November 16 - Acts 17:16-18:3 | 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5:11

Good morning everyone,

Of all the people in the Bible, after Jesus, I honestly think Paul is my favorite and who I yearn to be most like. David and Peter, running a very close second, I can most identify with. They love, love, loved the Lord with all their hearts and wanted more than anything to do right and please Him but were always blowing it in one way or another, having to go back to the cross to ask for forgiveness. We know Paul too experienced that, to some extent, in Romans he said, “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” But I love how bold Paul was, how fearlessly, how matter-of-factly, he presented the Gospel to everyone from the small town farmer to the top authority in the land. 

Today we read that Paul is hanging out in Athens waiting for Timothy and Silas to join him and while walking the city he was “greatly distressed,” filled with anger and grief, to see the city was full of idols, particularly one whose alter read “to an unknown god.” Seriously? Use your mind’s eye to see Paul reading that inscription, then shaking his head at how lost the people of Athens were. Paul tried to reason in the synagogue with the Jews and believing Greeks, he also went to the market place to tell the people about Jesus. A group of philosophers, whose belief  was seeking happiness or pleasure was the primary goal of life (sound familiar), began a debate with him with some wondering, “What is this babbler trying to say?” We’re told others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.”

They took Paul to a council meeting where Paul told them,”You are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.” Then he laid it all out for them. He told them how God made the world and everything in it, that God doesn’t live in temples nor is He served by human hands but rather, He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. And as he continued on with the Truth some hearts remained hard but some believed and became followers. 

This whole scenario gave me pause to think of my friends in Kathmandu and how heart breaking it is has got to be for them to walk the streets of a pagan foreign land, witnessing the worship of foreign gods. How frustrating for them to share God’s truth only to have it bounce off closed ears and hard hearts. How frightening to have directed at them the anger and denial from many who think them to be mere babblers and how heavy and suffocating the darkness of spiritual warfare must get for them. Yet day after day they go out boldly speaking the Gospel and try to reach a people who are not that different from the fools of Athens in Paul’s day; in quest of and delighted, beyond words, when someone they are speaking with perks up, says, “Yeah, I get that. Tell me how to have your God in my heart.”

Our missionaries need our prayers. These people who have taken Mark 16:15 which says, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” literally. They fight battles we think we can imagine, but we can not, for we are safety tucked away here in the USA. I would encourage you to pray for doors to be opened for them, that God’s Word would fall on soft hearts, for their protection, for guidance and for refreshment. 

Paul knew prayer would bring results, in 2 Corinthians he said, “He will rescue us because you are helping by praying for us. As a result, many will give thanks to God because so many people’s prayers for our safety have been answered.” We are not all called to be missionaries like Paul or my friends, but we can all be praying. Amen?

Have a good day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …