Dumb Excuses
DUMB EXCUSES
Read John 3:16-21.
Danielle stubbornly shook her head. “My dad and mom are going to the college play-offs next weekend,” she said. “I want to go with them.”
“But everyone else is going on the youth retreat. Why don’t you come?”
Danielle shrugged. “I don’t have the right clothes for it.”
“Oh, honestly!” fumed April. “You make up the dumbest excuses.”
Danielle grinned. “Besides, it costs too much.”
“Danielle, you know that’s not true!” exclaimed April. “Two families have given money to sponsor the group, so it won’t cost a thing.”
But Danielle refused to go to the retreat.
After Bible club one day, Danielle said to April, “Miss Ellis is always bugging us to ‘be saved.’ I haven’t done anything so bad.”
April was thoughtful. “Well,” she answered, “no one is good enough for heaven. No sin can enter there, so even the ‘little’ bad things you’ve done have to be forgiven.”
“Maybe so,” said Danielle with a shrug, “but Miss Ellis said that Jesus paid the price for everyone to go to heaven. So the price is paid for my salvation, right? I don’t need to worry about it.”
April hesitated. “Remember the retreat?” she asked.
“The retreat?” repeated Danielle. “I didn’t go.”
“No,” said April, “but the price was paid for you to go. You just wouldn’t accept the offer. It’s like that with salvation, too. Jesus paid the price for you to go to heaven, but unless you receive the gift God offers, you won’t go there. That makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, I guess it does,” Danielle admitted. “I guess I need to accept the offer.”
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Have you accepted God’s offer of salvation? Or are you saying, “I’ll think about it” or “I want to do some fun things first”? Stop making “dumb excuses.”
TO MEMORIZE:
To all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
John 1:12
GO TO GOD FOR HELP.
From the book
