Pro-choice

What To Choose

Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the LORD always. Proverbs 23:17 (NASB)

We were created by God as free moral agents. As free moral agents, we have been given the right to choose. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” John 10:10 (NASB). It is incredibility important for us to choose well! As I shared with you on Monday, we really only have two choices. We can choose Jesus Christ or not. We can choose right or wrong, Heaven or Hell. The question is, what will you choose?

Most of us think that we will make the right decisions when we get to the big questions. However, it simply does not work that way. Decision making begins with the smallest of decisions and grows into a pattern. The foundation is laid for the way you will process your information to make the decisions. Once you have the principles in place by which you live and discipline is applied, decision making becomes easier.

Jeff Strite , a Church of Christ pastor, shares an illustration about the Good Shepherd entitled "Lukewarm Christians".

“Now, for the sake of my illustration, I want to break a flock of sheep down into 3 groups.

1. The first group of sheep had DECIDED to look to Shepherd & follow Him wherever He leads. These are the "Good sheep" who follow the "Good Shepherd. Jesus said: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." John 10:27 KJV

2. The 2nd group wants nothing to do with the Shepherd. They want to run their lives their own way and they deliberately DECIDE to walk away from Him. These are the pagans and atheists of society. They don’t want to hear Jesus’ voice… they don’t want to follow.

3. But the 3rd group DECIDES that they like the Shepherd. They want to hang out with Him… but they don’t want to get TOO close to Him. They still want to keep their options open. They want to look for their own grass once in a while. They want to nibble at a little of this and a little of that….

George Orwell once observed: "On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time." That’s the problem with this 3rd group of sheep. They like being close to Jesus… just not too much, and not just all the time. And because they have this "loose" connection to the shepherd they’re the ones who end up wandering off. They’re the ones that end up getting lost. They’re just close enough to the Shepherd to feel secure. And just far enough away to not hear His voice. "My sheep hear my voice… and they follow me." says Jesus. John 10:27

And so, they wander off into their own little world, and they end up getting hurt and making bad decisions. And those bad decisions cause them pain and heartache. As Proverbs 13:15 says, "…the way of transgressors is hard." (KJV) Because they’ve chosen NOT to listen to the Good Shepherd and to follow Him closely, they are without the protection of that Shepherd and open to the attacks of Satan and this world.”

Today’s Prayer

Dear Lord,

I confess there have been times when I wanted to be good, but still be able to “do it my way”. Please forgive me. I want every decision I make to bring me closer to You and Your will for my life. Anything else that I choose is only dulling my spiritual senses and taking me further away from You. Thank You not only for the warning You give, but for the guidance of Your Holy Word, and the fellowship of other Christians. I pray that my choices will bring You praise and glory today in Jesus Name, Amen.

PRO-CHOICE

The Right To Choose

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” – Matthew 25:34-40 (NASB)

As I entitled this devotion pro-life: the right to choose, I realize that this sounds like a politically charged topic. And I guess in some ways it probably is but, not for the reasons you might think. When it comes to abortion, I am unequivocally pro-life! This is where it gets a little confusing, I am also pro-choice. I state this way because each one of us with rare exceptions has the right to choose. And in fact it’s a God-given right. In theological terms, we call it freewill.

The Holman Bible Dictionary would define freewill as “the ability the creator gave people to make meaningful decisions, especially concerning their relationship to God. Because humanity was created in the image of God, freedom is an inherent part of human nature.” In Genesis 1:26 we read, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God made us in his image and gave us the ability to rule over his creation. This gives us the ability to exercise choice throughout life.

Here’s the deal, while we get to choose what we do we never get to choose the consequences that result. The passage of Scripture we are studying this week in Matthew 25 illustrates that what we do throughout our life, the choices we make, will have eternal consequences when this life is over. Society would tell you in today’s terms that you can have it your way, you deserve it, you can have it all, but it’s a lie. It’s amazing to me how we can study physics accepting Newton’s laws of motion, but question the spiritual laws that also govern our universe. Someone would say will it’s because we can’t see the spiritual laws, but we can see the results of the physical laws. I tell you that we can see the results of the spiritual laws born out in our society each and every day.

Parents learn early on that their toddler exercises his right to choose; sometimes he is compliant with the parents’ wishes and sometimes he’s disobedient but each time he chooses what he will do. There’s really little difference between that example and our relationship with our heavenly Father. God created us and knows us better than we know ourselves. Moreover, he fashioned all the laws both physical and metaphysical that govern our universe. He knows how it all fits together. He has given us a guideline by which to live we call it the Holy Bible and it is up to us whether we believe it and live it. It is our choice!

Today’s Prayer

Dear Lord,

I thank you for loving me and giving me the ability to live my life as I see fit. Just as You have created the physical laws with their actions and reactions so to You created spiritual laws. I know that You have given me the right to choose and Father I understand that my choices have consequences. Give me the wisdom to make wise choices, that I might honor You with my life and with my choices. For it is in the matchless name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Pro-choice

Only Two Main Categories

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.” Matthew 25:31-33 (NASB)

Last night we watched Super Bowl XLVIII. It was billed as a matchup like none other. It was the Denver Broncos versus the Seattle Seahawks. But you also could look at this matchup another way, it was the best offense in the league versus the best defense in the league. With that kind of billing, everyone expected a tremendous game of skill. However when the smoke cleared, the Seahawks crushed the Broncos 43 to 8. It was a decisive victory which left absolutely no room for debate. There was but one winner and one loser.

Matthew records during the passion week of Christ many parables that he taught. One such parable comes from Matthew the 25th chapter beginning in verse 31 and following where he speaks about the judgment. Jesus used parables by taking things from everyday life to illustrate deeper spiritual meanings. This parable was told to illustrate the final judgment. There are three main characters: the Son of Man who is the King, the sheep who are his righteous followers, and the goats who are the unrighteous, non-followers of Christ.

The first principle that I see as I study this passage is that there are only two choices made. When it is all said and done, the King divides his subjects into two groups and two groups only: the sheep and the goats, the righteous and the unrighteous, the winners and the losers. If in the very the end of our lives there are only two choices that will be made, it would seem prudent for us to choose which group we would want to be in while we still have time to affect the outcome. Just as the Denver Broncos tried as hard as they could to affect the outcome of the game, once the final whistle blew there were no more plays to run, there were no more options to take, the game was over.

The simple truth is that while we are on this earth we make decisions every day. We choose the path we will follow. Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB) We truly get to choose the path we will take. Some paths will take us closer in our relationship with God and other paths will take us further away from our relationship with God. Which one will you choose?

Today’s prayer

Dear Lord,

There are so many choices in our world today sometimes it gets confusing. Thank you Lord for making the choices much simpler. Help me to view everything in life from these two main categories. Please give me the strength and the courage to choose the narrow way, to choose the righteous path, to choose life! I humbly ask this in the precious name of Jesus, amen.