Romans 1:
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Ask anyone (or at least almost anyone) and they will say America is blessed. We are such a blessed country because of the freedoms we have here. We are such a blessed country because of the wealth we have here. We are such a blessed country because of the health we experience here. Compared to the majority of the rest of the world we far exceed them all in everyone of these areas. But are these things blessings? What is a blessing? I’m not sure myself sometimes... I believe all of those things can be blessings. But I am starting to believe that in America, not in all individual cases, but as a whole they are indeed curses; the wrath of God Almighty.
Romans says that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. That we know things about God because He has shown it to us clearly. And that although we know this, we do not honor Him or give thanks to Him. We ignore Him, suppress the truth about what we know of Him, or outright mock Him. Verse 24 is the scary verse - therefore, God gives us up to the lusts of our hearts... wait what? That’s not what I was taught... You mean He curses us with poor health right? He punishes us by killing our business income? No, He gives us the desire of our hearts - namely whatever it is we are pursuing that is not Him. So if your love for money and prosperity is an idol in your heart that you desire more than Christ, God does not take away your money to pour out His wrath... He gives up on you and let’s you pursue money, quite possibly to the result of becoming exceedingly wealthy. Then we make it even worse by believing that this is a blessing when in reality it is God’s wrath and we continue in ignorance thinking we are close to God while we are in fact very far from Him.
For those who are seeking Christ and have struggles with loving other things more than Him, sometimes God’s mercy is suffering. Sometimes what we perceive here as God’s wrath and judgement is in fact his mercy, loving us to turn us to him and sometimes what we perceive as His blessing is in fact His wrath as He has given us up to the lesser things we desire.
Verse 21 says that we become futile (trifling; frivolous; unimportant) in our thinking. What are the things we think about? As embarrassing as it may be, I’ll tell you that I often day dream about campers, boats and cars. I love camping and I like some of the campers that are out there and I want them. I love boating and there are lots of boats I would like to have. I also wouldn’t mind having a suburban... None of which is a bad thing. But I find myself day dreaming about these things. Wasting blocks of my life thinking about obtaining those possessions. What futile thinking. Things that in 100 years will be wasting away in a junk yard. Spending too much time thinking about and pursuing ownership of these things is the very definition of verse 23 - exchanging the glory of God for images resembling mortal man. And I do it alot!
I pray that God does not turn me over to my hearts desire. Because my heart does not desire what it should! I pray that He would mercifully change my heart to desire what is worthy.
I think this also kind of goes along with this post... These are two are the scariest verses in the bible to me.
Luke 8:
13And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
I do not want to be someone who receives the word with joy, but falls away in times of testing. To believe in Christ when I’m making my monthly bills, saving for retirement and getting good checkups at the Doctor’s only to fall away when my plans go awry. There are lots of people, I pray I am not one, who are professing Christians who do not have salvation in Jesus Christ (note: I am not the judge, don’t want to be the judge, and do not try to figure out who they are, but they do exist). Very similar to that is the one in 14 who hears, possibly accepts with joy as well, but is then choked out by the cares of this world. That one is very real and dangerous as well. We all deal with that risk on a daily, hourly, constant basis. I’m not sure exactly the details and how it lines up with a few other verses, but I hope with everything I have in me that I will not in the end be one of those described in Matthew:
Matthew:
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'
I think the scariest thing in here is that these people described appear to think they were genuine followers of Christ. When combined with the Luke 8 verses, we aren’t always talking about people who rejected Christ, or who accepted and then knowingly changed their minds. We are talking about people who thought they followed Christ and did not. How does that happen? I think it happens in part because we have plenty of teaching that is not biblical. Preachers who don’t preach truth but preach what we want to hear and deceive us into believing we have salvation when we do not. When we believe in a god who is not the God described in the bible but don’t know it. If that doesn’t motivate me to search the scripture and humbly plead with God to have mercy on me, to give me wisdom, then I don’t know what will...
