You have a choice
We all have a choice to make, each one of us.
Of course, we all make choices, all kinds of choices everyday…
What to have for breakfast… what to wear… what have for lunch… if we go out for dinner, where to go…
All kinds of choices.
The choice we make, can affect a lot or a little depending on the kind of choice it is.
In the big scheme of things what we have for breakfast, lunch or dinner or what we wear doesn’t affect all that much. The kinds of food or type of diet we adhere to, may well affect us long term, either making us fat or helping to lose those extra pounds. Sometime in our life we make a choice to take this job or that job, to stay or to quit; that kind of choice affects our future greatly. As does the choice of mate, to marry or not, to have children or not or when to stop having children, these choices can lead us down many different paths.
All these choices affect us in this life, but there is one choice we make that not only affects us in this life, but in what happens to us after this life on earth has ended.
That choice we make is to believe God or not.
First, we need to choose to believe there is a God or not.
Then we must choose which God or gods to be believe in.
Once we have made that choice, then we have to choose to follow that gods teaching or not.
Do we follow the God of the Bible or do we follow the god of the Koran, or Buddha or mother earth or what have you.
We have to choose which one to follow because they all can’t be right.
If I choose Buddha then I have to follow him; Allah, then him; the many gods of the Far East then I have to follow them. I can’t follow all of them thinking that they all have some truth to them; they all can’t be true in 100% of their teachings.
The old saying is not true, “All roads do NOT lead to god.”
I have made my choice. I follow the God of the Bible and His Son Jesus.
Notice that I do not separate the God of the Old Testament from the God of the New Testament, because they are one and the same. The Hebrew God that the Jews follow is the same God that Jesus prayed to, talked with and called His Father in Heaven.
In the Old Testament there are hundreds of prophesies concerning the coming of Jesus, the Messiah; from where He would be born to how He would die and who would betray Him. The odds of Jesus fulfilling all these hundreds of prophesies are astronomical if He weren’t the one true Messiah.
But in order for you or me to make the choice to believe Jesus when He said in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And what He tells us in John 3:14-16;
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
There is one truth in the Bible that we all must come to terms with, and there is no getting around this truth. That truth is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Many people have studied the resurrection trying to disprove it and come away believers.
The Bible tells us that over 500 people witnesses a living Christ after His death on the cross.
The Disciples and many of the followers of Jesus were tortured or killed, but not one of them backed away from their believe in a risen Lord. Don’t you think that if it were all a lie, some of them would have given it up?
But they didn’t, because it was true, they had witnesses it.
Most if not all the New Testament was written within living memory of those who were there. These were not stories passed down the years long after those who could have discounted them were dead. No, these Gospels and letters were written, passed around, and taught from during the lifetime of those who saw Jesus, heard Jesus and believed Jesus.
Can you honestly say that a nothing, nobody son of a carpenter from a nothing town like Nazareth could have changed the world within a few generations, if He wasn’t what He said He was?
His ministry on earth only lasted 3 years, and then He goes to the cross, but it was after that, that the world truly began to change.
I love what Gamaliel says in Acts 5:34-39;
34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
You have a choice to make.
And what you choose will affect everything you do from now on.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God; that He died on a cross for your sins. That He rose from the dead on the third day and that He lives today in Heaven and that at some point He will call you to be with Him forever… or not?
The choice you make is totally up to you. I cannot force you and neither will God. You must make the choice yourself. Sad to say, that waiting to make that choice is a choice in and of itself.
The longer you wait the harder it will be, but God will not give up on you.
Unlike some, I cannot or will not promise that life with Jesus will always be a bed of roses, and neither did He in John 16:33b;
“…In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
When you make the choice to believe Jesus and ask Him to come into you and lead and guide you, He will come into you through the power of the Holy Spirit and He will help you through the hard times. He will be with you through the good and the bad.
He tells us in Revelation 3:20;
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”
But you have to open the door.