in order to fully understand God's grace...

In order to fully understand God's grace, we must fully understand the sin nature from which we have been redeemed. We must absolutely embrace the fact that God has revealed himself to all of humanity through his creation.

We are fallen and sinful and saved by the grace of God. Anyone who has not received Christ is lost in sin. Many people live around us in respectable morality but have no relationship with Christ. It is our job, therefore, to live our lives wholly dedicated to God (Romans 12:1) as our spiritual act of worship. We must then follow God's command to "Go and make disciples" (Matt. 28:19). When will we stop rationalizing our inaction and begin to consider scriptures like Romans 1:18-25?

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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. 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. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator- who is forever praised. Amen.

We have exchanged the glory of God for idols we have constructed, and these are getting in the way of the mission. Of course the world is pursuing idols. Why wouldn't they be? They're lost and seeking hope from all the wrong places. It is time for us to show them hope from the one in whom we hope.