Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me, let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell. Psalm 43:3.

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will freely pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:6-9.

Reading our chapter, Acts 17, I realized that the same spirit and mindset of controlling that the Jews had in opposing Paul teaching about the gospel, is the same mindset of controlling we see today in everything from religion to politics. That’s why the two verses cited above are so beautiful to me. I don’t want to have control. I want to trust Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also; and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things. And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them. v. 1-9. Sounds like today from all quarters. The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. v. 10-12. I love that…received the word with great eagerness…examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. But then the Jews of Thessalonica found out they were in Berea and agitated the crowds there. Timothy and Silas remain in Berea and Paul goes on to Athens, v. 12-15. Athens apparently had an abundance of philosophers and idols. He reasoned with people both in the synagogue and the market place. And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,” – because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all aspects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” So Paul went out of their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. v. 18-20, 22-34.

I love how Paul spoke in this chapter. How many people today understand? Last night in our Midweek Zoom Encounter, we talked about how do we begin to explain experiencing closeness with God to someone who has never experienced His Presence with them. For me it’s spending time with Him first thing in the morning reading Scripture verses in devotionals and our chapter each day…praying and giving to Him my concerns and my thoughts about what I’m reading…and then sitting in silence with Him as I wait to hear from Him. And this morning He reminded me as I took in a quiet breath, that He is right here with me-with Him. With Him is peace. Confusion empties away. I don’t need to understand how He will bring restoration of all things because being with Him I know He will. That is His peace which surpasses all understanding. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways…It is His light and His truth that is real and needed. Once we begin to truly grasp that, how can we not marvel? How can we not delight in Him? The more we desperately control – and see in this world the desperate controlling of others, bending others to their way – that always leads to harm – the more we need Creator God. He will not force His love. He doesn’t need to. His Love IS. After we have exhausted ourselves in everything not of His Love, maybe that is what it takes to be able to recognize true Love as He shows us. Another blessing I realized this morning, is that this closeness with Him opens me to closeness with others – the Apostle Paul, the Disciples turned Apostles, people of faith throughout the history of us and people of faith today and tomorrow and into eternity. And that is not my work…for people who do not experience closeness with Creator God…yet. That is His work! I trust Him! He knows the Way because it is His Way and it is Good! That they would seek Him…that is His Love! Thank You Creator God…for so great a Love!