Daily Devotional For Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Good morning Southside! Living for the Lord is challenging and difficult at times. It is hard to swim upstream and against the cultural downward flow of sin and evil. There seems to be a minority who will wholeheartedly commit to do this whereas the majority of people, even Christians, want to live in both worlds. The call by God’s spokesmen to choose the Lord is all throughout the Bible. For example:

• Joshua called the people to make a choice between God and idols in Joshua 24:14-18, “So fear the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. (15) But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. (16) The people replied, ‘We would never abandon the Lord and serve other gods. (17) For the Lord our God is the one who rescued us and our ancestors from slavery in the land of Egypt. He performed mighty miracles before our very eyes. As we traveled through the wilderness among our enemies, He preserved us. (18) It was the Lord who drove out the Amorites and the other nations living here in the land. So we, too, will serve the Lord, for He alone is our God.”” (NLT). – in this case, the Hebrews temporarily chose the Lord. 
• Elijah called the people to choose who they would serve: the Lord or Baal in 1 Kings 18:21, “Then Elijah stood in front of them and said,’“How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!’ But the people were completely silent” (NLT). — in this case, the people by their silence want Baal over Yahweh. 

The people had been “wobbling” between the Lord and Baal. A more literal word is “limping on crutches.” The Jews had been waffling back and forth between choosing the Lord and Baal. The writer of 1 Kings lets us know that the people wanted both. Look at 2 Kings 17:33, “And though they worshiped the Lord, they continued to follow their own gods according to the religious customs of the nations from which they came” (NLT). These gods and pagan religion had been introduced to them from Queen Jezebel and they made it equal and acceptable in their worship. It was not to them an either/or, but both. 

They wanted the exclusive there is only one God – Yahweh – as well as the polytheistic religions of their queen. This included the Asherah pole, sacrificing babies to Baal, union with the gods of Baal through sexual acts in worship. To the prophet Elijah, this embrace of both was contradictory and hypocritical. There was no way there was room for both. Elijah’s option for the Jews was not rhetorical or intellectual. It was a choice about life and eternity. The same is true for us. Once we come to Christ, our loyalty has to only be with God the Father. There is no middle ground here. 

Today, so many “Christians” limp along choosing the Lord, choosing culture, choosing the Lord, choosing philosophies, and etc., that all they do is limp – not experience and live the abundant life Christ promised. So many are driven by their passions, ambitions, peers, that in the end, that is their god. Why? Whoever you follow is your god. Elijah’s call for the people to choose we praise but did you notice the people’s response? – silence. So, what does that tell you? A no answer means there was an answer – Baal. In the rest of the chapter, the people chose Baal (1 Kings 18:24, 1 Kings 18:29). Elijah refused to accept the people’s non-answer and God used Elijah in a dramatic and fiery way to prove that only Yahweh was the only real God.

We see the same today in our culture where people who are supposed to be Christians want both: they want to come to worship, but they also want their cultural gods –  getting drunk, using drugs, living together unmarried, homosexuality, transgenderism, profanity, being racist and prejudiced, putting loyalty to political parties over loyalty to Jesus Christ, dressing inappropriately and provocatively to list just a few. The Bible warns us against this kind of double-mindedness (Psalm 119:113, James 1:8, James 4:8 and Romans 12:2). As Elijah called the people of God in his day to choose the Lord, I call the people of God in my day to choose the Lord. Serve Him and Him only.

Assignment: Take some time to evaluate your spiritual relationship to Christ. Are you all-in, call committed or do you have divided loyalties according to the Lord? Are there areas of your life where you are wanting both the culture and Christ? Where in your life do you need to choose the Lord and Him only?

Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money” (NLT).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I am so sorry when I choose other gods than You. I am so sorry when I choose my culture rather than Christ. I do not want to remain silent as the Jews did before You and Elijah. I want You to be my Master only. I want my life and love to be You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly