There's no explaining it away!

     You're sitting class one moment listening intently when suddenly you are rocked awake by your own snoring.  Everyone has stopped what they were doing and the instructor is looking at you intently.  "Glad you could join us Mr. Hawley.  Is there anything you would like to share with us?"  Pregnant pause...   "If not, can I continue for the sake of others who are here to learn?"  That's a rhetorical questions in case you didn't notice.  I'm beyond embarrassed and needing to slink out of the class and get a strong cup of coffee.  There is nothing I could have said that would have made the situation any better.  Never mind that I had just worked a 10 hour shift, didn't get dinner, and was there listening to a class on modern basket weaving in order to fulfill a requirement I would never use.  Sometimes, sometimes, it's just better to either crawl into a hole or go back to sleep.  Invisible problems also come into play.  Take for instance the day I pulled into my bank parking lot and parked my truck with it's handicapped license plate in the handicapped slot.  Before I could even close my window and get out a woman on the sidewalk accosted me saying, "You sure don't look handicapped."  I got out of the truck and showed her the license plate, my disabled card and still she was of the mind that I had no business parking there.  There's no explaining it away to some people; especially those who have already made up their minds.
     When it comes to excuses, any excuse will do.  People generally don't believe our excuses anyway.  Being a retired cop I've learned a trick or two when being pulled over by the officer who thought I was speeding.  When he approached my car I said, "I did it."  He said, "What?"  I repeated myself confessing my sin.  Now he had the choice.  He could do what I thought he might do, give me a ticket, or he could warn me, or he could send me on my way after chewing me out.  Making no excuse for my infraction wasn't what he expected to hear.  However, it was the truth.  Making excuses for our choices to disobey is sin.  Why compound the problem?  Well, that's what human being like to do.  Never mind leaving the equation simple with a simple solution.  Never mind ownership of our actions and inaction's.  Never mind that we are a fallen creation that needs to be corrected and redirected.  I had no excuse.  He didn't give me the ticket though I deserved it.  I could have told him I was late for my kids ballgame, my wife had hurt herself, or whatever else I chose to come up with.  None of them would excuse my choice to disobey.  My choice was selfish and inexcusable as a Christian.  There's no explaining things away if you want your testimony to remain intact.
     After Martin Luther came to his mentor time after time for absolution for his petty sins, the mentor, growing tired of the numerous interruptions to his day, told Martin to "Go and sin boldly!" and to then come back for absolution.  Two factors come into play with this example.  First, Martin was being very sensitive to the Spirit and didn't want to grieve the Holy Spirit by his sin getting in the way of their relationship.  Secondly his mentor was not wanting to deal with the depth of remorse Martin was feeling for sin.  Sounds like many of our churches today.  If you don't like your behavior labelled as sin, find another group of people who, like you, don't want to give up their sin and don't want to come up with an explanation of why their sin is okay.  Take for example the church today.  We condone sin after sin, let that sin destroy the unity of the believers and take the church into a world where sin is okay.  IF you and I READ our Bible, we will find what is expected of us.  That's all we're responsible for.  It's really quite simple.  God wants us to be perfect like he is (Matthew 6:33).  That's something we cannot explain away.  Should we engage the process of our own we will fail.  We need the Holy Spirit to guide our understanding and application for that which we have been called out of the world and into the kingdom of God.  That's something you don't need to explain away.