Acts 17:22

Acts 17:22 says, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.  Remember the Epicureans and Stoics didn't believe in superstition, so the first thing Paul said to them was that he saw that they were a superstitious bunch.  Paul said he understood that in all things they were too superstitious.  Verse twenty-three adds, For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.  He saw a statue inscribed To The Unknown God.  They were trying to cover their bases.  I once saw a cross hanging over a statue of Buddha, and the person who set it up said they weren't sure who was right, but they wanted to be safe either way, but they weren’t. People were searching for the God then, and they are searching now.  Paul told them he had good news for them.  The One they ignorantly worshipped; Paul declared unto them.  Verse twenty-four continues, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;  He started by declaring God to be the Creator of all things.  Even those who profess themselves to be atheists cannot, I believe, really deny some power had to be behind creation.  The more vocal they are about their belief, I think, the more they know they are wrong. Why be concerned about something that doesn't exist?  Next, Paul said God was the Lord of all the heavens and the earth and did not dwell in temples made with hands. When we build ornate houses of worship, we say that God deserves the best, but usually there is a lot of comfort built into it for us.  We seem to be moving Christianity more and more into the confines of the church walls.  We once baptized in creeks and ponds for all the world to see, now we baptize in the church building for Christians to see.  We once had dinner on the grounds for the world to see, and now we have dinner in the building for us to see.  We are not called to be builders of great buildings for God, because as Paul told the Athenians, God does not dwell in buildings made by hands, because everything is His already. We are called to be fishers of men.  Really, it would seem that if we wanted to help build a building or go fishing, if we were honest, most of us would go fishing, so we need to be spending more time fishing for men.  I am not saying the building, the meeting place of God's people, identified as such in the community, is to be neglected, only that if we are spending more on it than on outreach, then our priorities may be wrong. All the buildings will one day be left behind, but the soul of every person will last for eternity, so that is our mandate: to reach the lost before it is to late.  As Paul continued to preach to the people at Mars Hill, his third statement was that God is not worshipped by men's hands, since we can give Him nothing that is not already His.  God not only expects a tithe on everything He has blessed us with, but He also expects us to realize that the other ninety percent is His also.  We can give Him nothing that is not already His, but He blesses us with all that we have.