Day 17 - 28 Day Challenge

Secret God

Paul makes it to the hot bed of philosophy and intellect of the day - Athens. He finally takes his stand over all the idols. After days being confronted with idol sculptures everywhere he come across an idol inscribed to the God nobody knows. Seems like this is the straw that breaks the camels back. He can't stand it anymore and engages in a debate with the Athenians. Showing the one true God.

I have only been in Athens once. A group of us were transferring planes and we had about 8 hours to wait. From about 10 pm till 6 am the next day. Most people tried to catch some sleep on the airport floor. (one even in a McDonalds ball pit) Myself, Andrew and James decided to go into the city centre.

Our taxi driver was kind enough to take us on a bit of a sightseeing trip. After a while he drove up a dark road and the surrounding lights disappeared. We went up a steep hill and he then stopped the car and got out and we followed him up the hill. We didn't have a clue where he was going but we followed any way. When we got to the top we were greeted with an incredible view of Athens and right in front across the valley was the Parthenon.

We remembered the story in this chapter and asked our guide where Mars Hill was. He looked at us quite blank. James then remembered the other name for the same place - Areopagus. We were standing on it.

What an incredible feeling. To be standing on the place where Paul got angry and argued with the Athenians and the church in that city was born with the impressive structure of the Parthenon as a backdrop.

Here he declared the one thing that the people found hard to stomach. They believed in all sorts of god's even ones that they did not know but, they couldn't believe that one died and came back to life so that he could have a relationship with them. It is a bit unbelievable isn't it.

My Prayer

Thank you Jesus!