Only A Dream
Well, it's a wrap. Sitting here in the Paris airport and waiting for our connection to Atlanta and then to CO. Time seemed to move slowly when we were in India and it really seems like a long while since we've been home.
The most apt word to describle our experience here would be 'Incredible'.
Hard to put into words all that we have seen, it was like information overload so many times and I wish I could have captured even close to all of it in some way.
One of the things that stuck with me in a converstation that I had early on in the trip was with a man that said it was his dream to come to American. Then he said "But it is only a dream." Only a dream.
That interaction brought to my mind the words in the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles when Paul addresses the men of Athens -
"And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
I don't know why God set my time and place now in America and this mans at this time in India. It was not because I am any better than him, or would have contributed more to society than him, or for any other reason attributable to me, but only to Gods sovereignty.
Paul's full address, from which I excerpted above, is as applicable today to every human heart and to the people India as it was 2000 years ago to the men of Athens. India has an estimated 300 million gods in Hinduism but all of us have a tremendous number of gods that we set our hearts on. Though we may not consider them gods in the same sense, these are the things we place above God and that take the place of God in our lives.
You have hung with me this long, take a few more minutes to read and consider what Pauls full address to each one of us -
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Peace be with you in 2019 and safe travels this year wherever the journey may take you.
Until next time,
John
The most apt word to describle our experience here would be 'Incredible'.
Hard to put into words all that we have seen, it was like information overload so many times and I wish I could have captured even close to all of it in some way.
One of the things that stuck with me in a converstation that I had early on in the trip was with a man that said it was his dream to come to American. Then he said "But it is only a dream." Only a dream.
That interaction brought to my mind the words in the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles when Paul addresses the men of Athens -
"And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
I don't know why God set my time and place now in America and this mans at this time in India. It was not because I am any better than him, or would have contributed more to society than him, or for any other reason attributable to me, but only to Gods sovereignty.
Paul's full address, from which I excerpted above, is as applicable today to every human heart and to the people India as it was 2000 years ago to the men of Athens. India has an estimated 300 million gods in Hinduism but all of us have a tremendous number of gods that we set our hearts on. Though we may not consider them gods in the same sense, these are the things we place above God and that take the place of God in our lives.
You have hung with me this long, take a few more minutes to read and consider what Pauls full address to each one of us -
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Peace be with you in 2019 and safe travels this year wherever the journey may take you.
Until next time,
John
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