When I was growing up, I was never the first one to be picked for any time. Most of the time I was the last one that someone HAD to take or if teams had to be even, I had to sit out.
Years ago, I made the choice to be on God’s side. Now that doesn’t mean I have always been perfect and I have failed miserably many times but it was when I lost side of staying on God’s side and looking to my own selfish desires and my own ideas.
If you aren’t on the Lord’s side then whose side are you on?
There is a story in the Book of Exodus which tells a rather sobering - and not so flattering tale - about the consequence of not being on God’s side. Moses had gone up the mountain where he would receive the Ten Commandments from God. Meanwhile at the foot of the mountain, the people were getting bored and restless which is never seems to turn out well. The people started complaining to Aaron, who was Moses’ brother, to do something because Moses was taking too long. For whatever reason, Aaron asked the people to give him all of their gold and he formed a golden calf for them to worship. Well, as you can imagine, God wasn’t too happy about this and told Moses what was going on and God was considering totally wiping them out and starting over with Moses. Moses pleaded for God to reconsider and spared the people. Moses went down and was angry when he saw the people and what was going on with them choosing to worship a golden calf instead of God who had recently delivered them out of slavery to Egypt. Aaron offered some lame excuse for doing it. Moses looked at the people and asked who was on the Lord’s side. About 3,000 who were refuse to be on God’s side were killed.
Yes, that was pretty brutal and begs the question that many ask - “if God is such a loving God, why would He allow 3,000 people to be killed?” It was a different time then but it should also show us that there is a limit to God’s patience with his creation and He’s serious about the part about having no other Gods before Him.
There is a lot of confusion in today’s world with being inclusive of other “gods” and religions. As I see people go in different directions with their beliefs and opinions, I often wonder when God’s patience is going to run out and when the time is coming when we all have to declare if we are on God’s side or not.
So what’s so bad about being on the Lord’s side?
Unfortunately people get their view of being on the Lord’s side from the Christians who use God as a way to condemn and hate people who don’t agree with them. These Christians are giving God some bad public relations and not all Christians are representative of them. Picking to be on the Lord’s side doesn’t mean picking a political party or person which is contrary to what most in our country think today.Satan has done a good job with blurring our vision and deceiving many.
Being on God’s side doesn’t mean we have to be weird or super religious. It’s not about a religion.
Being on God’s side means:
- You have put your faith in Jesus Christ who’s death and resurrection offered forgiveness for our sins and the promise of eternal life for those who believe in Him.
- Being kind and merciful to others.
- Forgiving, loving and praying for our enemies.
- Helping others in their time of need.
- Caring for the sick, needy, underprivileged, widowed, orphaned, poor, abused and weak.
If people choose not to be on God’s side does that mean we are allowed to hate and attack them? Absolutely not. This isn’t the Old Testament world and God doesn’t want us to grab a sword and attack people who do not choose to be on the Lord’s side. We aren’t going to force anyone to believe nor does that ever work. There is a consequence for choosing not to be on God’s side but we shouldn’t make that to be the only reason to choose to be on His side.
It comes down to a choice. I have made mine. You can say He doesn’t exist or what you want to say about my choice. I have always been on God’s side and I don’t see that changing. I won’t debate it and I certainly can’t explain God. He’s God. I don’t know if anyone can explain Him. I don’t need to know everything about God to be on His side.
At some point we all have to pick a side. Choose wisely.
