we decide when to get up or if to get

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1 1 Choose this day whom you will serve. There comes a point when you have to decide. You can prevaricate no more. This is it. Not to decide is a decision itself. Will you book the holiday? Will you choose the terracotta sofa or the gold? Will you ask her to marry you/ Will you say yes when he does? Decision time. All consideration completed, now the choice. == There are little decisions that make little impact on our destiny. There are huge decisions that shape the future and determine who we will become what direction our life will go in. And they are our decisions. It s not a great matter of import if we decide to have the sultana scone rather than the ginger-bread It doesn t really matter so very much whether we choose Greece or Spain for the summer holiday Some decisions, however, are profound represent critical moments that cannot be ducked, avoided or side-stepped what shall we do what choice will we make it matters. That s when you know you ve started to grow up: when you make your own decisions. Up until then parents have controlled most of the choices we might be involved in where to go to school whether to go to school!!! how much money we might have how we conduct our lives, to some degree or another, channelled and controlled by parental influences and their tight grip on the purse strings Then comes the heady freedom when we decide when to get up or if to get up how to timetable our day and our week and what our priorities will be what rules we might keep and what rules we might bend and what rules we might ignore our decision in the delicious glorious freedom that is the human personality. Serious and significant and brilliant.

2 2 I suppose the first big decision I made was where to go to University a choice that meant leaving home and set in motion directions and connections that were to set the course for much of my life for at St Andrews I met my future wife made friendships that still run deep and mean much and also began to take responsibility moral responsibility as well as be in charge of my meagre finances. My parents would have preferred me to study in Glasgow live at home, remain within their sphere of influence but I was off and I wasn t coming back. Big decision. Fill in the form. Accept the offer. == It s always a big decision to invite someone out on a date Especially in riper years I could have hesitated. I could easily have talked myself out of that She was way out of my league What if she said no. (Unlikely I know but possible!!) but anyway - I asked her out And in spite of her falling asleep in the cinema on that first date (*I know!!) Lindy and I were off and running and the rest is history my history our history. But the move had to be made: the courageous decision taken. Not to take it represented a decision in itself to say no, I can t decide what to do was to let the chance go to miss the moment. Faint heart never etc == Another huge decision was to ask her to marry me though I m a bit vague about how that happened But the decision was significant and important and had to be taken if I was to move on grow find my life enriched Other decisions that mattered were to respond to th at strange hard to explain experience called the call to ministry do I take a job offer with Proctor and Gamble, move to their Newcastle Marketing branch take my life down that road or head off to Edinburgh to study divinity and say yes to this intangible but crucial abstract yet amazingly real conviction that God wanted me to be a minister - and to do anything else would be the wrong thing for me

3 3 There was the form do I fill it in do I go for interview by the Church powers that be? What to do? Choose choose now Not to choose is a choice in itself Big decisions life-altering, realityshifting decisions In his book Business Stripped Bare Richard Branson writes: On the theme of success: There are different paths you can take in this life and choosing the correct path is supremely important. And as if that weren t pressure enough, it s no good choosing not to choose because that approach to life absolutely guarantees failure. And, of course, there was the decision to respond to the invitation, tentatively given, to apply for the post of Minister the Church of Scotland in Geneva and when invited so to be to say yes to that My choice your choice vital and significant choices I suppose when I look back at it, though the most important choice I ever made was the same one presented by Joshua to the children of Israel in the passage we read today. Whose was I going to be? Was I going to be a follower of Jesus Christ or a follower of Me myself and I? Was I going to give my heart to Jesus as they say invite him in - to be the vital force in my living and thinking would I open the door or keep it shut Choose choose this day whom you will serve. Joshua the children of Israel you me at some point we make the choice in fact in reality in that private place where someone has to be king and we decide who that someone should be. Was God going to be in my life or not. Really a factor in how I lived or not. Would I choose a life with a real spiritual dimension that was more than mere theory distant background music would it really matter to me. I choose we choose. The two key features in that process are First, on what basis do we make the choice how much do we need to know in order to choose responsibly what

