Each morning I try to spend some time focused with the Lord.  Trust me it doesn’t always happen, but it did today.  Before I spend time reading the Bible I always make it a priority to pray.  It’s not a long prayer.  It really isn’t that complicated.  It’s simply a prayer asking God to reveal something to me.  Something that I need to hear.  Something that I need to learn.  Something! 

In my time with Him this morning He revealed something to me from Deuteronomy 30:15-16.  Here’s what it says (bold words are my emphasis):

“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. ¹⁶ For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways.

Just before Moses’ time as God’s prophet to the Israelites was over, God used him to relay some very important messages He had for the people.  One big message is in the verses above and the surrounding passages.

God wanted His people to know that they face numerous choices everyday between life and death.  Good choices that honor God bring life, and bad choices that don’t honor God bring death.  Pretty simple huh?  But how does that play out in everyday living?  Let me share two quick examples from my day yesterday:

1. Yesterday a friend stopped by the church so we could spend a few minutes talking about our mission trip this summer.  Once we finished the conversation could have easily ended.  He had work to do.  I had work to do, but neither one of us allowed it to end there.  The conversation quickly changed to how are you doing?  He was able to share about how things were going to be really busy for him at work and I told him I’d keep him in my prayers.  I then shared how I was doing.  It was great!  We made a decision to be vulnerable and invest in each other – LIFE!!!
2. Last night I watched my Cincinnati Bearcats lose to West Virginia in the Big East Tournament.  They were tied with about 6 seconds to go and had the ball.  My heart was beating really fast.  After the inbounds the Cincinnati player dribbled the ball off his leg out of bounds.  Now WV had the ball with 3 seconds to go.  They eventually banked in a 3 pointer to win the game as time expired.  As you can imagine I was really mad and let it fester and fester and fester.  Well you get the idea - DEATH!!!

In a matter of a day I made many choices.  Some of them weren’t life or death choices like what t-shirt I put on, but some of them were.  My prayer is that I would continue to realize that I face choices everyday and have the option to choose life or death.  I can choose to invest in my relationship with God and others.  I can choose to honor Him by not buying things I really don’t need and can’t afford.  I can choose to not honor him and let my temper get the best of me, and so on.

May I choose life and demonstrate my love for God.  May my love for Him and others greatly exceed my love for things like basketball.