Lesson for 6/26

Greetings, the Sunday school lesson for tomorrow comes from Romans 1:18-23, 28-32. Its titled "Ignoring God's plain truth" For a deeper understanding I encourage you to read the entire chapter 1 or even the whole book of Romans! To provide some background, here we find in the events leading up to verse 18; Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ is enthused and anticipating his visit to Rome. He had been hearing reports of the faith the people of Rome were exerting. Verse 11 says “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— 12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith." That's a powerful scripture in itself! Iron sharpens Iron, even today we can see through fellowship together how we can share, empower and be encouraged by each other’s testimony and belief! "For in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed." Beginning in verse 18, Paul begins to explain to them the wickedness and ungodliness of people. Very similar to what our previous lessons this month have been bringing out, Paul continues to express how this sinful behavior is inexcusable, as God has made it plain to them and us today!  Verse 20 “For 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 people are without excuse. (21) For 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." Pause, The evidence is all around! Just take a moment or two to stop and genuinely look back over your life. Even deeper, look at our ancestors; take another moment to think about the sky and creation in itself! We can’t help but reflect on the grace and love of our God. Most people of that time had no regard for this. As you read on, Paul continues to explain this type of unacceptable behavior. Again, he is speaking to these believers, people of faith, us today - that that the people of this world have (29) "become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, (30) slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; (31) they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy." We actually see a lot of this in the world we live in today. The lesson concludes with verse 32 "Although 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." The sad truth about this last verse is, most people know of God and that the wages of sin is death, but continue to live how they want; unpleasing in God’s sight.  Simply ignoring the truth that has been made plain to each and every human being each and every day. 

May we continue to pray for those who do not know and those who do know and chose to ignore God’s truths. May we remain encouraged and steadfast as we strive to live a life that pleases our Heavenly Father!

Thanks for reading, leave a comment or ask a question!

God bless you all!