LEARNING DAILY

 

Joshua 24: 14, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away your gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt.  Serve the Lord!”   Joshua

 

The above verse caught my eye when I was reading Saturday.  It has to do with the choices we make regarding good and evil; the choice we make to serving God.  It has everything to do with entering the narrow gate and staying on the narrow road to eternal life in the kingdom of God.  If you have been reading the blog for a while, you might have noticed a change in tone this blog has taken.  Down deep within me there is a need to bring warning for each of us to seek righteousness every day.  We are living in times that evil is being called good and good is being called evil.  Each of us need to be considering the time we live in and what is happening before our eyes.  Is the return of Jesus near?  Is He coming for the His Bride, the Church, in our life time?  I do not know but the signs are sure clearer than in the past that He is coming soon.  Choose to serve Him and do not take a chance that you might miss Him.

 

The book of Judges has long been a favorite of mine.  Reflecting upon this book this past weekend, I believe the days in which this book was written are not unlike the days we are living in.  The people, under the leadership of Joshua had entered onto the Promised Land with instructions to remove the Canaanites and other people living there; it was God who told them to remove these people because they had come under His judgment for serving other gods.

 

The tribe of Judah (from which Jesus would come) was successful against the Canaanites and Perizzites. The house of Joseph found success as well. However, the other tribes either had difficulty driving out the inhabitants of the land or they just chose not to.  For some reason they chose to disobey God.

 

A second problem occurred after the death of Joshua.  In Judges 2:11-15, we are told that a generation arose that did not know the Lord and the work He had done for them.  This generation began to do evil in the sight of the Lord and served the gods of the people they had failed to drive out of the land.  They chose to allow these pagans or unbelievers to stay in the land and pay tribute to them.  The result was a generation growing up who did not know God nor His ways. 

 

What does this have to do with the world we live in today?  I’m so glad you asked because I have an answer.  We are living in a time where people have chosen to allow foreign gods (the belief in) to come into this country in the name of equality or whatever other name you want to give it.  Prayer has been removed from school but other religions are allowed to pray to their false god(s).   After 9/11 people packed churches out, but, it did not last.  Just like in the day of the Judges, those that came after them forgot the lessons of their fathers and “became even more corrupt in their lifestyle; they followed other gods, serving and bowing down to them; they did not cease from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.” (Judges 2:19).  Doesn’t that describe our situation today?  Here’s the really sad truth; God left them to do their own thing.  That resulted again in being oppressed by their enemies.  That became the pattern for God’s people during this time.  God has given us warning after warning.  There will come a time when judgment is coming upon us.

 

Regardless of what you think about the election results, half of the people voting voted for a godless political platform.  Were they tricked into believing they were right?  It seems to me that God has left us to do our own thing – we are going to get what many people wanted when they voted. 

 

One more observation from the book of Judges.  Even though God left His people to their own gods and left them to be oppressed by their enemies, He did not totally abandon them.  Eventually the people would cry out to Him for deliverance and He would raise up a judge to deliver them.

 

Joshua’s admonition to the people was to follow the ways of the Lord.  Choose today who you will serve!  Enter the narrow gate, the Lord Jesus Christ, and stay on the narrow way that leads to eternity in heaven.  God is always ready to extend His arm of mercy to whosoever would believe in His Son.

 

 

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