Sermon: Paul in Athens

Paul in Athens

As many of you know, the three of us, Fisher-Langilles, recently returned from a vacation to the Mediterranean. We traveled to Greece, Turkey, Malta and Italy, covering many of the locations that the Apostle Paul visited.

Going to the places that Paul visited, or lived in, has given me a whole new perspective on this incredible follower of Jesus. The more I learn about Paul, the more impressed I’ve become by his courage, his boldness, his intelligence, and his strength in the face of adversity.

Remember, Paul had been a Pharisee, an obsessive attacker of those who claimed that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, until his road-side encounter with Jesus. It dramatically changed his life. He went from persecutor to preacher, and began a life of full-time traveling ministry.

Paul had four missionary journeys in his life. He visited Athens on his second missionary journey around 50-51AD. As far as we know Paul only went once to Athens. It appears that he took one shot in the city and never returned. 

So, why was that? And what kind of town was Athens?

Athens was an old-school academic town. It’s where the brainiacs lived, and the hub of Greek philosophy, filled with many schools of thought, such as the Stoics, the Epicureans, the Platonists, the Cynics, the Skeptics. So it’s not surprising that the chief god of Athens was Athena, the goddess of wisdom. 

During the time of Paul, Athens was not an economic boom town, like Corinth or Ephesus; it was more like an academic university town, like Oxford or Harvard. It wasn’t a growing city, but it thought very highly of itself.

Before arriving in Athens, Paul had been up North in Berea with his friends Silas and Timothy. A riot (which you can read about earlier in Acts 17) forced Paul to escape and leave for Athens. Timothy and Silas stayed behind, with the plan to follow Paul at a later date… and that takes us to our story, starting in Acts 17:16…

Acts 17:16

Now while Paul was waiting for them [Silas and Timothy] in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols. 

It’s true. The city was filled with images of the gods from numerous Temples. Just in the small area around the marketplace there were temples to Athena, the goddess of wisdom; Poseidon the god of the sea; Zeus the father of the gods and the god of thunder; Apollo the god of archery, music and prophecy; Hephaestus, the god of metalwork and weaponry; Ares, the god of War; and Aphrodite, the goddess of love… to name a few. And their images were everywhere you looked. And Paul was looking everywhere. He saw it all!

Acts 17:17

So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present.

Paul does what he always does first, he visits his fellow Jewish people in the local synagogue. And then he preaches to everyone and anyone in the marketplace.

So let’s set the scene of Paul’s visit to Athens.

The Agora (or marketplace) sat at the base of the hill that held the Acropolis. Everywhere you look in the Ancient City of Athens the Acropolis looms in background… a reminder that you are under the dominion of the gods. They sit at the peak high places, looking down on the people. The gods did not come to you… you had to make the steep journey up to them. So Paul is in the marketplace, in the shadow of the gods and the local philosophers take notice of him.

Acts 17:18

And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. 

So, the Epicureans and Stoics, what did these two philosophical schools believe? That’s an important question because Paul directly addresses some of what they believe in his sermon, and if you don’t know what that is, you’re not going to get the full story of how brilliant Paul is, in his message to them. So let’s take a look:

The GOAL of the Epicureans was to achieve personal happiness. To achieve happiness you must avoid pain and fear at all cost. Therefore, you should pursue tranquil pleasures, but not to excess. If you over-do anything it might cause pain and/or fear. For example if you drink to excess you’ll eventually feel pain, and maybe fear too. Epicureans taught that you should not rely on the gods to help you; you should rely on yourself. They were also staunch believers in no afterlife. Epicurean memorial stones have been found with the quote Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo, meaning, “I was not; I was; I am not; I do not care.” In other words, at one  point I did not exist, then I did. Now that I’m under the ground I no longer exist, and I’m not bothered about any of it. They strongly believed that you should not fear death because death is the state of nothingness, and so there’s nothing to fear.

The GOAL of the Stoics, on the other hand was to is to live a life of courage, temperance, justice and wisdom. They focused on reason and rationality. They believed that the gods were different aspects of a singular Divine Nature. They also believed that suffering was inevitable but it’s how you respond to suffering that matters. Finally, they also did not believe in an afterlife apart from the wisest souls who might get absorbed back into the Divine Nature.

So some of these philosophers wondered about Paul:

Acts 17:18

Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?”

