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. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. (Romans 1:25-26 NLT) They traded the truth about God for a lie. That really paints a bleak picture, doesn't it? Down through the generations, everywhere we go, we would have found those whose hearts remained steadfast in their worship of the one true God. They might even be referred to as a 'remnant' of faithful believers. Even in the face of those who follow more 'popular trends' or 'cultural norms', they remained true to the teachings of scripture and their worship of the King of Kings. They wouldn't be swept along into the cultural norms. If we didn't have their examples and their faithfulness, where would we be today? The 'remnant' has always been the ones to bring a nation back to God. Scripture records account after ...
For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. (2 Timothy 1:9-10 NLT) And now... Jesus came, he will come again, in the meantime - we live devoted lives. His grace came in human form, not so we could just be Sunday Christians - so we could live powerful, full, and complete lives both now and into eternity. Our part is to believe, then to follow. His part was to break the bonds of sin, then to continue to endue us with his power. And now... Let's live our new lives - holy lives, fully devoted to him. Not because we deserve his grace, repeatedly requiring renewal and regeneration, but because it is his plan to have us in his family. We may not hav...