Serving the Lord

“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” (Joshua 24:15 KJV).

Just before he died, Joshua gave Israel some last words of advice about serving the Lord. What he said was indeed good counsel. Thus we want to note the excuses for not serving the Lord, the exhortation to serve the Lord, and the example of serving the Lord.

Excuses – “If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord.” Some in Israel felt that it was evil to serve the Lord. This was a lame excuse for not serving. There will always be those who get things so twisted that serving God seems evil to them. These folks believe that living a virtuous life, worship, Bible study, and prayer is a waste of time. Leaders in our educational institutions will not hesitate to embrace alternate lifestyles that are sinful, but refuse to allow the Bible in the classroom. Sin really twists the mind of those who reject God and His Word. They have spiritual matters all backward.

Exhortation – “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” In exhorting the people to serve the Lord, Joshua points out that it is a matter of choice not convenience. We do not serve the Lord nor live for Him accidently; we serve Him by choice. Further, it is a life and death choice that will affect us for all eternity. How are you choosing? Are you choosing to serve God?

Example – “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua was not just an exhorter but also an example. He led his home in spiritual matters. In our world today, women and children are the ones who show up at church most of the times. The man stays at home. Shame on any man that sends his wife and children off to church but refuse to go himself. We need more men like Joshua who will be the examples in their homes. We need men who will take their family to church, not just send them. We need to take note of Joshua’s declaration; it was not just “my house” that will serve the Lord, but it was “me and my house” who will serve the Lord.

(Adapted from Butler’s Daily Bible Reading)

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)

Quotation of the Week

“Nothing worth keeping is lost in serving God!”

Anonymous

Word Study

Confident

In Romans 2:19 we read, “And are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness” (NASB).

Confident is the Greek word peitho (πειθω). The word means to convince, trust, persuade, conciliate, appease, satisfy, depend on. Literally, the word means to persuade or to induce others to believe by words. Peitho is a strong verb, carrying the components of confidence, reliance, and hope.

In Classical Greek, peitho has two basic meanings – to persuade and to convince. In the New Testament, peitho occurs in the sense of to persuade, to convince, or passively to be convinced. In our verse, peitho is in the perfect tense which expresses the idea that I have come through a process of persuasion to a settled conclusion. It means to be so convinced that one puts confidence in something or someone. An example of this is Rom. 8:38 where Paul stands persuaded about “the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” and could not be budged from his conviction; he was sure of the truth of the matter.

Bible Facts

The first person to dance in the Bible is Miriam. According to Exodus 15:20 she took a timbrel in her hand and started dancing and all the women followed her. The second incident involving dancing is found in Exodus 32:19 where the Israelites were dancing around the golden calf.

Bible Trivia

Three Old Testament writers asked the question, “What is Man?” Who were they?

**Answer to last week’s trivia: In which chapter in the Book of Psalm does it say that the heavens were made by “the breath” of the Lord’s mouth? Psalms 33:6.

That’s in the Bible

“Make bricks without straw”

“Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves” (Exodus 5:9 KJV).

The expression “making bricks without straw” is the perfect motto for the employee who is given a job to do but not the resources to do it. “Making bricks without straw” is what Pharaoh commanded the Israelites to do after Moses asked him to let the Israelites go to the desert to offer sacrifices and worship to their God. Pharaoh’s response to the taskmasters was to make the slaves’ work harder by ordering them to make bricks without straw (straw made it easier to make bricks). Pharaoh believed that the Israelites were allowing religion to get in the way of their work.

Did You Know – Christian History

Hannah Tatum Whitehall Smith was born in Philadelphia, PA on February 7, 1832. She was a lay speaker and author in the Holiness movement in the United States and the Higher Life movement in United Kingdom. She was also active in the Women’s Suffrage and Temperance movements. On March 14, 1871, she writes in a letter, “It is a mistake to think we must feel good before we pray; we need to pray most of all when we feel poor, and empty, and weak.” Her book, ‘The Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life’ is an extremely popular book of Christian principles and practical holiness theology. It is still widely read today. She also authored the devotional ‘God is Enough’ and the ‘God of All Comfort.’

A Little Humor

A three-year-old put his shoes on by himself. His mother noticed the left was on the right foot. She said, “Son, your shoes are on the wrong feet.” He looked up at her with a raised brow and said, “Don't kid me, Mom. I know they are my feet.”

Thought Provoking Church Sign

“Salvation: infinitely costly but absolutely free!”