Let’s look at the phrase scavenger of tidbits. Some of your translations may say, “idle babbler”… in Greek this is one word “spermalogos”. This is an insult. It’s the idea of a “seed picker”. It conjures up an image of a bird picking at seeds in the gutter. Picking up a few seeds here and there, and trying to make a meal out of them. To the philosophers, Paul’s words were seeds that were scattered about and made no sense.

Acts 17:18

Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities” -because he was preaching Jesus and the Resurrection. 

The Stoics and Epicurean’s were confused by Paul. Was Paul talking about two gods, one named Jesus and the other Anastasia? You see, the Greek word for Resurrection (Anastasin) sounded very much like the Greek feminine name Anastasia. Remember, these philosophers didn’t believe in an afterlife, so the concept of the Resurrection (or Anastasin) wasn’t really part of their vocabulary. 

The philosophers are confused, but they’re also intrigued by Paul…

Acts 17:19

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus.

So what is the Areopagus? It was a philosophically driven court of law. Cases were brought to the Areopagus and criminals were condemned there. It was also where the decisions were made about the legality of philosophies. Was the teaching heretical (against the gods) or radical (with the fear of inciting riots). Was the teaching safe, harmless, and a legitimate philosopy? And so they took Paul, they didn’t invite him, they took him and told him to speak… because they were curious and they thrived on academic curiosity. 

The Areopagus was on the hill between the high place (acropolis) of the gods and low marketplace of the common people. The court of the Areopagites was strategically placed between the gods and the common people. And so they marched Paul up the hill to judge him:

Acts 17 :19-21

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

This was Luke’s little editorial. What did Athenians love? NEW things to debate and discuss. They craved the excitement of “new teachings”… not necessarily to adopt the new teachings. They just wanted new topics to start new debates. And Paul brought them a brand new topic!

Acts 17:22

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects”.

The term “very religious” is one very long Greek word, δεισιδαιμονεστέρους (day-see-die-moh-NES-ter-os). It literally means, “afraid of demons (daimones)” or the idea that they feared the supernatural. Now if you recall, the Epicureans did everything in their power to avoid fear. Admitting to being fearful was a weakness and so they would not want to be called δεισιδαιμονεστέρους.

So why did Paul think they feared the supernatural? He explains…

Acts 17:23

For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ 

How does that prove that they were afraid of the Supernatural? Well, why would you put up an altar to an unknown deity? It was an insurance policy. They were afraid of offending a god that they did not know. They feared the repercussions of insulting a god they weren’t yet aware of. And so Paul told them that he was going to relieve their fears by teaching them about the God they do not know. 

Acts 17:23

Therefore, [says Paul] what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

What does a philosopher never want to be?… ignorant.  Paul here is not making any friends, because he is boldly stating that he’s the curer of their ignorance. Tell that to a room of Harvard graduates! Hello you learned people, I’m here to cure your ignorance. So, Paul dives in and gives his sermon, saying:

Acts 17:24-28

The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 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 feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’

Did you notice what Paul never does? He doesn’t quote the Bible to these people. The Hebrew scriptures would mean nothing to them. They didn’t give a fig about Abraham, David or Esther. Instead he quoted what they treasured. He turned to their own Greek poets to make his point. 

Epimenides was a poet from the Island of Crete. He was disappointed in his home Island because they built an elaborate tomb for Zeus. But Zeus was immortal. He needed no mausoleum! And so Epimenides wrote the following poem called “To Zeus

Athens was an old-school academic town. It’s where the brainiacs lived, and the hub of Greek philosophy, filled with many schools of thought, such as the Stoics, the Epicureans, the Platonists, the Cynics, the Skeptics. So it’s not surprising that the chief god of Athens was Athena, the goddess of wisdom. 

During the time of Paul, Athens was not an economic boom town, like Corinth or Ephesus; it was more like an academic university town, like Oxford or Harvard. It wasn’t a growing city, but it thought very highly of itself.

Before arriving in Athens, Paul had been up North in Berea with his friends Silas and Timothy. A riot (which you can read about earlier in Acts 17) forced Paul to escape and leave for Athens. Timothy and Silas stayed behind, with the plan to follow Paul at a later date… and that takes us to our story, starting in Acts 17:16…

Acts 17:16

Now while Paul was waiting for them [Silas and Timothy] in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols. 

It’s true. The city was filled with images of the gods from numerous Temples. Just in the small area around the marketplace there were temples to Athena, the goddess of wisdom; Poseidon the god of the sea; Zeus the father of the gods and the god of thunder; Apollo the god of archery, music and prophecy; Hephaestus, the god of metalwork and weaponry; Ares, the god of War; and Aphrodite, the goddess of love… to name a few. And their images were everywhere you looked. And Paul was looking everywhere. He saw it all!

