God are you winking at me?

Lord are you giving me the eye?

I spoke along the lines Sunday of ''a bucket with holes'' and I used Acts 17 were Paul was in Athens and was in a debate with Epicureans and Stoics about God and the message of repentance. The Areopagus was the highest court and the debate took place there. Paul says they were to superstitious. Their superstitions went far beyond the ''rabbits foot'' or ''the Broken mirror'' or even ''walking under a ladder''. they were a society that had many gods to choose from since they were entrenched in Greek mythology. Paul direct their attention to altar of the ''unknown God'' and begins to explain to them who he is.
I want to however place emphasis on the later scripture here today In Acts chapter 17....
Act 17:30
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
I sometimes as a child would use the term ''I don't know'' in order to excuse me from something that was deemed wrong or as in my childhood I would use it to try and get me out of responsibility such as chores and when my mother asks why I didn't do something I would just simply reply well I didn't know. I thought that would ease the punishment or simply do away with any punishment all together. The reality was I did know and just chose to ignore what was required of me.
I recently visited a Lady who is battling cancer, and she began to remember her childhood. I of course asked did she know the Lord as her savior, and she began to recount her childhood. When I was a child I was in and out of 13 different foster homes. She said ''I was a Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Church of God, Pentecostal, and a few more in between.'' She also said I love going to church. I said ''all that is good however do you know the Lord?'' She replied They all had one basic thing, we had to repent [ask forgiveness from the Lord]. I thought she may have had some spins to it however she knew she needed to repent. She began to acknowledge she was a Christian. I thought She was definitely taught how to be saved..Repentance is the foundation. We are saved by grace through faith.
The following are some of the basic things Christians should do.
1.Treat others as you would have them treat you
2 Help people
3. Don't worry
4. Read the Bible
5. Give thanks and be joyful
6. Pray
7. Forgive your enemies
8. Be careful with what you say
9. Learn the Word of God
10. Tell others about Jesus

I gathered this information by simply typing ''Basic things Christians should do'' in a search engine and this is one of the first articles I found. If we do all these things and have not repented then they are no more than rituals without substance. W e that have been brought up in a Christian society can relate and agree with these things. However we too often find ourselves not doing the things we know to do and we expect God to keep winking and overlooking our willful and un willful transgressions.
We know it's good to pray however we will admit that we find it hard to find time to pray, oh yeah let alone attend church. We know it's a good thing to study and learn from the bible however we so many times can't seem to squeeze it in. I could go on and on here but I don't want to try your patience.
Paul talks to the Areopagus and tells them that all men should repent [change their mind] They Didn't have to flip a coin to see which deity they would bring their petitions. They had an altar that had the inscription ''unknown God' and they worshipped him ignorantly.
Act 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.' Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you
Act 17:24
"The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;
Act 17:25
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;
Act 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,
Act 17:27
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;
Act 17:28
for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'
We don't worship a God who is created in the form a statute, or he's not some ancient wind, nor is he in men's intellect. He shared with the ''mars hill'' gang that even at that point That people were seeking for him as they were in the dark in hopes that they might find him. He still requires us to repent, and even after the initial one to acknowledge his salvation when must continue to do so when we are convicted.
Well God isn't winking at me, he is praying for me that my Spirit will not fail. I have no excuse for not knowing, nor do I have an excuse for not submitting to his kingship.
Paul continues to say that he has appointed where we will give an account of what he has bestowed upon us. I won't stand before Allah, Buddha, or even Mary. I will stand before Jesus.