How Will We Choose

             Moses said, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20. Moses is giving his final instructions to God’s people. He is nearing the end of his earthly life and his leadership. In Deuteronomy chapters 28 and 29, Moses had given them many warnings and promises. Now he calls upon them to decide between life and death. Moses said: “choose life.” We are also faced with this life and death decision. Like they, we must love God and obey His voice (the Word of God). Rejecting Jesus as the Christ is choosing death, which results in hopelessness and hell. Receiving Jesus as the Christ by obeying His Word, John 12:48, results in happiness and heaven. It is our choice. The Word of God is going to judge us all by the same rule. “Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” Philippians 3:16. “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” Galatians 6:16.

            Choosing life gives birth to love. Moses said, “That thou mayest love the Lord thy God.” We are incapable of loving God until we respond to His love for us. God loves us in spite of our sins. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10. Christ’s death upon the cross proves His love for sinful man. Salvation is the result of coming in obedient faith to Jesus the Christ. “We love him, because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19. Love for God is our choosing life through Jesus the Christ who loves us. God’s love enables us to love Him and others. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” 1 John 4:11. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15. Why is it that many will say “I love God, and I love Jesus the Christ” but fail to believe what God the Father and Jesus the Christ commanded? For example, Jesus built His church. Matthew 16:18. Jesus shed His blood for the church. Acts 20:28. The Lord adds to His church. Acts 2:47. The Father delivers one from their sins and translates them into the kingdom of His Son (the church) Colossians 1:13. We are told not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Hebrews 10:25. Many never attend the services of the church that Jesus built, shed His for, and adds us to it. Many would say it does not matter whether they attend.

            Choosing love gives birth to obedience. Moses said, “That thou mayest obey his voice.” Children who love their parents delight in obeying them. If we love God, we obey Him. God has given us His Word for us to follow. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17. God’s Word does not have many interpretations! God told Nadab and Abihu where to get the “fire” that they were to use. However, they offered “strange fire before the LORD, which He commanded them not.” Leviticus 10:1-2. What did God do to them? “And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.” Yes, God meant what He said and said what He meant. Jesus called the Pharisees children of the devil. Jesus said, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” John 8:44-47. Jesus said, “I will build my church.” The Holy Spirit said, “The Lord added to the church.” God “translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.”  However, people say you do not have to be a member nor attend. The Lord’s Supper is to be observed “every first day of the week.” However, if one does not attend, they fail to remember the Lord’s death, as Jesus has commanded. Matthew 26:26-29; 1 Corinthians 11:23-29; 16:1-2; Acts 20:7.  Are you listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd? “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27.
Bobby D. Gayton