Acts 17:17

So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present.

Paul does what he always does first, he visits his fellow Jewish people in the local synagogue. And then he preaches to everyone and anyone in the marketplace.

So let’s set the scene of Paul’s visit to Athens.

The Agora (or marketplace) sat at the base of the hill that held the Acropolis. Everywhere you look in the Ancient City of Athens the Acropolis looms in background… a reminder that you are under the dominion of the gods. They sit at the peak high places, looking down on the people. The gods did not come to you… you had to make the steep journey up to them. So Paul is in the marketplace, in the shadow of the gods and the local philosophers take notice of him.

Acts 17:18

And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. 

So, the Epicureans and Stoics, what did these two philosophical schools believe? That’s an important question because Paul directly addresses some of what they believe in his sermon, and if you don’t know what that is, you’re not going to get the full story of how brilliant Paul is, in his message to them. So let’s take a look:

The GOAL of the Epicureans was to achieve personal happiness. To achieve happiness you must avoid pain and fear at all cost. Therefore, you should pursue tranquil pleasures, but not to excess. If you over-do anything it might cause pain and/or fear. For example if you drink to excess you’ll eventually feel pain, and maybe fear too. Epicureans taught that you should not rely on the gods to help you; you should rely on yourself. They were also staunch believers in no afterlife. Epicurean memorial stones have been found with the quote Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo, meaning, “I was not; I was; I am not; I do not care.” In other words, at one  point I did not exist, then I did. Now that I’m under the ground I no longer exist, and I’m not bothered about any of it. They strongly believed that you should not fear death because death is the state of nothingness, and so there’s nothing to fear.

The GOAL of the Stoics, on the other hand was to is to live a life of courage, temperance, justice and wisdom. They focused on reason and rationality. They believed that the gods were different aspects of a singular Divine Nature. They also believed that suffering was inevitable but it’s how you respond to suffering that matters. Finally, they also did not believe in an afterlife apart from the wisest souls who might get absorbed back into the Divine Nature.

So some of these philosophers wondered about Paul:

Acts 17:18

Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?”

Let’s look at the phrase scavenger of tidbits. Some of your translations may say, “idle babbler”… in Greek this is one word “spermalogos”. This is an insult. It’s the idea of a “seed picker”. It conjures up an image of a bird picking at seeds in the gutter. Picking up a few seeds here and there, and trying to make a meal out of them. To the philosophers, Paul’s words were seeds that were scattered about and made no sense.

Acts 17:18

Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities” -because he was preaching Jesus and the Resurrection. 

The Stoics and Epicurean’s were confused by Paul. Was Paul talking about two gods, one named Jesus and the other Anastasia? You see, the Greek word for Resurrection (Anastasin) sounded very much like the Greek feminine name Anastasia. Remember, these philosophers didn’t believe in an afterlife, so the concept of the Resurrection (or Anastasin) wasn’t really part of their vocabulary. 

The philosophers are confused, but they’re also intrigued by Paul…

Acts 17:19

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus.

So what is the Areopagus? It was a philosophically driven court of law. Cases were brought to the Areopagus and criminals were condemned there. It was also where the decisions were made about the legality of philosophies. Was the teaching heretical (against the gods) or radical (with the fear of inciting riots). Was the teaching safe, harmless, and a legitimate philosopy? And so they took Paul, they didn’t invite him, they took him and told him to speak… because they were curious and they thrived on academic curiosity. 

The Areopagus was on the hill between the high place (acropolis) of the gods and low marketplace of the common people. The court of the Areopagites was strategically placed between the gods and the common people. And so they marched Paul up the hill to judge him:

Acts 17 :19-21

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

This was Luke’s little editorial. What did Athenians love? NEW things to debate and discuss. They craved the excitement of “new teachings”… not necessarily to adopt the new teachings. They just wanted new topics to start new debates. And Paul brought them a brand new topic!

Acts 17:22

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects”.

The term “very religious” is one very long Greek word, δεισιδαιμονεστέρους (day-see-die-moh-NES-ter-os). It literally means, “afraid of demons (daimones)” or the idea that they feared the supernatural. Now if you recall, the Epicureans did everything in their power to avoid fear. Admitting to being fearful was a weakness and so they would not want to be called δεισιδαιμονεστέρους.

