Plain Truth Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Plain Truth ------------------- Date: 2/19/2001 Keywords: "godlessness" "nature" "plain" "truth" "wickedness" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Romans 1:18-25* 18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19. since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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 men 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. 22. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen. Questions 1. Why would God give people over to their sinful desires?   2. What is the "lie" of verse 25?   3. What should you do if you know God and want to demonstrate to him that you know him (verse 21)?   4. Do the words "futile" and "darkened" strike a chord in your heart when you think about your struggle with porn?   Practical help This passage should put a stop to all our excuses. We can't claim that God is too distant or too hard to discern because his hand is plainly evident in all that is around us. His hand is even evident in the porn pictures that are so enticing. Even though they are grossly perverted, they originated in the concepts of beauty and sex that God created. There's really not a whole lot to add to this passage to help clarify the ideas — it speaks pretty plainly. The bottom line: If you know God, acknowledge him at every opportunity, give him glory and praise and honor, and make that your theme instead of lies and hiddenness. We will be continuing in the book of Romans over the next few days. While the first couple of chapters make things look pretty bleak, if you hang in there, there is a brilliant ray of hope. See you tomorrow! eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2001 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."