I Frame No Excuse...
"...they all write dark things against me. I deny them not, frame no excuse, but confess, ‘Father, I have sinned’. Yet still I live, and fly repenting to Thy outstretched arms; Thou wilt not cast me off, for Jesus brings me near. Thou wilt not condemn me, for He died in my stead. Thou will not mark my mountains of sin, for He leveled all and His beauty covers my deformities. O my God, I bid farewell to sin by clinging to the cross..."
That’s an excerpt from a book of Puritan prayers called The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. It jumped out at me as I read it because it was so raw and honest. Very few of us are ever that honest, I would dare to say.
He starts off saying that they are speaking ill of him. That’s something we expect someone to say. We always look for people to gripe and moan and groan about how much of a victim they are, boo-hoo-hoo, and all those things, but then he does something shocking: admits that they’re right.
I deny them not, frame no excuse, but confess, ‘Father, I have sinned’. That’s refreshing. To be honest with you, I have a hard time with that kind of honesty. I want to come up with some way to validate my sin. I want to say, "I had to do that, there was no other way!" I want to stand tall and proud and say that those who oppose me are wrong... but a lot of times, most of the time, they’re not. ‘Father, I have sinned’.
I think the key to this writer’s honesty is not his being so wonderful and perfect, but in his understanding of God’s grace. Listen to a few of his next comments again: [I repent and] Thou wilt not condemn me, for He died in my stead. Thou will not mark my mountains of sin, for He leveled all and His beauty covers my deformities. The writer understands that all this trying to cover up sin is pride and vanity. It has to be Jesus or it’s nothing. His last comment is the best way I can imagine to end this writing: O my God, I bid farewell to sin by clinging to the cross...
3:02:04 PM 
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