Dreams, My Ancestry and Acts 17.

So I'm basically done with finals at the moment and was faced with making a decision today after dinner ... a) play basketball, b) read, c) study for a test that has no bearing on my GPA, d) sleep.

I chose choice d for a variety of reasons ... Mainly that option b made me tired. I just don't know how to explain dreams but somehow I woke up and was like "God does still speak in dreams." I'm not sure how church people view dreams and how or if God uses em today but ya. I've had moments like these before in High School but I haven't been this sure about God speaking through them. It's just that I woke up and my heart and mind were in a different place than when I woke. And after that followed a good brotherly chat with my apartment-mate. I do treasure our talks at night. I know I'm a bitter, unapproachable person and it can be that way for weeks or months but this guy doesn't care. He is one of the most excited people I know when it comes to God showing him something ... He always shares it and I love that about him (though when I'm bitter and unapproachable, I don't sometimes haha ... What? Just being honest ...). Today the convo just happened and it started as it normally does with one of us in need of reminder of God's faithfulness, despite all that's going on ... and the conclusion had us both going "man ... God is good. How does He orchestrate things the way He does?" It's just so beautiful ... How God aligns things so perfectly where I can echo Joseph when he says to his brothers: "It was not you who sent me here, but God" (Genesis 45:8). And I'm not sure why this connects with my ancestry but God has so perfectly done something awesome through generations ... This passage just resounds with me right now ...

Acts 17:22-34 ...

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

I immediately thought about verse 26 upon my reflections but after looking at verse 22-34, I really believe God's showing me something through this. The main reflection and awe came from verse 26-27. Something about that really stirs my heart up and ya, verse 32-33 has held true too throughout. It's just that I'm beginning to see this Christianity thing beyond my own minimized world and time period y'know? I've started to reflect on my ancestry, particularly "Lau" males ... and something about Acts 17 stirs in my heart a great deal of hope and a greater assurance of how divine this book is. It's so true and so beautiful. A generation goes, and a generation comes, but God is still God through it all. There really is nothing new under the sun. Despite each generation's vain ambitions and rebellion against God, I'm seeing just how He lavishes grace upon grace. It really is that ... All of this ... From that awesome 4 hour nap, my Chinese Lau heritage that now has me in Waco, Texas, etc., ... All of this ... It's favor and blessing given to a sinner who deserved none of it. Grace.