The Result of Rejection of God

I was very saddened to see celebratory comments about Obama's support of "full marriage equality" on Facebook recently.  I was equally saddened and even sickened by the excitement over Hollywood "stars" and their financial support for Obama and his endorsement of same-sex marriage.  This is just one more step in a further rejection of God and His righteous laws in this country.  There are countless reasons why it is not good for a society to promote homosexuality, but I don't even care to debate that.  When I first started this blog, I was very concerned about the social issues and the destructive direction of our country's laws.  But as time goes on, I have come to realize that we are nearing the end times and the salvation of this country is not what is important, but rather a person's salvation in Christ.  Oftentimes a person is brought to salvation because things are so bad and he is at the end of what HE can do and turns to God.  So things being bad in this country can actually bring about good things.  But to celebrate the bad?  There are people who really believe they are being loving and respectful of others by supporting homosexuality and elevating it to the status of God-ordained marriage with no regard to what God said about it.  It makes me sad for the people who do not realize what it is they do, for God made it very clear that it is nothing to be celebrated.  He called homosexuality an abomination (Lev. 18:22 and Lev. 20:13) and the Bible said that Sodom and Gomorrah were to be used as examples to those who would afterward live ungodly (2 Peter 2:6 and Jude v. 7).

The apostle Paul described at length the progression of a people who reject God in Romans 1.  They know God, but reject Him, and professing to be wise, change the truth of God into a lie and serve God's creation more than Him (verses 20-25).  When they reject God, their hearts are darkened (v. 21), and God turns them over to their unnatural same-sex affections (v. 26-27).  Then they become a people filled with all sorts of wickedness, "fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful" (v. 29-31), and even though they know the judgment of God, they do it anyway and enjoy the company of others who do it, too. (v. 32)  The book of Jude speaks of these things similarly. Growing depravity is not something to celebrate!  But for the first time, I think I am really seeing that this growing acceptance and celebration of homosexuality is the result of rejection of God and not in itself a sin that brings the wrath and punishment of God.  Homosexuality is a sin like any other sin or abomination to God.  God hates divorce; God hates pride.  There are many things that are abominations to God.  What is happening in our country is the natural progression of depravity foretold by God because we have rejected Him.

I couldn't help but notice that "debate" was among the wickedness above, and boy, does that speak to me!  I do realize that we seem to be in so much strife these days. Although it pains me to sit idly by while the country is hell-bent on destruction, I am beginning to truly see that fighting the symptoms does no good.  The reason this country accepts a president who voted to kill innocent babies born alive after botched abortions and cheers when he announces that homosexuals should marry, and can dismiss his blasphemous comments about Jesus Christ as "frivolous", is because they have first rejected God and his amazing gift of grace through Christ. It's not Obama we should be fighting.  There will always be ungodly and corrupt leaders.  It's not even the mainstream media that gives him a free pass.  It's not homosexuality itself (or abortion, or pornography, or any single immoral issue).  We won't get anywhere attacking sinners or even their sins.  We are all sinners and are only accepted by the grace of God when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and are covered by His sacrificial blood.  While I am still deeply saddened by what I see happening, I can see that merely fighting the social issues battles will never solve the problems.  Changed hearts as a result of salvation in Christ is the only thing that will change this country.  Now that's real CHANGE in which we can all have hope and real faith!  Remember that long list of progressive wickedness above?  The apostle Paul gives a similar list in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (v. 9-11)

"And such WERE some of you", but now they have been saved by Jesus Christ!  I also love this one from Deuteronomy, chapter 4, one of my scripture memory passages from the old KJV:

But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.(v. 29-31)

If you seek the Lord your God will all your heart and soul, and turn to Him and are obedient to Him, He will not forsake you....even in the latter days.  So it's not too late!  But there is one word of caution in another scripture:

Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. (Isaiah 55:6)

"WHILE He may be found" indicates there will come a time when He will no longer be found.  So we need to call on Him now!  And we don't have to be perfect and sinless before we call on Him.  Get our hearts fixed on Him and He will show us the way!

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Meanwhile, I will try to keep my debate to a minimum, and continue with my Bible study in this blog.  The Bible is the only source for truth and wisdom in this crazy mixed up world where right is called wrong and wrong is called right.  The Bible says there is NO wisdom apart from God, only foolishness, so I'd like to continue to study truth and wisdom, and share study notes from an in-depth word study and a few insights from some of the greatest Biblical scholars.

As part of my Bible study, I am using some great free resources I have found on the internet.  First, I decided to study the Bible chronologically, and am using a time-line created by Skip Andrews.  You can view that time-line here.  In addition, I use e-Sword, a wonderful software program by Rick Meyers, which allowed me to choose what Bible translations I wanted to study, even several for comparison if I so chose; it also has Biblical dictionaries and a variety of commentaries for insight.  It has a wonderful scripture memory tool that I have immensely enjoyed as I have never been very good at remembering scripture word for word.  I highly recommend both of these resources.

I spent so long in the book of Job, that I need to be reminded that this is a chronological Bible study. According to the last chapter of Job, he lived 140 years after his trial of patience, which means Job was alive during the time of Abraham and his family.

Stephen, speaking before a religious council, gives a synopsis of the lives of Abraham and his family, in Acts, chapter 7.

(Acts 7:1) Then the high priest said, "Are these things so?" (2) And he said, "Men, brethren and fathers, listen; the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, (3) And said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.' (4) Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. (5) And He gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him, when as yet he had no child.

I don't think I will do an in-depth word study on this recitation by Stephen of Abraham's life, but will wait until I begin the actual study of Abraham next time.  I would argue that Stephen talking about something that had already happened doesn't belong chronologically before it happened, but I have committed to this time-line, and wouldn't want to change now.  So far these verses are pretty self-explanatory. 

(6) And God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years. (7) 'And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage I will judge,' said God, 'and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.' (8) And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. (9) And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him,

The "patriarchs, moved with envy", almost seems like it should be an oxymoronic phrase, but it is a marvelous reminder that the Bible greats were human as we are and made many mistakes.  We'll get into details when I get back to the in-depth study of Abraham next time beginning in Genesis, chapter 12.

(10) And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. (11) Now there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction; and our fathers found no sustenance. (12) But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. (13) And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to the Pharaoh. (14) Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. (15) So Jacob went down to Egypt, and died, he and our fathers. (16) And were carried over into Shechem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

And now a word from Joshua:

(Joshua 24:1) And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. (2) And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river in old times, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. (3) And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants, and gave him Isaac. (4) And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave mount Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

Like a whole episode flashback from a television movie or series, here ends the present, and next time we'll go back to study Abraham.