Choose LifeMargaret Brown

As the children of Israel were just about to enter the Promised Land, Moses gives them instructions on how to conduct themselves in this new land God has given them. In Deuteronomy 30:19/20 he says, "This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

The people were entering a new phase in their lives; their leader Moses has led them for forty years and is about to die, their new leader Joshua will be the one to take them across the Jordan River into the land. Choose life, love the Lord, listen to His voice, hold fast to Him.

Here in the West (in Eastern Europe in a few weeks) we have just been remembering the death of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus, and we have been celebrating His resurrection and the new life we have in Him through faith. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. He is the One Who claimed this for Himself when He spoke those well known words to Martha, "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25/26).

This is a very pertinent question to-day when so much of our world is in turmoil, where there is much sorrow, pain, war and death, where life has become valueless, where people’s priorities seem to be all wrong. Do we really believe that Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life? Often, in these days when life is hard for many, many people it can be hard to hold on to our faith, but Jesus enables us to look to Him. "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). His desire is that we know this life He offers. The thief (the evil one) "comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life" (John 10:10). There is much evidence of the evil one’s work to-day. Praise God that his time is limited! We who know Jesus can have confidence that our future is secure in His hands. He has procured the victory over sin and death and hell! We can trust Him.

Each life came into being by the hand and will of God, and each life is precious to Him, so much so, that God gave the life of His Son so that we could have life – life in all its fullness. Each life is worth the life of Jesus Christ. He gave Himself that we might live. He asks us to ‘choose life’. We do that by believing in the finished redemptive work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. We have accepted Him as our Lord and Saviour and have chosen to live His way.

How we rejoice this Easter time in all that is ours in Him! Hallelujah! Christ is risen! He lives in all of us who have chosen to live His way. Let us renew our commitment to the Lord Jesus because each day we have choices to make, and each day we have to choose which way to go in every area of our lives. For anyone reading this who has still to decide which way to live their life, consider Jesus, consider His way. For us all, I say – Choose Life, Choose Jesus.

Margaret Brown