Gathering in Christ

Romans 1:21-25

…although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man -- and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Up until the time of the Fall, man drew all his sustenance from God; when he fell, he lost that harmony completely; and the danger now is that, although man’s spirit is as immortal as God, it receives no sustenance from God. The first thing that happened was that man became his own God, exactly what the devil said would happen.… God intended man to progress from innocence to holiness by a series of deliberate moral choices in which he was to sacrifice the life of nature to the will of God. Adam refused to do this, and that constitutes the Fall. The point God’s Book emphasizes is the instant withdrawal of life, the withdrawal of the Spirit which held man’s spirit, soul and body in living communion with God.

 [Ed: God’s goal now is to reverse the curse.] 

Excerpts from Oswald Chambers

Daily Devotional Bible, Reading 211 (7/30)

From Bringing Sons Unto Glory

This photograph is by Jo Chaney.