Today, as I read through Acts, chapter 17, I stumbled upon the answer to the greatest question a person can have: "What is my purpose?" or, perhaps worded more properly, "What is God's purpose in making man?"
Paul is in the midst of his second missionary journey. He is moving through villages, cities and towns of Greece. In this chapter, alone, he travels through Amphipolis and Apollonia and addresses crowds of Jews and Gentiles in Thessalonica, Berea and Athens. Everywhere he went some received and believed the message of salvation through faith in Christ, some disputed and quarreled with him, and some tried to do him harm. It seemed that the signal to move on to a new place of ministry was often based on a need to escape capture. In fact, this is how Paul ended up in Athens...brothers in Christ packed him on a boat to make the 200 plus mile trip to Athens to escape hate-filled pursuers. In Athens, a center of philosophy and idols, Paul immediately found a forum to preach. It was called the Areopagus, which means "hill of Mars". Mars was the god of war and this was a center where questions of religion and morals were decided...a kind of court. Paul sought to identify the true God, as distinct from the false gods they worshiped. He went back to the basics and explained who the true God is and how we can find and relate to Him.
Acts 17:26 "...and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist...
God made us to know us and the purpose of our lives is to come after Him and find HIm. As with so many great truths, it is not so much that it is complicated as it is profound.
blessings,
Rob Smith
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