Your Life, Your Choice

Your Life, Your Choice

By Clayton Adams Thirty pieces of silver!

Conceiving in his heart the idea then the plan, he received thirty pieces of silver. This is how much money ($300-$600) Judas received from the religious leaders for betraying Jesus. In the end, it was Judas' heart that betrayed him and as he threw down the money he desperately regretted his choice. Judas' choice had a consequence.

Has your heart ever betrayed you? Longing for something or someone we hurriedly make our plans, justifying our motivation and confirming our hearts desire we make our choice. The easiest person to fool and trick is ourselves.

The God of the Bible is a God of choice, a God of love, grace, mercy and justice. He is holy, righteous and does not desire anyone to perish without an opportunity to be saved. (2 Peter 3:9) God does not “send” people to hell. Neither does He create people to send them to hell. People choose to either accept God through His Son Jesus or deny God it is by our choice that we enter heaven or hell.

Saved from what? Saved from an eternity in hell, which is described in the Bible as a place of never ending pain, such pain that is unimaginable to the human mind even though we can read about in the Bible. Hell was never supposed to be the eternal home for humans – it is to be the eternal home of the devil and all the angels that revolted with him in heaven. We have a choice to make.

Adam and Eve, God said, were to use everything He created and were able to eat anything in the Garden of Eden except from one specific tree. (Genesis 2) Guess what they did? They chose to eat from that one tree. Adam and Eve's choice had a consequence.

King Solomon, the third king of Israel, prayed for the Lord to help him rule the ancient and great nation of Israel. God was so pleased with Solomon's humility that God blessed him with the wisdom to make wise decisions and great wealth. I don't believe anyone since has had the wealth of Solomon. Solomon was to keep his focus on God and his job. But Solomon made choices along the way, married a whole bunch of women and due to their influence upon him, he changed his focus, he made his choices to pursue the gods of his wives. (1 Kings 11:1-5) Solomon's choice had a consequence.

Herod, the political ruler for the Romans in the city of Jerusalem during the time of Jesus made a choice. The consequence of his choice sat on a platter for all to see. (Matthew 14) Your choices will have consequences too. One can deny God, but creation, nature and all that we see and experience, are testaments to God and His creative power. The problem with our choices is that they are first conceived in our hearts. Our hearts deceive us when it comes to making decisions. God said, 'The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? 'I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:910) I am thankful that God is clear in His Word – He lays out the choices available for us, gives us opportunity to make our choices, tells us of our reward for making good or bad choices and loves us the whole time no matter what choice we make.

Live for the here and now, pleasure, pride, greatness, excess, live without God if you choose but there will be no denying that on Judgment Day there will be two groups of people.

There will be one group of people on the right and one group of people on the left. (Matthew 25:31-34) Your choices in this life will determine which group you are in.

God sets the boundaries, He has provided both good and bad examples for to learn from, He has given to us the power of His Holy Spirit, the Fellowship of Believers and His Holy Word – all are available to us but in the end it is our life, our choice.

What will you do with your life? It is your choice. Clayton Adams is pastor at Earle First Assembly of God. You can e-mail him at cpalaa@yahoo.com, or find Earle First Assembly on Facebook.

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