Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - The Jesus Excuse - #8416

Thursday, December 3, 2009

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Our three-year-old granddaughter is clearly a firstborn. Not long ago, her mother told her no to something she wanted to do. My little angel went into her room, telling her mother that, "I need to pray." She came out a couple of minutes later to announce, "Mommy, Jesus says it's OK."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft. Our granddaughter really does love Jesus, but she's learned quickly that the way to justify something is to put Jesus' stamp of approval on it. Of course, she's only three. I'm worried about a lot of us grownup Jesus-followers who put Jesus' name on some things that Jesus would never approve of.

It's Christian rationalizing. We find a verse we can use or abuse to justify something that's not of God - a wrong relationship, prejudice, anger, criticizing or slandering a brother or sister, breaking up a marriage, splitting a church. Like my granddaughter, figure out a way to say it's OK with Jesus, and who can argue, right? Jesus can. And using God or His Word to rationalize sinful behavior is nothing short of violating the Third Commandment to not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (Exodus 20:7 ).

The prophet, Jeremiah, exposed our propensity for moral self-deception when he said, "The heart is deceitful above all things. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 ). And listen to Proverbs, "All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord" (Proverbs 16:2 ).

No more smoke and mirrors and spiritual word games. Call it what God calls it because His word is the final word!

This radio program references: Exodus 20:7 ; Jeremiah 17:9 ; Proverbs 16:2