Tuesday, November 25, 2008

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD

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 worship. I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKOWN 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 the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and bounderies of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope 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, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
Therefore since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by man's art and own devising.
ACTS 17:22-29
I feel this scripture pretty well sums up some thoughts I have been having about the modern church and the ways they implement things to evangelize with.
We are to preach Christ and Him crucified! And yet we come up with schemes or buildings etc. to bring attention to the gospel and Lordship of Christ. We make things out of our own craftsmanship in order to aide us in remembering what Christ did for us. We build beautiful buildings in order to help us worship better. What happened to the simplicity of the gospel?
Man's wisdom is of folly. The words of God are life.
We need to scrap the ways of man, because what seems to work today may become someones idol the next. Men we need to rely on the WORD and not man's way. I feel we are in danger of adding to what Jesus already completed through His death on the Cross.
This all stems from a heart of someone who was raised in a denomination that used statues and other relics in order to help us remember what Christ did for us. I would like to end this with a question. What is the Holy Spirit for then if we need these extra things?

2 comments:

Nicolle said...

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and bounderies of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord....

As I read this,my heart became overwhelmed with joy and thanksgiving. I couldn't even finish reading your post because at that point I realized God placed me here in this time frame and this location so I would seek Him. As you know my song for the past one and a half...has been the more I seek you by Kari Jobe. I praise God to be in this place at this time to seek Him!

Steven O. said...

Nicolle, that is what it is about isn't it. In the long run.
That is the awesomeness of God. He put us where we are as with all the people of the earth. With a cheif end. To seek Him and to worship Him. He made from one blood!!! That is the glory! One blood! Jesus.
Steve