SEPTEMBER ISSUE: CHOOSE GOD OR MAN
Many folks today are
going superficial trying to please men to the neglect of the most important
things in this life (Fearing God and
doing His Will-Ecclesiastes 12:12-14).
Christians, God’s elect are becoming more like the Pharisees of our Lord’s
times (Matt 23:25;Matt.15:8). They outwardly appear to be kingdom minded but they are indeed ravenous
wolves. Christians today are not inside-out with God. Men are seeking the
praises of fellow men and not the glory of
King Jesus. When we try to please men, we forsake God, dilute His word
and preach not the gospel as it.
Our pulpits are gradually being soiled with
social gospels, and prosperity messages. There is indeed a misplaced priority among
Christians today. The first century gospel preaching has been buried for
ages. Church funds are used in organizing
picnics and building magnificent church buildings and auditoriums to the
neglect of preaching the good news to the lost and sick world. Preachers flood the pulpits with non-hurting
sermons-making the church members happy while gambling with their souls for
their personal gains (Romans 16:17-22). The call of Joshua before the children of Israel
to choose for themselves must start resounding in our ears if it has not? A
choice to serve the holy and living God or not. Joshua 24:15- “If it is
disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom
you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond
the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord." That same questions must
start ringing in our ears today. Who will you follow? God or man.
The choice of man. Under every
consideration man has the free will to choose what to do whether it is pleasing
before God or not. But, the choices we make can either be good or bad. The good
ones bring joy but the bad ones bring sadness. As persons, we must choose
whether we want to please God or not. He will still be God whether we revere
him or not. Choosing God beholds us to obey Him and to do his will. When, we “three-hour” Christians, then we have
lost track of the choice to please God. Refusing or denouncing the name of God
as some do, is the only option we have if we choose not to obey him. Man is
limited by time, we have a beginning and an end. We shall all appear the King
to give an account of what we did in our lives (2 Corinthians 5:10)-our choices and our decisions irrespective of
whether we choose to obey or acknowledge the existence of God or not. The
choice of man always leads to a disastrous end. In Bible times, when Jonah
decided to go his own way, God allowed him but his choice led him to
uncomfortable place in the womb of the big fish. Under several occasions, the
children of Israel decided to do things by their own ways and they suffered defeat as a result (Joshua 7:1ff). Apostle Paul
in his first and second letters to the young preacher Timothy outlined in the
fourth chapter of these letters about
men seeking their own ways and not abiding to sound doctrine. (1Tim.4:1-3;2Tim 4;1-4). It is the
choice of man that makes the folks in the world to propagate falsehood and
gamble with the souls of men because of materials gains (Romans 16:17-19). They twist, pick and choose what they think is
right but they do all these things to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16). These men choose to speak
and go beyond the scope of what is written and this is contradictory to the
words of the Bible (Deut.4:2, Deut.12:32,
Rev.22:18-19,2 John 9; Prov.30:6). The choice of man will lead us nowhere
but to eternal destruction.
The
choice of God. We
can make a wide range of choices in this world, but the question worth asking
ourselves is-what profit will we gain,
if we win the whole world and lose our souls. There is but one way to
salvation (Acts 4:12) and that way
is through Jesus Christ (John 3:16).
If we choose Christ, we will be saved or else we will be dammed. When we decide to work out for our salvation
with fear and trembling, we must do everything in our lives to glorify God. (Col.3:17,1Cor.10:31) In our teaching,
we will teach folks the truth as revealed in the Scriptures and individually,
we must press onto perfection (Matt 5:48).
We must endeavor to glorify God at every point in our lives and stop being “three-hour” Christians. We must
continually put on Christ as we were raised into new life through Christ Jesus
in baptism. When, we place our priority as Christians in pleasing God, we will
preach the gospel, expose and rebuke sin, our pulpits will offend erring
brethren to stop living in sin rather deceiving them to social gospels, the
resources of the church will be channeled into three-fold work of the
kingdom-edification, benevolence and evangelism. We will care and love each
other the more (1 Peter 2:17;1 Cor.13:1-7;1 Cor 13:11-13) and will
avoid all dissenting views about scriptural truth and return to the Bible to
see what it really says. Also we will seek to please God and not men. We will
obey God rather than the opinions of men.
In a poem by M.S.Lowndes,
He noted:
“We should always serve the Lord
And Him alone, we should fear,
For the throne of our hearts,
He does not want to share
We should never allow another
The place reserved for Him,
But to give Him that place of
Lordship
That will keep our hearts from sin
For we must choose whom to serve
And whom our allegiance is for,
But as for me and my household,
We shall only serve the Lord.”
In summary, we must
choose God to serve God and keep His commandments (1 John 5:3). We must avoid
seeking the praise of men (Acts 5:29; Gal.1:6;
Acts 4:19) and seek God and worship Him for who He is. (Rom 1:20) However, whether, we denounce
the name of God, choose God or not, He is still God and whatever He says shall
surely come to pass (Num. 23:19).
Therefore, Heb.9:27 stills holds
today. And, we will be judged. So let’s choose wisely.
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