Poor Excuses

Romans 7:24: O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Lamentations 3:22: It is of the LORD*S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

When I first received Jesus I did not know that I was a poor excuse for a Christian and I did not know very much about the mercy of God. Knowing that I was a poor excuse for a Christian without remembering God*s mercy made me miserable and useless to Him. Knowing about His mercy and forgetting that I was a poor excuse for a Christian made me presume I could get away with sin and I again became useless to Him. I believe that we all go back and forth between remembering our sinfulness without remembering his mercy and remembering his mercy without remembering our sinfulness.

The more I grow as a Christian the more I understand three things. One. I know that I am often a poor excuse for a Christian. I sin. Two. God*s mercies are new every morning. Three. The oftener I remember those first two things, the more I fight to avoid sin, the more I depend upon His constant mercy and forgiveness, the more useful I am to Him and the more I am blessed. Like the Apostle Paul, we need all three of those things.

Romans 7:14: For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

1 Corinthians 9:27: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

1 Timothy 1:15: This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

1 Corinthians 15:9: For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God was with me.

I have another thing in common with Paul. Before I was saved I also persecuted the church of God. I wonder if you did too? It is ironic that some of the same things that I did to Christians before I was saved are done to me now.

Matthew 5:11: Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Care to discuss Poor Excuses with Ron?

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