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Are You Good or Evil?
Life is a choice between good or evil.
The choice between good or evil is not always easy. Our natural man wants what he wants without consideration for what is right in God’s sight. So there is a constant battle between what we want and what is the right thing to do.
All through the day, we make choices about whether to do good or evil. Most of us try to choose what we see as good. However, we sometimes fail because something bad looks good to us and even though we know it is wrong, we choose it.
This problem is not new. All through time, men and women face choices. God gave us what is called “free will.” This free will allows us to choose between things or actions that are good and those that are evil. God does not want us to be robotic. He wants us to obey Him because we love Him and respect His right to define what is good and what is evil.
Often I have neglected to study the Old Testament. I looked at it just as history, but there is something for us in all Scripture. Looking at the wrong decisions made by others should help us make better ones. God sees good and evil.
Yet it seems that we can not learn from other’s mistakes. Sadly, we still often make them ourselves. This week I finished reading the 1st and 2nd Kings. One thing I saw over and over is that men in power often make many bad decisions.
We are at a time in our history when this truth is undeniable. It happens every day.
Jewish people
The history of the Jewish people was available to each king. God had blessed the nation when they followed Him, and He had dealt harshly with them when they chose to sin. Nevertheless, God allowed them to choose between good and evil.
Sadly, most kings made terrible choices and failed to obey God. Their failure to obey God caused the nation to turn toward sin. When the people turned to sin, God caused them to be overcome by other countries and led away into slavery.
Though they knew God’s goodness and how He punished them when they sinned, it made no difference. So they chose to build idols of all the gods of the people who had occupied the land before God gave it to them.
Repeatedly, you read the statement, “They did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”
God gave them the freedom to choose, and they chose evil. They decided to go away from God’s ordinances and follow the evil practices of the nations around them. God would not tolerate their sin, and He punished them.
What about our choices?
It seems that we learn little from history.
Today we make the same mistakes over and over. We see how God blessed His chosen people when they followed Him. He gave them lands with cities already built and farms already planted.
Yet, instead of remaining faithful to Him, they followed the evil practices of those whom God drove out before them.
Are we repeating the same mistakes?
Today we are blessed with the written Word. Bibles are everywhere, and finding out what God requires of us is easy. However, we ignore Him completely or give lip service and do our own thing.
God spells out the conduct that will bring us happiness in this life and eternity. And He also tells us what will bring heartache and destruction.
He wants us to be righteous so we can stand before Him. Yet, He understood from the beginning that we could not live sinless lives. Because we had a choice, we would make the wrong decisions as well as the right ones. The choice between good and evil is not always easy to see.
God’s Word
Staying in the Word is our only hope of being right with God.
Evil choices fill the world in which we live. However, we can make good choices if we read and study God’s Word. First, it tells us about God’s Law. We can see what God’s prophets have revealed to us about God and what He expects of us.
Society is different from what it was in Jesus’ day, but people have changed very little. We may get the false idea that we are somehow more intelligent and can decide what is good or evil on our own. However, it is not our decision to make. God tells us what is good or evil.
God told us how He wanted us to live, and God has not changed. In Heb 13:8, Paul says, ” Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” God is the only thing that does not change. The world is in constant change. Sadly, it is usually for the worst.
We know that Jesus came to save us. Although His love for us is easy to see throughout the Bible, He is clear that God has not changed with His coming. Our choice is still between good or evil.
Jesus says He did not come to do away with the Law. The Law of God defines for us God’s requirements. Obedience is what God demands. Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets: I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17 NIV
God will not change to suit us. He defined righteousness for all time. Regardless of how the world changes and what society says is right or wrong.
You and I must change if we are to serve God.
How will you choose?
Sin is still all around us and within us. What we will do with it is what we need to decide. Joshua made his stand clear, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15b God had given them the promised land, and they were already turning to the gods of the people conquered by God’s power.
Are we willing to give up our false gods? Can we stop feeling that we are number one and make our Creator number one in our lives? God wants to bless us with joy unspeakable but He requires that we live by His rules.
Remember our true and righteous God wants to be first in our lives. The world must take second place. Satan is already defeated along with his world and all the sin in it.
I emphasize again that to do this we must make a conscious decision to do so. We tend to get mixed up when choosing between good or evil. Make sure that God is first in your life.
Joining a Church is not the answer!
You need to repent if you are not putting God first in your everyday life. Your focus must be on what Jesus would have you do every hour of every day.
Accepting Jesus as the Son of God who came and died for your sins and rose again on the third day is your first step. This confession must be followed by seeking God’s will in everything you do.
Attending church on Sunday, teaching a class, or even being a preacher is not enough to satisfy God. He requires that you put Him first in everything you do.
However, we have His promise to bless you if you make an effort. God wants to give you all the good things in life, and He wants to save you.
That is why He sent His Son to die for your sins.
The question is will you accept life on His terms?
So, What is your choice?
Will you decide like Joshua and take your stand for God? “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15b God gave us His Son to die for our sins so we could live in His Divine presence if we so choose. However, He does require us to put Him first before the world.