Acts 17:23\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:\u00a0to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship\u2014and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.<\/i><\/p>\n
Since Athens had over three thousand idols in their city, these great scholars were not, for the most part, atheists.\u00a0\u00a0They believed in a god, they just did not know who truly was God.\u00a0\u00a0They even, just to make sure they were covered, put up a statue, possibly statues, to the \u201cunknown god.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Just in case they missed one, or more, gods.\u00a0\u00a0Paul told them that they were ignorant of the very thing they worship, or sought to worship.\u00a0\u00a0So he proclaimed who the one true God is.<\/p>\n
It is easy to look back and smirk at these Athenians.\u00a0\u00a0Yet they could, if possible, have looked forward to us and thought the same thing.\u00a0\u00a0After all contemporary non-believers, and unfortunately too often believers, have idols too.\u00a0\u00a0One very popular contemporary idol became a popular rallying cry in the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0It was \u201cpeace.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0People sought peace without knowing how to find it.\u00a0\u00a0Peace became an idol to pursue.\u00a0\u00a0Too many wanted peace without God making the common error that true peace could be found without God. That cannot happen.\u00a0\u00a0Because even if one lives peacefully with another, if one has many like-minded friends, or if one lives in nature among flora and fauna, all this is fleeting and conditional.\u00a0\u00a0A life partner may leave or die, friends can turn against one very unexpectedly and certainly they cannot be with us twenty-four hours a day.\u00a0\u00a0And certainly a fire can come and ravage the flora and fauna, a drought can dry up a stream or waterfall.\u00a0\u00a0Even the peace one gets from \u201cnature\u201d is tenuous.\u00a0\u00a0A peace sign of dubious origin was made.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone knew it and most, if not all, still know the \u201cpeace sign.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many people made up tee-shirts to show their quest and worship of peace.\u00a0\u00a0There are untold thousands of peace sign statues in houses.\u00a0\u00a0Oh, I know that some now have them in remembrance of their youth, but we must remember that these statues were for the most part, statues of people who wanted peace in the world without peace with God.\u00a0\u00a0At the same time that they cried out for peace they shouted their appeal for what they thought would make a better world.\u00a0\u00a0They shouted and made tee-shirts, posters and bumper stickers proclaiming \u201cMake love, not war!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0For all those who lived during this times, we know the truth, this more accurately should have been \u201cHave sex, not war!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0It was a call for promiscuity and the result of it was rampant sexual disease that ruined or harmed people\u2019s lives.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Along with the promiscuity came their supposed need for abortion.\u00a0\u00a0So the call for peace for many was a call for peace by man without God and the call to make love not war was just a call to promiscuously sin.\u00a0\u00a0The list goes on.\u00a0\u00a0It is no different now than then or then than now.\u00a0\u00a0They made idols for everything and had false gods they worshiped for whatever perversion they desired.\u00a0\u00a0They had temples for prostitution, or fun by alcohol or drugs, or any sinful perversion that burned within them.\u00a0\u00a0No, they and our modern society are not so different.<\/p>\n
However when Paul preached the Gospel some came to find peace through Jesus, but many rejected the Prince of Peace.\u00a0\u00a0In the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s many came to Jesus and became known as the Jesus People or, as Jesus Freaks.\u00a0\u00a0We know that there can never be full and complete peace without peace with God.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Peace with God only comes through Jesus who was foretold as the \u201cPrince of Peace.\u201d (Isaiah 9:6<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Jesus wants us to have not the temporary or incomplete peace of the world, but the complete and eternal peace that he brings (John 14:27<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0The Word says in\u00a0John 3:18<\/b>\u00a0\u201c\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Whoever believes in him is not condemned,\u00a0but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God\u2019s one and only Son.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0True, pure, complete and eternal peace only comes as peace is made with God through Jesus the Savior.<\/p>\n Family and Friends, look around us, the idols of the world are all around us.\u00a0\u00a0They are on TV, the movie screens, the internet, the smartphones, magazines, billboards and much more.\u00a0\u00a0We should know that there is evil behind these things that fight to not be exposed.\u00a0\u00a0The evil behind every lie that opposes the Gospel seeks to keep us from Jesus and so to keep us from eternal peace with God.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s pray for each other, and encourage each other to know and walk with Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0It is the only release from the bondage of idols and in being released by Jesus, that the chains that bind us to evil are broken we become truly free to walk with God.\u00a0\u00a0It starts with Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus said \u201cSo if the Son sets you free,\u00a0you will be free indeed<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0John 8:36\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0Only through Jesus are we free from idol worship and the silliness of thinking true peace can be found without God or that being promiscuous is the answer.\u00a0\u00a0Call out to Jesus and we will find that Jesus has been calling out to us.\u00a0\u00a0He wants to set us free.\u00a0\u00a0He wants us to see the world with different eyes.\u00a0\u00a0He wants us to walk in his peace through the love of God.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God who loves us so!\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!\u00a0\u00a0To all in Christ\u2026peace!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God<\/i>.<\/p>\n Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 17:23\u00a0–\u00a0For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:\u00a0to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship\u2014and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. Since Athens had over three thousand idols in their city,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,103,100,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-1890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-isaiah","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1891,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions\/1891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}