But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God……. 1 Corinthians 1:27

I am not a big card player. My wife is a big fan of Gin and I will play her on occasion until she pounds me into the ground at which point I move on to another activity. But there is one card game that I love to play……..the game is called “War” or “Battle”. I am sure many of you are familiar with the game or have played it. I played it with my grandmother growing up. The game is quite simple. You and a partner start with the same number of cards and with each play you lay down the card from the top of your pile. If the card you lay down is higher in value than the card your competitor lays down, then you get to keep both cards. This activity goes on and on until someone is left “holding all the cards”. I remember being so excited when I had the Aces, the Kings and the Queens. I knew that with those high value cards, I could eventually win the game and dominate my opponent.

But what if something happened in the middle of the game? What if someone came into the game and changed the rules? What if the low value cards all of a sudden were of more significance than the value of the high cards? The outlook on your game might change drastically. There is no doubt that those in a position to win, might quickly move to a position of losing.

In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, he warns the believers there to be careful not to blend in with the world and accept its value system. And in these early verses he speaks of a different value system for believers. As other parts of Scripture reinforce for us, the value system of God is different than the worlds. Much like the example I gave from the game of “War”, many times we focus on the high valued cards that the world offers. As we value holding the aces and kings of achievement, performance, winning, wealth and pleasures we become easily duped into thinking we are winning the game. But when Jesus came for us, He not only ushered in the value system of the kingdom of God but He came to save our sinful hearts from the false allure of the world.  May our hearts always be changed by Him and thru this transformation may we come to value the 2’s, 3’s and 4’s of His kingdom. You are in Christ Jesus, the Gamechanger.