Watch out on April Fool’s Day. Do not believe everything you see or hear. I read about a clever prank in a 1985 Sport’s Illustrated article. It reads:
The 168-Mile Fastball
Sidd Finch was a young pitcher who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour -- or so Sports Illustrated claimed in a 1985 story by George Plimpton, "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch." Finch was allegedly raised in an English orphanage, had studied yoga in Tibet, gone to Harvard and was choosing between baseball and a career playing the French horn. The sub headline of the article read: "He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent lifestyle, Sidd's deciding about yoga -- and his future in baseball." The first letters of these words spell out "Happy April Fool's Day - ah (a) fib". Many people believed Finch actually existed. On April 15 -- a week after publishing a second article about Finch's resignation -- the magazine announced it all had been a hoax.
Last year my middle son posted a co-worker’s truck for sale on Craigslist with their cell number. He included a picture, quite reasonable price and the caption, “Due to a relational breakup, I must sell my truck ASAP”. His friend or perhaps now former friend received dozens of calls the first hour.
There are remarkable things in the Bible that could appear to be hoaxes, pranks, or April Fool’s jokes. Consider: City walls collapse by shouts and trumpets, a talking donkey, a floating axe-head, man walks on water, blind man sees, deaf man hears, crippled man runs, and many more.
Miracles go against the law of nature and are incredible, but credible. Easter is the celebration of the greatest April Fool’s against the devil; Jesus rises from the dead. Jesus did not make a one-time appearance, but spent 40 days appearing to hundreds of people. The only thing that tops that event is that all who believe and place their trust in Jesus Christ will conquer sin and death as He did.
No joke.
John 11:26-27
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
The 168-Mile Fastball
Sidd Finch was a young pitcher who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour -- or so Sports Illustrated claimed in a 1985 story by George Plimpton, "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch." Finch was allegedly raised in an English orphanage, had studied yoga in Tibet, gone to Harvard and was choosing between baseball and a career playing the French horn. The sub headline of the article read: "He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent lifestyle, Sidd's deciding about yoga -- and his future in baseball." The first letters of these words spell out "Happy April Fool's Day - ah (a) fib". Many people believed Finch actually existed. On April 15 -- a week after publishing a second article about Finch's resignation -- the magazine announced it all had been a hoax.
Last year my middle son posted a co-worker’s truck for sale on Craigslist with their cell number. He included a picture, quite reasonable price and the caption, “Due to a relational breakup, I must sell my truck ASAP”. His friend or perhaps now former friend received dozens of calls the first hour.
There are remarkable things in the Bible that could appear to be hoaxes, pranks, or April Fool’s jokes. Consider: City walls collapse by shouts and trumpets, a talking donkey, a floating axe-head, man walks on water, blind man sees, deaf man hears, crippled man runs, and many more.
Miracles go against the law of nature and are incredible, but credible. Easter is the celebration of the greatest April Fool’s against the devil; Jesus rises from the dead. Jesus did not make a one-time appearance, but spent 40 days appearing to hundreds of people. The only thing that tops that event is that all who believe and place their trust in Jesus Christ will conquer sin and death as He did.
No joke.
John 11:26-27
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
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