So why did Paul think they feared the supernatural? He explains…

Acts 17:23

For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ 

How does that prove that they were afraid of the Supernatural? Well, why would you put up an altar to an unknown deity? It was an insurance policy. They were afraid of offending a god that they did not know. They feared the repercussions of insulting a god they weren’t yet aware of. And so Paul told them that he was going to relieve their fears by teaching them about the God they do not know. 

Acts 17:23

Therefore, [says Paul] what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

What does a philosopher never want to be?… ignorant.  Paul here is not making any friends, because he is boldly stating that he’s the curer of their ignorance. Tell that to a room of Harvard graduates! Hello you learned people, I’m here to cure your ignorance. So, Paul dives in and gives his sermon, saying:

Acts 17:24-28

The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 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 feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’

Paul’s clever. He dropped words that he knew would perk the ears of these philosophers: seeking, feeling, finding, appointed times, boundaries, movement and existence. Of course, their focus was on seeking and finding knowledge, not YHWH, but it was enough to make them listen. Let’s back-track a little. Paul said to the philosophers:

…for in Him [YHWH] we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’

Did you notice what Paul never does? He doesn’t quote the Bible to these people. The Hebrew scriptures would mean nothing to them. They didn’t give a fig about Abraham, Isaiah, or Esther. Instead he quoted what they treasured. He turned to their own Greek poets to make his point. 

Epimenides was a poet from the Island of Crete. He was disappointed in his home Island because they built an elaborate tomb for Zeus. But Zeus was immortal. He needed no mausoleum! And so Epimenides wrote the following poem, “To Zeus”:

They fashioned a tomb for you, holy and high one, Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, gluttons.
But you are not dead: you live and abide forever, for in you we live and move and exist.

Paul quoted this poem, but he made it clear that its was not Zeus that game humanity their existence, it was YHWH!

Acts 17:28

…for in Him [YHWH not Zeus] we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’

Paul, again, quoted another Greek poet, Aratus, and his poem, “Phaenomena”, was also dedicated to Zeus:

“Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken. For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus.
 Even the sea and the harbour are full of this deity.
Everywhere everyone  is indebted to Zeus, for we are also his descendants…”

Again, Paul was suggesting a re-think of Zeus. We are not descendants of Zeus, we are descendants of the One Creator God, YHWH:

Acts 17:29

Therefore, [says Paul] since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought.

Here Paul tapped into a belief common to Stoicism, that there was a singular Divine Nature and that the gods were simply aspects of that Divine Nature. Paul was hinting that YHWH was the Divine Nature that created all of nature and that YHWH couldn’t be formed into an image like their measly gods. But good news, said Paul, God’s was willing to overlook their ignorance if they repented to it:

Acts 17:30-33

So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We shall hear from you again concerning this.” So Paul went out from among them.

The decision of the court? This wasn’t treason; at worst it was just ridiculous… at best it was something new to talk about, so they decided that Paul could live another day and speak again. “We shall hear from you again concerning this”. But here’s the thing. Paul didn’t stay. He left Athens, and as far as we can tell, Paul never came back. However, Paul’s sermon did leave a lasting impression on some of the listeners:

Acts 17:34

But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

So Luke tells us the names of two believers: a man of the Areopagus Court, Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris. There were others who also believed, but we are only given the names of these two, a man and a woman. But what’s a woman doing at the Areopagus?

Surprisingly, Stoics believed that women had equality with men when it came to being reasonable and rational. Imagine!! They even accepted women in their schools of thought. Damaris may very well have been a follower of Stoicism attending the Areopagus trials. 

Paul would not stay, but he left Damaris and Dionysis to become the church leaders in Athens. The seeds were sown, he found advocates for the faith, and Paul could move on to Corinth.

So what can we learn from this little story about Paul? Paul was deep into pagan territory. Jews were weirdos who believed in One God and who had strict dietary laws. And this guy, Paul, added extra gods and talked about the dead coming to life. They saw Paul as a passionate oddball and they were amused by him, but the majority of them just dismissed him. How much easier would it have been for Paul just to stay home and believe in Jesus in the quietness of his own home?

Ask yourself this: do you enjoy believing in Jesus in the quietness of your own home? Or perhaps you miss living in a “Christian country?” Canada was once considered a Christian country; it’s now a secular country. 

For those of us old enough, how many of you remember saying the Lord’s Prayer in school when you were a child? I might surprise you by saying this, but I don’t think that did us any favours.

