Dead End

Recently while on vacation my yougest son and I were hiking and looking for an old cemetary. It had been several years since I had been there and a large developement had been built around it. Being directionally challanged it took a while, but we found it. At the end of a dirt road was the cemetatry, a dead end. We walked around looking at the names, sayings, and dates the people died. Being an older mountain cemetary, there were headstones that were just flat rocks with nothing on them. Some of them were nice engraved monuments.

As we sat down on a bench. I started thinking about the lives they may have had. How did they die. Who did they leave behind? Then I thought about what they left behind. Not the stuff, but their legacy, what they did with their life, and how people remember them.

Look at the following people of the Bible and their legacy. They were not perfect, but look at what God accomplished through them:

• Moses




• David




• Ruth




• Elijah




• Paul




• Peter




• Of course Jesus who we should all try to immitate.

What about you? What kind of legacy are you going to leave behind? Will people remember you as a man or woman of God. Will they remember you for all of your negative qualities?

What is your legacy?

Steve

Choices, Part 2

In Choices, Part 1, we saw that we have the freedom to make our own choices. We saw that Adam and Eve started us out on the wrong foot for that by choosing the selfish route. God was ticked off and broken hearted at the same time.

• Read Genesis 3:6-24

Does someone else's choices affect others? What if I decide to drive my car down the road with my eyes closed, as fast as I can, through a busy city street? It's my choice. I can do what ever I want to. Right? How will that choice affect the others on that street? I could mow down some pedestrians, signs, bounce off a few cars, take out a squirrel, etc. You see my choice has consequences for others as well as myself. What about the innocent people or squirel? They didn't have a part in my choice, except that the were there. That's exacly how sin works.

God's Word gives us the information to make the right choices, not a list of dos and don'ts. The most important of these is whether to have a personal relationship with Christ or not.

• Ephesians 2:1-10 (New International Version)
  Made Alive in Christ 1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

• Joshua 24:15 (New International Version)
  15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

• Matthew 7:12-14 (New International Version)
  12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
  The Narrow and Wide Gates 13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

The whole Bible is written to give you the information you need to make a wise choice and save your soul. Also by making Godly choices the affects on those around you will be Godly, unlike the car story above. Many have tried to destroy and discredit His Word and yet it's still here. As hard as science tries to disprove the Bible and they find new evidence that proves something that was written about. It all comes down to faith to believe

So as we tell our kids when the go out, "Make wise choices"
Steve

Choices, Part 1

Why do bad things happen? Why do bad things happen to good people?

That can best be answered back in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden. When God made man he placed him in the most perfect place to have ever been on earth. He gave him everything he needed, including a wife. God gave Adam and Eve

• Genesis 2:15-17 (New International Version)
  15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

God gave them one command, just one, "you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." One rule, and what do they do, they do it. I wonder if God had not told them if they would have eaten it? Some people will do the opposite just to see what happens. Of course they were deceived by Satan.

• Genesis 3:1-6 (New International Version)
  1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
  2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
  4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
  6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Notice how Eve repeats the rule back to the serpent. Also notice that Adam was right there with her. Also notice how Satan appeals to her pride of being God-like. Funny how the men always blame Eve for this part, but Adam willing broke the rule with her.



Good or bad, God gave us freedom to choose. We are free to choose our own path, make our own decisions. I have the freedom to walk out in the middle of a busy road, drive with my eyes closed (or text, same difference), kick a wild grizzly bear, run with scissors, stick a fork in an electrical outlet, etc. Maybe if I do these things my eyes will be opened and I can be like God? How did their choice affect us today? How does anyone's choices affect others?



Think about the choices you make this week and come back here next week for the rest of the story.