Greece

When travelling in Greece everything was so immense….so much so that at first I was overwhelmed…and could not help but think that Paul was indeed empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Gospel here.

Part of the acropolis @ Athens!

First there were the mountains surrounding the cities which were like those I had only seen in pictures…yet they were so close by!  Sometimes I felt like an impostor…where were my flat farming plains and mountains of regular size?

Me with the view @ Delphi!

Yet that wasn’t all, because then there were the huge ancient pillars, structures and monuments everywhere, not forgetting to mention the acropolis’ containing ancient temples of massive proportion! At first I found myself looking up and feeling very insignificant…yet I was soon to learn that this was exactly what the ancient Greeks would have wanted as a part of their political agenda.

Corinth I must say was an amazing place – to stand in the area where St. Paul would have worked and preached was amazing!  Yet to imagine the temple prostitutes serving Aphrodite on top of the acropolis, I must admit did make me feel somewhat sick – I did gain a better appreciation of why ancient Corinth is sometimes called ancient Las Vegas…

Temple of Apollo @Corinth

The ancient stoa in Corinth where St. Paul may have been working as a tent maker. 

However Delphi was the place in which God revealed His heart to me and held up a mirror to my heart.

Visiting the ancient site of Delphi which the ancient Greek pilgrims visited to seek revelation from the female Oracles did open me up to a fresh revelation of God’s immense love and grace…You see to be totally honest I found myself once again sickened by the thought of the ancient Greeks using this place like a theme park for revenue and occult practices.  A thought came to my mind, something like, “if I was god I would have just wiped this place out!”

Delphi with the oracle temple @ the top left

And it was then that God held the mirror up to my heart and showed me that I was not that dissimilar to Jonah…I mean I had been a devoted Christian serving the Lord for quite a few years and was passionate about the truth being told, and sickened by this place!

But God reminded me gently that He still loved these people and that His ways are higher than mine!  We know that God wants to save all people…yet do we really grasp it after we’ve been saved for a while?  Do we remember that ‘nothing is impossible for God’?  For as we know Greece is still a Christian country today!

Amazing Delphi

I recognised that there was some of Jonah’s attitude hiding in me…Yes Jonah, the prophet I had taught children about and wondered about in relation to why he was so hard-hearted against the people of Nineveh…yet here I was in Delphi connecting with him.

But God did not leave me in that state and encouraged me by His example of true love and grace to not harbour resentment towards others, and to hold on to the fact that NOTHING is impossible for God!

Thank God we have such a patient and gracious God who shows us what real love and commitment looks like – I am so glad we are not left to our own devices to spread the Gospel.

Melanie J