CHOOSE WELL

Deuteronomy 30: 15 – 20


15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,
18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Seems simple enough doesn't it. Choose God and live, follow other gods and die. Who wouldn't make the right choice? Yet, everyday, many thousands of people choose to follow other gods.
Junkies choose to shoot heroin daily, alcoholics choose to get drunk, smokers light up another cigarette, all of these choices lead to certain death, or in the choice of drugs and booze, can lead to jail or institutions. There are those who choose to rob banks, murder, deal drugs, and there are those who watch pornography, visit prostitutes, cheat on their wives and families, and a million other dishonest and illegal things
There is no life in these choices, and the only god they serve is a creation, not the Creator.
On the other hand. Many millions of people choose to follow God. The God of redemption offers freedom and deliverance from all the sins that I wrote about above.
It is clear that exercise is good for the heart, and the body in general, yet if we are given the choice of taking the stairs, or the escalator, well guess which we normally choose? We know what's good and right, and we make the wrong decision most of the time.
At a shopping mall in Coventry, England, researchers posted colorful signs along the steps of a staircase that said: “Taking the stairs protects your heart.” Over a 6-week period, the number of people who chose to walk up the stairs instead of riding the adjacent escalator more than doubled. The researchers say that every step counts, and that long-term behavior will change only if the signs are seen regularly.
All we need it seems are signs placed in the right place and we begin to follow that direction.
God dives us signs of this type on a daily basis, just like the scripture above. Given the choice of right and wrong, most will choose rightly.
So I guess what I am saying today is, please, choose life.