Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
God is so loving, caring and merciful toward all of us. But God is also faithful, honorable and true to His word. God never negates our God-given free will or free choice that we have as humans. Yes humans are the most intelligent of all of God’s created creatures but that intelligence gets us into trouble on many occasions especially when it comes to areas of faith. Faith and human intelligence are complete opposites, like hot and cold, and are combustible forces, like gas and fire, as well. These two do not mix nor can they co-exist. One cannot successfully walk with God or live a Godly life and rely on human intellect to guide them through it. God is fully aware of the limitations and flaws of human logic and reason that is why He created faith as a superior means of living in both the physical and spiritual realms of life. I love this passage from Deuteronomy for it shows God’s love for us and God’s compassion toward us as humans with limited capabilities to navigate our existence on the earth. This is nothing more than a one question multiple choice test with eternal consequences. Many people ask me, how can God send one of His creations to Hell? They also say that if God is a loving God, then why doesn’t God just let everybody into Heaven? My response is found throughout the Word of God and that is that God does not send anyone to Hell people choose to go because they do not choose to receive eternal life in Jesus Christ and God does desire for everyone to go to Heaven but God will not take away free will so each of must choose to follow His way and His ways. In this verse it is extremely clear that God desires for each person to live the best life possible. Could you imagine being given a test of one question with four choices: life, death, blessings and curses. It is easy to go through a process of elimination to arrive at a higher percentage choice and give your self the best chance at success and getting it right. However, God tells you the answer before you make a choice. He says “therefore choose life” I would have passed every class of mine in school with a perfect score if my teachers and professors had given me the correct answer before I made a choice. God says that the answer is life not death, blessings or curses and it is our choice to make, but if we have been given the answer and we still choose poorly then is it God’s fault? No it is not. It is also interesting that many Christians choose wrong in this also because too many of our brothers and sisters are after blessings and not life. Jesus said in John 14:6 “ I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the father but by me.” Simply put there are no blessings without life, but in life (Jesus Christ-the ultimate expression of God’s love for humanity) is where all blessings exist. Also in John 10:10 Jesus tell us that “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Too many Christians are chasing blessings but are not chasing Christ. This is why blessings seem like the right answer but it is not, blessings are conditional but life (Jesus Christ-the ultimate expression of God’s love for humanity) is an unconditional gift from God all we have to do is choose the answer that God has told us was the correct one. If you would mark the correct answer because your earthly teacher told you it was correct then surely God telling you the choice you should make for your eternal existence should be easy, after all He is the one grading your test (life). God realizes that we do not have the capacity as humans to make the best choices all of the time so he made it easy for us by telling us the answer and all we have to do is use our God-given free will and make the right choice, if we don’t we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Challenge:
Seek God on every choice you make in life. Take a moment to ask God what His choice would be in your situation and choose what God tells you to choose. You may not like the answer God gives you but it is still the only choice that you should make for it is the only correct one.
God is so loving, caring and merciful toward all of us. But God is also faithful, honorable and true to His word. God never negates our God-given free will or free choice that we have as humans. Yes humans are the most intelligent of all of God’s created creatures but that intelligence gets us into trouble on many occasions especially when it comes to areas of faith. Faith and human intelligence are complete opposites, like hot and cold, and are combustible forces, like gas and fire, as well. These two do not mix nor can they co-exist. One cannot successfully walk with God or live a Godly life and rely on human intellect to guide them through it. God is fully aware of the limitations and flaws of human logic and reason that is why He created faith as a superior means of living in both the physical and spiritual realms of life. I love this passage from Deuteronomy for it shows God’s love for us and God’s compassion toward us as humans with limited capabilities to navigate our existence on the earth. This is nothing more than a one question multiple choice test with eternal consequences. Many people ask me, how can God send one of His creations to Hell? They also say that if God is a loving God, then why doesn’t God just let everybody into Heaven? My response is found throughout the Word of God and that is that God does not send anyone to Hell people choose to go because they do not choose to receive eternal life in Jesus Christ and God does desire for everyone to go to Heaven but God will not take away free will so each of must choose to follow His way and His ways. In this verse it is extremely clear that God desires for each person to live the best life possible. Could you imagine being given a test of one question with four choices: life, death, blessings and curses. It is easy to go through a process of elimination to arrive at a higher percentage choice and give your self the best chance at success and getting it right. However, God tells you the answer before you make a choice. He says “therefore choose life” I would have passed every class of mine in school with a perfect score if my teachers and professors had given me the correct answer before I made a choice. God says that the answer is life not death, blessings or curses and it is our choice to make, but if we have been given the answer and we still choose poorly then is it God’s fault? No it is not. It is also interesting that many Christians choose wrong in this also because too many of our brothers and sisters are after blessings and not life. Jesus said in John 14:6