NO MORE EXCUSES -AUGUST 2018 ISSUE

-

Most Christians have read books about how excuses prevent us from becoming financial independent for instance, No more excuses, the power of self-discipline by Brian Tracy but I am not pretty sure if Christians have sought to think about how to devotedly do the work of God and eschew all forms of excuses or reasons they so call.  In personal work and discussions with folks, these are some of the excuses or reasons some of them always give for not measuring up to Christ’s standard. Now, read these from some of them.
Unbeliever - “I am busy now, I will get some ample time to study God’s word and to be a disciple of Christ.”  
College student - “You know at this time that I am in school, I need to study to get good grades, so I will serve you and win souls for you when I   am done with school”.
Married Christian- “I am starting up a family and I am working too, so I will devote my life to win souls for the Lord when I am retired.”
Retired Christian worker - “I am tried, I have been working the whole of my life, I need to rest now.”
All these are reasons why these folks cannot stand up for Christ but are they the first to make excuses to God? Absolutely NO. The excuses are true but are they worth for us to eschew ourselves from the work of the Lord?  But what can we say then? Now, let us examine some excuses in the Bible.
Adam and Eve:
  • ·         Genesis 3:12: “The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” This is the first ever excuse given man since his creation, when Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree in the garden, He excused his sin by putting the blame on Eve.
  • ·         Genesis 3:13:” 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. “Eve also excused her disobedience by accusing the serpent. Man is enticed when He is drawn away by his own lust. (James 1:4).
SAUL

In 1 Samuel 15:3,15 ,22: Verse 3: “Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” Verse 15: “Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed.” Verse 22:” Samuel said, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.” In the fifteenth Chapter of Samuel, Saul offers the poorest excuses ever. First, Saul accused the people for bringing them back cattle and sheep to offer sacrifice. His real reason was He was puffed up and wanted to show his own greatness. Samuel told him was better to obey than to offer sacrifices in verse 22. This is a great lesson for everyone who introduces unauthorised things in the worship of God and claims them to be expedient. The truth of the matter is if the Lord wants these innovations or not?  [1]
MOSES
Moses, God appeared to Moses in the burning bush in Horeb and the angel of the Lord spoke to spoke and told him in Exodus 3:9: “Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”  But Moses had four excuses He gave to God. Hear his excuses;
  • ·         Exodus 3:11: “But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?"
  • ·         Exodus 3:13: “But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?"
  • ·         Exodus 4:1: “Then Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.' "
  • ·         Exodus 4:11: “Then Moses said to the Lord, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

And finally, he suggested to God to get someone else to rescue the Israelites from their bondage. Exodus 4:12, Moses anointed God with all these excuses but God insisted to send Him to rescue his people. See also Luke 14:17-20, Jonah in the book of Jonah.
How many times have I and you been giving flimsy excuses for not doing the work of the Lord? How many times have we blown away the opportunity to tell people about the good news?
It would really be difficult to figure out what man could do without excuses, but if we want to serve the lord, we must avoid our excuses. Who will you follow? Joshua 24:15


[1] What the Bible says by Albert Sidney Higgins, page 147

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The providence of God

-
  All Bible-believing people acknowledge the fact that God works miraculously ( Exodus 14; John 3:2 ). This belief often causes many to think anything wondrous that happens in and around us is miraculous in some sense. It is very common to hear people make statements like God did a miracle in my life when something wondrous happens to them. However, will we accept the word of God for what it says God does for us now?   A miracle employs a supernatural source via supernatural means. Simply put, a miracle is something that happens out of the realm of natural laws. Biblical miracles broke the laws of nature. Jesus Christ turning water into wine ( John 2:1-11 ), feeding the ten thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish ( John 6: 1-14 ) were not mere natural processes. The purpose of biblical miracles was to confirm the word of God spoken by the Apostles ( Mark 16: 17-19; Heb. 2:4 ). God does not speak to us today using signs and miracles as he did through by the prophets and...
Read more

FEBRUARY, 2019 ISSUE: IS THERE A NEED FOR MAN TO SUBMIT TO THE WILL OF GOD?

-
Image
One of the very sharp lessons every child learns is submission. Children immediately they learn to speak, are taught to submit and obey the instructions by their parents. When parents spank children for the wrongs they do, often times, they learn from that experience and never will they like to the spanked for the same wrong actions.   An obedient child is one who is submissive to the parents. Children who honor their parents are obedient. Such children are a blessing to godly parents. On the side of the story, there are some children who are stubborn and a constant source of worry to parents. They do not obey nor do they submit to their parents. It is every parent’s wish to have obedient children but that is not always the case most times. Disobedient Children are always punished by parents. Nature itself teaches that submission is relevant. Just us children obey parents, God has a much greater power and ought to be obeyed. God has authority. His authority can be seen by H...
Read more

JANUARY 2019 ISSUE: CHURCH, WHY SIT ALOOF?

-
Image
Go out of the   ekklesia , go to our   homes, go to the supermarkets and   shopping malls, go to the   schools, go to our offices of work and I tell you, you will see that those who claim to profess our Lord   Jesus Christ are nothing different from the people of the world. A quick observation is–there is a misplaced priority in the church today. Most of our congregations have gone apostate and some are on the road to apostasy as well. There is a disconnection between the Church of the Bible and some of our congregations. There appears to be a bearing of resemblance to the Church of the Bible but taking a closer look you will realize that these congregations are far off from being that Church the early disciples were added to.   To see the extent of our disconnection, we have neglected the book-chapter-and-verse preaching for social gospel messages.   How many times have we not heard from our own people that the church is boring and we should g...
Read more