Excuses … we hear them everyday. Ain’t that the truth? We are good at making excuses. Sometimes they are legitimate and therefore acceptable. Sometimes they are phony and ridiculous and unacceptable. And sometimes no matter how legitimate they are it doesn’t matter as we can find ourselves dealing with “no excuses accepted”.

When I was in the Navy I came up against that. If I departed my place of duty on liberty or leave I had a certain time I was required to be back. I was not allowed to be late. One time I went several hundred miles away on leave for Christmas to my parents home. While I was there a bad blizzard struck a large area of the nation and every form of public transportation was shut down … no airplanes, no trains, no buses. You could not even hire a taxi. My dad had been in the Navy so he knew what I was up against. I had to get back to my ship in Florida. My family took an unplanned, unscheduled sudden vacation. Fortunately my dad was able to get off work on short notice and my mom, brother and I drove by car from northern Indiana down to northern Florida. It was rough going and dangerous driving until we got into central Kentucky. I drove most of the way thru the bad weather. We ran into an ice storm south of Cincinnati and the road was really treacherous. We made it with time to spare so my parents rented a motel room and stayed a couple of days before heading home. I would have faced military discipline if I was late getting back as the Navy did not allow ANY excuse including inclement weather. I don’t know if that has ever changed … probably not.

The devil is good at helping us to make excuses. That reminds me of a song …

Lots of folks make the excuse of staying home from church to watch some church service on tv or the internet. Or like in the song lots of other reasons seem to pop up. The devil is good at providing us with excuses not to get saved … or to at least postpone it. We need to remember that he is our enemy and is out to keep us from getting right with God. He is the master deceiver. He is a liar and he is out to destroy us. He knows how to make anything he offers sound so good and desirable. He wants to keep us on the wide road which leads to eternal destruction.

But we are all in the same boat. There is coming a time when none of us will have any acceptable excuse. God has forewarned us. It is get saved or else. The else is spending eternity in the Lake of Fire. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I want no part of that … not that I don’t deserve it. I am so thankful for the grace of God … unmerited favor. It is available to any and all who call on the Name of Jesus to be saved. Don’t be caught without excuse!