My S.O.A.P. Box: Uknown

Showing posts with label Uknown. Show all posts

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Acts 17:22-23 - What Kind of Athenian?

then stood up in the meeting of the and said: “People of ! 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: . So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.”

Some say it is "." Some call it the "." Some refer to it as "." Others just call it "."

In some way, most of us recognize there is something greater than ourselves.

These did also -- and were careful to not exclude whatever it was from their worship. They had built an altar to the "Unknown God."

They had no real idea of how to worship Him, but they recognized a need that was not being met by the other "gods" they worshiped.

Paul, when before them, took advantage of the existence of this altar to begin explaining who their "Unknown God" was.

He did not find it necessary to berate them or ridicule them for their ignorance, but instead, saw it as an opportunity to give them knowledge.

When we are faced with someone who does not know God, do we try to educate them? Or do we tend to think of them as someone beneath us?

My Blog's Purpose

This blog really started out as something simple. I was just trying to keep track of my daily Bible study notes—little thoughts, insights, and questions that came to me as I read. I wanted a way to look back at what I’d learned and remind myself of what God had been teaching me. At first, it was just for me. Then I thought, Why not put these online so I can reach them from anywhere? That’s when I started using Google’s Blogspot.com. Before long, I realized that if I was already writing and sharing online, maybe someone else might benefit from what I was learning too. Maybe my thoughts could encourage someone, or even spark a conversation that would help me understand God’s Word better. That’s really how My S.O.A.P. Box came about. It’s a collection of those reflections—personal thoughts that grew out of my own time in Scripture and in everyday life. They’re not meant to be deep theological studies or scholarly commentaries. They’re simply what happens when an ordinary person sits down with God’s Word and listens. The name comes from the S.O.A.P. Bible study method: Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. It’s a simple way to slow down and really engage with what you’re reading. That’s what I try to do in each piece—look at what God is saying, notice what stands out, think about how it applies to my life, and end with prayer. My hope is that as you read through these pages, you’ll be encouraged to spend time in the Word yourself. Maybe something here will speak to your heart, help you grow in your faith, or simply remind you that we’re all learning and walking this journey together. If these thoughts of mine can help you draw a little closer to God, then this blog has done exactly what I hoped it would.