I was preparing the lesson for the Celebrate Recovery ministry at my church tonight. I was looking for a particular verse in Romans and I read through the following verses. My heart breaks for our nation , but more my heart breaks because of verse 21.
How often have I failed to give God thanks for who He is? How often has my mind become dark & confused because of trying to imagine what God is like instead of going to the source, God's own word?? How many times have I failed to worship because I simply "didn't feel like it"?
Lord help me to not be ashamed. Help me to walk in your ways and to remember to seek you daily.
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes-Jews first and also Gentiles.
Rom 1:17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life."
Rom 1:18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves.
Rom 1:19 For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts.
Rom 1:20 From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.
Rom 1:21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused.
Rom 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead.
Rom 1:23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people, or birds and animals and snakes.
Rom 1:24 So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies.
Rom 1:25 Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen.
Rom 1:26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.
Rom 1:27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved.
Rom 1:28 When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done.
Rom 1:29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.
Rom 1:30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents.
Rom 1:31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving.
Rom 1:32 They are fully aware of God's death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And, worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
9 years ago