4 4 degree of certainty is required to avoid the charge of blind faith naïve credulity and do you need to know everything about every possibility before choosing becomes responsible? And the second key factor is how important is this choice and what are the implications of the decision. Does it really matter, and if it does, how can we make sure we choose correctly? For the people of Israel, their very identity is at stake. If they are to continue to be the people of the Covenant, with all the privilege and all the pain that such a badge brings with it then what they do about God is of the essence. if they relegate him to the margins of their existence and experience so that he is nothing more than an abstract possibility, rather than a living influential, crucial reality then the outcome is inevitable they will become like all the rest they will be indistinguishable from all the other emergent nations But if they choose God! God in with and under their whole thinking and being. God whose will is sought and savoured. then it all becomes different and they become different. They truly are his people - and his purpose and power will be permitted to shape their destiny. And there is no half- way house for them. It s choose to say yes, or opt to say No! They are - or they aren t - the people of the Covenant That dynamic is how it works you are not almost pregnant nearly a virgin sort of married You make the decision one way or another either by default or by deciding And the implications are profound the outcomes serious. Making the decision clearly does not require absolute knowledge of every aspect of the matter in hand The hesitant groom nervous at the altar the bride locked in the bathroom and not sure about the future they come to the point of decision do you take this woman.do you take this man

5 5 Now.here today And they are not in possession of all the facts how sterile would that be a relationship with everything cut and dried no questions no questing and discovery and things to find out about each other no growing together.. But there is something There is enough conviction about enough in the relationship to make the decision a responsible one and indeed necessary and desirable one if the future benefits and enrichments are to be experienced. There must come an end to dithering and indecision otherwise the hesitancy, by definition, becomes a negative choice a choice for nothing rather than something. a refusal to take the step that would begin a crucial and life- affecting journey. Billy Graham was a phenomenon. He preached to more people in the world than anyone else in history and he looked for decisive action from those he preached to he didn t want admiration. He didn t want agreement in principle he believed he should challenge people to life-affecting decision. They had heard the Gospel. They knew that Jesus was calling them to walk with him that was all they needed to know. Not sophisticated theological conundrums and circles to be squared just the man from Nazareth with his way of love and sacrifice and his vision of what we could be what we could do Just him,saying to each individual follow me And Billy Graham laid that out rather too simply for the would be sophisticated preachers who viewed his preaching as rather spare and then having said this is the Gospel and this is what Jesus wants of each on of us Billy Graham repeated Joshua s challenge choose this day whom you will serve I remember going with a bus load of people from Dunbar hear him preach at Murrayfield We were away up high in the stand about forty of us

6 6 young people and old Billy Graham preached and I ll be honest, as a preacher and a student of preaching I was a bit surprised that it wasn t better ( ah the arrogance of youth!) But he invited the whole stadium to bow their heads and to pray and during the prayer he invited those present who had not yet given their life to Christ had not yet invited Jesus into their life to do that there and then and to demonstrate that by coming forward out of their seats and down on to the pitch, where they would receive prayer and support, advice and encouragement. I sat there with my eyes closed thinking oh dear how embarrassing this is going to be this is not 1954 this is now and people just don t do that this is Scotland people just don t do that this is Edinburgh people certainly don t do that oh no..this is just going to be awful he s making this appeal and no one is going to go forward no one is going to choose Christ I sort of peeked through my fingers while the choir sang and looked along the row where I had been sitting and all the seats were empty. The folks had just got up left their rucksacks under their seats and gone to give their heart to God Decisions that can change your life. The important ones certainly make a difference The film Sliding Doors plays around the life-changing effects of decisions Go left this is how it turns out go right something completely different happens Choose God - and the children of Israel embark on a journey become a particular people with a unique and sometimes terrible identity as the chosen people called by God to be a light to the whole world an example of a godly people with faith in the living God at the heart of their history and culture Choose not to follow God and be absorbed into the mishmash of pagan nations that dotted the Ancient near East indistinguishable. The choice we make will surely make a difference it has to or it s all just theory It might mean different priorities reassessing situations,

7 7 righting wrongs healing hurts making sacrifices changing timetables It certain won t leave us unchanged or untouched. It will start us on a new road Change the journey into a pilgrimage Choose this day whom you will serve Same God Same challenge Same question Same decision? As for me