We just learned to spew out the words of Jesus like they meant nothing.

Growing up, it was very easy to be a Christian, because that was what was expected of us. When believing in something takes no effort, then we tend to put no effort into it… we become complacent. 

When we institutionalized our faith, we lost our passion for it. It was too easy.

Did you know that one of the largest growing Christian movements today is in Iran?! There is an underground church movement there that is on fire… People are risking their lives to follow Jesus because they feel accepted and seen by a God who loves them. And they have risked their lives on that love.

One of the reasons that early Christianity grew so rapidly was that it started off in adversity. People became passionate about Christianity NOT because it made their lives easier, but because they also felt accepted and seen by a God who loved them… regardless of their social status. Women and slaves really jumped on board, because in this new social movement, they had equal status in the eyes of God… and nowhere else in the world did they have full equal status! Christianity was a radical and freeing social movement, and that freedom was enough of a catalyst that they were willing to risk their lives to follow the Way of Jesus.

Paul lived passionately on the edge in a pagan world. He risked his life to share the love of God. There’s a reason he didn’t stay in Athens. Athens would have been easy for him. Debating philosophies was like a walk in the park for Paul. In Athens they never threatened to beat him up… at the very worst, they just mocked him. I think Paul knew he had to go into far more difficult places to keep the fire going. He did what he needed to do in Athens. He shared the Gospel of Jesus to those who would listen. The philosophers called him a “seed-picker” but he was a “seed-dropper”… and then he left and let God, through people like Dionysius and Damaris, cultivate those seeds into a harvest. 

Paul didn’t follow Jesus to live the easy life. No one who followed Jesus in the first century had it easy. Eventually Rome saw the Christian movement as such a threat that they threw them into the great arenas to be devoured by lions in a twisted spectacle, or they just hunted them down and executed them.

There are historical hints that Paul, himself, had to fight for his life in the arenas. At the very least, we know that he was repeatedly beaten, shipwrecked, and imprisoned… and yet the passion he had for his faith was unstoppable. 

Paul talked about having a “torn in his flesh”… some sort of ailment that weakened him… and he begged God to take it away, but God’s response was this:

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” 

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I think Paul knew that if he stayed in Athens, he’d get weaker. He’d get complacent and lose the passion. He’d go back to his old habits of debating but not growing. He knew that he needed to go into the fire to cause a spark.

It’s the same reason that the underground churches in Iran and China are growing with such strength… because under hardship they become all the stronger as the power of God grows within them.

It’s my personal belief that where the church took the worst turn in history was when Emperor Constantine the Great adopted Christianity as Rome’s official religion. He did that because when he prayed to the Christian God he won a military victory. And from that point on Christianity and War became buddies. The Roman version of Christianity removed any connection to Judaism and it also eradicated the presence of women as leaders in the Church. And this has had a disastrous effect on history. The middle ages brought Crusades… holy wars, killing in the name of Jesus. Women lost their roles as deacons, prophets, financial supporters of missions, and evangelists in the faith. Jews were terrorized and persecuted as “Christ killers” and the notion that Jesus was, Himself, a Jew, was hugely suppressed. Christianity had lost its way, and we, today, feel the repercussions of that. Why are so many people, today, anti-Christian? It’s not because of the teachings of Jesus, it’s because of the historical actions of the Church. 

And it all happened when it was easy to be a Christian.

This is why God said, “My power is perfected in weakness.” 

It’s because when humans are strong and powerful, they tend to ignore God and make cruel life choices. They chose to raise themselves up at the expense of those deemed weaker than them. Does that sound familiar in today’s politics?

We may not feel so strong these days. Our little church isn’t a powerhouse mega-Church, but God loves to take the small things and make them big in the faith. David, for example, was a sheep-hearder and the smallest, youngest, son of Jesse, and look what became of him! Like David, we need to take action in our weakness. We have to be bold and passionate like Paul. And that’s scary because our society has taught us that it’s okay to claim to be a Christian as long as we keep it to ourselves… 

…and so we’ve become quiet Christians, trying to blend into a secular society. I think Paul would beg us to stand up, stand out, and be passionate, because if we don’t have passion for our faith, what do we have? Complacency, indifference, a comfortable feeling of a riskless life?  Many churches pray for a Revival in their communities, but I think we should start by praying for a Revival in the Heart of all believers… including you, and me. Let’s fall in love with God again, to the point where we would risk our lives to follow Him. 

Next week: Sky-Stuff pt4 Thick Darkness