SIGNS OF OUR TIMES
 

                This Good News tells us that God makes us ready for heaven -- makes us right in
God's sight-- when we put our faith and trust in Christ to save us.  This is accomplished
from start to finish by faith.  As the Scripture says it, "The man who finds life will find it
through trusting God."

        But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, evil men who push away the
 truth from them.

                For the truth about God is known to them instinctively; God has put this knowledge in their hearts.

        Since earliest times men have seen the earth and sky and all God made, and have
known of his existence and great eternal power. So they will have no excuse (when they
stand before God at Judgment Day).

        Yes, they knew about him all right, but they wouldn't admit it or worship him or even
thank him for all his daily care.  And after awhile they began to think up silly ideas of what
God was like and what he wanted them to do.  The result was that their foolish minds
became dark and confused.

        Claiming themselves to be wise without God, they became utter fools instead.

        And then, instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they took wood and
stone and made idols for themselves, carving them to look like mere birds and animals
and snakes and puny men.

        So God let them go ahead into every sort of sex sin, and do whatever they wanted
to -- yes, vile and sinful things with each other's bodies.

        Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately
chose to believe lies.  So they prayed to the things God made, but wouldn't obey the
blessed God who made these things.

        That is why God let go of them and let them do all these evil things, so that even
their women turned against God's natural plan for them and indulged in sex sin with
each other.

        And the men, instead of having normal sex relationships with women, burned with
lust for each other, men doing shameful things with other men and, as a result, getting
paid within their own souls with the penalty they so richly deserved.

        So it was that when they gave God up and would not even acknowledge him, God
gave them up to doing everything their evil minds could think of.

        Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness and sin, of greed and hate,
envy, murder, fighting, lying, bitterness, and gossip.

        They were backbiters, haters of God, insolent, proud, braggarts, always thinking
of new ways of sinning and continually being disobedient to their parents.

        They tried to misunderstand, broke their promises, and were heartless -- without
pity.

        They were fully aware of God's death penalty for these crimes, yet they went
right ahead and did them anyway and encouraged others to do them, too.
 
                                                                                                                                   From  --  Romans 1:17-32
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Yours in Christ,
Paul N.F.