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Choose You This Day...

             “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.” (Joshua 24:15)

 

            The last sentence of this passage hangs on the wall next to the door, directly across the room from where I’m sitting. I don’t look at it as much as I should. If you’re like me, and like the Jews, you’re likely to say, “Yes! As for me and my house, we will also serve the Lord.” And then we and the Jews will and did go along through our day, doing what we want to, whether God likes the idea or not.

            That’s the reason the sign is on my wall. It’s not just a case of choosing this day whom we will serve, but of choosing this minute or this second. And then the next second, and the one after that.

            And we aren’t tempted to serve the gods beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, at least not by the names they were given back then. Instead, we worship ourselves, money, power, science, nature the universe, and the world. Yesterday, I inadvertently raised a topic of a particular sin with a couple of Christian friends. One answered that – “Contrary to what the Bible says…” and both of them gave explanations that had no reference to Scripture. And I had to choose between their rationale or Scripture.

            Having made that decision (it wasn’t hard,) I have another decision to make. How should I treat these friends? I can’t agree with them, but I can and should love them. That one isn’t too hard to figure out, but what do we do abot that book or TV show we know we shouldn’t read or watch? Or that snack we know we shouldn’t eat? Or the cute little dress that we know we shouldn’t wear, but it’s “cute”? What do we do when we’re advised to “follow the science” or “get woke”?

            That’s when we need to remember that we are choosing for this second or minute – for this now. We may need to talk to the Father about what has gone before, but the choice is for this second or minute.

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