A Simple Matter of Life and Death

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord..."
"...for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isaiah 18a, 20b

In chapter one of Isaiah, God specifically says two things in verses 16-20: (1) if you repent (vs. 16, 17), and come back to Him, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," (vs. 18); and (2) if you walk according to AND stay in His will, "ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword..." (vs. 19, 20). In short (why didn't I just do the short from the beginning? Because I DIDN'T), God says two things: choose Me, and get life; refuse and go against Me, and get death. Life and Death: these are the two fundamental issues behind our decisions. It has been like that for a long time (i.e., Eden and the two trees; also, see Deuteronomy 30:19).
I believe it was Todd Agnew who said, "You have two choices in life: to worship, or to sin." It was Bob Jones Sr., I believe (someone correct me if I am wrong), who said, "Only two choices on the shelf: pleasing God or pleasing self." Dorothy Sayers would say that it is a choice between God and "not-God," for there is nothing else to choose from. C.S. Lewis said that God is the only thing we can run on; all else makes us "conk" and slide into ruin. And God Himself put it this way: "Whoso findeth me findeth life...all they that hate me love death." (Proverbs 8:35a, 36b).
Allow me to ask: do we live like THAT? In other words (don't miss it), do we live seriously in the light of the fundamental issues of our choices, i.e., Life and Death? Do we believe that our choices are indeed matters of life and death? ANY choice, whether it be choice of college, or career, or mate, or even breakfast (I believe Chesterton expanded it to even mealtimes)? Honestly, now: we do not take our choices and decisions seriously.
As I have mentioned in other notes, over quoted verses lose their power in the telling; we desensitize ourselves to the Spirit's punch. Ask yourself: do you REALLY take Proverbs 3:5, 6 seriously? Do you REALLY believe (in day to day, monotonous living, not just Sunday "mounts of transfiguration") that you should, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding," and that you should, "in all thy ways acknowledge Him," because, "He shall direct thy paths"?
If we are honest with ourselves (and by "we" I include myself), we do NOT take our choices/decisions seriously. In church we say, "AMEN!" On the frontlines of everyday, rarely exciting, mostly hum-drum life, however, we act as though our choices/decisions (i.e., what and how we say, think, and/or act in a giving situation or moment) are mere issues of our own will with consequences extending only into the natural realm. We perceive the consequences of our choices/decisions to be at "arm's length." We do not believe that Life and Death is at stake, with consequence extending to the natural, supernatural, and Uncreated realms. Our choices/decisions affect our relationships to people, angels and demons, and God.
Look at proverbs 3:5,6, and I mean LOOK at it. It starts off with two commands; not suggestions, but COMMANDS, both in the Imperative: "Trust in the Lord," and "lean not." These are things God says you MUST do. Now, notice the use of the word "all". How much of your heart (i.e., your soul, your person) is supposed to trust God? ALL. There is no exclusion, no room for even a hint of trust placed elsewhere. God is the way, truth, and life, and any trust not placed in Him (no matter how logical, or noble) will end in confusion, lies, and (ta da!) death. Check out the other use of "all". Here is why Chesterton would extend Life and Death to breakfast: in how many ways are we to acknowledge Him? In ALL. Again, there is no exclusion, no way left unto ourselves.
And what exactly will God do in return for all of this trusting and acknowledging? "He shall direct thy paths." The word "shall" is important. In Elizabethan English (which the KJV was written in) the words "shall" and "will" implied two very different ideas. If someone said, "I will do this," they were saying that they had a choice in the matter and have chosen to go "this" way. However, if someone said, "I shall do this," they were saying that they have NO choice; their very nature AND the way things are in the world (and universe) makes it impossible for them to choose otherwise than "this" way.
God said that He "shall" direct your paths, i.e., if you refuse to trust in your own wits, but FULLY trust Him with your whole person, and acknowledge Him in ALL of your choices/decisions, then He (because of who He is and the way He has made things) has NO CHOICE but to direct you. He SHALL do it; there is no other way it could be.
Oh the depths of the patience of God! A mere mortal would have been frustrated out of their wits long ago. God does not say that trusting Him means we will suddenly know WHERE we are going: Abraham, the "father of the faithful," followed God, "not knowing whither he went" (Hebrews 11:8b). What God does say is that trusting Him will leave you with the irrepressible confidence that he IS leading you. But, alas, we would much rather whine and groan about how "hard" life is, and all the while God is standing there telling us to simply take this issue of trusting Him SERIOUSLY and not treat it as a mere Sunday maxim.
But that, of course, is my point. We are not perfect (duh); we WILL be, but not now. By the sacrifice of Christ, our spirit has been perfected by being put back in communion with God, our soul is being perfected day by day, and our bodies will be perfected at the resurrection. As Switchfoot put it, we are "an already, but not yet, resurrected, fallen" people. It takes the strength of Christ in us to yield to the Spirit of God so that we can even begin to acknowledge Him in ANY way. God is not asking (and certainly neither am I) for us to perfect or paranoid. However, I do believe, wholeheartedly, that God wants us to take this Christian business seriously, which means taking our choices/decisions seriously, and taking seriously what He says in Proverbs, and Deuteronomy, and Isaiah, and elsewhere.
Start believing (and by "believing," I mean to take seriously in your life) that if you (by Christ's strength alone) yield to God and acknowledge His will in your ways, that He shall direct you, and you will "eat the good of the land;" and if you "refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword."
As Oswald Chambers put it, "The great need...is to believe things." God wants us to take seriously the beliefs that we take for granted.