WE WILL SERVE THE LORD

"Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"(Josh.24:14,15).

SAVED BUT STILL CARNAL Why is it, after we are saved, after we believe the gospel, we can live in the deadness of our old nature? Saint Paul provides ample proof of the reality of our powerlessness to live the new life even after we are "born again" (Rom.7:15-24).
EVEN AFTER WE HAVE RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT!
He goes on to distinguish between the two natures of a believer: the old carnal nature and the new spiritual nature through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Rom.8.1-13).
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God"(Rom.8:14).
If such a giant as Paul could suffer the misery of his old nature in conflict with his new life, after he personally saw and spoke with the risen Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, we need to take stock of ourselves and our walk in this world. And like Paul we need to cry out to our God to make our high calling in Christ Jesus a daily reality and redeem the life we were given to serve Him.

As strangers and pilgrims who travel in a foreign land all honor and glory should be the Lord's. We live through Christ in us and not by the "I" of our old nature. This is the signpost of reality: are we living in faith or in Babylon?

We serve at God's pleasure. Our time on earth is known to Him. He knows how we spend it. Are we making our petitions clear to Him?
Do we court the favor of the world or the joy of dedicated service to our Lord? Can we lose our salvation if we sin or if we live in the power of our self?
If we are saved we can't lose it because Christ himself guarantees it through his completed work on the cross and His resurrection and no one can ever take that away. But we can lose our fellowship with God.
The issue is: Are we serving Him? Are we, by the power of Christ's Spirit, becoming like our Lord?
It was His great joy to serve His Father. Are we serving in Christ's name only, by our will and not by The Spirit, too self involved and satisfied. Confess our sins to God in His Son's name and the blood of Jesus will wash us clean.

CHOOSE CHRIST AND LIFE Like the apostle Paul, we too should have an abiding desire, an absolute need, to serve our Lord. So much so that if we linger in our self it would make us sick and frustrated. If we are double-minded we should feel torn apart. And if we can go merrily along without opposition, nor hear the wake up call of God Himself, then perhaps we must reconsider who we are and how far we've fallen.

Let us remember the words of Joshua:
"CHOOSE NOW WHO YOU WILL SERVE".

No one knows their time and when their number's up. But everyone who is saved can know, here and now, that they will go home to glory one day, having finished their race and hear our Lord say:
"Well done my good and faithful servant".

BLESS SOMEONE * LINK TO THIS SITE