Daily Devotion

A Depraved Mind

"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,"  Romans 1:28

How many of you can agree with this:  every time you watch the news there is a report of a robbery or murder?  You read the newspaper the next day about a big suicide bombing in a major middle eastern area, or about the high school-er carrying a gun into school to kill the people that picked on him, or even the next lustfully obsessed man that slays his former girlfriend in a bitter domestic dispute.  You turn on the radio and they announce yet another depressing headline and then it dawns on you (prayerfully it does anyway) there is really something wrong in the world today.  People are more violent, more evil, more fleshly led.  It even causes Christians to ponder, is there really a God out there?  Does He see what's going on?  If He does, why isn't He doing anything about it??

When I was still in Atlanta, my pastor there gave reference to the passage in Romans 1 from where the scripture above came. Then my eyes opened.  I then realized that due to man's own extreme disobedience and the progression of the world towards sin, God could not do anything.  We were only saved when we opened our mouths and made the confession--it involved a physical act.  Ask yourself, if someone is ignoring you, can you make them listen?  Well I haven't been successful at that--unless you have mind control or some type of hypnotizing powers.  In Lutheranism, they speak of a concept supported by scripture called "Total Depravity."  Depravity is defined as moral corruption.  Thus the "Total Depravity" concludes that as a result of the first sin, every person born thereafter into the world is born into the state of sinfulness and cannot choose to do good except by the grace of God. 

But I think what makes this much sadder, is that we within the Body of Christ, who have been extended God's grace and mercy, who have been delivered from sin, do not share that Good News.  We are too afraid of what others may think and say because of our "religious beliefs".  We shy away from conversations that talk about God or that would require us to make an in-depth confession of our personal faiths.  Here is the resounding factor: souls are at stake.  Even our very own souls are at stake.  God didn't come into our lives just to be there.  He did not make the greatest sacrifice for a single person--He made and orchestrated it for us all.  We allow ourselves to reside in depravity because we do not want to be different.  We all were born into sin, but thank God for the blood of Jesus!  Thank God for the opportunity to save those around us, with the words of our testimonies!  Thank God that by an act of His will for our lives, we are saved!  Don't be afraid to be different, because your difference is what saves you from eternal damnation--the result of a depraved mind.

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:1-9