The Lord told Joshua to not depart from the law to the right or to the left. Do you get this? Joshua is told that he is not to pick and choose from God’s Word He is to do exactly what it says. When we obey the Scriptures selectively, we are setting ourselves up as the authority that determines what is valuable and what is not. When we do that, we are playing God.
Suppose someone said, “I really want to have children, I think it would be great to have children. It would be fun to play with them and stuff. I don’t want to have to feed them or change them, or discipline them. I don’t want to have to spend any money to take care of them . . . but I sure want to be a parent.” You would probably start praying that this person never become a parent because they don’t have a clue! Parenting is not something that comes to us ala Carte. We don’t pick and choose what we like from what we don’t like as if we were at a buffet. It’s a package deal.
It’s the same thing with the Word of God. We must obey ALL of it. Practically, this means,
· You can’t claim the blessings without also accepting the responsibility of obedience.
· You can’t claim God’s riches without also accepting the command to sacrifice and the promise of suffering
· You can’t celebrate God’s loving nature without also accepting the fact that God is Holy and Just
· You can’t claim God’s forgiveness and not be willing to forgive others
· You can’t claim God’s love if you are not willing to extend love to those around you
· You can’t embrace His promise of Heaven if you aren’t willing to embrace Him as your Savior and Ruler in life.
· You can’t expect His blessing if you aren’t also willing to take a step of faith
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