Excuses Excuses

Excuses, Excuses, You hear them everyday. /Now the devil he'll supply them if from church you stay away. /When people come to worship God, the devil always loses. /So to keep those folks away from church, he offers them excuses.
Well, in the summer it's too hot. /In the winter it's too cold. /In the springtime when the weather's just right, you find some place else to go. /Well, it's up to the mountains or down to the beach or to visit some old friend. /Or just stay home and kinda relax and hope some of the kin folks start droppin' in. /Well, those church benches; they're too hard, /and that choir is way too loud. /Well, you know how nervous you get when you're sittin' in a great big crowd. /Now the doctor told you to watch them crowds, they'll set you back. /But you go to that ol' ball game 'cause they say it helps you to relax. /Well, a headache Sunday morning and a backache Sunday night. /But by work time Monday morning, you're feeling quite all right. /Well, one of the children has a cold, pneumonia do you suppose? /Why, the whole family has to stay home! /Just to blow that poor kid's nose The Kingsmen Quartet

Have you ever called in sick to work? I think most of us have at one time or another. Some people have even called in sick when they weren’t really sick! Sometimes we will go to extremes to get out of doing certain things.

Last week, Daniel Kuch of Pasco, Washington, knew there was going to be a drug test at work. He also knew that calling in sick and faking a cough would arouse suspicion. Being the intelligent person that he is, he decided to get a friend to shoot him in the shoulder and told his employers that he was the victim of a drive-by shooting.

Hopefully, you haven’t gone to such extremes to get out of work. However, as the lyrics to the Kingsmen Quartet song above illustrate, we will come up with just about anything to keep us from church, church work, or worse, what God wants us to do.

Don’t get me wrong, you are in good company if you are in the habit of offering excuses to God for why you cannot do His will. There are scores of people who belonged to that club, long before you even started talking.

One of the greatest men in the Bible was Moses. When God called him (through a burning bush nonetheless) he offered God an array of excuses. He actually heard God’s voice through a bush that was on fire, but not burning up, yet he gave God three reasons why he was not the man for the job.

First, he said the people would not believe him unless he could tell them God’s name. God gave Moses His name. Secondly, Moses said they wouldn’t believe him because they knew him too well. God showed Moses His power through turning the staff into a snake. Thirdly, Moses gave the last excuse he could. He told God about his speech impediment. God told him to take his brother along to speak for him.

No matter what your excuse is to God, He knows your heart. You may be able to fool the pastor, you may be able to convince your spouse, you may be able to pull the wool over the eyes of most people, but you will never outwit God. He knows your innermost thoughts. He knows all the ugliness, all the hatred, all the pain, all the unforgiveness, and all of the other things that keep you from following Him.

The good news is that He loves you. Not in spite of these things, but because of them. He created you and He adores you. Follow Him, and what He wants for your life, and He will give you life like you have never known. Stop making excuses and start making time for Him.

We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2:1-4)