Weekly Bible Reading Update

I missed last week's update because my computer was down, but I wouldn't have had much to report because I was about a whole week behind. After my family left, I caught up in my One Year Bible, except today I am a day behind. Today, I read July 13th. The Romans passage cut me to the heart. I was only going to quote a part of it, but I decided to post the entire passage.

Romans 1:18-32 New Living Translation

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.^[a] 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

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. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 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. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

That passage just makes me think of the society that we live in and how we accept the foolishness that is going on around us. That we foolishly watch T.V. shows and movies that shouldn't be acceptable to us. That we gossip easily and don't keep our promises. Maybe we are being as foolish as those who say they don't believe in God.

Keep Kirk and the youth group in your prayers - they are at CIY this week. I hope that they come back refreshed, energized, and encourage to MOVE! (CIY's theme)