For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals and reptiles.
Therefore, God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to their sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served something that was created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
Romans 1:21-26 HCSB
Yesterday, we spoke of the urgency of drawing near to God. My friend, if you watch or read the news, then you should see this on a daily basis. I am appalled at the cases of child pornography occurring in members of law enforcement. Men and women who took an oath to serve and protect are exploiting young children for their own sexual desires. They are foolish enough to video it and share it with others. If this isn’t our scripture passage in action, I don’t know what is.
This begins with sexual impurity which provides an open doorway for the devil to come on in. These people may know God, but they don’t glorify Him. They don’t worship Him or praise Him, they are too caught up in their sin. Their thinking becomes nonsense. I am sure that they think, “Oh, I will exploit these children, video it, share it on the dark web and will never be caught.” This is nonsense, am I right?
They change the glory of God, the opportunity to live forever in heaven with their Lord and Savior, for their worship of fleshly desires. Now when any person sexually abuses children I can only believe that God has delivered them over to their sexually impure cravings. This is truly the work of the devil. God has given them over.
If you have ever doubted that the devil is alive and well, you need look no further than our local news. We see him at work in our politics, our law enforcement, our justice system, and even in our churches.
Recently at a Bible study, we discussed the need for Jesus in the lives of people that quite honestly most of us want nothing to do with. Not many people want to go to the domestic abuser and witness to him or her. I have no desire to sit across from someone who has abused a young child. But the Bible tells us that we are to love our enemy. Romans 12:19-20 tells us that God will handle vengeance, but as for us we are to be good to our enemies. We are to give them food if they are hungry and water if they are thirsty. It says that by doing so, it will be like heaping hot coals on his head. I did a whole blog on that a couple years ago entitled, That’ll Teach ‘Em, if you want to get a better understanding of what is meant by fiery coals on the head. But Romans 12:21 sums it up by saying this, “Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.”
There is a lot of evil in this world. We must avoid even the appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). Seeing these things naturally makes us angry but in Ephesians 4:26-27 we are told that it is okay to be angry as long as we don’t let our anger cause us to sin. We are told not to let the sun go down on our anger. And most importantly we are told not to give the devil a foothold or an entryway into our lives. Anger is a natural human response, but how we handle anger is what truly matters. There is a biblical way and a way that makes the devil happy.
We can’t control what others do, but we can control what we do. We should always be on guard (1 Peter 5:8). We know that the devil would like nothing more but than to turn our focus from God. But, we must stand firm.
If you don’t know God then there is no time like the presence to get to know Him. If you know Him, glorify Him. Don’t be ashamed of Him, be ashamed of all the evil that is in the world. In doing so, you will prevent your thinking from becoming nonsense and your mind from being darkened.
Have a great day!