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Ask anyone (or at least almost anyone) and they will say America is blessed. We are such a blessed country because of the freedoms we have here. We are such a blessed country because of the wealth we have here. We are such a blessed country because of the health we experience here. Compared to the majority of the rest of the world we far exceed them all in everyone of these areas. But are these things blessings? What is a blessing? I’m not sure myself sometimes... I believe all of those things can be blessings. But I am starting to believe that in America, not in all individual cases, but as a whole they are indeed curses; the wrath of God Almighty.
Romans says that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. That we know things about God because He has shown it to us clearly. And that although we know this, we do not honor Him or give thanks to Him. We ignore Him, suppress the truth about what we know of Him, or outright mock Him. Verse 24 is the scary verse - therefore, God gives us up to the lusts of our hearts... wait what? That’s not what I was taught... You mean He curses us with poor health right? He punishes us by killing our business income? No, He gives us the desire of our hearts - namely whatever it is we are pursuing that is not Him. So if your love for money and prosperity is an idol in your heart that you desire more than Christ, God does not take away your money to pour out His wrath... He gives up on you and let’s you pursue money, quite possibly to the result of becoming exceedingly wealthy. Then we make it even worse by believing that this is a blessing when in reality it is God’s wrath and we continue in ignorance thinking we are close to God while we are in fact very far from Him.
For those who are seeking Christ and have struggles with loving other things more than Him, sometimes God’s mercy is suffering. Sometimes what we perceive here as God’s wrath and judgement is in fact his mercy, loving us to turn us to him and sometimes what we perceive as His blessing is in fact His wrath as He has given us up to the lesser things we desire.
Verse 21 says that we become futile (trifling; frivolous; unimportant) in our thinking. What are the things we think about? As embarrassing as it may be, I’ll tell you that I often day dream about campers, boats and cars. I love camping and I like some of the campers that are out there and I want them. I love boating and there are lots of boats I would like to have. I also wouldn’t mind having a suburban... None of which is a bad thing. But I find myself day dreaming about these things. Wasting blocks of my life thinking about obtaining those possessions. What futile thinking. Things that in 100 years will be wasting away in a junk yard. Spending too much time thinking about and pursuing ownership of these things is the very definition of verse 23 - exchanging the glory of God for images resembling mortal man. And I do it alot!
I pray that God does not turn me over to my hearts desire. Because my heart does not desire what it should! I pray that He would mercifully change my heart to desire what is worthy.
I think this also kind of goes along with this post... These are two are the scariest verses in the bible to me.
Luke 8:
13And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
I do not want to be someone who receives the word with joy, but falls away in times of testing. To believe in Christ when I’m making my monthly bills, saving for retirement and getting good checkups at the Doctor’s only to fall away when my plans go awry. There are lots of people, I pray I am not one, who are professing Christians who do not have salvation in Jesus Christ (note: I am not the judge, don’t want to be the judge, and do not try to figure out who they are, but they do exist). Very similar to that is the one in 14 who hears, possibly accepts with joy as well, but is then choked out by the cares of this world. That one is very real and dangerous as well. We all deal with that risk on a daily, hourly, constant basis. I’m not sure exactly the details and how it lines up with a few other verses, but I hope with everything I have in me that I will not in the end be one of those described in Matthew:
Matthew:
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'
I think the scariest thing in here is that these people described appear to think they were genuine followers of Christ. When combined with the Luke 8 verses, we aren’t always talking about people who rejected Christ, or who accepted and then knowingly changed their minds. We are talking about people who thought they followed Christ and did not. How does that happen? I think it happens in part because we have plenty of teaching that is not biblical. Preachers who don’t preach truth but preach what we want to hear and deceive us into believing we have salvation when we do not. When we believe in a god who is not the God described in the bible but don’t know it. If that doesn’t motivate me to search the scripture and humbly plead with God to have mercy on me, to give me wisdom, then I don’t know what will...
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