10/08/2024
I think this account written by the Apostle Paul's traveling companion, Dr. Luke, says much about our world and the various gods and religions of today, none of whom present themselves and Creator or Savior of all creation. Luke covers a point of reasoning which the Apostle was privileged to have presented to Greek stoics and philosophers who'd met daily on Mars Hill in Athens...
"Then Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one mand He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.
God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’e As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’f 29Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.
Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent. For 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 17:22-31
Take heed today and repent ("think differently" in the original language), those of you who believe you don't need God, or have made for yourselves a god who suits your needs... or for that matter, have elevated yourselves to your own throne. God will not be mocked. He has sacrificed Himself for you, that you may call on Him for forgiveness. He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, yet He will come and judge the world sooner than you think.
The troubles which are rapidly appearing in frequency and intensity all over the world, and which will come upon each person, are God's final call to turn to Him in faith and be delivered from the wrath to come.
Does God enjoy allowing such trials to overtake us? No. But just as it sometimes takes a deluge of water to soften hard soils...it takes deep trials to soften our hardened hearts, that they might turn and call to the one, true God for help. I appeal to everyone, in Jesus' name.
Psalm 107...
1Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
His loving devotion endures forever.
2Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy
3and gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.
4Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no path to a city in which to dwell.
5They were hungry and thirsty;
their soul fainted within them.
6Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and He delivered them from their distress.
7He led them on a straight path
to reach a city where they could live.
8Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion
and His wonders to the sons of men.
9For He satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
10Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and chains,
11because they rebelled against the words of God
and despised the counsel of the Most High.
12He humbled their hearts with hard labor;
they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
13Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and He saved them from their distress.
14He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death
and broke away their chains.
15Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion
and His wonders to the sons of men.
16For He has broken down the gates of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron.
17Fools, in their rebellious ways,
and through their iniquities, suffered affliction.
18They loathed all food
and drew near to the gates of death.
19Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and He saved them from their distress.
20He sent forth His word and healed them;
He rescued them from the Pit.
21Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion
and His wonders to the sons of men.
22Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
and declare His works with rejoicing.
23Others went out to sea in ships,
conducting trade on the mighty waters.
24They saw the works of the LORD,
and His wonders in the deep.
25For He spoke and raised a tempest
that lifted the waves of the sea.
26They mounted up to the heavens, then sunk to the depths;
their courage melted in their anguish.
27They reeled and staggered like drunkards,
and all their skill was useless.
28Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and He brought them out of their distress.
29He calmed the storm to a whisper,
and the waves of the seac were hushed.
30They rejoiced in the silence,
and He guided them to the harbor they desired.
31Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion
and His wonders to the sons of men.
32Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people
and praise Him in the council of the elders.
33He turns rivers into deserts,
springs of water into thirsty ground,
34and fruitful land into fields of salt,
because of the wickedness of its dwellers.
35He turns a desert into pools of water
and a dry land into flowing springs.
36He causes the hungry to settle there,
that they may establish a city in which to dwell.
37They sow fields and plant vineyards
that yield a fruitful harvest.
38He blesses them, and they multiply greatly;
He does not let their herds diminish.
39When they are decreased and humbled
by oppression, evil, and sorrow,
40He pours out contempt on the nobles
and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
41But He lifts the needy from affliction
and increases their families like flocks.
42The upright see and rejoice,
and all iniquity shuts its mouth.
43Let him who is wise pay heed to these things
and consider the loving devotion of the LORD.
Amen.
