Good Morning All,
Joshua 24:15; “And if it is evil in your eyes to
serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your
fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in
whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord.”
“Choose this day whom you will serve.” That is pretty harsh, after all we like to
check things out; take it for a test drive, look at Carfax, check the soil
maps, check prices at other stores; we need time to make big decisions. While that may seem like a reasonable
approach, it can also be foolish.
We often wonder, maybe even out loud, when
we read of the death of a young person, or when a family loses more than one
member due to some tragedy. I think of the young man who held onto his toddler
while his wife was washed away in the hurricane. Now there is a family with a
huge whole to fill. While we look on
with sadness for this family, we really need to see the incredible fragility of
the human body, how easily this body can stop functioning.
Along with all the usual comments like “be
sure your family knows you love them”; “Don’t leave on an angry word”; “don’t
put off calling a friend or a loved one that is far away” comes one more word
of wise counsel from our verse today, “Choose this day whom you will
serve.” The importance of your faith,
right now, is more critical than we ever know.
Many people have the mistaken idea that
they have time on their side. They
believe that they can wait to hear God’s call.
“I’ll worry about that when I’m older.”
“There is plenty of time for that church stuff later.” We all like to believe that we are all going
to live to a ripe old age and have time to know that our death is coming. The truth is we never know what day death
will come to us. We need to choose today
because we may not have tomorrow.
Yet there is another reason we need to hear
the call of the Holy Spirit. In this
chapter of Joshua, the Israelites are having a covenant ceremony. In this ceremony, Joshua recalled all that
the Lord God had done for the Israelites and how He had blessed them. God gives those same blessings to His people
today. We are showered with His love;
receive His comfort, a share in His eternal reward. All this gives us hope, a hope for life
everlasting. We receive this today when
we listen to the Spirit call us to faith today.
We might have 20, 30 or even 80 more years of life but why live them
outside of God’s umbrella of love? Why
take on the devil all by our self when Jesus has promised to do this battle for
us?
We run the risk of dying outside of faith
and we live a life of difficulty, struggling with all the battle of this world,
holding all the challenges we will face by our own hands and backs rather than
turning all these over to God. Choose
today whom you will serve, trust God’s promise to give you hope today and
eternal life tomorrow or maybe later today.
Father, we are slow to
see your grace in our life. We like to
see our life through our eyes and on our terms rather than trusting you. Bring us closer to you that we may proclaim
you as our God this day and forevermore.
In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
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