Excuses, excuses, we all use them from time to time. Author Tony Evans says all the excuses in the world don't change the fact that God has given men certain responsibilities in the home, church, and community, and the only way they can fulfill them is to stop rationalizing and turn to God for what they need.
Nothing could make that clearer than the title of Evans' new book No More Excuses. He knows all the excuses that men use for living second-rate lives, and he addresses them one by one in the book's 18 chapters. Evans pretty much covers the waterfront with chapters on feeling worthless, allowing for immorality, clock-punching, playing the lone ranger, business as usual, etc.
In addition to being inclusive on the subject, Evans keeps the tone and vocabulary that have made him a popular speaker for Promise Keeper events and on a daily radio program broadcast worldwide from Dallas where he serves as senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. He also speaks regularly at crusades, conventions, and Bible conferences around the globe. An audio tape of No More Excuses is soon to be released.
An African American, he doesn't care what race or nationality a man may be. He has in mind larger issues that affect every man. In the middle of the book, he speaks of the life-changing purpose God had in mind when He commanded fathers to instruct their children. Evans believes in discipline for children ("Whom the Lord loveth, he skins alive" is the Evans rendering of Hebrews 12:6), and he recalls his own father's rigorous discipline. He credits his love for Jesus Christ today to being accountable as a youth to his father at home. He's not hanging out on the corner in Baltimore where he grew up.
Evans' knowledge of the Bible and his ability to relate points to Scripture in colorful language explain his great appeal as a speaker. He draws from the lives of Moses, Jonah, Nehemiah, Peter, David, and a host of other biblical men to make his points. Unlike a lot of preachers who expound on specific sins and then give a general altar call at the end, Evans gives just as much attention to helping men let God empower them so they can move forward and accomplish more than they ever imagined. He makes clear that he has a big vision because he believes in a "big God."
And after sharing this vision, he helps men develop one for their own lives. He urges all men to develop a Vision Statement for their home and family with five specific areas of responsibility: Spiritual, Recreational, Financial, Educational and Community. Not a bombastic know-it-all, Evans uses a lot of illustrations about himself and his family that make clear he practices what he preaches.
Obviously No More Excuses applies to men who are responding by the thousands to the call for more devotion to God-principles through the Promise Keepers movement. But it makes worthwhile reading for any man, not to mention encouragment for women. Let's all just quit making excuses.
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