Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Friday, January 6, 2012

"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served 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."¹

Michael Josephson of Character Counts shared how, "two young men in Florida removed a stop sign and brought it back to their fraternity house as a trophy. A fatal accident occurred at the sign-less intersection and the men were convicted of manslaughter.

"In Tennessee, a couple of teenagers were in a high-rise building and one took a dare by the other and slid down a trash chute in the hall—right into an automatic trash compactor. He died and his friend was traumatized, possibly for life.

"What makes these stories all the more tragic is that we're not talking about bad kids; we're talking about fundamentally decent kids who made really bad choices."

Good people can make bad choices just as bad people can make good choices. The fact is we are all the sum total of all of our past choices. Our past was shaped by the choices we made in the past. Our present is also shaped by our past choices, and our future will be shaped by the choices we make today.

Let us be certain not to make our choices by default, but by very careful and prayerful planning, for the choices we make will make us—for time and eternity.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please forgive me for all the bad choices I have made in the past and help me to make wise and careful choices today and in the future. As with Joshua of old ... 'as for me and my household we will serve the Lord.' Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

Note: If you have never made the choice to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and thereby receive God's forgiveness for all your sins, for help read, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian" at: http://tinyurl.com/real-christian

1. Joshua 24:15 (NIV).

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