The Word of God gives us a question and a mandate:
“Choose you this day whom you will serve.” — Joshua 24:15
God, the Creator of the galaxies, handed us a choice. He didn’t need to. He invited us.
That invitation is the scandal and the mercy of the gospel.
Choosing Jesus is not a hobby. It’s an orientation. It tilts the whole life toward a different North. When you choose Him first, everything else gets measured by that true north: comfort, career, relationships, even dreams.
I hear the pushback. People read my conviction and hear reproach. They suspect judgment. They call my allegiance to Christ a threat to something else—family, tradition, or a cultural ideal. But the question isn’t cultural comfort versus faith. The question is allegiance.
Who gets your worship? Who gets your first yes?
Think of the world’s blessings as currency. God gives freely—good gifts, provision, and beauty. The enemy makes counterfeit coins. He polishes them, stamps them, and places them where your eyes will find them. People can confuse the coins for the kingdom. They spend God’s blessings like the end, rather than the means.
When the coin becomes the goal, you are bought by the wrong master.
You prayed. God answered. Then the thing you prayed for became louder than the One who answered.
That’s spiritual amnesia. You go from worship to work, from gratitude to entitlement. The gift gobbles the Giver.
When I wrote these Excavation Letters, I meant to be surgical. I wanted to prod where it hurts so healing can happen. And yes, when you make Jesus first, you’ll make people uncomfortable. Why? Because where He is first, the idols fall. And people don’t like idols falling in public or any other place, for that matter.
It’s simple. God is a God of godly covenants, and the devil is a liar who produces counterfeits. Take marriage, for example: many believe living together is the same, but it isn’t. Marriage carries benefits as well as contractual obligations, which is why it’s a formal agreement that cannot be walked away from without being written and witnessed.
When God spoke, the world was formed. “For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9 KJV). The very same power that raised Christ from the dead is alive and active today (Romans 8:11), flowing through us when we speak. The words we speak carry weight; they can create, align us with heaven’s purposes, and activate covenants. Covenants are not to be taken lightly; what God ordains is powerful, and what we speak in faith carries that same authority.
It is against this authority that the devil’s tactics are revealed.
The enemy's tactics are patient, not theatrical. He doesn’t always show up as a roaring lion. He shows up as a slow leak: ease that softens conviction, distraction that widens appetite, companionship that trades substance for surface. He will set comfy things in front of you until comfort becomes a snare. That is his craft. He is a forger of substitutes.
Let’s be concrete:
• If your identity is wrapped in a paycheck, that paycheck will one day define your peace.
• If your worth is wrapped in applause, you will rearrange your soul to please an audience.
• If your rest is wrapped around a status, you will labor to defend it instead of steward it.
There is room for beauty and excellence. God is not a killjoy. He made joy and good things. But He didn’t make you to be owned by your things. He made you to steward them with the soil of your heart tethered to Him.
Remember the temptation scene: the enemy held up kingdoms and said, “All this I will give you.” Jesus answered, “Get behind me, Satan.” — Matthew 4:8–10. The point wasn’t that the kingdoms were false. The point was that they were not the path of allegiance. Jesus refused expedience when it contradicted obedience.
You don’t have to choose poverty to choose Christ. You can love luxury and still worship the Lord. The test is posture: who is center? Who receives your first loyalty?
When people accuse your devotion of being radical, they are often projecting. They are uncomfortable because your choice unmasks their own divided heart. That’s not your job to fix. It’s your job to keep your vow.
~We are not called to defend comfort; we are called to defend covenant.~
So ask yourself every morning:
"Who will I serve with my first yes today? Culture? Comfort? Or Christ?"
The question shapes storms you will weather. It shapes the small daily choices that determine legacy.
I have chosen. I will not barter my allegiance for applause. I will not water down the message to cushion offense. I will serve the One who keeps covenant, who redeems, who completes the good work He began in us. — Matthew 6:33; Philippians 1:6
Focus Point:
Allegiance rewrites the small decisions that shape a life.
— Jackie
