SCRIPTURE: Acts 17:28-29 MSG One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?
THOUGHT: Paul’s fourth strategy was holding up for the Athenians a flaw in their cherished thinking: it isn’t logical to be created by God and try to create god. He does it by quoting one of their own poet-philosophers, Aratus, thus appealing to their cultural loyalty. In order to do that, Paul had to do some studying of the culture. He didn’t accommodate to it, but he had to have some understanding of how the people thought and lived in order to make a God-connection.
It’s the same for us. Much as we might want to retreat into the safety zone of study and fellowship, we must emerge to a culture swiftly moving toward a bumper sticker I saw last week, “proud pagan.” We must listen enough to understand what people are thinking and feeling before we can connect the dots to God’s meta-narrative. We don’t accommodate, but we do walk through the shrines until we spot the one that says, ‘to the god nobody knows.’
PRAYER: Oh Lord God, everyday the news seems bad. Strengthen us, and make the good news burn in our hearts for the world you created and love.
Amy released a full-length book in early 2021, Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. Maybe you’d like to check it out here.
Amy released a full-length book in early 2021, Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. Maybe you’d like to check it out here.
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