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Topic: Art (01/18/07)
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TITLE: The Altar Call | Previous Challenge Entry
By Tim Pickl
01/18/07 -
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When they brought a man named Paul into our midst, and he began speaking strange things:
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said:
"Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
For 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.
Instantly I was very interested in what he was telling us--it sounded right--
Something deep down inside of me knew this would change my entire life:
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. And he is not
served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself
gives all men life and breath and everything else. From 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. God 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.
'For in him we live and move and have our being.'
As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
My attention intensified because I was there the day that poem was first read in public!
And as Paul continued, I was equally impressed with his faith and simple logic:
"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.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere
to repent. For 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."
Everyone gasped--and I did too--when he spoke about the miracle of raising the dead...
But that night, I went to Paul privately and asked him how I could be saved.
Lovingly, he saw that I believed and he asked me to repent and I did right then,
Then he took me to the pool where he baptized me and I was born again!
Looking back now many years later, I remember those exciting times in the beginning,
It still brings thankful tears to my eyes, as I praise and worship Jesus and sing!
reference: Acts 17:22-31 (NIV)
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