Choose this day who you will serve!

Dear Friends: This week we are going to delve back into the Old Testament, into a part of the lectionary Scripture that is both famous and infamous. Please take time to look over Joshua 24 when you get a chance prior to Sunday.

This is one of the preacher's favorite passages. "Choose this day who you will serve!...As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!!" One can just hear the deep barotone voice of the evangelist rolling those syllables off the tongue!! But laying all drama aside, the words of Joshua have incredible implications for we who are part of God's Church.

The Book of Joshua records the conquests of the Promised Land by the people of Israel after their escape from Egypt, and their 40 years of wandering in the Wilderness. Moses is gone, and the mantle of leadership has fallen to Joshua. He leads them into the Promised Land, and due to his strong leadership and God's guidance, the land becomes theirs after a series of battles. Chapter 24 records the last actions of an aged and respected leader. Joshua calls the people to gather at Shechem (a place filled with history and Biblical meaning; it was here that Jacob led the people in an idol-burying ceremony, a rejection of all that pulled them away from the one true God.). Once there, he delivers his greatest sermon.

Joshua challenges the people to make a choice. Serve the Lord or don't. Reading between the lines, we see that there must have been a lot of folks who thought they could have their cake and eat it too. Namely, they thought they could worship both God and idols. But it doesn't work that way. You can't sit on the fence in the Kingdom of God!! Jesus reminded us that "You can't serve both God and mammon." Two gods is one too many for the Lord and King of Kings.

Obviously we don't serve idols today. But that doesn't mean we don't have idols. Whatever gets in the way of real devotion to Jesus is an idol. And in order to enjoy real life, we have to cast that idol away, and place Jesus on the throne of our lives. This Sunday, we're going to talk more about that, and I'll see you then!!