Tag Archives: excuses

Luke 14: 16-24

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The lesson I am learning today:  Sometimes any choice is no choice at all.

“A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’

19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

22 “ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ ”  (Luke 14)

By His Grace

The Proud and the Weak

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“God and religion are useless to me.  They are for the children and the weak.  I’ll take real life.  Keep your “holy” garbage out of my sight.  All it does is weaken my resolve to survive.”

And another:

“I can’t move!  I’m afraid to think for myself.  I’m afraid to accept the promises of God, for I fear it will ask too much of me.  Keep your “holy” words far from me.  I would rather hide here in my darkened cave, than turn and face what you call “light”.

Isn’t that what you say?  Perhaps you don’t say it in words.  But your actions are clear.

Weak, you say?  My friend, you have no idea what strength it takes to believe.  And what good would it do to try to explain to you how much strength it takes to submit to the Living God’s Christ?  You know nothing about overcoming sin.  And you are not able to conceive what difficulties await every moment, as His people walk “The Way”.

No, my friend, it is you who are weak.  Look how you suffer under the burden of expectations.  Look what the world demands of you.  Look at your inability to perform with consistency.  Look at your own fear level.  You’re the one who’s weak.  The very fact that you stand with bravado, tells me how weak you are.

I’ve lived among the drunks.  I’ve lived among the proud.  I’ve come to recognize the signs of fear.  The cocky one who brags about all the things he can do.  That’s the one whose the weakest.  The strength of his life is found in his violent hands and quivering lips.  You call that strength?

And you who cower in a corner.  You who keep the windows of your life closed.  How utterly helpless you are to go outside anymore.  You turn away from Christ.  You turn to religion, in its various forms.  You keep to yourself, the things that are true and eternal.  If indeed, you have them at all.

You who cower look at the victorious and moan.  You think you can’t achieve anything.  How utterly weak are you?  But at least you recognize your weakness.  You are not like the proud, you don’t brag about your weakness.  But you have it just the same.

The proud.  The fearful.  Both miss the central point of the Gospel.  “I will be your strength!  It is I who will lift you up.  Humble yourself before Me, and in due time, I will lift you up.  The weak will become strong.  The proud will be humbled.  The Way of the Lord shall remain, narrow and Holy.”

The proud looks to weakness.  The fearful looks to strength.  Both fear to move, lest what they love is crushed.  The proud fears to lose his strength.  The fearful fears to lose his excuses.  But The Way of the Lord moves through the sea of men, unscathed, unhindered, eternally set, and arriving at perfection.

Put down your pride.  Put down your fear.  Stop groveling in your putrid mess.  Look up and believe!

Our Horror and Plight

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I was privileged to go on a cruise just recently.  One morning as I sat, pondering the things of God,  the nature of truth became the prominent subject in my mind.

As the Sun began to rise this picture was taken.  And a horrifying reality struck my soul like lightning.  I will try to share it with you here, but the fullness of the revelation belongs to Christ Jesus. 

Truth remains above all the thoughts and doings of man.  Regardless his reaction, truth remains firm forever.

Should he decide to ignore truth, man will be cut to shreds.  Should he embrace truth, he will find himself sliced to complete reduction.  Every lie will be stripped away.  Nothing within man can stand within God’s Truth.  If it is not from God, it will not endure the Judgement of Truth.

Some try to hide from truth. But there is no hiding.  By rebellion, willing ignorance or even fear, men attempt to hide.  Men constantly make excuses for their unwillingness to embrace truth. 

But the excuses of men are like a babbling language before the ears of truth.  They are a noise which is easily ignored.  Men think they make sense in their voicing of excuses.  They walk away confident that they have attained another day of freedom to do as they please.  But they are like those men who carried a wooden cross to toward the advancing lava only to be burned alive.  The agent of their death had no ears to hear there plea.  So it is with the truth of God.

Look about you.  Truth does not refuse the Holy Will of God.  The faithfulness of all heaven and creation obeys the will of the Living God in truth.  The Sun rises faithfully  every morning, and so the moon and stars.  The ocean remains where it is without complaint or excuse.  There are billions of items in creation that testify of faithfulness in truth.

Even now, truth testifies against us, for we are witness to all the faithfulness of creation,   Only the one who desires to be lovely before God embraces the injury and death that truth demands; injury to the desires of pleasure, and death to all his excuses.

If we embrace truth, we will suffer loss, no matter what we can reach to become.  God’s Truth is Holy!  Run, hide, rebell or hate truth, it already knows where we are.  And truth has laid an uncompassionate judgement at our doorstep.  “Obey the living God or die.  Since you have not obeyed you will surely be decimated.”

Only the willing, the strong of heart, the purposeful, and the faithfilled, will arrive with little destruction left to endure.   But make no mistake, Truth will certainly strip wickedness from eternity. 

The purging of heaven and the salvation of humble souls belongs exclusively to the Lord Jesus the Christ of God.  The truth of the Living God’s words have given Jesus eternal authority.  If you want to be saved it is to Christ Jesus you need to appeal.  (Yes, the very one who is hated so vehemently among men.)

