The Amazing word "Choose"

John 15:16-17

The amazing word “choose,” it is acted on more often than any other word, and yet we live in a culture that refuses to take credit for its choices.   It could be that we do not understand how the word is used, choose: “to make a deliberate decision to do something.”  For example a small group of people, primarily women have put together a group called “Choice” and its prime goal is to tell God and mankind to butt out of what a woman wants to do with her body.  But that group has no plans to salvage or bring help to the young woman after she has bought into the lie that it’s just a piece of tissue, and not a baby, and after they are gone, and in the quiet hours of the night she suffers over the choice of being a participant in the death of her child.

So many choices each hour of each day, do I believe my body is the temple of the Spirit of God, do I agree with Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  And yet many each day choose to eat, drink, and not exercise, and just like the culture, blame God because they are over weight, have no energy and they run to the local doctor, who often takes the role of a drug pusher, and they get a fix, so they can keep making bad choices.  

Our culture has flooded the minds of Christians, we complain about almost everything, and yet our prayer life is minuscule, and we act as if Jesus has not told the truth.  So let us look at what Jesus said to each of us who have entered into a personal relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” (John 15:16 ESV)

Could it be that we do not understand that God is not a “time critter” that time was designed for man?  Could it be that we listen to mere men about things that their unbelieving hearts could not understand so they gave opinions not based on facts but on the reasoning of very unrighteous men, who suppress the truth of God’s invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature?  This is what Jesus has to say about the choices of such people: “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” (John 3:19-20 ESV)

If you have fallen into the, I can’t help the choices I make, awaken my brother or sister in Christ, you have been given the ability by the Father to (set your minds) on whatever you want to, it is your choice. “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3 ESV)

It is time to ask the Helper for help, and to understand that He is the Spirit of Truth.  Jesus has informed us in John 15:7-11, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” 

As one of the Chosen Ones, ask the Helper to set your mind on these truths; “ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the Excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”  (1 Peter 2:9-10 ESV)  Wow, thank you Father for choosing me.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice