Choices
I fell like God has given so many examples of what choices are. The house on sand or the house on rock, the bearing of good or evil fruit and the wide or the narrow gates. Certainly there are more, but I think you and I understand that there is a vast difference between good and evil. But lately, I have encountered many people caught up in the "New Age" and they make choices between good and God. For years I have spoken about good being the enemy of excellence. Choices. What are they? I would define them as selections laid before you(Or as a friend says, "fanning the options.") and you get to pick. But sometimes when I have options I want someone else to make the choice(Preferably God!) because otherwise I feel like a dog with two bones...I can't make up my mind! (Hey, give me a break...the old Lee would have opted for one of each-let me tell you about my collection of matching paisley shirts in 7 different colors!)
Whatever the choice is, you can be sure it will dictate a pathway to another door. For years I heard people pray for open or closed doors. That is great when we are immature(Either in the spirit or in the natural.), but sooner or later God requires you to begin choosing according to wisdom. Isn't it interesting that we want to be "free," but we want God to make the choices. There whole purpose of being free and being a free moral agent is that you get to choose.
Years ago a fellow pastor and I talked about teaching a class in the church on common sense and manners. Yesterday, I spoke to another pastor who had taught life skills in the world and I commented and said "when do you teach it to the church?" We need to allow the wisdom of God to invade our life. It is free for the asking says the book of James. People outside the church think the church has no common sense in many cases. That we blindly make decisions with "God on our mind" and then when it goes sour we have no excuse, except "God will forgive me." The more I work in the world, the more I see the need for a revelation of wisdom and an understanding of help from one another.
For years it was the word, the word, the word. And then we had a new move and it was the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit. How about this generation do both. I believe in the ground shaking moves of God with nobody standing. But I believe in the preparations of the heart and the disciplines of our lives(Why do we think "discipline" is a 4 letter word?). Otherwise the world is right when they think any Christians are flakes. Every life ought to revolve around situations, disciplines and the moves of the Spirit. Not just one or two of those things.
We the people of God, are to manifest the Kingdom of God, but we are so afraid to talk about Jesus (And yet not afraid of exciting rides!) that we have become Christian ghettos. Rarely an outsider coming in and fewer and fewer Christians going out.
We are to be reclaiming what the New Age has stolen and false religions are practicing. These things are choices. You and I are setting the world up for our children and our children's children. The very decisions I make today have eternal values.
Letting my children make decisions that are wrong, or letting them get away with rebellions will only cause further decisions to be reduced to nothingness. So often I will point out to my children people who have made bad decisions and the importance of not making the same decisions. I use real life people for my examples, often people they know. And say do you see what "being unequally yoked" can do? Do you see what not loving your children can do? Do you see what no discipline means because a parent thinks "it's cute" can do to your life.
I am considering a real life class. A friend of mine was published in a national magazine as saying "how is it we can make a team come together in 16 weeks(In the Marines.), but the church often struggles year after year.?
Choices...what are you choosing today?
Whatever the choice is, you can be sure it will dictate a pathway to another door. For years I heard people pray for open or closed doors. That is great when we are immature(Either in the spirit or in the natural.), but sooner or later God requires you to begin choosing according to wisdom. Isn't it interesting that we want to be "free," but we want God to make the choices. There whole purpose of being free and being a free moral agent is that you get to choose.
Years ago a fellow pastor and I talked about teaching a class in the church on common sense and manners. Yesterday, I spoke to another pastor who had taught life skills in the world and I commented and said "when do you teach it to the church?" We need to allow the wisdom of God to invade our life. It is free for the asking says the book of James. People outside the church think the church has no common sense in many cases. That we blindly make decisions with "God on our mind" and then when it goes sour we have no excuse, except "God will forgive me." The more I work in the world, the more I see the need for a revelation of wisdom and an understanding of help from one another.
For years it was the word, the word, the word. And then we had a new move and it was the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit. How about this generation do both. I believe in the ground shaking moves of God with nobody standing. But I believe in the preparations of the heart and the disciplines of our lives(Why do we think "discipline" is a 4 letter word?). Otherwise the world is right when they think any Christians are flakes. Every life ought to revolve around situations, disciplines and the moves of the Spirit. Not just one or two of those things.
We the people of God, are to manifest the Kingdom of God, but we are so afraid to talk about Jesus (And yet not afraid of exciting rides!) that we have become Christian ghettos. Rarely an outsider coming in and fewer and fewer Christians going out.
We are to be reclaiming what the New Age has stolen and false religions are practicing. These things are choices. You and I are setting the world up for our children and our children's children. The very decisions I make today have eternal values.
Letting my children make decisions that are wrong, or letting them get away with rebellions will only cause further decisions to be reduced to nothingness. So often I will point out to my children people who have made bad decisions and the importance of not making the same decisions. I use real life people for my examples, often people they know. And say do you see what "being unequally yoked" can do? Do you see what not loving your children can do? Do you see what no discipline means because a parent thinks "it's cute" can do to your life.
I am considering a real life class. A friend of mine was published in a national magazine as saying "how is it we can make a team come together in 16 weeks(In the Marines.), but the church often struggles year after year.?
Choices...what are you choosing today?
posted by Servant Communications at 4:36 AM
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