“Choose you... whom ye will serve.”
2. It must be an individual decision-choose you. No one can choose for another. Christian parents may long and pray for their children's conversion, but conversion is an individual matter. It is possible to be a child of Christian parents, and yet not be a child of God. True, the parents are largely responsible in the way of bringing up their children, but this is not the point under immediate consideration. The choice, so far as the young are concerned, must be an individual one.
Weigh the matter over well, young friend. Place the scale where the light of eternity will shine upon its beam, put the world into one pan, and Christ into the other, and honestly decide which of the two outweighs the other, then fearlessly make your choice.
In writing thus we are not forgetting that it must be the work of the Holy Spirit. We are born “not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:1313Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13)). Perfectly true, and yet while all is the sovereign work of God, the responsibility of the individual soul is as clearly insisted on. The preceding verse declares
“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God.”
It may seem hard to reconcile these two statements of God's Word, but there they both are, and both are true.
When Christ is presented to the soul, each one is responsible to receive Him, and, in fact, each reader of these lines has already so far decided either to receive or reject. Which shall it be? Choose you.
3. It must be an immediate decision. “Choose you this day.” More people die in youth, than in middle or old age. Constantly we hear of sudden deaths by accident and sickness. Be on the safe side, and decide at once! The one who in early life decides for Christ, who wholeheartedly and consistently follows Him, and seeks to serve Him devotedly, is far happier in this life than the one who chooses the world, and then plunges headlong into its pleasures. It is like the lamp to the poor moth; fascinated by its brightness, it flies into the flame, and soon lies scorched and crippled on the ground.
The sooner you decide for Christ, the safer will you be in the light of eternity, and the happier will you be throughout your earthly course.
“Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”
Is not Christ worthy of your heart's choice? Think of His love!
“If I were the only sinner in the world,” we were once asked, “would Christ have loved me enough to have died for me?”
The question was an unusual one, and set us thinking; but soon our thinking was turned to praising. We thought of Paul, who saw himself, as it were, the only sinner in the universe, and reveled in the thought of the individuality of Christ's love.
Himself for me!
What heart-melting words! It was as though all that Christ had, and was, He gave for Paul—all His love He poured out upon him. Yes, we are each one entitled to appropriate all the love of Jesus, as though we were its only object; and yet, what He is to each one individually, He is to all collectively.
He “loved me and gave Himself for me,” says Paul. He “loved us, and washed us,” says John. Both are equally true, both are divinely perfect. What mysteries of redeeming love!
“Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”
(Concluded)