Have you ever wondered why/how you ended up where you are and around the people you’re... around?  What has brought you to Bloomington/Normal?  Was it just where you were born?  Was it housing prices?  Was it a job?  Was it a relationship?  Was it college? 

In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul shed some divine light on this question as he shared the gospel with a group of Athenians.  In verse 26 Paul said, “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…”

The Bible says here that God has determined the time and place where we live.  We are in Bloomington-Normal by God’s determination, not ours.  Now, don’t give up making wise decisions and become unnecessarily fatalistic.  God uses our reasoning capacities, desires, family and various other things to move us where He wants us.  But, we need to understand we’re here because God has placed us here. 

God has also placed people around us.  He has determined where we live, and He’s also determined where those around us live.  Interesting, eh?  And why would He do that?  “That they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.”  There are most likely people around you seeking God, or more specifically, God is seeking after them.  And, many may not even realize God is seeking them. 

There are people in your neighborhood, in your family, in your workplace and in your life that God is seeking.  God has purposefully and gloriously put you in their lives to love them, serve them, be their friend, have them into your house, and share the gospel with them, so that they might find Him.  Let us pray and look for opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus with those God has placed around us.