We always have a choice, a decision, and a turning this way or that when a question is posed.  How we go about making our choice, or about deciding, or even how we allow ourselves to turn a certain way or not is so important. As followers of Jesus, we are led by the Holy Spirit of God, given to us at our spiritual birth, and we can obey Him—or not—doing the will of God—or not—and listening as He leads—or not.

In the Bible, we find the narratives of the children of Israel, reading of the way the LORD led them out of bondage into freedom, how the LORD led them through the desert to the Jordan River, and then how the LORD defeated the city of Jericho, their first adversary in the Promise Land.  As we walk through these scenes, we see a people much like us, walking through life, facing decisions of obedience, following God, and then deciding to not follow but to go their own way.  The narratives are chronicled and even sung throughout The Psalms.  It is there, in the praises that we are reminded today of our faithfulness:  We Either Are—or—We are not!

See the history of the children of Israel, how God led Jacob’s descendants, even though they were conceived in iniquity, just like us.  We read how their masters in Egypt worshipped other gods and did not see the truth of Holy God. We see how God raised up a man among them, Moses, who led them to escape bondage and walk toward their freedom.  Not many verses later, we see within their exodus, how they face a mighty sea, the Red Sea, and through faith, they see the way God rolls back the water making a way for them to walk across the bed of the sea on dry ground.  Then, we read how they stood on the other side, looking back toward the massive Egyptian army advancing with their chariots, even quaking in their sandals at the thundering hooves coming toward them, people on foot, not mighty warriors but regular people, just like us.  It is then, that we see the way the LORD saves them over and again, rolling the waters of the Red Sea overtop Pharaoh’s army, and we see the way the enemy was defeated, how not a single man survived.

Thank goodness, the Bible provides so many life-narratives of believers walking in faithfulness to God. Through their example, we see how to walk in belief, in obedience, in trust, and how, like them, we too are able to be witnesses in this world to people wandering in darkness, in lostness.

After the crucifixion, after the burial, after the resurrection, after the disciples and after hundreds of believers had seen the risen Lord Jesus Christ—AFTER ALL THAT—we read of the ascension of Jesus Christ back to heaven.