Faith & Insight: Don’t be fooled

Each one of us has experienced a practical joke. Today is April Fools’ Day, maybe somebody has already played a prank on you. If not, be prepared.

Story has it in 1962 in Sweden there was only one television channel broadcasting at that time in black and white. The station announced its “technical expert” had found a way to view the broadcast in color. They announced that by taking stockings and cutting them and taping them to the screen; the light would bend in such a way that it would appear as a colored picture.

Thousands of viewers fell for the hoax. Many say today they remember their parents (their fathers in particular) rushing home to find stockings to place over the TV set. Regular color broadcasts began in Sweden on April 1, 1970.

It’s one thing to be fooled and have a laugh or two at your or someone’s expense, but to play the fool with eternity is more than a foolish matter.

Psalm 14:1 says the fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” Consider a challenge that has been around for quite some time, how much of all the knowledge in the world do you think you know?

One might answer 5 percent, which is extremely generous considering all there is the possibility of knowing. To say there’s no God is to play the fool with the 95 percent of what one doesn’t know.

Paul writing to the church of Colossae was imploring them to beware lest anyone would cheat them through philosophy and empty deceit. According to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Have a happy and joyous April.

Pat Propster is the pastor of Calvary Chapel of Carson City.