More thoughts on chapter one. In the NIV, we find verses 24 and 26 start with, "and God gave them over." Their resistance of God was so strong and resolute that God let them have their own way. Many times God is not punishing us in the since that the Lord picks up a stick and hits us over the head with it. Notice in verse 27 Paul says, "...they receive in themselves their due penalty for their perversion." Acts of disobedience will in and of themselves cause a person to reap of the flesh. What we sew is what we reap. The most dangerous position to be in for any human being is for God to give them over to their own desires.

We were made to glorify God. We were created for the Lord. The real order of things is for everything to be in it's proper relationship to God. We have ruined that order, hence the ministry of reconciliation. In Romans chapter one we see how far we have fallen. We see the need for the ministry of reconciliation. Thank God that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. It is only the power of the Gospel that can bring a person back to the original order of things with God as the center and not man. Man really wants to play God. Man wants to be the center of his universe and anyone else that will join in to worship him.

When people see a follower of Christ, what they should witness is a person returning to the original design of the universe. The world should observe a person who has God in the center of their lives and is serving with joy and love. Think about the opportunity we have with our unchurched friends to introduce them to sanity--the right order of things. When we here things like, "it's as if the world has gone crazy," we need to say it is crazy and it went crazy a long time ago. Many strive to make the crazy things seem as normal and to take the normal things like serving God through Christ as a crazy notion and worse yet, a poisonous one at that. Ladies and gentlemen we live in a crazy world and God wants us to introduce people to sanity. Let's go for it.