It is COLD!!!!!! It has been cold for MANY DAYS!!!! Yes, we are in midst of winter and Old Man Winter came into the South like a roaring lion. Here in Simsboro on Monday morning, we started with the sleet and ice. By the time for life to begin, the roads were already iced over and had reached the point of not being safe to travel on.

We have seen throughout the week that the temperatures have plunged to lows of being in the single digits, and the temperature never getting above freezing during the day. Old Man Winter gave us a couple of days where it warmed up enough to melt most of the ice. But now he has sent the cold temperatures back to us.

The weather caused Lisa and me to stay at home. Only on Thursday did we get out. Lisa had a hair appointment. You know how women are with hair appointments and pedicures. So, I put the truck in 4-wheel-drive and made the couple mile journey to the beauty shop.

This was a different thing for me. I have always had a 4-wheel-drive truck or Jeep. My goal during every ice or snow storm was to just see exactly where I could go and what I could do. When they began to forecast this storm I began to prepare the truck. I put concrete blocks in the back of the truck to give it some added weight, to help with the traction. I have a winch that I can attach to my trailer receiver hitch in the rear. I pulled it out of storage and loaded up. Finally, I made my way to Ruston and gassed the truck up. I was ready for the storm.

But something happened between the time I made my preparations and the storm came. I made a decision. I chose not to get out on the roads. I chose to stay at home, unless a friend called and needed me. My Hospice boss texted me on Sunday night and said stay home. So, I stayed home.

With it being the month of the New Year, I began to think about choices or decisions. As I look back on the year 2023, I realized that I made many bad decisions. And, I made a few good decisions. But I need to take this time and look at the bad ones. Why, because I need to look at 2024 and think about the good decisions I need to make.

Often times we make bad decisions because we become overwhelmed with all the many choices we have to make. As I pondered, studied my Bible and prayed; The Lord reaffirmed to me that we don’t have many things to choose from, but two. We either choose the way of God or the way of the world.

The message of all the Scripture is this – choose God or choose the world. This morning I preached from Psalms 1. In this Psalm the writer reminds us that one of the truth about choices is that every choice we make has consequences. These consequences may be good or they may be bad.

Let’s begin with the bad consequences of choosing the world. First, know that when we choose the world, we choose evil. Evil will cause you to be separated from God. We choose the world and we move out from under the protection of God and become open to the direct assault of the Devil. This will bring disaster to our lives.

But praise the Lord the Psalmist shares the good consequences we receive when we choose the Lord. Our lives become full of joy. We learn to be thankful. Our life begins to be stable “like a tree planted by the water”. We begin to see that our lives start to bear fruit for the Lord and we begin to prosper. And, lastly, we have the protection of God over our lives. Hallelujah!!

I don’t know about you, but in 2024, I CHOOSE GOD!!!!!!!