"The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate." -Genesis 3:12
Since the dawn of time, people have been making excuses. There have been countless fingers pointed, excuses made, and "(S)He made me do it!"s. This is because it's easy to look at the flaws of others. But what about our own flaws?
There was once a preacher in a small congregation who preached about deceit. In the crowd there was a man who had quite a problem with this, but instead of viewing the lesson as a piece of God's word that was being delivered to about 50 individual people, he took it as something the preacher was telling them because it was commanded of them to meet every first day of the week. The man took notes, listened carefully, followed along in his Bible, and afterwords told the preacher that he had done an excellent job, and went home satisfied. You may look at this man as someone who is in the wrong. You may see him as someone who doesn't take God's Word seriously. If you think this, then you are right. But how many of us do this? How many of us look at God's word as just a habit? Something to read or memorize, but never fully apply to our lives.
It's important that instead of looking at others and their lives, and instead of pointing fingers or finding excuses, we look at ourselves and what we can improve on. Ask yourself, "How can I improve my walk with Christ?" After all, how can we see clearly to take the speck out of our brother's eye, if we have a log in ours (Matthew 7:1-6)? Today I'd like to encourage you, yes you right there, the person currently reading this, to not only go to worship, and not only sing the songs and listen to the sermon, but to take what is said and ask, "How can I apply this into my life right now?" I'd like to encourage you to take the Word personally, not absentmindedly.
