Verse of the Day 8/20

 

Acts 17:2And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,   English Standard Version (ESV)

 

We considered yesterday how Paul challenged his readers and challenges us not only to listen as the word is preached but to take it with us, examine it, take it in and take it to heart

 

The world around us doesn't believe in the Bible, in God's Word.  They are skeptics and doubters who look upon the Bible as obscure words written thousands of ago that can have no impact on our lives and should be rejected.  Quite often they do this without ever considering what is being said.  The Message (v.2 below) says that Paul "preached" to the people and "opened up the texts".  This opening is not simply turning to a passage, it describes reasoning with the people showing how God reveals Himself in scripture while revealing who we really are with clarity and not obscurity.  His Word cuts to the heart.

 

Alexander Smellie writes, "It is both strange and sad, that men should be atheists in a universe which carries the print of the Creator's finger on . . .

each grain of sand,

each blade of grass,

each beam of light.

They are as senseless as one who would go through a large factory, with its complicated mechanisms and machinery, and would say, "I do not believe man exists!"

But I would be wiser than they. I would subscribe to William Law's sentiment,"Nature is what it is for this end only--that the hidden riches, the invisible powers, the blessings, the glory, and the love of the unsearchable God--may become visible, sensible, and manifest in it and by it!" This is a saner conclusion than the atheist's."  Sounds reasonable to me!

 

Think of the beginning of that last sentence "the saner conclusion".  Isn't that what Paul, isn't that what our pastors reason with us each week?  They reason with us that the saner conclusion is to believe in the God who created everything from the grains of sand, the blades of grass and beams of light as revealed in the light of His Word.

 

In Christ,
Mike

 

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Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV

Acts 17:1-3The Message (MSG)

Thessalonica

17 ^1-3 They took the road south through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica, where there was a community of Jews. Paul went to their meeting place, as he usually did when he came to a town, and for three Sabbaths running he preached to them from the Scriptures. He opened up the texts so they understood what they'd been reading all their lives: that the Messiah absolutely had to be put to death and raised from the dead—there were no other options—and that "this Jesus I'm introducing you to is that Messiah."