The blame game and other excuses.

    Richard Pryor made famous the "The devil made me do it!" slogan used by many since he spoke those words.  It actually started in the garden between the devil and Eve.  That morphed into Eve including Adam and then the two of them trying that excuse before God who came upon the guilty two as he walked through the garden.  Imagine that.  God, in person, walking through a garden with you, talking with you, providing all your needs and being your friend.  Now imagine throwing all of that away.  Not so good.  But, that's what the first people did.  They threw away everything and tried to make excuses by blaming.  They didn't blame God.  They blamed the devil and they blamed each other.  The damage done, God gave them a new plan A that was not so pleasant.  They were kicked out of the garden, had to work their for the rest of their lives and were given pain in childbirth.  Imagine childbirth (ladies) without pain!  Wouldn't that be nice.  However, thanks to the blame game we toil in our days and there is pain in childbirth.  We also no longer have THE garden to live in.  I toil in my garden willingly and that is a reminder of the actions of our first couple.
     Many years ago Karl Menninger wrote a book titled "Whatever Became Of Sin."  In his book he traces the history of mankind and the cycles by which mankind has done everything but accept responsibility for their sin.  The most current trend is to regulate and legalize that sin so that it's acceptable to the rest of society.  This shouldn't be okay with The Christian.  We should have something we can stand up to and something we can stand up for.  If we are actively in the blame game and using other excuses, we no longer are being honest with ourselves, God and those who believe and those who don't believe.  The integrity of our person is compromised and we lose face before God but gain standing in the world.  When the devil tempted Eve there was more damage than just eating the forbidden fruit.  There was a severing of relationship with God.  So, with the sin complete Eve took the fruit to Adam.  He too didn't refuse the temptation.  Together "their eyes were open" and they saw that they were naked.  We can take this as a metaphor or actuality.  They were naked because they didn't have need of covering in their perfect world.  The ability of mankind today to be "naked before God" is relegated to the amount of blaming and excusing we do.  The less open and vulnerable to God, the more in agreement with the world we become.
     With the increase of pressure of the world (whose god is Satan), the mainstream Christian community would do well resisting that pressure.  In not resisting we become as the world.  As we blame away, the very root of our soul is being pulled from the earth.  Then we too are cast out of the garden.  It is work (toil) to handle all the sin in our lives and find someone or something to blame for that sin.  Leaving behind personal responsibility doesn't solve the problem; it magnifies the problem.  That problem is separation from God.  When we do so we cloth ourselves with our sin and think God cannot see that sin.  Self deception keeps us hooked into our sin.  "Surely you will not die." echoes in our minds even as it must have for Adam and Eve for the rest of their earthly lives.  I know it does for me.  I know it does for you as well.  The Christian and the Christian church will be held accountable for every "idle word and deed" in our lives.  It won't necessarily keep us out of heaven but it will be a point of shame as we stand before the King of kings and Lord of lords.  You see, we do this to Jesus.  It may be our life but the Christian needs to relinquish that life to Jesus.  Doing so means we need to stop the blame game and other excuses.
     It's always your choice.