Choose Life

"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying Him, and committing yourself firmly to Him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the LORD, you will live long in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." - Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NLT)

This is the passage on which Mark started his message, and I've been thinking about it a lot over the past couple of days. We really do have choices - dozens, hundreds of them sometimes, every day. When Jake tells me to say "pickle bucket," do I say it just because he said to? Tall carmel latte or venti carmel apple cider? Bible study or check my email? (ouch.) Say something or keep my mouth shut? The choices vary in importance, but every choice we make (turn left or turn right at the next light?) impacts the future in ways we can't see from the present. So knowing God's word is important, and trusting Him is essential, if we want to live a good life and know that we lived a life chasing Jesus faithfully.

"And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him." - this is how Eugene Peterson paraphrases part of the verses above in the Message. This just reinforced to me the connection between obeying God and loving Him. Obedience is an act of love - even when, or even especially when, we don't understand why God is asking us to do something. It's arguably an act of love when we choose to obey when we don't want to. Especially if we do it asking God to change our hearts so that we have "the want to" to follow Him. As Mark said Monday night - it's worship to make wise choices.

Reading verses in context is something I try to do often, so I went back to the entire chapter of Deuteronomy 30 and read it. I'd encourage you, if you get a chance this week, to read Deuteronomy 27:1 - 32:13 - it's really interesting. (It's God's Word.) :) But a few verses jumped out at me from chapter 30 tonight as I read:

"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it." - Deuteronomy 30:11-14

or as the Message puts it: "This commandment that I'm commanding you today isn't too much for you, it's not out of your reach. It's not on a high mountain—you don't have to get mountaineers to climb the peak and bring it down to your level and explain it before you can live it. And it's not across the ocean—you don't have to send sailors out to get it, bring it back, and then explain it before you can live it. No. The word is right here and now—as near as the tongue in your mouth, as near as the heart in your chest. Just do it!"

Whatever it is that God is asking you to do, it isn't impossible. It might be hard. He never promised this race would be easy. But it is not impossible. For you, by yourself, sheer will power - nope, you probably can't do it, whatever it is. But with God, all things are possible. (Matthew 19:25-26)

"The word is right here and now - as near as the tongue in your mouth, as near as the heart in your chest. JUST DO IT!!!!"

For further reflection, check out James 1:22-25, as well. May God give us the grace to make wise choices, to choose life over death, and to truly be doers of the Word. Amen.