If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in his word do I hope. (Psalm 130:3-5)
You will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you... (Jeremiah 29: 12-13) The inhabitants of Athens had altars to all their known gods and, as a precaution, even an altar “To an unknown god”. It is precisely this unknown god that Paul sought to make known to the Athenians: The God who made the world and everything in it, he, the Lord of heaven and earth, dwelled not in temples made by human hand. (Acts 17:24)
An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a miracle; and a miracle will not be given it, except the miracle of Jonah. (Mathew 16:4) Miracles and signs impress people but generate little or no changes. Of course, at first people are strongly moved, but the emotions miracles cause dissipates so quickly that the witnesses return to their old ways without changing. Miracles incite men to comply with the supernatural and to imagine how God acts instead to be transformed through his word and to participate in the development of the world through their own choices and efforts.
