Yes, Lord, I Have Sinned But I Have Several Excellent Excuses

Robert Rusch Religion 3rd period James W. Moore The book, Yes, Lord, I Have Sinned but Have Several Excellent Excuses, is a wonderful, spiritual theological masterpiece that focuses on the common American trend of shirking responsibility for sin, making excuses, and blaming others. This book highlights various types of destructive sins with examples of verses from scripture and humorous stories. The book shows that people rationalize frequently, and this book gives great examples to why this is vile

behavior. The essence of this transcendent text is that the Lord can forgive all sins and does not need excuses, only a change of heart and repentance. The first chapter focuses on our tendency to blame sins on other people or events. Blaming others does not make someones sin less horrendous, in fact, the author points out that it worsens the sin because blaming the sin on others shows that we are too prideful to accept responsibility for our own actions. God does not hold grudges or need excuses; he is a forgiving, merciful God who just wants to love us. Our Lord can forgive anyone. The next chapter points out one of recurring themes in this volume: the great number of Christian hypocrites. A hypocrite is characterized by his or her willingness to point out others faults and babble on about what it means to be Christian to others and yet not follow the most important part of being Christian, which is acting like Christ. The book teaches that other people notice our actions rather than our words when judging us as moral people. The expression Actions speaker louder than words has very deep meaning. Yes, Lord, I Have Sinned addresses the dangers of half-heartedness as a Christian. One of our Christian duties, the books says, is to be actively involved in the churchs life by participating in activities such as volunteering to help youth or assisting the poor Many people do not get actively involved in church life and simply go through the motions by just simply only attending weekly services and nothing else. The writer puts this point in a parable by saying in the old west there were three types of tickets for wagon transport: first class, second class, and third class. Whenever the wagon broke down, the first class ticket holders were allowed to stay in the wagon and wait until others fixed the problem. This involvement is like some Christians

who simply do nothing to help further the faith or help fix problems in the church. They are so lazy and prideful that they consider themselves too good to help so they make excuses why they cannot physically help. The second-class ticket holders they would get out and then would watch the others fix the wagon. This is analogous to the Christians who stand around just watching others fix the problem, not offering to help, but only criticizing and saying how they would do it. The third class ticket holder would have to physically get down and help fix the problem. This is the type of Christian who goes and gets down and dirty by actively following Jesuss message of helping others and spreading his good word. The third class ticket holder is the type of Christian we should strive to become if we want to be first class Christian The book introduces the idea of deceptive sins such as pride and ingratitude. Pride is so common because it can unnoticeably slip into our relationships with other people when we ever consider ourselves superior to all others. Pride is a soul killer. So often, we make excuses to ourselves to keep this pride. Pride is the root of all sins. Literally, Adam and Eve succumbed to the sin of pride when they pretentiously disobeyed Gods order not to eat the apple of knowledge when they pridefully thought their desire to eat the apple more important that the Lords great pain. Pride created original sin. In Paradise Lost, the devil, Lucifer, fell from heaven when he pridefully thought he would be a better god than the Lord would. His fall led to the impetus for Adam and Eve to desire the Apple of Knowledge. Nevertheless, as much as pride is the most dangerous and poisonous sin, humility is the most holy beatitude. When Christ humbled himself to death at the cross, his great act of humility cancelled out the previous original sin of pride. While pride is the source of evil, humility is the source of all that is cherished and saintly.

Thus coming back around to books original point, humility is one of the most prized possessions you can have. Humility is immensely more valuable than any corporal possession because only with humility can you have the modesty to admit to God that you screwed up. It is only by fully realizing your mistake and acknowledging that you are not perfect is the only way you can truly recognize and obtain the extent of Gods immense forgiveness. We may live in a pride-filled Me, me, me society where a persons worth to society is determined by the number of his or her possessions, but really in this life, all you need to possess is a loving and humble heart. I really did enjoy this book. The book had so many great insights and made me realizes that there are so many mistakes that I make so often. I especially like the humorous stories and insightful verses the author included in the book to emphasize certain points and validate the points. The only things I would change about Yes, Lord, I Have Sinned is how it was organized. The author jumbled up the layout of the book, and the book started rambling and losing focus in the end compared to the expertly written beginning. However, overall, this book was simply wonderful and I completely recommend reading this book to anyone that is interested in improving his or her faith.