Choice v. Decision

Matthew 5:44, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

My friend Aaron was used by God yesterday to show me a distinction between choice, or choosing, and making a decision. The thoughts or attempts to understand it continued beyond bedtime and into this morning where my daily devotional time once again touched on this idea of choosing.

And so, in an attempt to condense the lesson into an understandable, concise thought, I would say that it is first necessary to understand that a choice is made when choosing between objects. Decision on the other hand is the process of picking between different actions.

Aaron used the objects of chocolate and vanilla ice cream to illustrate his point. I would say consider this:

Someone offers you a Ferrari and a Volkswagen Beetle. Both are free of charge, but you can only have one. For me, my “Choice” would be the Ferrari. However there is something inside of me that says that even if the Ferrari was free, I would not be able to afford the operating costs so I had better choose the Volkswagen. To take the Volkswagen would be a decision, whereas for me to take the Ferrari would be a choice.

With me so far?

But in order for me to “choose” the Ferrari, I would necessarily have to not consider the costs. My “choice” of the Ferrari would have to be unconditional.

Sound familiar? Unconditional being so commonly associated with the love of Christ, and the love that Christ requires of us.

And thus, loving an enemy becomes a choice, and not a decision. Sure love seems to be an action, but really it is not. Love as a choice is to say I have no conditions on this person. They do not have to treat me right for me to care for them. They can treat me wrong, and I will still care for them. I choose them without consideration, unconditionally, without decision process, and love is created.

And so this bud of choice opens up into a flower of choice. God chooses us unconditionally. Have you chosen God, or have you made a decision based on fear, consequences, rewards, or some other action? The kingdom of God is real. Have you chosen today the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of Satan?

Have you chosen your spouse, or did you make a decision concerning them?

Have you chosen your job, or make a decision to take it?

Have you chosen life today, or death?

Have you chosen freedom today, or slavery?

Aaron also told me a story of Nelson Mandela. He said that one day in prison Nelson Mandela said, ‘wall, I choose you to be here; wall, I choose you to be here; wall, I choose you to be here; door, I choose you to be here; skin, I choose you to be this color.’ And then he lay on the floor laughing and crying. When asked by the guard what was wrong he said, “I am free.”

Choose today Who will be the object of your affection, choose Who will get your obedience. Choose Who will be that unconditional choice.

"If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve..." Joshua 24:15

The Game

Revelation 12:11, "And they overcame him (the devil) because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death."

If we are going to play a game, don't you think we should know the objective? And yet we wonder around the game of life never really questioning the end objective. So can I be very clear? The objective of life is for the kingdom of God to utterly displace the kingdom of Satan. To do this, God is demanding that we be a part.

Let me regress for background purposes. The Bible says Satan fell from heaven because he was proud and tried to exalt himself to be equal to God. Some are confused and think that he now is in some epic battle to displace God from his throne. This is not the case at all. Satan knows he cannot replace God. He knows that he cannot capture God and make Him do his will. On the contrary, Satan's only objective is to delay his judgment for as long as possible.To use an analogy, Satan is out on bond, and he is trying to manipulate the bondsman into not picking him up so that God can carry out his sentence.

We know that Satan's judgment is imminent (the return of Christ) when the gospel of the kingdom is heralded with accompanying evidence to all nations. In other words when someone is truly living in the gospel of the kingdom everywhere in the world. (Matt 24:14) We also know that living in the gospel of the kingdom is also equivalent to seeking God's face v. His hand. As a result we know that the "generation" who seeks His face continually will be this end generation. (Psalms 24:6, 27:8, 105:4) This end generation will be what scripture calls the Royal Priesthood, the Holy Nation. And so Satan is about stopping the rise of this generation.

Romans 8:29 talks about being like Jesus, conformed to His image, "so that He would be firstborn among many brethren;" This "brethren" is the chosen generation. This "brethren" along with Christ is the "he" who shall bruise the head of Satan. Look at the referenced scripture. The end generation will overcome Satan. They will overcome him, bring about his judgement because they have lived under the life power of Christ fully. They will be the generation that wholly surrenders to Him, to be His reflection. Such a complete surrender that even death does not stand in the way.

So the game for Satan is to stop the emergence of this generation. All he has to do is move us off course the slightest of degrees. He first tries to kill the idea altogether. He was the inspiration of the murder of Abel and the favor Able found with God. When murder fails the devil, he resorts to dilution. A lie sprinkled in the truth, a tare sown in the field of wheat is all he needs to prolong his freedom. Only hinder, limit, or suppress a godly life and Satan, the enemy, and achieved his objective of prolonging his judgment.

The game is kingdom of Satan v the kingdom of God. The playing field is in our very hearts.

"How shall his (the devil's) kingdom be destroyed? By the nature of the Lamb being so developed in us, the people of God, that all that other kingdom of Satan is undone in principle. And the power of this kingdom, which is an everlasting kingdom, is the power of the nature of Him of Whom it is said, "Thy kingdom..." T Austin-Spraks in The Cross, the Church, and the Kingdom.

I will close with the paradox of it all. We can only ask to be part for ourselves. We can merely seek God's face. It is up to Him to grant us the revelation, the access. Likewise God has already selected out of the future the chosen generation. Our question is, will we be part of it?

Iron Sharpens Iron

Proverbs 27:17, "Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

I am so looking forward to Tomball Love Machine this morning. It is a small group community of people who for the most part share little in common besides a desire to choose life. All of us are learning to truly live in this chaotic and confusing world. It is a time, like the proverb says, of iron sharpening iron. It is a time to look critically at oneself, and to see the truth in Christ reflected back. These thoughts are not only mine.

Henry Nouwen had these thoughts as well. Someone titled them A Choice Calling for Discipline. I think the title could have been different, regardless this is what he had to say on the subject.

"When we look critically at the many thoughts and feelings that fill our minds and hearts, we may come to the horrifying discovery that we often choose death instead of life, curse instead of blessing.  Jealousy, envy, anger, resentment, greed, lust, vindictiveness, revenge, hatred ... they all float in that large reservoir of our inner life.  Often we take them for granted and allow them to be there and do their destructive work. 

But God asks us to choose life and to choose blessing.  This choice requires an immense inner discipline.  It requires a great attentiveness to the death-forces within us and a great commitment to let the forces of life come to dominate our thoughts and feelings.  We cannot always do this alone; often we need a caring guide or a loving community to support us.   But it is important that we both make the inner effort and seek the support we need from others to help us choose life."

Choose life, and find a community, a small group, some friends who will support you in that choice, and walk the same path in their own life.