A Devotional Study of the Living Word of God

Psalm 119:94 The perils and hardships of living often feel as if a rescue is needed. This condition can erupt in us as mental depression, or it can be physical oppression. Revival is in His Hands when we belong to Him – Joshua 1:5

Good Morning

A few years back I was attending fire fighter training. All of us were required to go through a smoke filled structure in SCBA gear (breathing tanks). Our heads were covered with white cloth and we were made to be disorientated by having to spin around until our sense of direction was confused. Inside the structure, there were fallen pieces of wood and ceiling, furniture and many crawl spaces. Sometimes the narrow way was so tight that we had to remove our breathing gear from our back so it could be pushed on the floor in front of us. Then on the other side, put back on properly. As I approached the end of this training session, I had to lay flat and sort of crawl or slide across a room swinging my arms in front of me to remove any obstacle that may be blocking my way. As I proceeded to do this, it seemed to me like this portion was never going to end. I heard someone say, “stand up!” I said, “I can't!”, the reply was, “why not, don't you see the light, your in the clear now?” I said, “no!” and the instructor said, “then open your eyes!” At some point, I felt as if my eyes were useless in this environment, so I closed them and even when the test was over, I did not open them. I had crawled about twenty feet further than I needed to. (we all had a good laugh!) While sharing this event with my wife recently, I was reminded that there are many times in life that we have the blinders on and when the going gets tougher, we simply close our eyes. We live in tough times, and many of us are walking about with our eyes shut tightly. Psalm 119:18 Let God restore your sight and things will not look so dim or dire in the world around us! This is no laughing matter!

Romans 1

Romans 1:29 Moral and mental perversion in the hearts of men and women is all around us. They are dressed in nice clothing, have respectable careers, make wise and profitable decisions and take up space next to us in our workspace, our church, our school and even within our home. Our eyes need to be open these days. Read the verse and see if you do not recognize a few of these traits in the people around you, but first – look into the mirror and see who is staring back, I know it will not surprise you since in your heart of hearts, you already know. The mirror does not break, but the heart does!

Romans 1:30-31 Had enough of this downward spiral of the corrupted mind! Did you notice the reason why we get so corrupted? Notice the last three words of this verse, “disobedient to parents” this is where it all begins for us. Most, if not all of our moral and mental perversion begins because we deliberately purpose in our heart to be disobedient to parental authority. When we succeed at this, we progress to being disobedient to local and state authorities and on it goes until we finally reject the authority of God. Now we do not have to break down all of words in these verses – it is all SIN!

Romans 1:32 Worthy of death? Not according to the approval of the world around us! For a while the world called these SINS a character flaw, a dysfunctional trait. Even to the point of blaming our parents for our disobedience. This all sounds so good to a SIN sick heart, “Hey! This is not my fault, I can't help it if your dead as a result of my uncontrollable hiccup!” And now I see that much of what I am doing is being approved by the government, so DEAL WITH IT! Oh friend, my heart aches over the conditions we fail to observe, because our eyes are closed. God is not mocked, we reap what we sow.