Christ Church Daily Devotion Oct 13 2023

In this Daily Devotion, Paul shares the gospel with the Athenians. He notices their worship of an unknown God and uses this as a starting point to explain who God really is. He emphasizes that God is not like idols made by humans and urges people to repent and believe in Jesus. Some people mock him, but others are interested. Paul's approach teaches us to find common ground and share our faith, even if we don't always receive a positive response. We should reflect on our own faith journey and share our experiences with others. Welcome to Christ Church's Daily Devotion for October 13th, 2023. Today we will be reading from Acts chapter 17, verses 19 through 34. 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 would like 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, People 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. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship. And this is what I am going to proclaim to you. 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. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 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. 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. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring. Therefore, since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human design and skill. In the past, God overlooked such ignorance. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead. When they had heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered. But others said, we want to hear you again on this subject. At that, Paul left the council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysus, a member of the Areopagus, and also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. Paul seeks to share God's good news with people in Athens. Paul found common ground to share the gospel with the Greeks, both with their beliefs in an unknown God in Greek poetry. The beginning of verse 29 is our focus this week. Therefore, since we are God's offspring, we are compelled to share who God is and make clear what he did for everyone through his son, Jesus. We cannot assume that even religious people around us truly know Jesus or understand the importance of faith in him. When we share our faith with others, we can follow Paul's approach, use examples, establish common ground, and then move people toward a decision about Jesus. Don't hesitate to share your faith because you fear that it will not be received. Don't expect a positive response every time. We are to be faithful to share and allow God's spirit to work in others' hearts. Today's personal worship option. Reflect on when you were introduced to the faith. What kind of testimony intrigued you? How can you share with others the life you have found in Christ? Look for someone to share with today.