Bruce Collins, Evangelist

Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.
Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Why is it so hard to make the right decision when the right decision and the Spiritual blessing associated with it is so obvious? In Deuteronomy, Moses not only reviews the law for a new generation about to enter the promised land, but he reviews the miraculous history of the children of Israel who were led from Egypt to Canaan. Anyone with any smarts would realize that worshipping Jehovah was the only way to go. Yet, Moses declares that the nation would one day turn away from Jehovah and be scattered among the nations. They did and they were.

When Joshua comes to the end of a victorious life as the leader who brings the children of Israel into the promised land, he reminds the children of Israel of their need to make a decision that should have been self-evident. He and his house were going to go serve Jehovah, but while the nation of Israel through their leadership said they were going to follow the Lord, under the judges, they constantly turned away. Eventually, God would then raise up a man or judge who would bring them back.

I am a firm believer in the fact that we are all able to make right decisions. This is called free will. I believe that everyone who ends up separated from God for eternity will have only themselves to blame. However, having said that, I also believe that our natures are such that we tend to make illogical decisions that are wrong. It is always easy to make the wrong choice and it takes discipline to make the right choice.

Worshipping the living and true God has never been as much fun as worshipping in some of the sensual ways that the world offers. Worshipping God requires discipline and self-sacrifice or self-denial. Worshipping God requires us to consider eternity more important than time. I believe that left to ourselves, because we are born with the desire to sin, we would all turn away from God. But God does not leave us alone and manifests Himself to us through creation (Psalm 19) and through our consciences (Romans 2:15). Those who respond to Him and believe that “He Is” (Hebrews 11:6), have God send them His clear message about Christ just as He did to the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-40. His message has gone out into all the earth and to the ends of the world according to Romans 10:18. I didn’t say that–God did, but I believe it. So while making the right decision is difficult and is not natural, when the Spirit of God convicts us of sin and of the truth of salvation through the Word of God, it is possible for each of us to respond properly to the work of the Spirit. It is possible to trust in the truth that Christ died for our sins and to know that we have been delivered from eternal destruction. And once we have been delivered, it is possible for us to worship God in a right way. But it is also easy to move away from the pure unadulterated worship of the Lord Jesus Christ our God.

Are we making the right and obvious decisions when it comes to our relationship with God? Blessing and cursing as well as life ad death are the options before us. That means that making right decisions is rather important.

Bruce Collins