CHOOSE LIFE!

Deuteronomy 30.  
Verse 16 - ...I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes and His judgments that you may live and multiply and the Lord your God will bless ....

Verse 19 - ...I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life that both you and your descendants may live.

Verse 14 - But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

Verses 1-3 - Now it shall come to pass when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you and you call them to mind....and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice....that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you....

Obedience Again.  This is old testament stuff.  Full of "you shall" and "you shall nots".  I used to find myself feeling hopeless when I read this stuff because it seemed God wanted me to be impossibly good and I knew I was a sinner.  But look again.  It is clear that God is commanding us to love Him, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments.  He even refers to this choice as choosing life over death (meaning that disobedience will result in death).  How in the world am I supposed to live up to this?  I mess up.  Alot.  He gives me the answer in verse 14 - the WORD.  If I read the Word, speak the Word and have the Word in my heart I CAN walk in His ways.  I can avoid temptation.


But look.  God knew we were going to mess up.  That's where verses 1-3 come in - when we realize we've messed up and we turn back to God and obey His voice he will have compassion on us and bring us back from captivity.  Captivity from what?  The sin or bondage that we have fallen into.


This gives us an amazing look at God's heart.   He made a way out for us.  Why?  Because he loves us so much he doesn't want a single one of us to face death.......so he gives us chance after chance after chance to choose life.

What are you choosing today?  Life?  Death?  Are you trapped today?  God is the way out.  The directions are found in a book we call the Bible.  Crack it open!  Dive in!  You will find life inside its pages!  A life more exciting than your wildest dreams!