Choosing Sides: The Call for Undivided Devotion in a Divided World
2 Kings 17:41
So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so did they unto this day.
Oh how familiar this paradox is to those who are able to discern the spiritual climate of our day! To fear the Lord AND do your own thing seems to be the trend in many of today’s religious circles around the world. It is nothing today to find people at church Sunday morning and “God only knows where!” every other day of the week! I speak this to the shame of modern Christendom, for did not our Lord teach us to abstain from all appearance of evil (1 Th 5:22)? Did He not teach us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world (Tit 2:12)? Did not Jesus teach us that no man can serve two masters (Mat 6:24)? Did He not rebuke Satan in Mat 4:10 when He said, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”? Is not “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” one of the Ten Commandments which we so proudly display for the world to see (Exo 20:3)? Why then do we have such a spiritual backsliding on our hands? How then can we justifiably continue as the body of Christ to simply ignore this cancer of compromise which has all but destroyed our effectiveness by our own hypocrisy?
It is time for us, even as Joshua, to declare what side we are on! We ought to be able, with unfeigned words, to pronounce his decree as our own, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD [Jos 24:15].” Even as Joshua challenged Israel, I challenge the people of God to “choose you THIS DAY whom ye will serve”! The prophet Elijah spoke in his day, saying “…if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him [1 Ki 18:21].” Child of God, we cannot “have the best of both worlds”, if that means loving Jesus AND loving this present world! There is a dividing line which has been divinely drawn; the question is, whose side are you on? Allow the Holy Spirit to work repentance of double-mindedness TODAY!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so did they unto this day.
Oh how familiar this paradox is to those who are able to discern the spiritual climate of our day! To fear the Lord AND do your own thing seems to be the trend in many of today’s religious circles around the world. It is nothing today to find people at church Sunday morning and “God only knows where!” every other day of the week! I speak this to the shame of modern Christendom, for did not our Lord teach us to abstain from all appearance of evil (1 Th 5:22)? Did He not teach us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world (Tit 2:12)? Did not Jesus teach us that no man can serve two masters (Mat 6:24)? Did He not rebuke Satan in Mat 4:10 when He said, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”? Is not “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” one of the Ten Commandments which we so proudly display for the world to see (Exo 20:3)? Why then do we have such a spiritual backsliding on our hands? How then can we justifiably continue as the body of Christ to simply ignore this cancer of compromise which has all but destroyed our effectiveness by our own hypocrisy?
It is time for us, even as Joshua, to declare what side we are on! We ought to be able, with unfeigned words, to pronounce his decree as our own, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD [Jos 24:15].” Even as Joshua challenged Israel, I challenge the people of God to “choose you THIS DAY whom ye will serve”! The prophet Elijah spoke in his day, saying “…if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him [1 Ki 18:21].” Child of God, we cannot “have the best of both worlds”, if that means loving Jesus AND loving this present world! There is a dividing line which has been divinely drawn; the question is, whose side are you on? Allow the Holy Spirit to work repentance of double-mindedness TODAY!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill