This last Sunday (October 25) I had the privilege of preaching on the 10 Plagues as we continue our sermon series through the book of Exodus. The sermon is entitled American Idol: Egyptian Style and focused on the idol worship God was confronting and attacking with each of the 10 plagues against Egypt.

We all have idols—things that take God’s place in our lives…but God never leaves them alone and He requires that we turn our hearts toward Him and lay our idols down. Sometimes our idols are bad things (i.e.: pride, pornography, etc) and sometimes they aren’t (i.e.: work, family, etc). Regardless, we need to keep our relationship with God the most important part of our lives. Our hearts are prone to wander and we need to come back to our Father daily…He’s waiting with open arms.

For more detail, please listen to the Sermon Podcast

I am reading this book again for the second time. I’m not going to go into a bunch of details or review the book or try and convince you. Trust me…get the book (click here or on the image above)…and read it. You won’t be disappointed.

I read an interesting passage this morning out of Deuteronomy. One phrase in particular caught my attention…

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses.
Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make.
Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!
You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God,
obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him.
This is the key to your life.
Deuteronomy 30:19-20, NLT

“This is the key to your life”…now that’s a phrase to pay attention to…especially when it’s coming out of Scripture. Aren’t we all looking for “the key” to our lives? Don’t we wish someone would write it down for us?

Someone did…right there.

The key? Making the right choices in our life. Choosing life instead of death…blessings instead of curses. Loving, obeying, and committing ourselves to God.

Choosing God.

That’s the key to life!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything here on the good ol’ blog, and I haven’t been on Facebook much either. Other “stuff” has just been a bigger priority. Life is changing…for the good…and I’ll tell that story soon (gotta love the anticipation).

Over the past couple of days, though, God has been working on me about the topic of us knowing Him and Him knowing us. It’s what the Christian walk is all about…a personal relationship with Him. He wants to know us. We get to know Him. And we’re not talking about some superficial, “Yeah, I know who God is” thing. We’re talking about actually getting to know God…having a personal, authentic relationship with Him.

As I was reading Scripture this week, it became even more clear how important this is…it’s the only test we get in the end:

“Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom,
for many will try to enter but will fail.
When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late.
You will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’
But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
Then you will say, ‘But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you come from.
Get away from me, all you who do evil.’”
Luke 13:24-27, NLT

What’s the real test at the end? It’s not about how much good you did versus how much bad you did. You don’t get a screenplay of your life played out before you. There’s no record of how many times you went to church or didn’t fall asleep during a sermon. There’s no mention of which denomination you belong you (or which political party).

It boils down to one simple question: Does Jesus know you?

In other words, do you have a relationship with Him? Does He know you and do you know Him? That’s it.

Simple.

Not easy.

I ave praying a lot lately about trusting God. With my future. With my family. With the current day’s issues. I have been led to pray for God’s Spirit to help me lean on Him more…to trust Him no matter what happens.

Jesus commanded this very thing…

Don’t let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God, and trust also in me.
John 14:1, NLT

As I was praying this morning I got a sense of how ridiculous is is for me not to trust God. Why wouldn’t I trust the God who spoke the worlds into existence? How could I not trust a God who has never once ( not ever, ever, ever) failed to come through for His children?

The prayer itself seems a little ridiculous…but I know my prayer is not about His faithfulness, but about my lack of trust. Or to put it more directly, it’s about my own self-dependence and self-reliance.

So I am learning to trust in Him instead of trusting in my own strength (or weakness). It’s a process…and it’s in process…