8 May 2013 - guided, not teleported

8 May 2013 - guided, not teleported

“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.

It is encouraging to know that the LORD is willing to work with our limitations.

But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.

It is good to realize that we don't necessarily grasp everything completely all at once.  Instead we are guided into that understanding by the Spirit just as a guide might show someone around a vast new city.

Paul is also aware of this.  He knows that the Athenians are somewhere in that process.  Hence he is willing to build upon what truth the Athenians already have.

What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.

They already know something true and valuable because the LORD makes all things and all things point back to him.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

The creation itself is ordered to communicate and reveal God to us because his underlying purpose in it all is relationship.

so that people might seek God,
even perhaps grope for him and find him,

But it can't stop there.  He wants a greater relationship than nature alone can facilitate.  We see even in nature the brokenness which he longs to mend.  He has a plan for all people which isn't obvious just from the creation.

because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world
with justice’ through a man he has appointed,
and he has provided confirmation for all
by raising him from the dead.”

The people who hear this are at different points on their journeys and respond in different ways.

When they heard about resurrection of the dead,
some began to scoff, but others said,
“We should like to hear you on this some other time.”

But some do join Paul.  Perhaps in others a seed is planted.  But in all cases we can be confident that the LORD will continue to reveal himself as we are able to bear it.  This is not an excuse for us to be silent about the Good News just as it is not for Paul.  Even if we have people scoff at us the LORD can use what we say to plant seeds and draw people to himself.  Such people seem distant from the LORD but even they are not far from his saving help.

though indeed he is not far from any one of us.

He is the source of their being and ours so we can trust in the LORD and not in our own meager efforts.

 ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’

Let us share the desire of the psalmist that all peoples be united in the praise of God.

Let the kings of the earth and all peoples,
the princes and all the judges of the earth,
Young men too, and maidens,
old men and boys.