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