Excuses for Rejecting Eternal Life

SluggardsLazinessProcrastinationExcuses

Who among us has never used an excuse? Probably none!  What is an excuse?  Simply put, it is a fake, hollow statement given for not wanting to something, or for wanting to do something.  It is a form of dishonesty.

One sage has noted that a poor workman always finds fault with his tools.

Lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster was a powerful orator who gave early evidence of his quick mind and way with words. One day Webster’s father, who was to be absent from home, left Daniel and his brother Ezekiel specific work instructions. But on his return he found the task still undone, and questioned his sons about their idleness. “What have you been doing, Ezekiel?” he asked. “Nothing, sir.” “Well, Daniel, what have you been doing?” “Helping Zeke, sir.” Today in the Word, September 19, 1992.

Excuses are as old as mankind.  The first man and the first woman gave excuses.  The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12-13.

When Aaron gave his “reason” for making a golden calf for the Israelites to worship, he said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”   That Aaron just threw the gold into a fire and that it just happened to come out a calf with no human intervention, is absurd! It is also a classic example of making use of the excuse. Exodus 32:22-24.

According to a UPI news item, the Metropolitan Insurance Company received some unusual explanations for accidents from its automobile policyholders. The following are just a few:  An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car, and vanished.  The other car collided with mine without warning me of its intention.  I had been driving my car for 40 years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had the accident.  As I reached an intersection, a hedge sprang up, obscuring my vision.

Excuses were around in Christ’s day, as well.  Christ heard many of them when He offered salvation to lost mankind. Here is one example.   In Luke 14:16-2: 16 Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17 and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 18 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ 20 Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ 23 Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’”

Why would one attempt to find an excuse to avoid accepting eternal life in Heaven? Here a few suggestions:  1. Warped values. (materialism has choked out one’s desire for eternal life.  2. Too focused on the immediate life and immediate pleasures. 3. Disbelief in the supernatural realm and God’s promises.

The Apostle Paul reminds us that on judgment day, only the facts will be taken into account. “Found GuiltyCondemnation, Causes OfUncharitableness

Like Bad PeopleExcuses

Therefore, you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”  Romans 2: 1.

Let’s void those nasty excuses, which can bring to halt our Christian walk with Christ.

Until next week, may God richly bless you and yours!

Contact: fhevener@oilart.com;( 434)392-6255; www/guthriememorial.org.

© Fillmer Hevener, 2017