Sharing an earlier blog…

There are forks in the road that require a decision and a choice. We all face them. I don’t know about you but I worry a lot about the choices we are making as a people. According to the notation in my Bible, the Book of Deuteronomy was written about 1400 B.C.; a long, long time ago.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30:19-20.

It’s so easy to dismiss something written so long ago…that’s the Old Testament. You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Matthew 5:21-22. Jesus said those words and it stopped people in their tracks.

This world we are living in is becoming increasingly ruled by intolerance, hate, pride. I heard an expression yesterday that brought about this whole blog today. White privilege. It struck me as odd because who decided who would be privileged over anyone else? Did God?

As I was thinking about this blog a heaviness settled over me that was oppressive. It’s odd…first thing this morning there was glorious birdsong. When that heaviness settled over me even the birdsong stilled. I started praying and asking God to help me. Correct my heart and remove bitterness, hate, pride and I prayed that for every person. What He said to me quietly in that still small voice was “Choose love. Choose life.” I felt a lightening and even the birds sang again.

That you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:7-12.

His love is made complete in us…a choice. I choose life. I choose love because that is where God is. This world is difficult because of it’s brokenness. We see hate and violence everywhere; we see people causing horrendous harm to others without any regard for God or for the people they are hurting. We see people lying and feeling no shame or remorse. We see selfishness on a grand scale and it’s easy to think that’s how the world is and will always be.

Long, long ago God told a group of people to choose life. Jesus enlarged that understanding. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father. John 16:28. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16:28, 33.

We can’t overcome the hate within ourselves or in the world. But God can and does. Jesus overcame the world and not in the way the world then expected! They expected the Messiah to overcome Rome. God had a much bigger plan! Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. John 17:3-5.

Choices. Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Revelation 22:12-13. Jesus’s words. He told us in the beginning and for all time: choose life….that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life.