Tell the truth - Greg Laurie -http://www.wnd.com/2015/09/a-revolutionary-idea-tell-the-truth/
Pastor Greg Laurie points out how we learn to deceive before we learn to walk
I heard a story about a minster who was walking down the street and saw a group of boys standing around a dog. The minister thought they might be thinking about hurting the dog, so he approached them and said, "Boys, what are you doing to that dog?"
"Well, pastor, we all love this dog," one of the boys explained. "We all want to take him home, but only one of us can do it. So we figured that whoever here tells the biggest lie gets to take the dog home."
Outraged by such a thing, the minister said, "How dare you? That is so wrong. Don't you know the Bible says that lying is a sin?" He went on to give them a little sermon. Then he concluded by telling them, "When I was a boy, I never told a lie."
The boys looked at each other for a moment and said, "OK ... he gets the dog."
Everyone has lied. And we learn very early in life how to deceive. We learn how to deceive before we can even talk, like the baby who discovers that if he screams loud enough, his parents will rush into the room - even if there is nothing wrong. Then it is all downhill from there.
When the homework isn't done, the child says, "The dog ate my homework." (Do dogs ever eat homework - ever?)
Then we go from lying about homework to lying on résumés. One study revealed that 71 percent of people will increase their tenure of previous jobs on their résumé. Sixty-four percent will exaggerate their accomplishments. Sixty percent will overstate the size of the department they managed. Fifth-three percent cite partial degrees as full. And 48 percent inflate their salary history.
Once people are hired, it doesn't end there. A 2014 survey revealed that one-third of employees who were polled admitted to lying about tardiness and absences from work.
Then there are those lies that belong in the lying hall of fame: "I'm sorry I'm late. There was so much traffic." Or how about these? "I'll be ready in a minute," "I'll do it in a minute," and "Of course I am listening."
As we get older, we also learn the fine art of excuse-making. What is the difference between a lie and an excuse? Not much. An excuse has been defined as the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. Another definition of the word excuse is a lie dressed up for dinner. That is all an excuse is. It's just a fancy lie. It's what we offer when we don't want to do something. It's what we say when we don't want to participate or didn't get the job done. It isn't a reason; it's an excuse.
The first excuse uttered in human history was from our first parents in the garden called Eden. Adam and Eve were placed there by God. Adam was there first, and Eve came a little later. They both ate the forbidden fruit, which Eve offered to Adam. Then God demanded an explanation as to why they disobeyed him, why they ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
As a result, Adam offered the first recorded excuse in human history: "The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it" (Genesis 3:12 NIV). In other words, "God, this is not my fault. I take a nap, I wake up, and she is here. The next thing I know, I have forbidden fruit in my face. Come on."
This was not a reason, however; it was an excuse.
The second recorded excuse in human history came from Eve. She said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate" (verse 13). An updated paraphrase of this would be: "The devil made me do it."
One of my favorite excuses found in the Bible, which is really a lie, was told by Moses' brother, Aaron, in the book of Exodus. Moses led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and as they were making their trek through the wilderness to the Promised Land, the Lord instructed Moses to go up to Mount Sinai to receive the commandments. So Moses left Aaron in charge.
Some time passed, and the people grew impatient. They said to Aaron, "Make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:1 NLT).
So Aaron essentially told them, "I have an idea. Bring me all of your bling, and I will melt it." Then he melted their gold jewelry and formed it into the shape of a calf. He elevated it where everyone could see and told them to worship it.
Meanwhile up on Mount Sinai, Moses was receiving the commandments that were written by the very finger of God (and not being dictated by a strange little boy as depicted in a recent movie). One of those commandments said, "You must not have any other god but me" (Exodus 20:3).
As Moses made his way down from Sinai with the commandments in hand, he heard some noise. His assistant Joshua thought there was a war going on. But Moses said, "No, it's not a shout of victory nor the wailing of defeat. I hear the sound of a celebration" (Exodus 32:18).
When Moses arrived in the camp, he demanded an explanation from Aaron. Here is what Aaron said:
"You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.' So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" (Exodus 22:22-24 NIV)
What else could they do but strip off their clothes and worship a false god? Ridiculous.
An excuse is really a lie. We have used them throughout our lives and have heard them throughout our lives. But as George Washington said, it is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.
The fact is that lying, deception and giving excuses has become far too common in our culture. Imagine how different our nation would be if everyone suddenly started telling the truth about everything.
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