Mid-Week Message - Free to Choose

"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 (NIV)

I was very young when I fell in love with the Lord.  I have related the story before about a lady named Betty Allen in Amarillo, Texas.  She was the first person to take me to church.  I must have been around six years old at the time.  When I think back on that day, I remember it from a little girl's perspective.  Adults in suits and dresses, the distinct "church smell", sitting in a Sunday school room with a very nice lady and learning about Jesus.  The beautiful music that could be heard through the hallways.  It appealed to me.  I felt as if I belonged there, though I only knew that one person.  How I wish I could find her and let her know that when she introduced me to church, she introduced me to the Lord I love and serve today.  

This precious lady didn't have to take me to church that day.  She did it out of love for her Savior.  She chose to share His love and I am so very glad she did.  We all have the freedom to choose how we live our lives.  We do not have to accept Jesus as our Lord.  There are plenty that do not.  There are also other gods that we are presented with during our time on this earth and we are free to choose whether to follow one or not.  

When God created us, He gave us free will.  He could have programmed us to automatically follow Him.  However, He would rather we choose Him.  He chose to create and love us.  He would like for us to choose to love Him.  Before Jesus died on the cross for our sins, He could have chosen not to do so.  It was His love for us that kept Him on that cross.  It was His choice.  

So here are my choices.  I choose to believe in God's Word completely.  I choose to believe that He is the Great I Am.  The only True God.  I choose to believe that Jesus Christ is His Son and that He chose to give His life in a tortuous death for my sake and that He rose from the dead and still lives today with His Father in Heaven.  I choose to believe that when I accepted Him as my Savior that I became a child of God, forgiven for my sins and have a promise to live with Him eternally when my life on this earth is done.  I choose to speak openly about my love for Him and the wonders He has worked in my life.  I choose to spend time with Him in prayer, to carry my burdens and the burdens of those around me to Him because I believe He loves us enough to answer those prayers.  I choose to believe that what His Word says is true and that He is the same yesterday, today and forever and because of that He is still a God of miracles and that they happen every day.   I choose Jesus.  

God bless you.