Make Sure Your Choice is a Good One.

Choose this day whom you will serve. (Joshua 24:15)

Life is full of choices. Most of our life is governed by choices we make or even choices others made for us when we were young.

My mother’s siblings made a choice in early adult life to emigrate to Canada. My mother chose to stay in Scotland. The choice she made has affected my whole life.

In the Bible, we frequently read of choices. Abraham and his nephew Lot, were bound by family ties and fellow travellers to the land of Canaan. However, Abraham chose the high places, far away from worldliness and evil while Lot chose to dwell on the plains, the gateway to sin.

Caiaphas was the High Priest and head of the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. He made the decision to hand Jesus over to Pilate in order that he might be crucified. Nicodemus, however, also a member of the Sanhedrin, spoke out in defence of Jesus (John 7:51) and took his stand with Jesus when he, along with Joseph of Arimathea, took Jesus’ body away for burial after the consequences of Caiaphas’s choice had been accomplished.
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In Matthew’s gospel, we read the story of a rich young man who, after hearing Jesus’ call to follow him reacted mournfully: 

“But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.” (Matthew 19:22)

Contrast this with the extremely wealthy tax collector Zacchaeus who, upon encountering Jesus said,
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"Look, Lord! Here and now, I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” (Luke 10:8)

Both were very rich men, but they apparently made very different choices in relation to Jesus.

Like all these individuals, throughout life we face choices, and our decisions will either lead us into a deeper relationship with Christ, or further away from Him. Billy Graham once said, “You choose sin. You practice sin.” It’s also true that you choose holiness and you practice holiness.

​Today we will all make choices, make sure yours are good ones.

Pauline Anderson