The Devotional - R005

The Devotional

Comment:

On occasion I read articles from the U.S. Naval Institute, the Institute has been around since 1871, not that this means anything but sometimes the articles reach back in time and I like history. Now this is not an article in this magazine, it is an advertisement to purchase a book; the title caught my eye. “Practice to Deceive” I thought “whoa” this is interesting, the strategy of winning battles by deception. The writer – served in the intelligence section of the U.S. Army Psychological Warfare. Now my point – I do not find it wrong in this writers effort to teach deception in military strategies to overcome an enemy, but what bothers me is that is this. This is not the only place where deception is taught and practiced. No not at all, today our colleges, universities and other schools of higher learning teach and preach that man is greater than God and that God does not exist and that God is a figment of the mind of the mentally ill. This is the strategy of the war between God and Satan, as humans we fall for this deceptive teaching, since the devil is a masterful deceiver – Isaiah 14:12-15.

Challenge: Romans 1:17-20

Most all of us have heard the events of the Garden of Eden, if you have not, may I ask you to read the first seven chapters of the Book of Genesis, this covers a period of time of about 2,000 years when the first deceptive strategies of Satan took mankind away from God. We do not have the time this morning to go over all of that history, but it will provide the reader with the understanding that Satan’s power to deceive is so great that God saw fit to destroy every human being except Noah, (a RIGHTEOUS man) and his family. Now Righteousness is the key!

From the reading of God’s Holy Word in Genesis we can clearly see that God has a standard for mankind to live by, it is called RIGHTEOUSNESS, not a righteousness that belongs to man nor the (good and evil) righteous standards of a false system developed by Satan. God’s Righteousness is set apart from all of this and mankind cannot acquire God’s Righteousness apart from God’s help. God’s first revelation of this to mankind is the perfect order of Creation around him, yet Satan who is clever, deceives man into believing that he (man) is to worship the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever – Romans 1:24.

The apostle Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it reveals the power of God, this power is able to reveal to anyone who believes a RIGHTEOUSNESS that is “set-apart” from the righteous standards of the world. Let’s take a look at the Greek word the apostle uses when he speaks of the world (kosmos) in Romans 1:20, he is referring to the world’s orderly conduct, we may think “well what is wrong with orderly conduct, nothing if the conduct is good and righteous, but what if the conduct is good and evil, then it is by God’s holy (set-apart) standard to be unrighteous. God rejects all the unrighteous standards of mankind.

Now I believe we have established the two standards of living that mankind can chose to live by in the world. Monday if the LORD does not return for His Church before then, we will begin looking at the choices available to every one of us to live; there are only two. In the unrighteous standards of a counterfeit world of sin that we live in, or return to the Righteous Standard of God that calls us to repent. In the meantime time, go to church, if you do not have a church, find one that acknowledges, Jesus Christ as the Head of the church, the One who came in the flesh, died for the sin of the world and was raised from the dead by the power of the God to reign as LORD of heaven and earth. Please read the last two chapters of (1 John 4 and 5).