"Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken" (Luke 24:25).

This date has traditionally been used as a day when jokesters will play some kind of trick on a friend or relative, and when the victim falls for the little scam, the perpetrator calls him an "April fool!" and everybody laughs.

When God calls someone a fool, however, it is no joking matter. It is deadly serious, and anyone who fits that description urgently needs to repent and change his ways. For example, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God" (Psalm 14:1; and Psalm 53:1). This warning surely applies both to those "intellectuals" who "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:22), and also to those who say they believe in God but completely ignore Him in their actions and decisions. "They profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him. . ." (Titus 1:16).

Remember too what God said to a man who lived only for himself and the wealth he could accumulate: "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" (Luke 12:20).

This judgment could definitely be applied to any person who builds his or her life on anything other than the Word of God. Jesus described any man who "heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not" as like "a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand"-a house which, when the storms of life came, "fell: and great was the fall of it" (Matthew 7:26-27). Even dedicated Christians who question or ignore certain truths of Scripture are called fools by Him. "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken" (Luke 24:25). "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise" (Ephesians 5:15). HMM