Sheep or Goat?

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/2cdgfq

Do I have to take sides? That was overheard at a wedding one day when the usher asked a guest if they were friends of the bride or the groom. Of course, the tradition of sitting on one side or another has nothing to do with being for one side and against the other. It is merely a method of logically seating guests.

But like it or not, we do make many choices in our lives. Sometimes our choice for one will eliminate all others. You can’t sit on both sides of the aisle at a wedding. You must choose.

Spiritually speaking there are many people who simply do not wish to choose sides. They are perfectly content to know about God and to dabble a bit with church, but beyond that, they really don’t want to make any other choices.

“Do I have to take sides?” might well be one of their battle cries.

Throughout recorded history man has tried to straddle the fence, so to speak, and have the best of both worlds. In the Bible we find people who wanted to follow God, but also wanted to partake of the pleasures of the world as well. But that is not acceptable to God. We must choose. We must take sides.

Elijah challenged God’s people to choose between Baal and God. In 1 Kings 18:21 he said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”

Joshua had a similar situation in Joshua 24:15 when he said, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

In both cases the people eventually chose God.

In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus tells of a time when separation will come to all of us. This separation is based on our own choices. We choose whether or not to be a sheep or a goat. It is all up to us. Jesus says:

"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Ask almost any person today if they want to go to heaven and the majority will quickly answer “yes.” But ask the same people if they are willing to choose God and Jesus over the sins of this world and some will hesitate as if saying, “Do I have to choose?”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we reaffirm our love and devotion to God and Jesus each and every day and may we always be reminded that a choice for sin is a choice against God.

Our thought for the day: “The power of choosing good and evil is within reach of all.” Origen

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.