives the way they want to.

The Apostle Paul summed it up saying, “Professing to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:22)

They do this by exchanging the imperishable, unchanging, and eternal God with an image, idea, or some philosophical thought, which never lasts. They either make themselves their own god by being masters of their own universe and makers of their own destiny, or they bow down to an image that God has created.

“(They) changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:23)

What it all boils down to is that people want to be in control, to be recognized as something, and to receive credit for that which they didn’t do. Hence, they want to be God, which goes back to the sin that started it all (Genesis 3:5).

God sets before us a blessing and a curse. A blessing when we obey God, and a curse when we do not obey and turn aside to our own ways and to follow our own gods (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:20 (NIVUK).

Dennis Lee is Senior Pastor at Living Waters Fellowship, Mesquite, Nevada. He presently has two books, “From Here to There: A Journey to Spiritual Transformation,” and “Wells of Living Waters,” He also writes a religious column for a local newspaper entitled, “Rediscover the Bible for Life,” along with daily devotionals and thoughts that he posts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Living Waters Fellowship’s Website