1-19-15 Paul in Athens

22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’^b As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’^c

29“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17) 

Thoughts: Paul was trying to help the Athenians who were always itching to hear the latest theory and philosophy, to see what he believed was an eternal universal truth.  Paul believed the God who made all the world was calling all people to Himself.  Paul tried to accommodate his sharing of the Gospel to the Athenians.  He sets us all an example here of trying to put the eternal truth in language that the hearers could hear and be attracted to.  Not many people responded to Paul.  His message was that we can know the God who made the universe.  

Prayer: Help me, Lord to be a bold witness as Paul was.  Give me wisdom to be able to put the good news of your hope in language that others can understand.  

On this Martin Luther King Day- let us remember that God is for all people- no matter what color or ethnicity.  God wants all people to know Him- for He made us all.  We are all God's children- but He wants us to acknowledge Him as Father.