Tuesday, April 22, 2014

What will you choose to do today?

Joshua 24:15 (NIV) “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Choices… life is full of them. When you are faced with making a choice (a decision) what do you do? Do you spend time (hours, days, months, years) analyzing the pros and cons of the choice you have to make? Or are you more impulsive in your decision making? For me, it depends on the decision I have to make. I must admit that I do tend to be a bit impulsive when it comes to decisions. Let me just tell you, this characteristic has not served me well and has taken me down roads I would have never imagined being on in the first place.

There is one choice that is so important it needs to be made TODAY. Whom will you follow?  On this earth there are two powerful forces seeking to influence our choice…Satan and God. 

Satan appeals to the flesh using pride and power to lure us into his “promise of pleasure.” The “pleasure” Satan “promises” may seem harmless and fun but, in the end, will lead to eternal death.

God seeks to lead us in truth and uses the motivational force of love and the promise of eternal life. The Message (MSG) paraphrase just about sums this point up for us in John 3:16-18 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”

Joshua’s message in Joshua 24:15 is clear, “Choose today who you will serve.” In the 24th chapter, Joshua recounted the history of God’s faithfulness to the Israelites. He reminds them of what they witnessed with their own eyes in Egypt. He also reminds them of God’s provision and protection from the time Abraham was called to “Go to a land I will show you” (Gen 12:1) and promised he would have “more descendants than he could count” (Gen 15:5) up to their departure from the bonds of slavery in Egypt.

Did you notice that he didn’t mention their sin or disobedience at all?

The same is true for us today. “God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger.” We do a good enough job of that ourselves up based on “mistakes” we’ve made. He reminds us of His love and His desire to be with us forever (see John 3:16 – 18 above). When we choose to accept Christ’s redeeming work on Calvary, our sin debt is forever cancelled and we can walk forgiven and free in God’s grace and mercy.

So today, whom will you choose to follow?

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.


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