...my word

"...no, i promise I didn't do it, it wasn't me, I swear, i cross my heart and hope to die..."

Hmm...does this sound familiar? It does to me, yeah I can see me pleading with my mom that I didn't do it, I can see me passing the blame to my brother Brad or Scott. The problem here is not the plead...the problem lies in the oath or the swear.

Ever since the day Satan brought trouble to the Garden of Eden, people like me and you have found ways to shift the blame off of ourselves and onto others. This is nothing new, from the moment sin entered this world until this very moment and onward until our Savior returns the blame will be passed. We will continue to try and make ourselves look good at the expense of others. You see this doesn't just happen to random people we do it in our own families.

Check this out...so Adam and Eve eat the apple right? They have done the one thing God told them not to do... You see sin entered this world through a bite, and we see immediately how strong the grasp of sin can be. Read this...Genesis 3:8-12

Did you see it? "Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" There are two people in the garden, Adam and Eve, God asks a question, a very simple question, a question that only requires a one word answer. Yes. Adam replies with this beauty of an answer..."The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Well done Adam, way to throw Eve under the bus. Its a simple yes or no question, yet Adam new what had happened and he thought he better remind God who gave who the apple in the first place. You see Adam also makes it clear that he didn't choose Eve, no, God you put her here.

Jesus said, "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil."    
Matthew 5:33-37


Its simple, make your 'yes' be 'yes' and your 'no' be 'no'...although we all know that sometimes we feel like we need to power up our yes and our no. We need to put a little oomph behind it, give it some real power and meaning. Have you ever heard the saying...Your word is your bond? It refers to the fact that what you say can be trusted. You see this is a two sided problem, we feel like we need to strengthen our yes and no because...


"Hey Nate will you please take out the trash...yes...are you sure?" Now does that sound familiar...replace names where needed. Apparently my yes was not trusted, the question asker needed a little reassurance that my yes was a yes. Here is the root of the problem, our yes has become a 'sure' or a 'maybe', and the same goes for our no. The trust on both sides has been weakened, we feel we have to over-emphasize our yes and no because we may have burned our bond; our word may not be trusted.

Lets leave it here today. Let us work hard on making our yes a yes and our no a no. Let us work on making our word our bond once again.