August 18, 2016. Devotions

Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; “for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. “Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, (Act 17:22-26 NKJ)

The Stoics didn’t know a GOD that had personality and the Epicureans didn’t  know a GOD that could be known, let alone, know them personally. They probably would have preferred him to be the unknown God. To the Stoics, remember, they believed that man and gods were subject to nature.  Here, Paul tells them that this God is Lord of heaven and earth, the God I know is not the god of the box, but bigger than anything that exists. To the Epicureans, Paul would have said, “can you hear your breathing?” “God put it there.”

There many gods and temples were pathetic.  God is so big it is he who set the boundaries of time and space.  Think big—think God!