One of the constant themes in the Old and New Testaments is the invitation from God to make a simple choice.

Read: Joel 3: 14-16

In his book about the Minor Prophets, Phil Moore writes that the key to understanding their message is going back to the Covenant God made with the Hebrew people in Deuteronomy 28, which he summarises as, “Blessing or curse…you decide”.

From the very beginning, from the creation story of Adam and Eve and right through the Old Testament God makes it clear that we all have a choice…to live his way in relationship with him, the way we are designed to live or to choose to live ignoring or disbelieving him, making our own decisions and facing the consequences of trying to live a life designed to be lived in friendship with God.

When we come to the New Testament, Jesus, who is God in human form, comes to show us what God is like and to bring a once-and-for-all solution to the problem of how sinful human beings can have a close relationship with a living God. His life also gives us an insight into what our life could look like if lived in perfect relationship with God.

In Joel 2 we see that choice at work again; Jesus lived, died and rose again for all of humanity, but each of us is responsible for choosing whether to accept and benefit from what Jesus did. As Peter the friend of Jesus says in his Pentecost sermon…it’s “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord” who will be saved.

All of humanity in the valley of decision. The ultimate question is, will you choose to follow Jesus or choose not to? It’s not, as some would have you think, just a decision that affects your destination at the end of life here. It affects the quality of life lived everyday in the here and now, as you live the way you were designed to live, in the company and with the help of the one who designed you in the first place.

When Aidan, one of the early missionaries to the Kingdom of Northumbria, left Holy Island and visited people in the hill country of Northumberland, the historian Bede tells us that he asked a simple question of everyone he met. These extracts from a modern poem by Andy Raine and Neil Arnold captures the spirit of that question, and Aidan’s response.

“Do you know Christ, King Jesus, is he yours?”

If they answered, “Yes!”, then Aidan replied,

“Then love God more,
And burn with love:
Hold fast the light he gives.
Live thou for Him.
Believer, hold Him high,
That all may see the light of Jesus
In a son of man.”

If they said, “No!”, then Aidan had a different reply:

“God knows the emptiness:
Deep cries to deep.
Receive the life he gives:
Live now for him.
Believe and be baptised,
Then all will see
 the life of Jesus in a son of man.”

Celtic Daily Prayer, book 1, page 411-412

How would you answer the question, and how would you act on Aidan’s reply?