The question is poised to every man.  Will you suffer loss here, or will you let the Son rise on you and burn you away like a drop of water on a red hot slab of steel? 

Words are the only strength I have to help you in this horrible plight.  (Horrible because truth demands a verdict, and you have no excuse to protect yourself.  And the plight, because you have no desire to lay down your own lie filled excuses.)   Even so, God has commanded that free will reign among men.  He has left the choice in our hands.

Truth is not hidden.  It is blatantly obvious to everyone.  Will you find the desire to deny excuses their strength?  Are you willing to stop hiding?  Are you sick of being an ambassador of destruction.  All you need to do is humble yourself before the Living God and ask for His mercy in Christ Jesus His Holy and Righteous Son.  God will hear that plea.

Obedience to the Living God brings life.  It is not too hard to humble ourselves and ask.  The horrible shame among men is that so few will ever do it.  Most people go to the grave dressed in lies.  Will that be you?

By His Grace

Useless Words (No Further Value)

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What is good news to the one who thinks everything is just peachy?  Why is Christianity of such tiny esteem in this world?  Because a message is being promoted with the strength of greed.  The greedy recognize it as “profit”.  It “rings their bell”!

“We’ll give you a list of things you can do to receive accolades from everyone you know.  Righteousness will be yours by doing these simple tasks.  Think green.  Live United.  Refrain from volatile speech.  Consider everyone with equality.  Love, without reservation toward religion.  Embrace every thought, for every thought has eternal value.”

Who needs the Good News of the Gospel, when they have all the good news they can handle?  Who needs salvation, when there’s nothing wrong?  The only thing wrong in this world is the division caused by differing beliefs regarding what is good; that’s what they’ll tell you.  Isn’t that what’s being forced down the throat of every one of us?

Who will read the vibrant and living threats of God, when they have all they could ever want?  For $10.00, you can go to Wal Mart and buy more happiness.  Oh, I agree it won’t last long.  But their stock of “happiness” seems to have no end.  And eat?  Oh!  Eating we can do!  Utopia has come into view!  We’re finally free of that Living God stuff.  We don’t need Jesus!  We got it all!

Hmm.  I perceive a problem here.

The living threats of God are already on the way folks.  All the while, you live like tomorrow will be the same as today.

It is impossible for God to lie.  As surely as He has promised eternal life to those who humble themselves before His Majestic Holy Son, He will annihilate all who love this world more than Him.

You glorify your dead.  But less than a split second after the last breath, they are separated by the Judgment of God.  You glorify your greed and pride.  But God Glorifies His Holy Son.

If you knew what awaits you, just beyond your last breath, you’d perceive the Good News of the Gospel in a radically different light.

I’d tell you about the Love of God.  But you’d never understand from the perspective you now hold so dear.  The curious thing is, you have no stomach for the terror that is headed your way either.

I could speak to you with comforting words.  But you don’t warrant them.  I could speak to you with fiery words of Living Threat.  But you allow such words no authority among you.

What will you do, when you’re face to face (for the very first time) with the Living God?  I’ll fill in the blank for you.  You’ll desire to be anywhere but there.  You’ll quake in fear, like you’ve never felt before.

Here, death looms as a release from the things that bring you trouble.  There, there will be no place to hide.  No release.  No hope.  And no EXCUSES.

Toss this about a while.  Think about it.  As surely as The Living God lives, this will come upon all men who consider the Holy Son of God as a useless set of words.

The Charade of Men

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Waking brings him near. 

The daylight testifies to him with loud and colorful words.

The night, and even sleep, are times of expectation.

He trains the soul to love him.

Hunger for the Holy Lord erupts like a pent up volcano; no one can quench it

This, in measure of the words of men, is how it is for those the Lord has called to be his own. 

The world ascribes these things to those who are set aside as pastors or priests.

They say:
“Let them wear the cloth or other significant clothing.  Let them remain in the building we have allowed to be called the church.  Force them, by expectation, to live as marked men.  In this way we will know who to avoid; who to share our convenient and crafty lies with.  Who it is due, that we should render our list of convenient excuses.

Let us war with fairness.  Let the enemy be marked blatantly.  How else can we subject them?  How else can we control their evil influence?  Even among the enemies of our own blood, uniforms are displayed.  Make it be so with them.”

But the Lord has seen the folly.  He has allowed man to play and evil charade.  All the while men think they have contained what is holy, the living God has raised up a people in their midst.

Hate the Lord’s people, old wicked an adulterous world.  Divide them and secluded them from all your unholy ways.  Despise the one who glorifies the Holy Name of God in your presence.  The fire of God will never leave his people.

But it is your religion to cast away the things of the living God.  It is the religion of this world to destroy the things of heaven. 

God will never be touched by your abomination of faithless faith.  You put your faith in what is not.  The living God will not be contained.

Litigate against the Lord’s people.  Separate them.  Mark them and place them in containment.  Still they wander among you free men.

You will never contain the living God.

By His Grace