by Jeremy Paschall
A cowboy walks into a bar in Texas, orders three mugs of brew and sits alone in the back room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn.
When he finishes those, he comes back to the bar and orders three more. The bartender approaches and tells him, “You know, mister, a mug goes flat after I draw it, so it would taste better if you just bought one at a time.”
The cowboy replies, “Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Australia, the other is in Dublin, and I'm in Texas. When we all left home, we promised that we’d drink this way to remember the days we were together. So I drink one for each of my brothers and one for myself.”
The bartender admits that this is a nice tradition and leaves it there. The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs and drinks them in turn.
One day, he comes in and orders only two mugs of beer! All the regulars take notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, “I don’t want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.”
The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns and he laughs. “Oh no, everybody’s just fine,” he explains. “It’s just that my wife and I just started going to church recently, so obviously I had to quit my drinking. But that hasn’t affected my brothers.” He smiles, winks, and walks away sipping from the two mugs of brew.
When a person wants to sin badly enough, he or she will come up with some way to justify it in their own mind. We have all heard the excuses…
“Well I know I lied, but I just did it so that I wouldn’t hurt their feelings.”
“According to the Bible, my husband and I don’t have any right to get divorced, but we just don’t love each other anymore.”
“I know I shouldn’t be smoking, but it helps me keep my weight under control.”
“If you read what Jesus said about marriage, divorce, and remarriage, we really shouldn’t still be together, but we don’t want to do anything that will hurt the children.”
People offer a lot of excuses for their sinful lives, many of which sound very good… until they are compared to what the Scriptures have to say. Regardless of the excuse offered, it boils down to this — the person is not willing to give up sin and make the necessary sacrifices to be pleasing to God! Consider the following passages from the Bible:
“And [Jesus] was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’” (Luke 9:23)
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
From these verses, does it sound like one who wants to please the Lord can just go on living in sin if that is what he or she desires? Absolutely not! Regardless of the excuses one might make, a person cannot continue in sin and at the same time remain pleasing to God! Repentance is a must!