"... I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing:
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou
mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and
that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of
thy days... ." Deuteronomy 30:19b-20a
The text above is an episode in the history of Israel. What would
happen to you if you were in the same valley of decision between these two
mountains? Let me help by giving you some principles of choice.
First, you are free to choose. Every day, God gives us the freedom to
make choices about what we think is going to be good, or even best for
us.
Second, you're not free not to choose. To decide not to choose is a
choice. Am I making any sense? Let me make it very clear – to decide
not to choose good is always a choice to choose evil. Jesus said, "He that
is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me
scattereth abroad" (Matthew 12:30). If you do not crown Jesus, you
crucify Him. There is no middle ground.
Here's the third principle – you're not free to choose the consequences
of your choice. Let me illustrate.
Stand beside an open window on the tenth floor of a building. You're
free to jump. Now, that's a foolish thing to do, but if nobody is there
to restrain you, you can choose to do so. Stay in the room or jump out.
Now, if you decide to jump, then you must be ready to face the
consequences of that choice.
The fourth principle is you are free to choose, but you're not free to
achieve. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, suppose I chose to achieve
as a professional basketball player. Well, you look at my frame and you
say to yourself, "How can he even hope of achieving success?" And
you're probably right.
You see, I can make all the choices I want. I can even have all the
hopes and dreams I want. But, I have to be realistic to see that I
might not achieve success simply because I have chosen to do something.
Now, the fifth choice principle – a big choice will take care of a lot
of little ones. Let me give you another illustration of this.
I am a man who has made up his mind that I am going to be loyal to my
wife. You see, I don't have to worry when I check into a hotel whether
to watch pornography or not. I don't have to be concerned whether I am
going to flirt with another woman.
I don't have to keep making that decision to be loyal to my wife. I've
made that decision and that one big decision takes care of a lot of the
other little decisions.
Sixth, God has already chosen you, that you might choose Him. That's
why we're called His elect. "We love him, because He first loved us" (1
John 4:19). Had God not first chosen us, we would never have the inclination
to choose Him. Thank God for His sovereignty!
And lastly, the day of choice is passing away. Don't think that you
have forever to make up your mind whether you're going to be a follower of
Jesus Christ or not. Make your eternal salvation secure today.
CHOOSE JESUS BECAUSE ...
You can know immediate joy. Why wait to have joy when you can have it
right now? I'd be a Christian if there were no heaven or hell for the
joy that I have today in Christ.
You may die tonight. These may be the last words you ever read about
salvation in Jesus Christ. After you die, there are no second chances
to get saved. Choose life.
Jesus Christ is coming back. Matthew 24:24 says, "Therefore be ye also
ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." If
you don't think He's coming, then that is a fulfillment of this verse
because He's coming when you least expect Him.
Each time you decide against Him, you harden your heart. Hebrews 3:7-8
says, "Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts." A
person becomes proficient at anything he does for a long time. You can
become a professional Christ-denier.
No comments:
Post a Comment