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Faith

Encountering the unknown God

worshipping-idolWhen you are a child, your parents and teachers tell you what you should do. But when you become an adult, you have to decide what you are going to do and what you are going to make of your life. Most people drift into their decisions, their career choices, their marriages and families, without ever really getting a firm idea of the bigger picture of life. Their life has an unknown meaning and they serve an unknown purpose.

According to Paul in chapter 17 of the book of Acts, the Athenians were like that. They had an altar to an unknown God. Everyone worships the thing or person which is dearest to them in life; for some people it is a partner or spouse, for others a career, for others a material object such as a car or a dream home, and for others fame or money or prestige. For some people, it is God that they worship, even if it is a God that they do not know.

Paul claimed that he did know the unknown God, the God who made the world and everything in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, who does not live in temples made by humans. This God is not like the other gods of gold or silver or fame or money or material objects or people that we deify. This God is the one who makes sense of the world and gives purpose to our lives because he has fixed a day when he will judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed.