September 18, 2018

The Known God - Gloria Guest


One of my favorite verses in the Bible is "For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ {Acts 17:28} The context of this verse is the apostle Paul’s speech to the people of Athens regarding their worship of many gods, including the ‘Unknown God.’ It is this unknown God that Paul seeks to introduce them to.

It is only by knowing the one true God that we can in all fullness experience abundant life and pass it on to others. “I came that you might have Life. And to have it abundantly.” {John 10:10} The word ‘enthusiasm’ comes from two Greek words, en and theos. Theos is the Greek word for God. 'enthusiasm' literally then means, ‘full of God’ or ‘God within.’ I find that profound. For me, this means that without God, I can’t be truly enthusiastic in anything! I can have a shadow of it perhaps, as we are all Gods creation, but I cannot have true enthusiasm, just as the people of Athens had no true understanding of the Unknown God, but instead worshipped and served empty, manmade gods of stone.

In my writing, I feel this verse keenly. It is in God that my writing lives and moves and it is in God that I can have true inspiration and enthusiasm to share the words that He gives me. Even in writing a non-christian based article, I can still seek for my writing to honor Him and believe that He ministers in any way that He sees fit through it.

We truly are God’s offspring. It is an amazing thought that a part of God’s ingenuity and creativity abides in us and our words.

We don’t have to know everything about writing as we often think we do, and sometimes those things can just end up being our searching out other gods and a means to not have to depend on and get to know how God wants to truly move uniquely through us. I don’t know where my writing journey will lead me in the future but I do know that God, who was once described by Paul as the Unknown God, wants to be known by me and is the one who leads me. That is more than enough for me.


5 comments:

  1. I also find the root of enthusiasm fascinating and quite exciting!

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    1. It really is! It is something I'd learned years ago and it has always stuck with me. I definitely needed a dose of enthusiasm to write this blog so when that came to me it was a gift from God. I also love how Paul mentions the poets; that verse does sound very poetic :)

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    2. Hi Gloria! I always find a golden nugget when I read your posts. This time I caught my own enthusiasm for my writing. Part of a line in your last paragraph notes, "We don’t have to know everything about writing as we often think we do..." That line jumped out at me. I was caught up with at my stage in life, I have so much to learn about writing. I have caught your enthusisam to concentrate on the act of writing. Thank you my friend!

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    3. Thanks again for the encouragement Alan. And I'm glad you found a nugget that encouraged you too.

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  2. I also appreciate this passage of Scripture when Paul is speaking to the people of Athens. We can "reach out and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being." Therein lies our enthusiasm, Gloria. Thanks for sharing this. If we are in God's circle or he is this close to us, he knows what's in our mind and our heart. Perhaps we can share our pen or computer with him. Wow! Thanks for this great reminder. Nuggets, for sure, as Alan says.

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