“Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all you
lands. 2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3Know you that the LORD he is God: it is he that has made us, and not we
ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:1-3
Sing
Along With Bob
It was a rare thing growing up that I got to stay up on a Saturday
evening and watch Saturday Night Live…and probably for good reason. There was very little there appropriate for
the budding teenage mind to consume. On
one particular Saturday evening in 1979 I was surfing for something to watch
before it was time to bed down for the night.
Stopping momentarily on NBC, there was Bob Dylan being introduced as the
featured musical act for that week’s Saturday Night Live show. I was captivated as he began to sing the
following words:
You
may be an ambassador to England or France
You
may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You
may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You
may be a socialite with a long string of pearls.
But
you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're
gonna have to serve somebody,
It
may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But
you're gonna have to serve somebody.
What If I Don’t Want To Serve?
Is that possible? Must we all
serve somebody? It is a common mindset
that we don’t. It seems logical to the
modern day mind that we don’t have to choose a side. But is it true? Can we choose to be not religious much in the
same way we can choose not to pick a team while watching a sporting event? Can we live our lives merely as casual
spiritual observers, or non-spiritual observers…as it were? Actually no, we can’t.
Here’s why: If the Christian faith were actually only a fabrication of
the human mind and there were no real God, no heaven nor hell, and therefore no
real consequence to sin (nor any sin for that matter), then it truly would not
matter if we choose to follow Jesus, or Buddha, or Krishna, or any New Age
philosophy, or Native American spirituality, or any other religion. We could just pick one that resonated with
our particular lifestyle and go on…As long as we are kind to the earth,
animals, and fellow man. Or, we could
choose no religion at all and be just fine. Right? Hmmmm.
Maybe not.
Here’s the problem: There really IS a Righteous and Just, and Loving God
who created all that there is. There
really is a standard of righteousness that He requires, and since no one was
able to attain that standard, God created only ONE way whereby mankind could be
redeemed: The shed blood of Jesus.
Acts 4:12 reads: “Salvation is found in no
one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we
must be saved.”
All religions are NOT the same. It
isn’t about Christians be arrogant. It’s
about the blood of Jesus being the only cure for sin. The ONLY cure. And it’s very important to understand that
the nature of sin is not elective. While
we may choose to sin, we do not choose to be sinful. It is a part of our nature. We are born INTO sin. Romans 3:23 notes: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God…” Therefore, all of
humanity is condemned before the Righteous God and in need of redemption.
You’re Gonna Have to Serve
Somebody
We cannot simply choose NOT to be on the playing field of eternity. There are no grandstand observers to the
contest of the human soul. All are in
the battle, and all must choose whom they are going to serve. Period.
Paragraph. To choose not to
choose, and pretend that there is no consequence for sin is much akin to
sitting in a burning house and pretending there is no fire. Judgment IS coming. Enter the love of God in Christ: It is not a closed Christian mind that
requires that we be saved by the blood of Jesus, but the open heart of God,
that loved SO much that He gave his only son to pay the penalty for our
sin. The proper response to that
sacrifice is to choose Life in Jesus. We
choose to serve our Lord Jesus and him only.
There are no abstention votes.
Bob was right: You’re gonna have
to serve somebody.
Almighty God, Help me choose this day and
every day to serve the Lord with gladness.
Work within me that living testimony that leads everyone in my realm of
influence to come to understand that they also have to choose. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Submitted by Kerry Patton
