Today's Devotion: 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. (The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Jos 24:15)

The interesting thing about this passage is that in Verse 19, Joshua says, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” And yet, in Verse 21, the people say, “No! We will serve the Lord.”

Today's Comments: No wonder we are in such bad straits. Today, it seems as though we serve everything but the Lord. We serve money and wealth. We serve for recognition from our fellow man. And, finally, we serve ourselves. It seems like the only time we seem to think about serving God is when we seem to be experiencing crisis in our lives. Could that be the reason why we are experiencing the problems of this economic downturn? Is God sending us a reminder that without His grace and forgiveness, our lives will remain in chaos? Or, is it simply our choice of greed over sharing, hatred over loving, and indifference over compassion. In either case, it is we who much change our direction.