You Have a Choice

 Joshua 24:15 “…Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve….But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

 Don’t you love that you get a choice?

 God doesn’t force anyone into service. You might say that some are ‘strongly encouraged’, but no one has the final choice made for them.

 The LORD loves us so much that the LORD desires a voluntary response motivated by a reciprocal love for God. “We love because God first loved us.”

 You have a choice. You can serve the gods worshiped by society, gods like profit, ego, possessions. Or you can choose the LORD, who commands love as his servants first and second priorities.

 Choices have consequences. That’s why we get to decide.

 Choosing to serve the LORD means that we make room to actively participate in worshipping communities. If our lives are so busy that we do not ‘have time’ to attend worship, whom have we chosen to serve?

 Serving the LORD means that we choose to love our enemies, care for the poor, and walk humbly.  Or do we prefer the choices society’s gods are offering: revenge, selfishness, and pride?

 Don’t you love that you get a choice?

Courage for the Journey

 Joshua 1:7a “Be strong and very courageous.”

 Second on my ‘power walking playlist’ is Bad Day (ironically, by Daniel Powter).

 One of the lines is “You're faking a smile with the coffee to go”. Who cannot relate to that picture? Then the song works toward the chorus:

'Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around…

 My playlist moves on to other, happier lyrics. But I keep Bad Day second because it reminds me of how I sometimes feel at the start of a day or a walk.

 After Moses died God passed the baton of the leadership relay to Joshua.  Joshua had been in training, but now he had to lead.  God didn’t promise him it would be an easy journey, but he did promise, “I will give you ever place where you set your foot.” (v.3)

 God’s next instruction was critical: ‘be strong and very courageous.’  Very. Courageous.

 You, my dear friend, may be having a bad day, walking a very difficult part of your journey. God encourages you: listen for the reminders to keep on movin’ and groovin’. Very courageously.

 The songs get better. Alleluia.

"Out of the Depths"

 Psalm 30:1a I will exalt you, Lord,

    for you lifted me out of the depths…

 I didn’t understand the poet until 2:00 a.m. on Easter morning, April 17, 2022.

 40 hours after a stroke, lying in a hospital bed unable to sleep, unable to feel most of my right side, I finally grasped the poet’s meaning.

 In seminary I read a textbook titled Out of the Depths. In all the years since, I hadn’t experienced ‘the depths’ until that morning. Then, out of the depths, I cried out to God, “Jesus, what is the point of going on with my life?”

 Then, out of the depths, Jesus answered. Not with an audible voice, but with an answer my brain, my heart, my soul, heard as clear as a bell. “There’s more work to do, Bill.”

 Understood. My call to work with the beautiful people of Hope Church, feeding and caring for the sheep, was not over. We have more work to do. And I should be there to help.

 I understand what it feels like to be lifted by the Lord out of the depths.

 This is resurrection life.

     Lord my God, I will praise you forever. (v. 12)

Amen.