Image from dustoffthebible.com
Listen to the devotional right here: https://bit.ly/3svfpv1
1 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. 2 And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. 3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac; 14 "Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." 16 Then the people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17 for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; 18 and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God." 19 But Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good." 21 And the people said to Joshua, "No, we will serve the Lord!" 22 Then Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him." And they said, "We are witnesses." 23 He said, "Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel." 24 The people said to Joshua, "The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey." 25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem. (Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25 NRSV)
A blessed and wonderful Wednesday to you, ConCafe Family. Friend, may God make clear your path of discipleship and service. Let me state the reason for ConCafe, and I should do this more often; to make God and His Word real and more readibly accessible to all people. I started ConCafe more for myself and my own need to stay connected with God. So, I say some things that speak to me and which I believe to what God would have me hear. I started the day I heard other campus minister confide to us that spiritually they were dead because they no longer read the Bible in preparation for sermons and so had lost connection to God. I swore that I did not want that to happen to me and so I started reading and writing my thoughts about each lession for the coming Sunday, and that was in 1999. I thank you for being a part of this group and I invite you to share this with others because our challenge still is to reach more people for God. And as we pray, please lift up this prayer request from Kate Amador of San Marcos, TX: "Would you please pray for my brother Mike's family - he passed away last Saturday from a massive stroke. Mike lived outside of Milwaukee as does his wife Linda. Prayers for me and my daughter also. Linda has her son there with her and her daughter comes in from further North in Wisconsin -not very far but she has two school age children who need Mommy because they don't quite understand about Grandpa. Mike was 77. He was riding his bike when the stroke hit."
Have you ever had to choose sides? I remember my first sermon after retirement. It was also my first sermon as the Minister of Discipleship & Nurture at First United Methodist Church of Gonzales, Texas. I asked for a show of hands of those present who loved Ford vehicles. Then Chevy. Then some others, but the major division was between Ford and Chevrolet. Then I asked about some sports teams, and made some people smile, others frowned. It's not easy to live in a divided world is it? Oh yes, the other of the first questions asked about the school in Austin and the school in College Station (I wonder why a divided house made me think about that?) Most of these divisions are usually based on fun and friendly rivalry; but there are some that are serious life and death issue-based. And it's in today's passage that we find one of the most serious of them all; in Whom do you truly and eternally believe?
Most of us were born into homes where we found a faith already chosen for us. In my home, it was the Christian faith and as our expression of that faith it was in the Methodist Church that we lived out the faith. Every Sunday, without fail, Mom would wake us up, dress us and we would all, Mom, Dad, and us five children, would drive to our church. Then one morning, I awoke on my own and made my way to my Dad, who was alone. I asked, "Where's Mommy?" He said, "She's with her father at their church." Wait. What? He explained that Mom was Catholic and they had an arrangement that the children would be rasied as Methodists but she could stay in her church as a Catholic. I, being ten years old, understood nothing about compromise or arrangments as serious as the one I was hearing. I knew enough I suppose, about the differences in the Catholic and Methodist Church to have my concerns. And I made it my mission to talk to my Mother about her decision. As far as I could tell, we were living in a divided home and there might come a day when all would not be right, at least in my limited-world thinking at the time. Some weeks later, Mom surprised us all by walking down the aisle to become a member at El Buen Pastor IMU.
The more serious challenge is to confront those who do not believe in God and sometimes, worse, believe in gods which we consider non-entities and false. Such was the case for Joshua, the new leader of the Exodus after Moses' death. He and God spoke on a regular basis, so the words we read in today's passage we hear the seriousness of the challenge. His call is to place their full faith in God and to revere Him and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. The other gods were not worth the effort and went against the Commandments to have "other gods." "Choose this day Whom you will serve," goes the call from God, "whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord." And Joshual even offers an option, "If you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve." And the famous kitchen ornament quote, "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." The people respond in kind, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt , out of the house of slavery, and who did great things in our sight. He protected us along all the way we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed....Therefore we will also serve the Lord for He is a holy God."
In very real ways, God has chosen us. And we must choose to follow Him. It's not enough to sit in a church for an hour every Sunday, return the next Sunday and sit again for an hour, and in between do nothing that shows that we truly do follow and have chosen God as our God. Our lives must reflect a deep change for the good in how we see ourselves, others, and those outside our circles. All that Jesus shared on His Father's behalf is truth, and we are, or should be, children of the truth. Anything else is a lie and a costly one at that.
PRAYER: Loving God, let us truly live in ways that do show that we believe in You, love You, and truly serve You. Help us overcome our shyness, our reluctance, our insecurities, and our ignorance at times, to truly bless You. We pray in His Name, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Choose this day the Lord and live like it.
Receive my blessing of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
