Day 3690 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

John 15:22 NIV

In excusable.

Population: 8,211,939,609

Or at least that’s as of 3/21/2025 the likely still highly estimated if not entirely presumptuous world population. And too thus such a place as our all are living within what is a life in which it so vastly seems we all still assume we’ve seen more than reason enough to seek only the excuses that we all think excuse the inexcusable that we’ve not only continued to do but in fact all but come to be. For the reality of an existence in which those existing make any if not all of their choices, said existee is thus only to eventually be all but defined by what they do with or within their existence.

And thus we are not merely sinners who’ve accidentally slipped up a few times into, by sheer happenstance, what’s since been proven a mistake or two.

No, rather we are all now all but sin having chosen that way of life so very often that our very own Creator had to humble Himself at first unto breathing a Word that sought to call us back to our senses, but then unto next humbling Himself further into the taking upon of human flesh with all its mortal limitations so as to physically and visibly guide this lost tribe back to the land in which we should have remained rather than going so wonderfully astray, but then, to our end, even unto a surrender unto the debt all so lost in sin so fully owe as shown inside His very death on a cross.

And twas upon that tree, as chosen as if to signify His replacing all that the first of us should have never taken from a matter measured of the same material and meaning, it was from that cross that He silenced our every attempt as seeking to excuse ourselves of all we’ve done that was always both with excuse and yet somehow still entirely without the same. For the fact is that we’ve clearly, as proven by our every individual past so problematic and yet prideful, we’ve clearly assumed we’ve had an excuse to do all we’ve done.

Just that what we’ve managed to become as a result of such continued deeds done in decay isn’t at all what He created us to remain.

Which is basically what’s to testify against us upon that coming promise of a just reckoning whereupon every knee will indeed finally bow before the express confess of every single tongue to chime in tandem that we’ve not really had any logical or reasonable or thus even feasibly reliable reason to do much if not all that we’ve done as the vast majority of our every action, word, thought, opinion will by then be proven to be so utterly without humility, honesty, reverence or morality that we’re left only the tattered tears through which we beg to hear that we too have been undeservingly forgiven.

The only difference then to be proven as that which separates those who’ve done such a breaking before from those who are new to such a leveling.

For the simple reality remains that He sent Christ to show us both who we were created to be by being all we’d since chosen to refuse but to also prove the cost of such a choice to chase only every other voice (our own mostly) into the chance to change endlessly into a life spent listlessly adrift atop a sea of sin that’s not only crept slowly and lowly into our every outlook and income but has been instead willfully welcomed to sink us as low into this denial as we might somehow delight to go.

Indeed, it’s within this singular direction as decided upon for its delighting in our delights that we’ve learned only to deny the undeniable truth that is the Word of God as at first having been breathed for the explicit benefit of our adhering our lives unto it, but also then that final proverbial nail in these coffins of such continued confusion as to assume we’re free to keep doing as we have despite all He did when God Himself, as seen in Jesus Christ, breathed this same limited air amongst all of us whom He came to save from having become but all we’ve done as won within such a sorry state as to not merely reject hope but to in fact butcher He who is our only.

My, what reasonable creatures we are!

But the question that’s to be both asked and thus too answered, and that despite our utter lack of one to offer, is what our reason, reasons, reasoning or reasonings are for everything we’ve done both against God, against His Word, against the Word who is the Way who is said Truth who gave His life to prove that He is too the Life and thus our only hope of having any still left when we finally face the debt that is our death as earned by sin that we’ve so sought for all our lives until this time in which it’s not anymore merely what we do but who we are.

What will we say when asked upon that day for some excuse to excuse such a baseless existence as this one so persistent unto the pursuing of pleasure at the explicit cost of His promise?

Or at least the eternally more hopeful side of it anyway.

For logic would insist that surely we’re not fully far gone as to actually believe that He will be okay with anything we’ve done as done mostly, if not only, against Him. I mean, reality just doesn’t work that way. And yet somehow we’ve managed to clearly come unto, or in truth come up with, this now normalized version that offers us the ability to do as we please without even the slightest semblance of any care whatsoever as to whether or not our ways, wins, worries or woes will be proven pleasing unto He who took our place and now holds our fate.

Indeed, we live as if God’s so miniscule as to maybe not really care what we do. Or, according to most, that’s He so very small that He’s in fact just not there at all. And we can’t seem to see any risk in that.

Because we can’t see that we’ve any such cost or consequence to ever worry about.

Because, having become a people who excuse our every mistake and misstep, we don’t know how to agree that we’ve done anything wrong at all.

Rather we are among the billions who’ve called home this little heathenistic hamlet that is our hostility against the very humility that’s allowed Him to not utterly destroy us as of yet. Indeed, such a place, called In Excusable, it’s where we exist now. It’s this cozy little corner of confusion, just off the intersection of deceit and delusion, in which we’ve planted our roots into such ridiculous reclusion that we literally live as if the God who made us now simply cannot see us for what we’ve become as compared against His image in which we were made.

Yes, we live as if He will be okay with all we misunderstood, mistook, stole, scarred, scared, tore, tried, fried, found, felt or failed in regard to who He made us to be as proven in what all we’ve done, been and thus become instead.

We literally think He will excuse our fall just because we’re so afraid that He won’t that we don’t live as if He can’t.

Can’t imagine how He wouldn’t be pleased with that!

For He is of such profound kindness and mercy that He sent the Messiah to meet us in this mess and lead us to what He knows best. And sure, it’s bound to bring about a growing pain or two, and more than a great many losses of such things as lust and lie along the way, but friends, considering we have no other answer to that question mentioned above, do we think then that we can reasonably continue to argue with the One who gave us the Son who gave up His life to atone for the tone in which we’ve lived in what is a blanket enmity against every such mercy?

