“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.”
Joel 3:14
Long before Joel’s day, Joshua spoke to the people of Israel with these words:
“Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
We all have this one simple choice presented to us. We all must choose whom we will serve. Will we serve the gods of the Amorites who dwell amongst us? The god Money? the god Entertainment? the god Drink? the god Pride?
We can choose these gods, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
This is a choice I have made and which must affect the rest of my life. I have chosen to follow Christ, to seek to have the attitude of Christ Jesus, the mind of Christ.
But if that is truly my choice then it must be reflected in my life. I claim to have chosen to serve the Lord, so where is He in my life?
Is my life truly honouring to God? am I serving him properly? do the decisions I make keep his glory in view? Is God central to my life?
These are questions I must ask over and over. It is necessary for me to examine myself, my motives and my goals, constantly asking if I am living up to what Christ wants from me.
You see, the man who says he is following Christ but who leaves Him out of his everyday life, who never prays and never reads his Bible, and would not be caught dead witnessing to someone, this man is a liar.
Choose *this* *day* whom you will *serve*. Don’t choose this day whom you will rely on to get you into heaven, but choose this day whom you will *serve*.
As for me and my house, we *will* serve the Lord. That is my choice.
Those in the valley of decision do not consist only of the multitudes of non-Christians who need to hear about salvation through Christ, and how they can be justified by faith alone. No, many of those multitudes in the valley of decision are those who confess Christ as their saviour, but who have not chosen to *serve* him. “The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
[...] Over several months of last year I reposted some essays I had written on the book of Joel. These formed a series which you can find using the “Joel” tag on this site, but now for the first time here is a table of contents for the whole series: Joel 1:1Joel 1:2Joel 1:3Joel 1:5Joel 1:7-13Joel 1:14Joel 1:15-19Joel 2:1-11Joel 2:12-13Joel 2:13-14Joel 2:15-16Joel 2:17-18Joel 2:19,21Joel 2:22-25Joel 2:26-27Joel 2:28-29Joel 2:30-32Joel 3:1-3Joel 3:5-8Joel 3:9-13Joel 3:14Joel 3:15-21 Comments Tracking Services:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]