Monday, August 23, 2010

NIPTO, Day 197

Hola readers! 
Today was a... busy day, but it didn't really seem busy. Because it wasn't really...
I babysat from 8-4:30. For an 8 year old boy. Who is very good. In summery: we watched tv for part of the time, played Wii for part of the time, played outside for part of the time (bike ride around the neighborhood included), and ate for part of the time. Oh, and party planned (his birthday party is on Saturday so I was helping him come up with games to play) for a bit. And played in the basement for a while.
Same hours tomorrow...

Then I came home and my WONDERFUL Mom&Sisters&Grandma had saved part of a frappuccino for me, so I drank that and relaxed. Then I watched an old(ish) episode of Chuck. And ate dinner. Annnd helped clean up. And Mom, Hannah and I went on a walk... and then watched more Chuck with Katie... got ice cream/Texas Sheet Cake/toaster strudel/cookies. 
And now Katie's watching Beauty and the Beast. And my left index finger hurts. Probably from wearing a too-small baseball mitt. Hm. Yeah.

Man. I'm tired. Which means I should get on with this. 
NIPTO!

Acts 17:16-34

16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

So so... Paul's waiting for Silas&Timothy to join him in Athens. And while he's there he's observing. And what he finds in his observation is that people are worshiping idols. The city is full of them. So he goes to the synagogue with the Jews&Greeks and reasoned with them at the synagogue and in the marketplace daily too.


18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19Then 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? 20You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

So now there's a group of philosophers who started to talk&argue with him. They asked stupid (not in their minds) rhetorical questions. Or something like that. They just asked&answered those questions because they were... philosophers. As philosophers are want to do.
They took him "to a meeting of the Areopagus." Whatever that is. And they asked him about what he was talking about. Ya know, about Jesus. Everyone who went to those meetings did nothing but sit around and talk and listen to other people talk about the latest &newest ideas. A good chance for the gospel to be shared since it was... new!


 22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
 24"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 hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

Paul then stands up in the meeting and starts to address them. He talks to them about how he knows that they're religious. That they worship gods... but they don't know the gods that they worship. One alter even had "to an unknown god" written on it! 
So he goes on to tell them that since they worship "unknown god[s]," wouldn't it be great to worship a God who you knew? Who didn't even live on earth in temples built by hands?
A self sufficient God. One who, if he needed anything, could get it for himself. He gives us everything we need too! And God gave us everything that we need (almost) so that we would search him out, maybe reach out, and maybe find him. He's not that far away from us. Seeing as he's in the air we breathe. He gives us life. And we are his children.
Paul continues:





 29"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 man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For 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 all men by raising him from the dead."

So, since we're God's children, his offspring, we should not think that God's made out of gold or any other man made thing. Because in the past God has overlooked ignorance of his being, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 
God has a day set that he will judge every single person on earth. And he will judge with justice. And he's proved himself by raising Jesus from the dead.
BAM.


 32When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." 33At that, Paul left the Council. 34A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

Paul was talking about Jesus being raised from the dead and some of the people just laughed at him, but some were genuinely interested and wanted to hear him talk again about it. When they told him that they wanted to hear him talk about it again, he left the Council. A few people followed him from that&believed. Awesome.


A'ight. I'm going to watch a little more Wicked music on YouTube and then go to sleep. Gotta be up early(ish) tomorrow morning to babysit again!
Should be another good day :)
See ya's (kind of!) tomorrow!

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