Decision (D) – Day

Tags

Choices, Compromise, contradictions, Decisions, Evangelism, maturity, Options

Joel 3:14 “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” (NIV)

Joshua 24:15 “If serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” (NIV)

I Kings 18:21 “Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you ^[a]hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word.” (NIV)

Romans 5:16 “Don’t you realize that grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully, for you surrender yourself to become a servant – bound to the one you chose to obey.” (Passion Translation)

From Genesis to Revelation the bible is riddled with the call to make a decision, to choose, and as much as we as people would rather not choose, we have to make a choice, for the days of living in the indecision are fast ending. When I lived in Malaysia, I realized how American I was when I went to the grocery store and the choices were so limited, there were only 10 cereal choices, rather than the 50 I had in the US. But when I got back from living in Malaysia for 9 years, I realized how Malaysian I had become, because I was overwhelmed by all the choices here in the US. The more choices you have, the more freedom you think you are given, but actually the opposite is true, the less choices you have, the easier it is to decide. Once you decide on one thing, that is where real freedom is found.

It is not freedom to be sleeping around with multiple people, that is bondage, real freedom is being married and living monogamously with one person. It is not freedom to be jumping from job to job because you get offended when you are corrected, real freedom is staying the course, running the race and learning how to live with your cubicle companions over the years. We have bought into the lie that freedom is not choosing, actually, freedom doesn’t come until you make a choice. Anxiety and stress riddle people who are trying to find a house to buy, but peace comes when they finally make a decision. Freedom comes from making your choice, not from leaving your options open out of fear of making the wrong choice.

So, if freedom comes from making a decision, why are we so afraid of making a decision; why does the thought of D-Day rattle us so much? The most popular answer to this question is fear, fear of making the wrong decision. The funny thing about fear is, it keeps you from making a decision, but is nowhere to be found once the decision is made. The Christian challenge is that we have said a prayer but we never made a decision to follow a man. We got baptized in water but we never died to ourselves. We accepted Christ but we never said no to sin. So, we have altered our beliefs to match our experience, which is why you can be a Christian and still have sin as your master; you can live for yourself and still expect to be blessed; you can say whatever you want and not reap what you have sown.

The reason most people do not pick a path is because the gate that leads to life is called death; the path that leads to perfect love is called pain. Most people want relief from their distress, but they do not want to be made whole. We see, feel, experience the consequences of indecision, but yet we do not have the strength to make a different decision. We have become so comfortable with the bondage of indecision, when we meet someone who has made a decision, we get mad at them for they refuse to conform to our discomfort. Jesus didn’t die so you could be comfortable in your contradictions, He died so you could be free from sin. The Lord will never violate your free will, the choice has been and continues to be yours. Decision day is every day and what you decide is up to you, but I want to end by quoting Deuteronomy 30:19, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” (NLT)

Comfortable with Contradictions

Tags

bible, Christianity, contradictions, Growth, Spiritual Maturity

Two weeks ago, I was invited to vote for some friends who are in a band competition and while I was watching the videos of the other bands in the competition, just out of curiosity of the talent, or lack thereof, that they were up against, I came across something that has been disturbing me for 2 weeks now. I have tried to shake what I saw and thought, but as I was reading my bible this morning, the same issue arose, and I just can’t seem to shake it, so decided to speak about it.

While watching those music videos, I came across a band that was singing about trusting in God for whatever comes their way, not living in fear or anxiety about the future. The message of the song, was really powerful, but I was distracted by the chickens running around the video and the band members that were trying to catch these chickens. I know I am of a completely different generation, so take this with a grain of salt, but what I see is that people have become comfortable with contradictions. We are saying, or in this case, singing about one thing, yet our actions, the videos people are seeing are not lining up with what we are saying. The message we are speaking is different than the life we are living and we are comfortable with this.

John 18:28-31 says, 28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. 29 Pilate then went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” 30 They answered and said to him, “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.” 31 Then Pilate said to them, “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.” Therefore the Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.”

The Jews would not kill Jesus because it was not lawful for them to put anyone to death, but they were okay with someone else killing him, as long as they would not break the Mosaic law. Comfortable with contradictions.

This is very disturbing to me on many levels, because when we get comfortable with contradictions, 1)we are confusing those who are listening; 2)we are more powerless than we realize; and 3)we are deceived and we do not even realize it. The bible never affirmed the idea of being comfortable with contradictions, it actually warned against it. James 3:10-12 “10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.”

I realize generations come and generations go, I know culture changes, and that we live in a day and age where these things are accepted as normal, but the Bible does not change, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, and despite what the spirit of the world is saying, the spirit of God is saying that He is not comfortable with contradictions and neither should we be. If we do not speak, sing, shout, show the same thing in our lives, we are living with a contradiction. The problem is not that we have contradictions we have become comfortable with, the problem is that we don’t care. We like saying one thing on facebook and another in church; we like dating unbelievers and are looking for others to say it is okay, we want others to affirm our contradictions and if they don’t we declare they are judging us. I may be from the old school, but one thing I know, is that God is not comfortable with contradictions and neither should we be.

I heard someone say the other day, that he is not concerned with the sins that people struggle with in the church, what concerns him is the lack of alarms that are being sounded in the church about these sins. I guess you could say, I am sounding an alarm, it is time to wake up to the reality that we all live with contradictions, but if you have become comfortable with them and have become comfortable with other people’s contradictions who claim the same name you claim (Christian, disciple of Christ), then we have a problem. It is time to stand up to this spirit that has told us to be comfortable with contradictions.