12-19-08 DEVOTION BY ARTHUR RHODES, INMATE CHAPLAIN AT RAYBURN CORRECTIONAL

WHO MAKES YOUR CHOICES

Joshua 24:15 "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourself today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living: but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."



There is not a day that goes by that we, human beings, do not make hundreds, and sometimes, thousands of choices. We make these choices either consciously or unconsciously, either willing or unwillingly. That is what is means to be human.



Genesis 2:15-17 "Then the Lord took the Man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God then commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.



There is no doubt God could have created mankind without a choice; he could have made us like the birds of the air or the fish of the sea, or the beast of the field. Had He done so, we would instinctively praise and worship and serve God, but we would not do it by choice, but by force.



One of the most amazing insight we can have of God is that it is His plan and purpose to bring about an Eternal Kingdom in which the people will praise and worship and serve Him because they chose to, not because they are forced to.



Acts 17:29-31 "Being then children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone or an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because he has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."



We have all heard the saying, "Time waits for no one." That is certainly a true statement, but, it has no significance unless you are in a hurry.



Here is a statement that, if you seriously think about it, will have meaning to you, no matter who you are--- "Tomorrow is not promised."



That's what Joshua was telling his people so long ago when he said, "CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE."



Joshua had made his choice, he said, "AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD."



Of all the hundreds or thousands of choices you've made today, this ONE is the most important --- CHOOSE TODAY TO SERVE THE LORD!