Keep Standing On The Word, Mr. President

Deut 30:15--See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; 16--In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
17--But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
18--I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, [and that] ye shall not prolong [your] days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
19--I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20--That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.



     My message to the President of the United States is the same that I would give to the Congress, the kings and presidents of foreign countries, the terrorists, the ministers that stand in pulpits, the deacons that serve on boards, the Christians that are going through good times and the Christians that are going through bad times.
I would give this same message to Tim Tebow, Albert Pujols, Willie Nelson, Leo Kotkke, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and anybody else on the face of this earth that would listen.

     This passage of scripture is timeless and declares a straightforward message from Almighty God Who created all things by upholds all things by the Word of His power (Heb 1:3).  Am I threatening anyone by this blog?  Absolutely not.  I am merely stating a fact that is contained in the Word of God.

     The fact is, God has set before everyone that has ever lived on the face of this earth a promise the He is faithful to keep.  There is no middle ground.  There are no ifs ands or buts.  It is point blank.  And, there is no way out of it.

     Here in Deuteronomy, God simply says in verse 15 that He has set before us only two choices.  We can either choose life and good, or death and evil.  I don't see where God said that there was any middle ground.  I do not find anywhere else in the Word of God where He changes His mind on the subject.  However, I can find many examples of where He carried out His promise with either a sudden blessing or a sudden curse.  Some have endured great hardships while standing on His promise and received an abundance.  Some have enjoyed great abundance but wound up destroyed.  They probably did not realize that God meant what He said.

     One of the greatest examples that I can bring to your attention in the short amount of time I have on this blog is the crucifixion of Jesus.  Jesus made a choice.  He chose His Father's will.  He chose to be faithful to His Father's Word knowing that His Father would be faithful to those who obey.

     However, the religious group that claimed power over God's people and claimed to be God's voice to them chose death.  No, I am not referring to Jesus' death, I am referring to a lifestyle of death and evil that the religious leaders chose.  When they chose to rule God's people by their own set of rules instead of God's, they chose death and evil..  When they chose to antagonize the Lamb of God and His disciples, they chose death and evil.  When they chose to persecute those that believed on Him, they chose death and evil. 

     I presume because God did not strike them down immediately they persisted.  I presume that just because God did not come down in some visible form and tell them to stop it that they persisted.  God did not need to tell them but once and He did that in the book of Deuteronomy.  This book was part of the Torah and was available for all of the priests to read.  If they did read it, they most certainly did not heed it.  However, the continued choices of the religious leaders in Jesus's day and the years following led them to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d.

     The same reason that destruction came because they continued to choose death and evil, God will use to pour out His abundance upon those who will persist in choosing life and good.  Every day, choices are set before us.  I know first hand that it is hard to choose the right way sometimes.  It is so easy to take the low road in life.  But, don't give up.  Spend some time every day in God's presence and in His Word.  Commit His Word to memory and meditate on it throughout the day.  Let His promises come to the forefront when you make decisions.  Persist in choosing life and good, and God will persist in blessing us daily.