“…choose you this day whom ye will serve; …but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15 KJV).

Everybody serves somebody, whether they are atheist or agnostic. The atheist serves at the altar of his own intellect and reason. To the atheist there is no God. He believes that through his intellect alone he can understand and explain everything. In essence the atheist is a god unto himself.

The agnostic neither knows nor cares if God exists. He is content to live a life that is completely indifferent and void of God. He and the atheist make good companions. For in their pride and arrogance they often attack and ridicule those who do know the Lord. They consider themselves to be intellectually superior.

The religious fall into two categories; those who simply engage in dead religious activity and those who truly know and follow the One True and living God!
In whatever camp a person aligns themselves with, they do so by choice.

Joshua had seen and followed the Living God from the time he was in Egypt to the time that he and the nation entered into the land that God had promised them some 40 years before. He had experienced hardship and difficulty but through it all he had also witnessed the Mighty Hand of God! To him, there was no other choice. He knew the reality of God. He knew the power and the promises of God. He knew the faithfulness of God. So as he came to the close of his life, he challenged the people of Israel to choose who they would serve. Would they serve the God who had revealed Himself to them in a multitude of ways, or would they choose the dead and powerless gods of the nations whose land they had entered. The God of Israel offered life. The gods of the nations offered death. For Joshua, the choice was clear. He would choose the One True and living God!

The others, like Joshua also had a choice. They could serve the One True and living God, or they could serve a god of their own making. Both life and death rested upon their choice. We too are offered the same choice today. We can choose to follow and serve the only True and living God (the only God who gives eternal life) or we can choose to follow the gods of this world (selfishness, pride, greed, lust, power and entertainment). Both then and now the decision has eternal consequences. Who do you choose to serve?

James W. Black