In life's journey we are daily confronted by ambiguous and obscure situations that demand we make choices. The choices we make have consequences, as somebody else said in the world of politics, depending on what we choose and what lies behind the motives of making such choices.
A friend of mine once preached a sermon and used an illustration of the two dogs that indwell every individual, each dog will act and do things depending on whether you feed it or not. From the many videos I have watched on dogs and how they can learn and act like human beings, I saw some dogs that can walk on two and behave just like humans walking along the streets ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p288FKdSlg) So what actually matters when we come at the crossroads of life, is what dog in your inner being you feed.If you feed the flesh, you will make choices leaning towards the last of the flesh and if you feed the 'spiritual you' with the heavenly diet you will make decisions AND CHOICES leaning towards the heavenly.
Crucial Decisions of LIFE
Making the Crucial decisions of Life however requires more than just feeding the dog of choice. Crucial life decisions (for Christians)include the following stages: Growth &development; life in the educational process-where you chose to cheat in an exam or not, speak the truth always or not, whether you will attend class or not, the choice of Friends, choice of attitude i.e to obey or not. etc...
The other stage comes in our youth. Career choice,marriage life as who should we marry, when and why; Where to live, parenting, and serving God. This juncture comes when you arrive like in Joshua 24:15 where Joshua asked the people to make a decision:
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
In our lives at present, we are so blessed because unlike Joshua who did not have the Bible as we do, we have a source of power and WISDOM to make choices. In 1Cor. 12: 10 the bible states that we have the Gift of discernment. Many a preacher never preach about this gift and we rarely ask God to give us this gift. We only want the gift of performing miracles.However, if we read scripture and search the scripture as the Bereans did, we shall see and walk with Jesus Christ as He walked and lived.
From Selwyn Hughes, I learned that "It is often as one gets close to one's goal that the temptation to compromise, or to take an easier way becomes more acute. Just as, in the desert, there was a pull to get Jesus to take another way. Different situations throw us into spiritual crises. Life presents us with two options like Jesus. We can choose between acceptance by those we think are important even if we see clearly they are wrong or rejection by the majority who think that they are right.If you choose to be accepted then you will be praised by men, they will elect you in high positions and they will protect you. On the hand if you choose the way of the Lord as Joshua did, then the grisly cross of Christ awaits you. You will be rejected, hated, ridiculed, mocked, abused, called names, etc. The Choice is yours and a similar issue confronts those of us who are Christians. Do we go the way of the cross, or do we go the way of the crowds?
Prayer:
Father, my mind is made up - I want to go Your way. Help me to come out clearly on Your side - for You and against everything that is against You. This I pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.
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