Genuine Leather

Joshua 24:15
“choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve”

Will you test the fabric of your sofa to see if it’s naugahyde or leather? Are your belts, shoes, and purses made of genuine leather or a synthetic material? Fakes are easy to find, but the genuine leather products will have a label on them to prove the value of the product.

In a world where the authentic has to be labeled, it’s so important to choose wisely to whom you will give your heart. Do you attend a church that makes it easy to be a Christian? It seems that the popular churches are the feel-good churches. But there are churches that make you confront sin and make you wiggle uncomfortably in your pew.

Joshua told the people that no matter what they did, he and his household would serve the Lord. In fact, he told them they couldn’t serve the Lord because if they turned away to serve foreign gods, the Lord would bring disaster on them. But the people didn’t back down. They told Joshua they would serve the Lord.

What would happen in your church if the Pastor turned into a Joshua and declared to all the pew-warmers that they couldn’t serve the Lord because He is Holy and deserves worship from the bottom of your heart, not off the top of your head? Would the people stand up and choose for themselves to serve the Lord in a heart-felt commitment?

Someone who prays to God out of a relationship of love sounds different than one who prays because he’s supposed to. If the fabric of your life was tested, would the test results prove you to be a genuine Christian? Or merely a really good fake?

God knows the difference.