The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Luke 14:16-24, “A certain man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many;

17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’

18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’

19 “And another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’

20 “And another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’

21 “And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’

22 “And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’

23 “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

24 ‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.'”

There is no excuse for what you did! Did anyone ever say that to you? a parent? a teacher? a boss?

The “why” behind what we did or did not do what was required is as old as mankind itself.

Adam said to God, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree…” (Gen. 3:12) This excuse was then copied by Eve, who blamed the serpent. Moses argued with God saying, “…they will not believe me or listen to my voice…” (Ex. 4:1). Aaron blamed the people for the golden calf, saying, “…they said to me, ‘Make us gods’…” And the list goes on.

Someone has said that the definition of an excuse is “the skin of reason stuffed with a lie.” That may seem a bit harsh because the “reason” probably seems reasonably feasible to the one offering it. Nevertheless, when the LORD instructs His servants in what they are to do, there can be no excuse for not doing it.

The parable Jesus gave in our verses above is indeed appropriate to every generation. A man intending to give a dinner, gave an invitation to his intended guests. There was ample time for them to prepare to be there. In the culture of the day, they had accepted the invitation, but when the dinner was ready, and the date for it had arrived, they all declined –making excuses for not being able to be there. It was an insult to the host!

Have we ever thought about how we insult the LORD Jesus by intentionally neglecting to do or say what He has instructed us? It’s somebody else’s fault. I forgot all about it. There are others who are better at doing it than I am. And the list goes on and on. Yet, what we overlook is that the LORD intended us to do it or He would have chosen someone else. Others may have already been doing what He instructed, and were honestly unavailable for that time. He needed us for that specific time and place. Perhaps, it was a training mission, preparing us for some even greater work at a later time. Why do we question God? Why do we just not obey His commands without question?

In the end, those who made excuses missed the dinner. Worse still, they angered their host by not showing up. When we were saved, we yielded our very lives, time, energy, everyting to Him. We are not our own! We are servants, His servants. And someday we will need Him to help us. Will He give us an excuse?

We pray earnestly for you spiritually and physically,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”