Common Ground

Acts 17:22-31

22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

29"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

Bee's Thoughts:

• The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.
• You have power over your mind—not outside events.
• Your life is what your thoughts make it.
- Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome from AD 161 to 180.

I have been pretty happy the last few months... I was carefree, just enjoying my work and don't think too much about other things, including relationship. However, I felt very disturbed this morning when I thought about what happened last night. I lost my joy. :(

The above quotations are so true. They echoe what Proverbs 23:7 says, “As [a person] thinks in his heart, so is he.”

Tonight's devotion reminds us how we may use something common in our daily life to share the gospel or encourage fellow believers. This is the principle of using simple or common analogies to bring about understanding in abstract concepts, e.g. the explanation of the Trinity. That's why Jesus like to use parables.


Dear Lord,
I pray tonight that you will teach me to think of "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable" (Philippians 4:8).
Let me be able to share all these things with others.
Let me not be a stumbling block to anyone. If I have please forgive me.

I also pray that my "bf" will feel free to receive and give love to his soulmate whom you have prepared for him. I pray you will open his eyes to see and to know it when You have sent her to him or him to her. May Your peace rules his heart even now.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.