Choose Life

Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendents may live.

We have a lot of choices in life toady. Multiple choices when it comes to consumer options and lifestyle preferences. Take cell phones for instance, ATT, Verizon, T-mobile, Cricket, Cellular South. I can remember when the only choice for a phone was Bell South. Even then, you had to share a party line because your options were limited.

There are many choices set before us today, over 100 channels on Sirius Radio, 200 plus channels on Cable TV, millions of websites to surf, but there is a choice that God has narrowed down that helps to make your selection easier with all of Life’s options.

Each one of the choices we make are part of God’s options whether we acknowledge it or not. When the Children of Israel changed leadership and were on their way into the Promised Land, God reminded them through Moses that the fate of what happens to them is their choice.

God says, “I set before you today:

1. Life or death. What we decide to do with what God has revealed to us in his word, will either lead to Life or Death. Either we are busy living or busy dying. Have you ever heard somebody who says of a person recklessly living their lives, “He/ She has a death wish?” What we do in life either contributes to living longer or speeds up our dying. How are you living your life? Are you subconsciously choosing death because of the bad choices you are making as you hunger for life? The problem with many young people today is not that they are afraid to die, they are afraid to live.

2. Blessing and Cursing. God has laid out principles for us to live by that have blessings attached and curses as a consequence of our disobedience. The first commandment with a blessing attached to it was, “Honor your mother and father that your days upon the earth may be long.” When you are obedient to God it’s not so much the length of days, but the fullness of days that come as a result of yielding to God as your choice. Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and life more abundantly.” Don’t you think it’s time to choose life?

How do we choose life?

1. Participate in things that honor God. Only what you do for Christ will last.

2. Use your life to make the world better. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that when he died if somebody said that Dr. King died helping other people then his living would not be in vain.

3. Help somebody that can’t help themselves. Jesus said when you do to the least of these, poor, homeless, those in prison, you in essence, do the same thing for him.

4. Don’t participate in any unwholesome talk. Don’t waste your words being negative, use your words to build.

5. Participate in Peace, not war. War always ends in death. WE ought to be peacemakers.

6. Give Life, don’t take it away. Murderers live under a curse. We should be about the business of giving life and not taking it away.

7. Build something for the next generation. A righteous man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.

8. Go Green. God put Adam in charge of the garden to take care of it, not deplete it. Plant a tree this year and help conserve on energy.

9. Eat to live. Add some multi-grains and vegetables to your diet. You are what you eat. Quit eating dead stuff.

10. Ask God to fill you with life-giving Water. Jesus told the woman at the well, if you knew who it was speaking to you, you would have asked him for life-giving water that springs up inside of you eternally. The woman said, “give me this water.”

Dear God, there are so many choices in life until it can make your head spin. But my choice is Jesus; He is the way, the truth, and the life. My abundance comes through my relationship with Jesus, not with the accumulation of more stuff. Thank you for simplifying my life. Less is more, and I get more when I choose Jesus. I choose Life.

In Jesus Name,

Amen.