Empty Building Part II; The Lesson
I walked into an open building recently on my way to yet another
coffee shop to get some work done. I was surprised to see the doors
unlocked and open. These types of buildings are usually locked
throughout the week unless they are open for business. My curiosity
led me to walk up the several steps and into this building with
stain-glassed windows.
Every one of these types of buildings are slightly different from each other yet have the same theme. Some have more or less sculptures, paintings and designs than others. Some have statues which people kneel before and pray to or through. Sometimes candles are lit, sometimes flowers are left, sometimes money is put in a slot or in a basket somewhere.
I understand this place is meant to be a place for people to congregate. Some believe this is the place where prayers are heard. Some believe God resides in buildings such as these. Some believe one can become more like God or become better by continually coming to places like these and listening to what is said there. People think this is a place of worship or a place to come and worship.
I wonder what kind of buildings God resides in...? Not every religion believes a God exists. Some believe it is impossible to understand the idea of God and instead focus on a variety of other things. Does a building need to be 'open' and 'unlocked' so God can come and go? Do you really need to go to a building to find God?
Just like there are many different buildings which represent many different points of view in regards to God, so there are many different people who have grown up in a religion or have gone in search of various methods of reaching out to God or becoming better people. No single person is born with the facts, nor with the truth being spoken from their lips. People are born into cultures, into religions, into societies and into methods of thought. Most of us grew up believing everything our parents told us and everything their religion told us prior to us thinking for ourselves. Some never ventured to second guess their upbringing and some don't have the allowance to do so.
You are God's Temple / You are God's Building
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Yeshua and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People 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. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship - and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
“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 human hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any 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.’
“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 human 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 everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
- Acts 15:16-31
Every one of these types of buildings are slightly different from each other yet have the same theme. Some have more or less sculptures, paintings and designs than others. Some have statues which people kneel before and pray to or through. Sometimes candles are lit, sometimes flowers are left, sometimes money is put in a slot or in a basket somewhere.
I understand this place is meant to be a place for people to congregate. Some believe this is the place where prayers are heard. Some believe God resides in buildings such as these. Some believe one can become more like God or become better by continually coming to places like these and listening to what is said there. People think this is a place of worship or a place to come and worship.
I wonder what kind of buildings God resides in...? Not every religion believes a God exists. Some believe it is impossible to understand the idea of God and instead focus on a variety of other things. Does a building need to be 'open' and 'unlocked' so God can come and go? Do you really need to go to a building to find God?
Just like there are many different buildings which represent many different points of view in regards to God, so there are many different people who have grown up in a religion or have gone in search of various methods of reaching out to God or becoming better people. No single person is born with the facts, nor with the truth being spoken from their lips. People are born into cultures, into religions, into societies and into methods of thought. Most of us grew up believing everything our parents told us and everything their religion told us prior to us thinking for ourselves. Some never ventured to second guess their upbringing and some don't have the allowance to do so.
You are God's Temple / You are God's Building
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Yeshua and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People 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. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship - and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
“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 human hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any 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.’
“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 human 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 everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
- Acts 15:16-31
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