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.
We don’t often fall in the trap of thinking that God lives in a particular location here on earth. We don’t have the same image of God as these ancients did. At least most of us here in the West don’t believe this. In other parts of the world they believe in temples and gods who inhabit a particular physical spaced. Sometimes we get a glimpse of this when we go to a chapel in a hospital and think our prayers are better heard there than in some other spot. But I think our greater error is in the opposite direction. We think we can hide some things from God due to where and when we do them. It is not that we think God is confined to a particular spot, but that we think there is some spot where God is not. This is the error Paul was pointing out to his hearers. They had many ‘spots’ they thought their gods honored. Paul preached a God who was over everything and therefore everywhere. There are no limits to where Paul’s God was. He is also the God who made everything and everything He made is His temple, His dwelling place. The Athenians had localized gods whose locality was built by human effort. Paul’s God built His own temple and that temple is all of creation. He didn’t need someone to carve something in stone to emphasize some saga of myth. God uses everything in creation to call out the fact that He exists and that he is all powerful. But more importantly, that He wants to be in relationship with us. God reaches out for us. So today, as God reaches out for you, respond. You don’t have to be in a particular spot for you to respond. Respond right where you are to the God who made everything and who desires to extend grace to you.
The Arnold Journey 