Word for the Week...AUG. 29---SEPT. 4 / 2005

(v.24)"God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;(v.25)neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath and all things;(v.26)And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;(v,27)That they should seek The Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, though He be not far from every one of us:(V.28)For in Hiom we live, and move,and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring.(v.29) Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device..(V30) And the times of this Ignorance God winked at;but now commandeth allmen everywhere to repent:(v.31)Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousnessby that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.(v.32)And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked:and others said, we will hear thee again of this matter.(v33.) So Paul departed from among them.(v34)Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed:among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. " Paul starts with God as his 'reference point'. This may have appeared to the philosophers as a presupposition, but it was proven as his treatise developed.Paul quoted from the poets Epimenides and Aratus, illustrating the fact that God is both transcendent and Creator and Sustainer of the universe.for the Athenians to have made images of The God who is bigger than all,eas the height of folly and the depth of sin!Proof of the need to repent from this , as well as a coming judgement,was in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He is the Judge and His Righteousness is God's own.There are two categories of poeple represented here(v.3);[1] the unbeliever [2] the undecided. God is looking for a third...(v.34) 'certain... believed'... the faithful, who know their need of a Saviour,The Lord Jesus Christ. May The Lord Bless you.