If you borrow a friend’s car and the brakes go out causing a crash, whose fault is it? If you have not received the jab, as they like to call it, and someone gets very ill that you were around, is it your fault?
When I first learned that over ninety percent of all the churches locked their doors when the supposed virus began it was incredulous to me, my initial thought was that the faith of all those church members including the pastors and elders was indeed very weak, and my mind has not been altered in any way about this. “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” (Prov. 24:10)
As I write these words, the church bells across town are ringing, calling the supposed faithful to congregate, calling the assembly to meet once again this early spring morning. I wish I had a memory as others do, but I cannot recall during those initial days of forced fear, if you will, if those same bells rang, or if they remained quiet, as a solemn profession of fear through silence.
When those brakes fail, someone has to be blamed, laws do not need to be put in place to realize this truth, it has always been thus. “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” (Gen. 3:12) It is in our nature to place the blame on someone, anyone, no matter the circumstances, but rarely will we look at ourselves and condemn ourselves when those occurrences come about. “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” (1 Cor. 11:31)
We, for the most part, do not want to be held as the responsible party, and do not think that on your day of accounting before the Lord that you will have a different mind about these truths, you will simply repeat the same excuses that you have given throughout the entirety of your life, hoping that the Lord will have mercy on you for doing or not doing what you full well knew in your life while you were here. “But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” (Luke 12:48)
Fear, being afraid of any personal repercussions will not be accepted as an excuse for “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18) If the entire population of the planet was against you, no excuse would be heard, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) Even if you were in danger of losing your very life for speaking and standing for Christ, yet fell to the wayside because of fear, the excuses would ring hollow, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21)
They locked their church doors because of fear, and they will do so again.
You would not speak of the One you profess to love above all others, because of fear. The words of Satan ring true across the land of the lost as well as many of the saved, “And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” (Job 2:4)
No excuse will be accepted, if you have been born-again, if you have been crucified with Christ then you are already dead to this world, not in only that which it offers as a replacement to the gifts of the Lord God, but in the fears that it attempts to place upon all flesh. The fear of man was placed by the Lord God upon all the beasts of the field, Satan attempts to place the fear of man upon those who serve a Risen Savior, and as it is easily seen in these days, he is doing an excellent job of it. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
Those excuses are for your good, I have attempted to bring them into your mind while you still breathe the air of this earth, use these words to correct them in your life today, because when you stand before the Lord to give your account of how you spent this one life He has blessed you with, not one of them will be accepted.
