Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Choose 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

I want to share with you from The Fire of the Word, by Chris Webb. He writes, “Being ‘holy’ doesn’t seem very desirable to many people in our contemporary society. Those who speak up for virtue are often derided as moralistic, sanctimonious or holier-than-thou. The media reacts sharply against ‘preachy’ public figures who presume to tell us how to order our private lives. And those who appear to be living lives of moral rectitude are treated with suspicion: can they really be so pure?” (pg. 163). Sad but accurate commentary on today’s world isn’t it? So many have abandoned the way and will of God that it is no longer the goal we seek. Instead we have placed self on the throne and anything that might even suggest a better way to live is dismissed as foolishness. Could that be because many who talk of holiness do not live it? Too often church people are the reason others don’t attend church…it’s not that they’ve gotten into an argument or dispute with God, but with one of His children! Admit it, at times we are witness not to the goodness and power of the Risen Lord, but to the lord of this fallen world. Remember the saying, “You might be the only Jesus someone will ever see?” It’s true. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 1:27, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise…” Sounds like a second chance for many of us! Let’s allow God to use us to show the world (or that specific person) what being ‘holy’ really is…not perfect but surrendered and set apart for the glory of God regardless of what our society says.

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