Bible Verse of the Day Wednesday July 26th, 2023

Romans 1:20-21  20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

The history of humankind began with humanity knowing God; it is not the history of a creature that bowed down to idols and then evolved into humans worshipping God. The history of humans on this earth is directly opposite; we started worshipping God but turned away from our creator and began to worship useless idols. God revealed Himself to us as humans through his creation, the things he had made. From the beauty of the things around us, we knew that an almighty God had the ability and wisdom to create all things. God did not hide these facts from us as humans but made them clear, so we are without excuses, as we see in verse 20. Human beings did not want to honor God, so instead of showing thankfulness for all that God provided, we refused to give him thanks or give him the glory that was rightfully his. Humanity was more than willing to utilize the beautiful gifts that God gave us but was unwilling to worship and praise him for the blessings.

Consequently, humanity ended up with an empty mind and a darkened heart. Man, the worshiper, became humanity, the philosopher, but our meaningless wisdom only exposed our foolishness. Humans cut down the truth of God and refused to acknowledge his glory, which left society without a God, and with an innate desire to worship something, people turned to worthless idols. Man substituted the glory of the one true God for replacement gods that he made. He exchanged glory for shame, incorruption for corruption, and truth for lies.

From idolatry to immorality is just a couple of small steps. If people act as their own God, they can do whatever pleases them and fulfill their desires without fear of judgment. We reach the climax of humanity's battle with God's truth when people exchange the truth of God for a lie and abandon truth completely.

There could be several definitions for the word glorify; however, whatever the word means or indicates, Jesus accomplished it. The bottom line of giving glory to God is completing the work God has given us. All followers and believers in Christ Jesus have a specific mission in this life; God has a purpose for all His followers. Jake skipped a particular class in college more than he attended and then found out there was a paper due that made up half his grade. Jake burned the midnight oil and gave the assignment all the enthusiasm he could muster. When Jake got the essay back from his professor, there was a big red "F" at the top of the page. The professor told Jake that this was an excellent paper, well organized and researched; however, it was different from the assignment he had given. It does not matter how well we complete our task if we are not following the will of God. Jesus said on the Cross, "It is finished" He followed the will of the Father in every step he took while He walked on the earth among us.