OUR CHOICES

Our lives are made up from the sum total of our choices and there is nothing in our lives that did not happen beyond our ability to choose correctly in God. This is an understanding we must embrace if we are going to “grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” because this is the understanding we must have to enable our dedication and commitment for God to be able to endure the consequences of our actions (dirty little words for most Christians today) and the many chastening, dealings, and judgments of the Lord. In these is where the Christ-like character conforming processes of God happens in our lives. It is not the cool waters and green pastures we relish and covet, but the inward retrospection and quiet times before God when He can open our heart and minds and show us our real character before Him. God is so concerned about our character. It is on the back side of the desert (in the wilderness) God’s people are tried and tested not in the well watered plains. I always thought it a bit strange that the good Shepard (Jesus) left the 99 sheep in the wilderness when He went after the one lost sheep. Luke tells us, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” (Luke 15:4) Now I cannot believe the good Shepard (Jesus) did not know where the lost sheep was. Does Jesus not know everything? I believe the good Shepard tarried and sought the one lost sheep a while so that the 99 could spend some time in the wilderness. The wilderness will work some things out of us if we allow God to do the work in us. There was a work in the 99 that could only be done in the wilderness and the good Shepard had to allure them there. So too in our lives the wilderness is the only place where God can get our attention so that He can do a work in our lives. In Hosea we find this happening, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.” (Hosea 2:14) And why? Because the wilderness is the only place God can speak comfort to us; there all of the other voices are distant, no one to depend on, and we are all alone with God. God’s goal in leading us to the wilderness (our choice if we want to go) is so that we can learn to lean on Him, “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” (Song of Solomon 8:5) The longer we walk with the Lord the more we will discover the wilderness is a wonderful (if not the major) making place in our Christian lives. Any one that ever amounted to anything in God was sent to the wilderness to be tried in the furnace of God’s purifying fire, molded and shaped in the hands (as clay) of the Master until they were ready for service. But make no mistake my friend we will end up in the wilderness (God’s making places for our lives) based not on God’s will for our lives (it is always God’s intention for us), but based on the choices we have made. We see the impact of making right and wrong choices from the very beginning of man in Genesis and how his choices have impacted on all humanity. In Genesis we discover a divine spiritual truth that runs as a scarlet thread all throughout the Bible, the word “every.” Now when the Bible says “every” it means “every” it does not mean some or only a few, but it means “every” and here in Genesis 1:29, 2:9, and 2:16 it says “every.” God told Adam “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” (Genesis 1:29) God meant “every.”And in Chapter two, “And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:8-9) Now please notice God used the word “every” again (and meant it) and even mentioned “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” I have always wondered why Adam did not go after “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden.” God did not say Adam could not eat of “the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” But in verses 16 and 17 God reiterated Adam’s options of eating of “the tree of knowledge of good and evil,” but now gave Adam an opportunity to make a life or death choice. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) Most if not all of the choices God gives us are life or death, but we most often cannot see the future outcome of our choices when we make them, oh thank God for His longsuffering. God was telling Adam you can eat of this tree and this tree and this tree and even this tree, but if you eat of this tree (and you are free to eat of it) “thou shalt surely die.” I wonder why God changed His mind between verses Genesis 2: 9 and 16. Did you know God changes His mind sometimes? In Genesis later we read, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”(Genesis 6:5-6) Wow this sounds like today.

Or was God setting something different into motion in the earth to help us walk in the truth of His words? And that thing God set into motion was choice, our choice whether to sever Him or not sever Him, be obedient or not be obedient to Him, be committed or not be committed to Him. Without choice in our lives we are no better than the birds of the air, the fish of the seas, or even the Angels. Choice in our lives gives us the opportunity to walk away from God (what a chance God takes on us) or to draw nearer to Him. The more we understand this option of choice in our lives the more God’s love will grip our hearts and we will see what a loving God we serve and the less selfish and self-seeking we will become. I do not know about you my friend, but at times I can be very selfish and want my way. Why do we think God is going to do all of the work for us or do what we want Him to do? Why do we think God is going make choices for us like save this person we want saved or curse this person we want cursed? One thing for sure “every” thing we get from God will not be because God made it happen oh no my friend “every” thing we get from God will be based on the choices we have made in our lives. Now some Christians would disagree with me here, but I will go even further and include even those things God has allowed in our lives that are not according to His best for our lives. Did you know God will offer us His second best? As I was getting out of the U.S. Navy (USN) in Stuttgart I received a phone call from my detailer (someone who arranges duty assignments for Officers in the USN) and he asked me if I would consider a four year follow-on assignment at U.S. Marine Forces Europe (a three star, U.S. Marine Corps Headquarter in the Stuttgart area) doing the very same job I was doing at U.S. European Command. I even had other Officers campaigning for me to take the job unbeknownst to me. We would not have to move, I could still pastor the church, everything would be as it was, except for God’s will for our lives. My friend God will check us out to see if we really want His best for our lives and He will do this by offering us something that makes perfect common sense to our natural man and satisfies our fleshly desires. Take heed here my friend when God presents you with such a choice. Now I am sure everything would have worked out fine: God would have continued to bless Family Stahl, God would have continued to bless the church, people would have still come to Christ and lives would have been changed, but the down side to this choice would be we (me, my family, and our church) would miss out on God’s best for our lives and we would have known it. Remember; sin is to know right and not do it, to miss the mark, and the mark here for our lives was for me to get out of the USN. We could have chosen to do good things for God and I feel sure good things would have happened, but the best things God wanted for me and my family would not have been done and out from that we would have experienced loss in God and suffered in relationships and God’s favor. Did you know our obedience or disobedience in God can be measured? There is a point along God’s spiritual continuum time-line for our lives where we find (reality) ourselves in relationship to God’s will for our lives and then there is a point along God’s time-line where He expects us to be. The difference between the two points is the delta of either obedience (moving further to the right of God’s expectation) or disobedience (moving further to the left of God’s expectation) in our lives, now experiencing loss is very sad, but after an undisclosed prescribed time of God while walking in loss things gets worse. God told the Children of Israel, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:” (Deuteronomy 30:19) Strange how our bad choices effect others in our lives. The deeds of what was to be the “record” that God was keeping apparently came to an end and God said, “I have set before you life and death (a choice), blessings and cursing:,” but please notice what God desires we choose “therefore (because all that has just said) choose life.” God’s choice for our lives is always life, blessings, and victory, but again it is not up to God (this is His intention for us), but it is up to us will we do and say the things needed to walk in the things God has purposed for our lives?

No where do we find this truth so vital and critical than in Ezekiel. We read, “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 11-11) This is God’s intention for us. But it is in verses 13 and 15 we read the real fall-out of our choices, “When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.” (Ezekiel 11-13) What a sobering truth. Please notice, “if he trust to his own righteousness and commit iniquity” then all of his righteousness shall not be remembered and he shall die for it. Our willful choice to “commit iniquity” (lawlessness or to move outside the laws of God) in spite of all we have said and done for God will cost us loss; first the work that God has been able to do in our lives) and then ultimately we shall die for it. But, “If the wicked restore the pledge (confess and repent), give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. 16None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.” (Ezekiel 11-15-16) Life and death is in the power of our choices; it always has been since Genesis and will always be. God has purposed and plans things this way and is watching and listening to our choices. Written by David Stahl