Do you have your coffee? (smile) Here we go! Let’s begin by reading ..... Acts 17: 16- 23 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. Paul then 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 looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD’. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you!” Isn’t it interesting that our “God” thinks just like we do? He has the same interests, likes and dislikes! He even hates the same people we hate! I heard someone say one time, “God didn’t create man in His image ... Man created God in his image!” There’s a lot of truth there. Well, there is in the last part. The first part is wrong. God did create man in His image! How dangerous! But, that’s what we get when we can “choose” our own religion. We choose a religion with the same prejudices we have! If we hate, we find a religion that hates. That’s not hard to do! Most religions hate certain people. People who are different. Christianity is no exception! On the far right, we have Christians who hate Moslems. On the far left, we have Christians who hate the far right! Our scripture this week shows the Apostle Paul finding common ground with a group of people in order to win them to Jesus. Based on this, I have an question. How would the Apostle Paul minister to Moslems? Well, he might introduce himself like this: “Hey, brothers. I refer to you as ‘brothers’, because we have the same father. Abraham.” Did you know that? That’s right! The Moslems are children of Abraham, just like the people we call “Jews”. The Jews are descendants of Abraham and Sarah. While the Moslems are descendants of Abraham and Hagar. We have the same “Father in Heaven”. That’s right. We both pray to the God of the Bible. And, we have the same Bible. Well, our “Old Testament” is the same. But, just as we have our “New Testament” they have their “Koran”. Do the Moslem’s have extremists? Oh yes. Do Christians have extremists? Mercy ... must I answer that? (Yikes!) Well, how do we know that we haven’t simply “invented” a God in our image? I know because MY God is so different than me! And, He has changed me! My God is love. And, the more I walk with Him, the more I find myself changing. I am becoming more and more loving! We read and study God’s Word to experience “THE CLOSER WALK”. Blessings, Dr Steven James Hale Your Web Church Pastor
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 20:09:10 +0000
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