His face shine upon us and among us- Selah ( pause and calmly

think of that)!-

That Your way may be known upon the earth, Your saving power

among all nations.

Let the peoples praise You and give thanks to You, O God.

Let all the peoples praise and give thanks to You.

(Psalm 67.1-3).

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

“Then Paul stood in front of the Aeropagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see

how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the

city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among

them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you

worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God Who made the world

and everything in it, He Who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in

shrines made by human hands, nor is He served by human hands, as though

He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mortals life and breath and

all things. From one ancestor He made all nations to inhabit the whole earth,

and He allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places

where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope

for Him and find Him- though indeed He is not far from each one of us.

For ‘In Him we live and move and have our being’; a seven some of your own

poets have said,

‘For we too are His offspring.’

Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold,

or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.

While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now He commands

all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will

have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed,

and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.”

(Acts17:22-31).

POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE

1) We live at a time not very dissimilar to Paul’s day when there were many

opinions about God. Paul stood and proclaimed the Only True God and

Jesus Christ, the only way of salvation and the answered to mankind’s

problems, quests and yearnings.

2) “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the Only True God and

Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3).

3) Paul proclaimed this message with love and in a way that is tuned in

to his audience and their cultural background starting from where they

are spiritually and what they would already know and acknowledge,

then, he built a bridge to the Truth.

4) He acknowledged the fact that the Athenians were very religious. This

is because the many forms of worship, various concepts and traditions

evolved over time are man’s religion, man’s attempt to reach or discover

God. Here however, Paul is showing them how God has already revealed

Himself in Christ Jesus and there is no good reason for ignorance. He

says, ‘while God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now He

commands people everywhere to repent.’ This is because God has in fact

revealed Himself fully in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ ‘is the reflection of God’s

glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and He sustains all things

by His powerful word. When He had made purification for sins He sat down

at the right hand of the majesty on high,’ (Hebrews 1:3).

HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD JESUS! THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES!