Choose for Yourselves

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom. News about him spread all over. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. (Matthew 4:23, 24, 25, 5:1-2, NIV 1984).

My Musings – And so began a three-year ministry of “preaching the good news” and of “teaching [His disciples].” His birth divided history (B.C. and A.D.) and His ministry “divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:53, NIV 1984).

But “if the world hates [us], keep in mind that it hated [Jesus] first. If [we] belonged to the world, it would love [us] as its own. As it is, [we] do not belong to the world, but [Christ has] chosen [us] out of the world. That is why the world hates [us].” (John 15:18–19, NIV 1984). In 2000 years, not much has changed. The good news has been proclaimed by successive generations of His disciples throughout “Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NIV 1984). And the divide between those who accept it and those who reject it has never been greater.

My Advice – “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15, NIV 1984). We must all choose which side of the divide is desirable for us.

Two men hung on crosses, divided by the third man on the middle cross. One of the two accepted Him, and one rejected Him. It’s all about what we decide about the man in middle. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the [‘man on the middle cross’].”