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- Apr 25, 2006
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- 18,404
The blame game (1)
''...THE WOMAN YOU PUT...WITH ME...GAVE ME...THE FRUIT, AND I ATE IT.'' GENISIS 3:12-13
We've all heard the stories: A bloke smokes three packs of cigs a day for 40 years, dies of lung cancer, and his family sues the tobacco company.
A woman crashes while driving drunk, then blames the landlord of her local for selling her the drink. And there are a million variations on the theme.
When we do something wrong, the excuses come flying - we've got hundreds of them! Our parents failed us...our friends let us down...somebody gave us bad advice...our mate doesn't understand us... in other words: IT WASN'T ME! The blame game isn't new.
In Genesis Adam and Eve gave God every excuse in the book to avoid responsibility for their actions. Adam actually blamed God by saying, 'It was the woman you put...with me...' And Eve was no better, she said, 'The snake tricked me.' King Solomon says, 'The wise are glad to be instructed...fools fall flat on their faces' (Proverbs 10:8 NLT), because the ability to face up to your mess up is measure of your character and maturity. But more importantly, God can't forgive and restore you till you acknowledge and turn away from your sin.
Nowhere in Scripture does God ever let you off YOUR sin because of what somebody else has done. In fact, when you make a habit of blaming the other guy you'll never reach the place of honest repentance.
The Bible says we'll all '...appear before Christ and take what's coming to us as a result of our actions...' (2 Corinthians 5:10 TM). Owning up to your sins and shortcomings here and now frees you to receive God's forgiveness and move on to maturity.
''...THE WOMAN YOU PUT...WITH ME...GAVE ME...THE FRUIT, AND I ATE IT.'' GENISIS 3:12-13
We've all heard the stories: A bloke smokes three packs of cigs a day for 40 years, dies of lung cancer, and his family sues the tobacco company.
A woman crashes while driving drunk, then blames the landlord of her local for selling her the drink. And there are a million variations on the theme.
When we do something wrong, the excuses come flying - we've got hundreds of them! Our parents failed us...our friends let us down...somebody gave us bad advice...our mate doesn't understand us... in other words: IT WASN'T ME! The blame game isn't new.
In Genesis Adam and Eve gave God every excuse in the book to avoid responsibility for their actions. Adam actually blamed God by saying, 'It was the woman you put...with me...' And Eve was no better, she said, 'The snake tricked me.' King Solomon says, 'The wise are glad to be instructed...fools fall flat on their faces' (Proverbs 10:8 NLT), because the ability to face up to your mess up is measure of your character and maturity. But more importantly, God can't forgive and restore you till you acknowledge and turn away from your sin.
Nowhere in Scripture does God ever let you off YOUR sin because of what somebody else has done. In fact, when you make a habit of blaming the other guy you'll never reach the place of honest repentance.
The Bible says we'll all '...appear before Christ and take what's coming to us as a result of our actions...' (2 Corinthians 5:10 TM). Owning up to your sins and shortcomings here and now frees you to receive God's forgiveness and move on to maturity.
