8/19/11

Which way will YOU go?


A bridge is: enter on one side of the river and exit on another.  Perhaps not?  This unusual bridge gives you a choice of directions.  As I look a little closer, it seems that there is only one way traffic and that could be a problem, but this looks like a rural area, so maybe not.  A bridge with a choice; now there is something interesting!!!  Our lives are like that at times too!!!  We make big decisions, like, who do I marry or what sort of work do I do in this life or what college should I attend.  Israel was brought out of Egypt by God and they had a choice to make too...

Deuteronomy 7:7-26 (WEB)
7) Yahweh didn’t set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples:
8) but because Yahweh loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, has Yahweh brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9) Know therefore that Yahweh your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
10) and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him who hates him, he will repay him to his face.
11) You shall therefore keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you this day, to do them.
12) It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers:
13) and he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.
14) You shall be blessed above all peoples: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock.
15) Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, he will put on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you.
16) You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them: neither shall you serve their gods; for that will be a snare to you.
17) If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?”
18) you shall not be afraid of them: you shall well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt;
19) the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out: so shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
20) Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you.
21) You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is in the midst of you, a great and awesome God.
22) Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you by little and little: you may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you.
23) But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they be destroyed.
24) He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name to perish from under the sky: no man shall be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.
25) You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
26) You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.

Should I follow God or not?  What's in it for me?  These are the sort of questions they must have been asking themselves.  We have choices to make today too, like... will I follow God if everyone around me does not, or am I willing to suffer for what I believe in?  Answer carefully!  I can only tell you that God has helped me again and again.  That is fact, with absolutely no spin on it at all.  Years ago I worked for a chemical company in New Jersey; one of the analytical lab people said to me:  Gary, it seems like all that have opposed you over the past 15 years are no longer a problem.  How do you do it?  The answer is:  I didn't do a thing, God did.  God keeps his promises and when you come to choice on your own personal bridge, choose God...you won't be sorry!!!