Acts 17: 24-28
For 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;
Our Creator God is greater than to be able to live in any kind of structure made by His creatures.
Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things;
So He doesn't need or rely on anything we can do, since He is the Source of everything we can have or give, He already owns it all, and us, too.
And has made of one blood all Nations of men to dwell on the face of all the Earth, and has determined the Times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
God has made all of Mankind from one man, Adam, and we are all the same Race of Man. God has scattered Mankind all over the World to live in our separate Nations with our varied cultures; He decided this before any of it was done.
That they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach for Him,
God wants everyone everywhere to know Him, to look for Him and reach out to find Him.
though He is not far from every one of us;
We can do this because He is not very far from any of us, wherever we may be, He is ready to be found by us.
For in Him we live and move and have our being. ...
Because He is the One who had the idea, He is the One who thought us up, and designed it all, and put His order into the chaos to form our Earth, and He planned it all out how we would live here and make our World on this Earth.
We, the whole Universe, everything that exists, is His imagination. We are His thoughts and words, we have our being in His mind. If He were not thinking of us, we would not exist.
So whenever anyone, anywhere, turns around from what they've been doing, He is right there, ready to welcome, ready to forgive, ready to take us into His loving arms and into His own family.
It was never His intention for anyone to perish or suffer or be destroyed. He wants us all to come to Him in repentance, admitting that we deserve death, and letting His Son, our Savior, be our personal Sacrifice, taking our death on Himself for us, in our place.
God's justice must be satisfied, then His mercy can forgive us and wash us clean, and His grace can give us His own Holy Spirit to live in our human spirit, making us alive with a brand-new life, much better than the "normal" life we've known.
And in this new life we have the power and ability to do the right, good things that He determined we should do before He created anything.
And the Blood of Christ washes us pristine clean, as though we'd never sinned, suited and fit to live with God where He is. This is why He made us.
Mankind is the pinnacle of creation. He made us to be His own family, to rule over His creation with Him, to participate with Him in His Family Business.
O my Father, Your plans are so reasonable and logical, yet they are so far above my own reason and logic. I can't depend on my own understanding of what's going on, I don't have Your Big Picture. So I must lean on You, Father, as I curl up in Your lap, listening to Your Voice teaching me what I need to know today.
Father, You know all the details of all of our lives, and how our paths will intersect today. You know what others need that I have to give, and how we can help one another each day.
O Father, teach me Your ways today, help me do only what You would have me do or say. Keep Your arm around my shoulder and Your hand over my mouth to keep me from exalting or promoting myself. Hold tightly to my hand as I walk through each day, so I won't turn to the right or to the left, that I won't pull away or wander off, and not run ahead or lag behind.
Help me to walk confidently and boldly in the way You have planned for me to go, so that I may be able to promote Your Kingdom; that my sharing might reach Your lambs who are searching for You.
Protect Your missionary children from the goats who reject Your goodness and put darkness for Your glorious light. And protect all of Your children from the minions of the enemy who have allowed themselves to be deceived by him, especially those who are in the public eye. Use them, Father, to bring glory to Yourself in a public way that no one can deny.
And Father, I am eagerly anticipating that Day when my Lord King Jesus returns to claim His Kingdom.
And every eye will see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language that Jesus is our Lord God Almighty, to the glory of the Father.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
