Whom Will You Serve?

Choose you this day whom you will serve… -Joshua 24:15

Man has always had a choice. God has tried to show us that from the very beginning, He formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed His own life into him. He put man in the midst of the Garden and gave him authority over all the works of His hands. He told him to dress it, keep it and take care of it.

Then God said, “You can eat of anything you want in the Garden. It’s good and it’s yours. You will find a tree in the midst of the Garden called the Tree of Life. You can eat of that freely. But don’t eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, for in the day you do, you will surely die.” (Gen. 2:16,17.)

God was talking about spiritual death, which is separation from Him. So what happened? Adam ate of that tree, and the next time God came to walk and talk with him in the cool of the day, Adam hid. He had separated himself spiritually from God.

From that time on, mankind was separated from God, except when animal sacrifices were made. Then the Lord Jesus, our sacrificial Lamb, came to earth and brought us back into relationship with the Father.

I used to read the account of Adam and Eve and think, God, why did You do that? Instead of putting the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the midst of the Garden, why didn’t You put it on the southern tip of South America, where it would have taken them 5000 years just to find? By that time, Adam wouldn’t have wanted it!

Some folks would say, “God was just testing mankind.” No, this wasn’t a test. God was allowing man the privilege of being a free moral agent. You see, man could only be a free moral agent if he had choices to make.

God doesn’t want us to serve Him because we have to. He wants us to serve Him because we want to. He will allow us to go to hell and spend eternity there if we so choose. Or we can choose life and spend eternity in His presence—starting here and now!   

CONFESSION:

This day I choose to obey God because I want to. My choices determine the paths I take. Therefore, I choose life, that I and my seed shall live!

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999