Post on a Mountainside

I am on vacation. I am sitting on a mountainside watching the fog roll over the upper slopes as I type. Seeing the tall, grand trees makes me seem a little small in this world, but I know I am so important to God! He put me exactly where he wanted me to be in this world. He gave me the talents I have to write and share the good news. I get inspiration from many places, but here on the mountain inspires me greatly. Go somewhere you feel inspired and discover God in a new and different way today. Be still  and just know he is God and that he loves you very much.

Read Acts 17:16-34

Title in NIV: Paul gives a sermon to the Athenians.

I bet Paul thought he had a mountain of philosophies and wrong thinking to overcome when he saw the mounds of idols in Athens. Paul reasoned with the Jews in the synagogue as well as the God-fearing Greeks. He also reasoned with people in the marketplace day after day.

            A great mass of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to mock Paul and wondered “what is this babbler trying to say.” Another group said, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.”

            Paul continually talked about Jesus and his resurrection that was of higher thinking than the hill of foreign gods they had created. But they did not understand so they brought Paul to a meeting of the Areopagus on a hill in Athens.

            They told Paul that his teachings were strange and they wanted to know what they meant. All the Athenians and foreigners spent time talking about the latest ideas. These people make me think of the saying, “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.” Apparently, they did not stand for anything. Paul commended their religious nature and appealed to that good trait to try and broaden their thinking and teach them about Jesus and his resurrection. He wanted them to stand for Christ. Paul told them he found their alter To An Unknown God. Paul told them that he was there to proclaim to them who their unknown god was.

            Paul said:

• God made the world and everything in it
• He is the Lord of heaven and earth
• He does not live in temples made by man (that might have been hard to acknowledge considering their many idols)
• He gives all men life and breath and every thing else
• From one man he made nations of men (appealing to their knowledge of their forefathers)
• He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him.
• He is not far from each of us
• Even your poets have said, “We are his offspring.”

Paul continued to appeal to them using the words of their own people. He said that since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that a divine being is like gold or silver or stone that is made by man’s hands. Now that you know the Truth, people everywhere should repent. God has given proof of all this by raising Jesus from the dead.

            Some repented, some sneered, some wanted to know more. Some followed Paul and some believed.

Do you need to repent of something you are putting before God? It does not have to be an idol you have candles around at your home. I could be anything that takes up your time, that is of no worth, when you could be filling your mind with the Word or doing good deeds. Examples: Internet, social media, video games, kids sports, NFL, NBA, shopping when you have enough already. I could go on and on. These things are not ‘bad’, but if they get ahead of time with God they travel over the line into sin. Evaluate and retrain your brain if needed.