HOICES OF LIVING

... choose to-day whom you will serve ... I and my house will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15

Almost thirty years after entering the promised land, when the Lord had given rest to the people for war, Joshua gathered the leaders together to speak to them. They gathered together in Shechem, where Jacob had built tents for him and his family four hundred years before he came to his father Isaac. It was significant that they were gathered there, for that place brought them a message that on earth we are just pilgrims and strangers. The fact that they lived in tents brought them to their hearts that they were leaving for the Father's house. And now they were fixed in the promised land. They had taken possession of the conquered cities, and the peoples remaining of the Amorites

were subject.

Joshua summons them to enter into a covenant with the Lord, for he felt that his departure was near. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve: whether to the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the Euphrates, or to the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell. I and my house will serve the Lord. Joshua guided Israel as to the compromise that this choice involved. To choose the Lord is to give himself to him. It is to serve you wholeheartedly. God does not accept the second place in our heart.

Jesus has already placed us in the promised land. He has already given us total victory over our enemies; now is to proceed in alliance with him. Live for your glory. Employ each day of our living to the praise of your name, experiencing your company, your love and your power.

O sweet Savior, my beloved Jesus,

In your sweet company I always want to live.

You are everything to me, my treasure at last,

I chose to give myself totally to you,

Be faithful to the end, even when you die ...

For in you I will live, and your face I will see.

FATHER, HERE I AM IN YOUR SOFT AND FRIENDLY PRESENCE. I TOTALLY DELIVER YOUR HEART. RECEIVE ME IN YOUR STRONG ARMS AND KEEP MY LIVING, ORIENTING ME IN THE DECISIONS OF EVERY DAY. AMEN.

By Ângela Valadão Cintra