She is taking beautiful pictures in Germany and Italy, pictures of cities with ancient cathedrals, old cobblestone streets and statues. I am enjoying European history through the lenses of her cameras.One picture in particular in her album collection caught my attention, not for the beauty of the sight, but because of the significance it represents. A picture taken in Worms, Germany where Martin Luther the Protestant Reformer made a famous speech in St. Peter's Cathedral, a marker commemorates in German, the famous words spoken by Martin Luther, "Here I stand,I can do no other."
Wow, I thought, how amazing to be able to stand at the same spot that Martin Luther, the German monk stood hundreds of years ago refusing to retract his belief that man is saved by grace and not by works.This morning reading in the Bible, in the 17th chapter of Acts, I am reminded of the Apostle Paul's presence in Italy, Greece and all the European cities that he proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I visualized mentally what it would have been like to stand in the market place of Athens and to hear a speech by the Apostle Paul, and then later to follow him when he is taken to the Jewish elders and council, and hear his famous speech at the Areopagus.
I am so grateful for those early brave saints that took the Gospel forward, and stood their ground for the truth, even at the risk of death or excommunication. The same gratitude I hold today, for the men and women who stand up for truth, and not cower to the culture. Here is Paul's famous speech at the Areopagus.
Acts 17: 17-28
The Unknown God
17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate 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. 19 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? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 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. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship —and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[a] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[b]
Something To Think About
In verse 28 Paul says it all... "In him we live and move and have our being"... Ponder that, and then ask yourself, do I believe that God is with me in everything I do, and is the reason I live?
Or do you have an unknown, man made God like Paul talked about? Is this man made obsession requiring your effort to sustain you. Do you feel empty, and drained from the constant requirement to do well, be perfect and compete for everything?
God is our father, reaching out to us, offering a life full of breath, and newness in this world, and in eternity.
Believing otherwise will lead us to a place of decay, eventually. Only God the creator can give new life- to supersede the law of deterioration. Without God, we are among the walking dead, our hope is in our faith- 2Corinthians 4:16-Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
God has a plan for everything good to be renewed and restored. Read for yourself, it is all recorded starting in Genesis, Chapter1.
God has a plan for everything good to be renewed and restored. Read for yourself, it is all recorded starting in Genesis, Chapter1.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..."
