by Pastor Jeff Hanson
Joshua 24:14-15, “Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in
sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers
served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the
LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this
day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served
that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the
LORD.”
Choices, we make several each day and according to the experts the
average individual makes between 33,000 and 35,000 choices each
day.
If you figure you sleep 7-8 hours per day that means in your waking
hours you make approximately 2000 choices per hour or 33 choices
per minute. A lot of those choices you can say are made from habits
or unconscious choices but we do have the option to change those.
Just think of the things you do in the first minutes of your day, you
open your eyes, look at the clock or don’t look at the clock , choose if
you will close those eyes again, roll over, lay on your back, pull those
covers up and try to go back to sleep, do you check your phone for
any messages or calls, do you get up, turn off your sound machine,
find your glasses, put some shorts or pajama bottoms on, go sit on
your comfy chair, or go to the bathroom, do you do #1 or #2 or maybe
both?
Some decisions are still choices even if we make the same ones every
day out of necessity, like going to work, “I owe, I owe, so its off to
work I go”.
The experts also tell us that 226 decisions we make every day are
concerning food, this I think is under estimated as 5 minutes after we
taken the last bite of our lunch my wife is asking what are the plans
for dinner.
Have you been to the grocery store lately? The prices are not the only
thing that’s shocking, the variety is also mind blowing, I like frosted
mini-Wheats, but do you know you can get them strawberry,
chocolate, vanilla, smaller size or even with no frosting. Mountain
Dew you can’t get the original but you can get berry, orange, red, diet,
and even a surprise flavor.
When it comes to our religion you also have literally thousands of
choices out there on what you want to align your beliefs with, many
of them watered down versions:
2Ti 4:3-4, “For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts
shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto
fables.”
Galatians 6:7-8, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall
of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
From the very beginning man had a choice and choose the flesh:
Genesis 3:6-7, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for
food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to
make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them
both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they
sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”
There are many choices we make that we think and feel are right
especially if we do not have Christ in our life or adhere to sound
doctrine.
Pro 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the
end thereof are the ways of death.” Pro 16:9, “A man’s heart deviseth
his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”
Our choices we make on a daily basis should line up with God’s word
and God’s voice,.
Pro 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and
lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge
him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
Our savior Jesus Christ made the supreme choice to become a man,
live under the laws He gave man, suffer, die and thank God was
resurrected for us!
Heb 12:1-3, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin
which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our
faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
Jos 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you
this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord”
Janesville Apostolic Ministries 