In Him we Live and Move and Have our Being

Paul, on his second missionary journey, came to the city of Athens.  A city heralded for its sophistry and its intellect, Athens was also an influential city in the mediterranean world.  In many ways, outside of Rome itself, Athens may have been the port of ideas that spread philosophy and education across the known world.  It proved to be a good place for Paul to preach a message to the Aeropogus on Mars Hill.

And while Paul's gospel message was met with varied apathy and sneering flippancy, there was a minority of listeners that were touched by God.  This message is recorded for us in Acts 17.  The message in its entirety is certainly worth reading and thinking through, however, it is the final words of the message that strike me to the heart today: "In Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28).

Perhaps no statement in Scripture outside of Deut 7:7-11 or John 3:16 rings more clearly about the nature of God and His relationship to man.  He made us, knitting us together with every strand of DNA and fiber of marrow or joint in the womb (Psa 139:13).  This fact alone is the fundamental truth of reality, the truth of humanity, and the primary description of the human life.

He made us.  He owns us.  Every breath we breathe is a gift from His sovereign hand of grace.  There is nothing, not one thing about humanity that cannot be boiled down to this: we are His.  He has it in His full rights to terminate our lives at any moment.  And we deserve that termination because of our disobedience and lovelessness (please read that sentence again).

But yet He shows us mercy.  He does give us breath, He does give us reason and intellect, He does give us relationships, and He does give us the ability to not choose to recognize those gifts of grace at all.  In fact, He loves humanity so much that He allows to spurn Him for our very beings!  And He still loves us!

Today, do not let this day pass without considering the graciousness of God.  I implore you to think about Him.  Dwell on His mercy, linger on His forgiveness as it relates to our faithlessness.  And when you feel that you have tired of that, think, at last, of what God Himself has done by sending His Son to be crushed and murdered for all our sin so that we would not have to meet that fate.  Think about that.  Pray about that.  Above all else: praise God!  For "In Him we live and move and have our being."