We considered the next segment of our study through the beginnings of God's Story - Creation. We considered Acts 17:16-33, and noted especially the words of the Apostle Paul as he proclaimed that it is God who determined the specific times and places of our habitation. We considered Jeremiah's call (recorded in Jeremiah 1:4-5) and Paul's account of his own calling (recorded in Galatians 1:11f) as a couple more evidences that people don't wind up on God's stage, in His story, indiscriminately or by chance. Rather, he has placed us. That gives our lives, and the situations and settings we find ourselves in, significance and meaning.
We also took notice of the way Paul set out to tell God's story to the people of Athens. He didn't begin with a stinging rebuke, 'You people are a bunch of polytheistic pagans!' Instead, he commended them for the fact that they appeared very religious. He gently suggested that their devotion was uninformed. His method allowed some of his hearers (as evidenced in v. 32-33) to locate themselves within God's story.
Paul's cultural delivery of God's story, including a quotation of a Cretan poet Epimenedes, should give our own story telling endeavors food for thought. What do you think?
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