(Guest Editorial by Brother Ritechus N. Dignation)

Are you as sick of excuses as I am? Preachers are told more lies and excuses than any other one single person on God's green earth. The most common lie told is, "Yeah, I'll see you Sunday, Preacher" and the one telling the tale has no intention of darkening the door of God's house, the next Sunday, or any time soon. Missing church is bad enough, but compounding your sin with a bald faced lie is worse, and remember, the Bible says all liars shall be given a slap on the wrist. That's in the NPCV, otherwise known as the New Politically Correct Version, for you sissies who can't handle the real truth of where liars are really headed if they don't mend their ways.

When you happen to run into that liar, and you will, he then just digs the hole deeper. He begins to make excuses why he couldn't be at church. I have heard them all. "The truck wouldn't crank, the alarm clock didn't ring, the wife didn't feel like going, I didn't have nothin' to wear, the dog ate my Bible", and the list of pitiful excuses grows longer than Aunt Bessie's tongue at a quiltin' bee.

There's a reason for this. You know why sinners don't like to go to church? It gets them too close to God. I don't blame them; getting' near God gets mighty uncomfortable when you are living like the devil. You can't see nothin' in the dark, but when the light is turned on, everything appears to your eyes, even though it was already there. God's light doesn't pick and choose. When it shines down, the good, the bad, and the sinful all shows, and that makes sinners squirm like a nightcrawler on blacktop at noon.

There's a way to fix this: if they won't come to church and get a glimpse of God, then just take God to them. Jesus said to go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. I don't know of anything stronger than the love of God as a compeller, so when you get after a sinner because you love their soul and don't want to see them in hell, and you hound them, love them, pray for them and treat them as Jesus would, pretty soon you can knock down all the excuses they can conjure up and wear them down. They might finally just show up to shut you up. Hopefully, you will be able to win them outside of church, but if not, I don't know of any better place folks ought to be than in the house of God. Stay after ‘em. They can only lie and excusicate for so long.

Joseph Harris, has been a college professor and pastor since 1987 and his writings have appeared on Mississippi Baptist, WND, Sword of the Lord, Intellectual Conservative, Conservative Daily News, Canada Free Press, Land of the Free, News America Daily, and the European Union Times.

Copied From Joseph Harris @: http://www.miniedition.net -- Used By Permission