Is it reasonable to hate hope? To meet mercy with madness? To look upon the cross and see gladness? Should we continue to elate at what He endured as done in our doing still all He suffered to take away both from our past and thus too our pursuits?

Inexcusable!

That any can know of the cross and the horrifying cost paid thereupon and continue on doing whatever they want is as clear a denial of every hope, peace, joy, purpose, promise, meaning and mercy that I can personally imagine. And yet we’ve all done just that for so long now that we think it excusable to continue.

But friends, I fear we’re, as usual, missing the bigger picture here. And that is that none will excuse anything that’s done without excuse. Because the humbling truth is that there is nothing that’s ever done without excuse. Because both reality and reason testify that we each have a reason for doing, saying, thinking, assuming whatever we decide to. Now granted, may not be a very good excuse, might be in fact an impressively bad excuse. But the fact remains in that every choice we make is one that we feel, for whatever reason, to be either worth the outcome or at least able to withstand possible ridicule or reprimand once said fallout is met.

Alas, these days it seems as though we don’t even put that much thought, question or concern into anything anymore. Rather, and tell me I’m wrong, but rather we just do things without thinking about them at all. Still we do them though, and thus still exists the testimony as to the presence of the choice that we ourselves clearly arrived upon that so inspired us to do whatever it is that we’ve thus clearly chosen to.

Doesn’t mean that it’s all excusable. We just want it to be and so we assume that it is and that He will.

Indeed, when it comes to this idea of freedom that we’ve found within this fellowship with foolishness and failure, all we are is at best always left to what is but a haughty hope. We hope that whatever we decide to do is done with a valid enough excuse that we’ll never have to even pretend to need some sort of answer for it. And thus we’re so diluted that we’re now so deluded as to live this life, even after Christ died, doing only whatever we please whilst persistently insistent that, if He’s there, that He’s good with it.

All because doing as we please is to us of more meaning than the mercy that met us so lost and sought to lead us back home.

What excuse do we have for that choice to deny His voice as sent to cry out the truth in such a physical and visual suffering that we couldn’t then ever deny that He did? How is that excusable?

Or rather do we just hope it is, assume it is, believe it is, may even in fact all it demand it is? Doesn’t mean it is. And we can know this for sure because, well, just look at some of the other “excuses” we tend to try leaning on whenever a choice is proven wrong. We blame such mistakes on just about everything anymore.

Just never ourselves.

Indeed, maybe it’s a bad habit or some other sort of habitual routine, rut, reason or season in which we simply seek not any semblance of change for the surrender all such alterations insist upon. Or maybe it’s a matter of social expectation or societal appreciation as both bought and sought for their ease of offering us a court of public opinion to hopefully testify on our behalf when we’re found before God someday. Or perhaps it could be something done in order to feign our upholding of such things as cultural tradition or mere human religion or other such widely worldly normality as considered inside what are other similar common teachings or seekings as based upon human assumptions or presumptions.

Or in fact, as often seems the case, it could even be a simple matter of selfish preference or opinion.

But friends, the overly simplified simplification of that Judgement Day question is does it really matter? Is God then going to be satisfied with our willful choice to remain sinful now just because it’s “normal”?

No! And we know this clearly because He sent Jesus to make clear the path by which salvation is achieved. And He told us plain that salvation is both not a matter measured in merit as it’s nothing meant for man to boast about (rendering our every choice of lesser power already) but too rather then a blatant matter of pure benevolence as proven within the fact that it’s a gift referred to, as discussed yesterday, in what remains a measure of God-given grace.

And we know that such mercy as that met in God’s grace, as seen perfectly within His sending Jesus into this place to take our place, is in fact something given always to those who don’t at all deserve it. And so thus we see that we don’t deserve His mercy, nor then the forgiveness it means, due to the sins we’ve chosen and too that we couldn’t even if we had some viable excuse to think we could.

For while we are, God’s not.

Dumb, that is.

And that seems to be the exact spot in which this now runaway train jumped the track leaving us no possible way of getting back to the beginning of a life lived before sinning so very much that sin is now what we are known by. For again, people are known for what they do when it’s done so much or for so long that there is simply no way to separate the two , the action from the undertaker thereof. And thus, friends, our living this life as if life is only for doing all we please, it’s left us to be the ones we seek to satisfy, and too, to seek out any hint of an excuse to continue to so lose our chance at being more than just the sinners we’ve become.

No, the truth is that everyone involved knows that everyone involved now knows perfectly well what we’re doing. For if He hadn’t come and hadn’t talked and hadn’t taught and hadn’t fought to overcome our fears, failures and flaws, then no, we wouldn’t be guilty.

But He did.

And so we are. And since He’s God and we ain’t, well, seems to me like an excuse more than good enough to stop living as if these roles are reversed. After all, we’ve yet to prove ourselves of the power to incite, insist, entice or elsewise twist God in such a way as to bend to our will. Many live as if they have, but friends, personal or prideful assumption (which is the most commonly used excuse in all of human history) doesn’t prove much of anything other than we have the apparent ability to think.

Doesn’t mean we’re good at it or that we can then do it well.

Rather history is filled with stories that read the other way around though. That we do things that we think to be right, reasonable or even somehow righteous only to be left a few more miles or memories into doubt or denial than we were before.

Friends, let us not then live to be but another statistic of those who’ve forced God to show Himself via a sign big enough to leave no doubt. For make no mistake, He will, but maybe not in any way that we can survive. Both here or forever!

No, He came in Christ to lead us unto a life that would leave us living forever inside the fullness of the endless mercy, grace, goodness and provision of He who loves us enough to lay down His life for us. And while some may lay down their life for a good person, the fact is that we are not good people.

And that cross left us with no excuse to assume otherwise.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold