Coming from someone who used to value ancestral gods, my 90-year-old father's statement near the end of his life was remarkable: "When I die", he spoke laboriously, "nobody should do anything other than what the church will do. No soothsaying, no ancestral sacrifices, no rituals. As my life is in the hands of Jesus Christ, so shall my death be!" My father chose the path of Christ in his old age when he invited Jesus into his life as Savior. His contemporaries mocked him: "An old man like you shouldn't be going to church!" But my father's choice to follow and worship the true God was definite, like the people Joshua addressed.
"Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve", Joshua challenged them. "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" (Josh. 24:15). Their response was resolute - they chose to worship the Lord. Even after Joshua warned them to count the cost (vv. 19-20), they still resolved to follow the Lord, recalling His deliverance, provision, and protection (vv. 16-17, 21).
Such a confident choice, however, calls for equally confident actions, as Joshua strongly reminded them: "Throw away the foreign gods. . . and yield your hearts to the Lord" (v. 23). Have you made a choice to live for God? A definite choice demands definite actions.
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