A Word from Trey Hill
“Therefore Choose Life”
As Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land after 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses called the nation together for some last minute instruction and warnings.
Moses recounted all the ways the Lord had blessed and protected Israel in their wanderings, demonstrating his love and power through signs and wonders. He told them that they would be blessed for obedience and faithfulness. He also prophetically warned them about the curses that would come if they were disobedient. He called upon Israel to renew their covenant with the Lord and to submit their lives to God.
In Deuteronomy 30, Moses sums up his parting instructions this way:
19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."
We know the history. Israel experienced both blessing and curses through the years. Tragically, most of the time they chose not to obey God’s commands. The result was shame, suffering and ultimate banishment of from the Promised Land, just as God had promised.
As we prepare for a new year at Mercy Street, we get to recount the innumerable ways God has blessed us and shown Himself faithful. Like Israel, the leanings of my heart can tend toward disobedience, so it is helpful to remind myself of God’s covenant faithfulness to me and Mercy Street and the ways He is using this ministry for His namesake. (We have shared a couple of those stories below.) We are also confronted with the choices set before us—to stay in the fight or retreat, to be bold with the gospel or stay quiet, to obey or not.
We all have a myriad of choices before us. Some of little consequence, “Would you like fries with that?” And others that are literally life and death. His call to me and you and all of His children remains the same today as it did to Israel some 3,500 years ago. He calls us to choose life by loving God and obeying his voice.
Thankfully, like Israel our ability to choose life and obedience is not too hard or far off. Here is what Moses told Israel:
11"For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 14But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
Though no one could ascend into heaven to bring the command to us, we know this side of the cross that the Incarnate Word descended from heaven to fulfill the command for us. It is that Word that is in our mouth and in our hearts. Let us learn together to love Jesus and express that love in obedience, so that we might not shrink back from proclaiming the gospel and so that we can remain in the fight receiving the manifold blessing from God promised to those who love him.
My prayer is that each of us would choose life. And that we would express Jesus love to our friends in West Dallas—our kids, their families, the teachers in our schools, and all the others God brings across our path—so that God would be glorified and we would be blessed.
