Friday, November 07, 2008

Romans 1:18-32

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Just take time to read this passage. This passage was written 2000 years ago. Paul dealt with it then and we're still looking at it now. When I studied this passage, it convicted me on many levels. One, if this had been 13 years ago, and something would have happened where I would have died, I would be facing an eternal damnation because while I knew God existed, that isn't enough. To know the love and grace given to us by His Son and to believe that Jesus will lead you through all things. I gave my mind over to foolish things, idolatry, and the laundry list of sins that is mentioned in verse 29. God is all around us. There is no excuse for anyone not to believe in Him. But, yet, we put our football teams, baseball teams, music groups, 401k plans, etc., before Him. I'm just as guilty of this. I look at the results of the elections and I pray that God doesn't take a back seat. Or, let me rephrase that. That our country doesn't PUT God in the backseat. God will never be a backseat driver. I also think of the results of the vote to ban same sex marriage in California. For once, the people of California did something right! It's clearly written in the Bible that same sex marriage is an absolute no-no. I was reading this passage in the King James version and it stats that God gave the people to uncleanness. The first thought that came to my mind was back then if you were unclean you had leprosy and had to announce it to the world so no one would come near you. What do you think today's "uncleanness" is? II'm thankful that God came into my life and I got to truly know who Jesus Christ is. Jesus is not some made up fantasy. He's the Son of God who was born of a virgin. He lived a sinless life. He healed the sick, brought the dead to life and made the blind to see. He died on a cross and rose from the dead 3 days later. I pray that He becomes even more evident in my life. Today and the rest of my days.