MARCH 21 "THE EAST SIDE OF THE JORDAN"

         Imagine this conversation, "I have a better place, than what God has in mind, I would prefer this, no really, go ahead, this is good, trust me, I know, but God had ......I know, I know, but this will do, thank-you for offering Lord, but I'm good, really!!  That's what this group of people is saying to God. And I say, "are you kidding me?"  What is this, what can you call this, I don't even know...is it stupid, arrogant, ignorant, fearful, or all of the above and more?!  Imagine telling God, who knows what's best for us and is trying to offer us "His" best and we turn around and say to Him, "no thanks, this will do just fine".  I know I've tried to offer people good things I had for them and had them tell me "no thanks", I was a little insulted, but can you imagine a human being saying that to God himself.  Maybe this group was thinking "at least we won't have to fight for this, we already have it, it may not be the best but we could have this NOW and why not just settle for this!  Notice the first issue Moses addresses (and you can tell he's angry) is..."don't think you're going to sit here while we go fight!".  Could I, could you, could "we" be guilty of doing this with God at times? I wonder.....???  I think we have.  I believe many of God's people are living on "the east side of the Jordan" rather than crossing over and contending for God's best.  Why would a human being that believes in the goodness and omniscience of God, say "no thanks" to what God offers them and "willingly know" they are settling for God's 2nd best.  And what's even scarier, is God lets them!!! He doesn't force them to cross. We force our will upon others, we force what we think is best because we don't want to have to deal with the heartache and this is how different we are from God.  God knowingly let's people choose what's not best for them and suffers the heartbreak. There are certain situations where we have forced our will, but if we would watch our God and his methods we would realize, in the larger picture, we have accomplished nothing.  God does this in all areas of our lives, even in the most critical decision of our lives, Heaven and Hell He does this, He lays his best before us, Heaven and even then He says, "if you want Hell, than I give you the full right to choose hell". If God will allow us to do this with our eternity, how much more so will he allow us to choose in the every day decisions; who we will marry, where we will live, what church we will go to, what city we will live in, what carreer path we will choose, in all these decisions God has an opinion, God has a will, God knows what's best and often impresses upon us what's best but he will ALWAYS allow us to tell him, "no thanks Lord, this is what I choose, I choose to remain on the east side of the Jordan" and though his heart aches, he lets it be.

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