SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/22/2018
10:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God is the
Revealer
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
17:27-29
Message of the
verses: “27 that they would seek
God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far
from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of
your own poets have said, ’For we also are His children.’ 29 "Being then the
children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or
silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.”
We have been looking at sever sub-points under the main
point of “Recognizing who God Is,” and have seen that God’s providential activity
as creator, ruler, giver, and controller should move men to see Him. God has revealed Himself in His creation as
written about in Psalm 19, and this should cause men to look to the stars in
the sky and realize that they were all created by God, and He did this to bring
glory to Himself, but He also did it so that men when they look up at the stars
in the sky that they would think of God.
Another way men should recognize God is through their conscience, as the
human conscience is very powerful if you follow it in the right way. Paul writes in Romans 2:14-15 “14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do
instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to
themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness
and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,.” Now going back for a moment to look at the
physical world again it leaves all men without excuse according to Romans 1:18
and following. Just a short not on the
beginnings of the book of Romans, and that is that Paul was building a case
showing that all men are born sinners and it takes him a while to write “for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” which is Romans 3:23. Paul proves his case against those who do not
believe they are sinners, which is the first step for a person to come to know
Christ as their Savior. One has to know
that they are a sinner that they are lost without hope in order to come to
Christ for salvation. Paul actually
expressed this to those Greeks that he was talking to when he said of God that “He
is not far from each one of us.”
MacArthur adds “Even those who never heard the gospel are still
accountable to God for failing to live up to natural revelation. Had they done so, God would have brought them
the special revelation they needed to be saved.” This goes along with the story that I have
told in earlier SD’s when a woman who lived in a small village in Cambodia was
under attack from the Communists as they were about to kill the entire village,
having them dig their own graves before they were about to shoot all of
them. She had heard of Jesus, though not
knowing His name, and so she cried out to the God who died on the cross just
before she an all of here village people were to be killed. What happened was a miracle in that all who
were to do them harm left without shooting those around the hole that the dug. A few years latter some missionaries came to
that village and the first thing that this woman asked them was “What took you
so long to get here.” She only had a
little knowledge, and yet she used that little knowledge to cry out to God and
then God gave her more knowledge and many people in that village were saved and
not killed.
As we continue in our verses we can say that the Greeks
certainly could not plead ignorance as Paul speaks of some of their poets who
acknowledged the revelation of God in nature, even though the wrongly saw it as
a revelation of their false gods.
MacArthur adds “The Cretan poet Epimenides noted that ‘in Him we live
and move and exist,’ while Artus from Paul’s home region of Cilicia, added, ‘For
we also are His offspring.’ Those quotes
illustrate the universal revelation of God as creator, ruler, and
sustainer. While Paul could easily have
documented those truths from the Old Testament, he chose instead illustrations
familiar to his pagan audience, who were unfamiliar with Scriptures.”
Paul used these poets to show his audience that man is “the
offspring of God,” and so it would be foolish of them “to think that the Divine
Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought
of man.” Since God created man he surely
must be more than a mere man-made idol.
MacArthur concludes “The best starting point for
evangelizing pagans with no knowledge of the Scripture is to explain the power
and Person behind the creation. Satan’s
intention of evolution cuts off that path of reason that leads to God.” To that I totally agree with, as evolution
has caused much trouble for those in the world, those smart enough to realize that
evolution is impossible.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What weather conditions
caused a famine in Samaria during the time of Ahab?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/22/2018 11:09 AM
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