Choices

When someone tells us that we cannot do something it just makes us want to do it all the more. And when someone tells us that we have to follow certain rules it makes us want to rebel. That is just our human nature.

When I was about 9 years old I loved to play in my Dad's boat. His "old bug". I would sit in the front seat and pretend that I was driving. One day I noticed that my Dad had left his cigarettes in the boat. I had always wondered why my Dad liked smoking them so much so I decided that I would try one. I got out of the "old bug" and took one cigarette out of the pack and lit it. I slowly put it up to my mouth and took a puff. I started to choke. I coughed and coughed. I felt like I was going to throw up!

I definitely did not want my Dad to know that I had tried them so I put everything back in the "old bug" the way that I'd found it. I played for a while longer and then went inside the house. My Dad was watching a golf tournament and my Mom was folding clothes. I was in the kitchen getting something to drink and my Dad came in to ask me what I had been doing. I got a little scared. The first thing that popped out of my mouth was, "Dad, why do you like those cigarettes so much?" He replied, "You have been playing in my "Bug" and tried my cigarettes haven't you?" A huge knot came in my throat and I said, "Yes sir!" I just knew that he was going to yell at me and spank me good. But he didn't! He asked me in a normal toned voice, "Well, what did you think when you tried them?" I stood there for a second, stunned, and then replied, "They're gross!!!!" Dad didn't say anything else at all about it. To this day, I have NEVER put another cigarette in my mouth again.

Dad gave me a choice. He didn't make me choose not to ever try a cigarette again. I think if he had I would have probably tried one again, just because he said not to.

God is a lot like my Dad. God gives you a choice to love Him or not. He does not make you love him.

God created man in His own image. He placed in the soul of man a will. God permits every person to choose his own path. God Himself has authority to choose whether He will do something or not. Thus, God created man with the right and responsibility to make important choices for himself. God could have created man so that we would (automatically) do His will, and not have any choice in the matter. However, God gave to man a free will and the responsibility to choose for himself whether to obey God. God did not want to create a mere machine (robot).


Man is a special creation. God created us for Himself. God wants us to choose to love Him and worship Him. God has committed a great responsibility to man! Man must choose for himself whether to follow God or Satan, whether he will cherish the Word of God or despise it. People choose to allow Satan to influence them. God will not force anyone to believe His Word. He will NEVER force us to love and obey Him. Love is not love if it is coerced.

God allows each of us to choose for ourselves which path to follow. But, in the end, God will judge everyone who rejects His Kingdom, because God created man for Himself.

I choose Jesus: there is NO substitute!