No Excuses

We can come up with plenty of excuses on why we don't do something. The truth of the matter is that we do what we want to do. However, when God calls us to do something, He never asks for an excuse (or even a doctor's excuse) on why we can't do it. You see, where God calls, He equips whether it's a "big" thing or a "little" thing. You don't think He knew your life situation when He called you to do something? You don't think He knows your skill level to get the task done? He made you! He knows you better than you know yourself. When God called Moses, Moses came up with excuses on why he couldn't do what God asked. David and Daniel were teenagers when God called on them. To most in that situation age would have been an excuse, but they didn't even question God. ---Neither does God accept our excuses when we choose to not obey Him in every day life. Things like "love one another", "forgive one another" did not come with a "yeah, but". Oh, and when we choose to not obey God's Word that's called disobedience. ---Let's be a little quicker at just saying "yes" to God, and not waste time on excuses. Excuses lead to disobedience. Jesus said, "I will know that you love me, because you obey me."

I Am Not Judgmental

I am not judgmental, but God is. Man of his own free-will chose to face the judgment of God in the very beginning. By now, we're all familiar with the "...don't eat from (that) tree or you will surely die" scene with God and Adam. Ever since then man has blamed someone else for their sin or tried to ignore the judgment of God by saying that God is a "loving God", and thus He would leave sin unpunished. The problem is that God never said that. (Being the righteous God that He is, He cannot allow sin to go unpunished, or He would not be righteous.) God told the man that the price of disobedience would be death ("...you will surely die..."). You see, our sin is what condemns us, and God follows through on the judgment. You and I can argue all day what sin is, but you know what sin is. Consequently, we all know that we have all sinned. Thus, we have this bad ending awaiting us. If that were the end of the story, it would be a truly bad ending at the very beginning. Likewise, all we would have to look forward to would be a bad ending. ---Unfortunately, multitudes of people do not follow the story that is revealed through the Scriptures. The Scriptures reveal the heroic plan of God to rescue man from this certain judgment which involves the wrath of God. The rescue and the judgment involve the wrath of God. God takes His time through the Scriptures allowing this story to unfold. He uses over forty writers and takes over a thousand years to compile this carefully knit revelation. There is no way these people could conspire such a tale together. The Bible is filled with prophecies that have all either come true or await their turn. ---Man experienced God's grace on the day he first sinned, because God did not take his life on the spot. You and I have experienced God's grace in that He didn't take you or I out when we did something horrible. But that's not the big grace, and that's not the Big News. Here is what this loving-judgmental God did. In epic hero fashion, He sent His One and Only Son to be the Savior of the world. Christ didn't just die on the cross at the hands of foolish men. God the Father placed the sin of the world on Jesus who willingly accepted this in perfect submission, consequently putting himself in the awkward position of receiving the wrath of God for our sin. This paved the way for this loving-just-judgmental God to deal with our sin, and offer guilty man a way out. Sadly, some people will not accept God's loving sacrifice, and they will choose to experience the wrath of God on their own. This is totally unnecessary. You see, this is why Jesus Christ came, died in public and was resurrected. *You can read the entire Epic Story of Good vs Evil in the Bible. But know this, Christ did not come to condemn the world, it was already condemned. He came to save you and me. Have you accepted Christ as your Savior? Do you know how? The prophecies are almost complete, which gives us a clue that the end is near. Ask the most "christian" person you know, how you might be saved. Go from "think so" to "know so" today.