Gift of Choices

What is the single thing that you have wanted as a gift, Christmas or otherwise, that you have wanted the very most? Maybe it was as a child; maybe it is a little more current than that. Maybe it is something that, if you were bold enough to admit it, you long for today?

Imagine for a moment the urgent, the longing desire for something that for all appearances seemed out of your reach!

Here is where we begin to understand the apostle Paul's statement:

For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, Romans 9:3

There are times when we ask God to give us His heart. Little do we understand about God's heart. Paul touched the flutter of God's heart with his desire!

Christianity is about God's heart. There is simply no greater display of the lengths and the depths of God's heart toward you than the true message of Redemption. The Creator God, the one of a kind God, the Self-Existent highly exalted One chose to be born into His creation. He chose, for the sake of my brethren, the unreasonable.

That He would chose to be born as a helpless baby into the very creation that He spoke into existence is illogical. That He would choose poor over rich, humility over exaltation, scorn over praise and susceptibility over power completes the mural of God's heart toward you!

Yet we choose what?

Jesus came to set us free from stuff and to replace it with real, authentic life yet we choose what?

Choices are what Christains have that non-christians do not. If we balk at making a choice are we much better off than those who have not choice at all?

Choose the wise choice!

A Orchard of Fruit

I believe the God wants you to know the absolute truth; the bottom line, so to speak; the exact reason why Jesus came to this world:

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.


When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Scripture from chapters one and two of the Book of Colossians)

God has canceled the written code (law) and nailed it to the cross!

Please read through these words several times. Spend some time over then next days meditating with God on these words.
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The overwhelming truth goes even further than the message above. He did not leave us in just a forgiven state; He presented us with a great, beyond belief gift. The Holy Spirit has taken residence within the redeemed!

How is there not giddy joy flowing from His people? How can we stand still in worshipping Him? How can we not talk about Him and what He has done for and in us?

Galatians says that the fruit that comes with the Holy Spirit is:

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and, Self-Control

and it continues:

against such things there is no law!


So, what is it that is quenching the Holy Spirit within you?

Separate yourself from the obstacle and walk into the fruit orchard!

Choose Wisely, We Have Only One Life to Live.

Jesus died!

That statement is enough, however:

Jesus died on a public cross;
on a hill just outside the gates of the large city
right next to a busy roadway.
He was stripped almost naked
people were standing around watching, taunting

Embarassing enough?

So what keep you from talking to the people you know about Jesus? Could it be the fear of embarassment? The irrational fear that keep us from sharing Jesus quickly melts during the initial moments of confronting the fear and doing it anyway!

We all have a clear choice, choose the easy, comfortable way and allow irrational fear to rule our lives or to choose the unfettered joy that comes with living in faith and stomping on irrational fear!

God has invited us into an incredible adventure; but most of us shy away and accept just another "ordinary life".

Choose wisely!

A Real or a False Image?

When I look in a mirror I see the same person I have seen for many years now. When I look across the room at my lovely wife, I see the same wonderful women that I have seen many, many times. So what do I see when I look at God?

The image that I see of myself in the mirror is quite different, in many ways, from the image that I see across the room. Both are images; both are significantly different.

The image that I see when I look at God is first:

-one that looks exactly like Jesus. This is why our investing time with the scripture is so vital,

-one that looks like the collection of the redeemed. This is why scripture exhorts us to “not forsake the gathering together of the saints”, and

-one that looks completely different from any other image ever seen or known. This is why scripture calls us to “be still (or cease striving) and know that I am God”.

God is not far off. He is not hiding; He is not playing games with you! He’s just not like that. It was “that when we were sinners Jesus died” for us. If that isn’t love and intimate pursuit there never was such a thing.

So now, what is the image that you have of our God? We all tend to shrink His image to one that we can understand. I encourage you to grab hold of the avenues for obtaining a realistic presence.