The Power of Choice

"We live in a society of blame, and I believe this is one main reason as to why this is the case: the further a society walks away from the reality of the cross, the more it feels the almost insatiable need to blame others.

To be honest, I am a little tired of always having to provide a why to people encouraging them to obey God. It is just another sign of a society that has too many rights and lacks an understanding of the Kingship of Christ.

In my research, God never told Job why he went through all of his hardships. God only expected him to trust.

In like manner, we seem to always need 5 reasons as to why we should obey God or an explanation as to why something will work for our betterment.

God will not operate on our terms in such a way. He is the Great God whose very presence demands our obedience whether it works for our benefit or not.

Food for thought.... Dr. Force"



A fork in the road demands a choice, does it not?

I pause, praying that that one sentence arrests the rote, almost catatonic, state each of us wrestles against daily.

Let me say again:

A fork in the road demands a choice, does it not? 

So many operate as if they have no choice or that their choice has been made for them, and to a degree, if not truly awake in Christ, it has been - by the social "norms"  in which we live.

Let me give a few examples and the commonly approved choice in society. As you read these hypothetical scenarios -- often played out in reality, exam your own heart. Does your reaction affirm 1) Christ's Kingship, His principles, and any yet-to-come-undetermined-God-justice, or 2) society's accepted principles and so-called justice in the now?

A courtroom scene.... a defendant awaits their fate.... the victim's family breathlessly awaits justice..... the judge reads the verdict... "The jury finds the defendant guilty"... the victim's family erupts with fractured zeal.

One spouse is caught cheating on the other.... rapid separation ensues.... divorce is finalized.... they "move on"....the fractured consensus: it was "best" for everyone involved.

A prostitute ....addicted to crack becomes pregnant.... gives birth... the child dies.... the fractured sentiment: though a tragedy, at least the child didn't suffer or become a ward of the state.

As a member of society, would you accept or challenge these socially accepted fractured ideas of what defines just?

I don't know about you, but I know without any doubt that Christ does NOT condone "fractured anything" IN His Kingdom.

So, does it make any sense whatsoever to pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done"  - EVEN AS we, followers of Christ, so fervently hold on to the painfully fractured "ways and means" of this world's irreconcilable idea of what is just?

I've come to understand in a deeply personal, yet broad reaching manner, God's way is meant to CHALLENGE me at my very core of who I say I am ....and VERY MUCH flies directly in the face of what society purports to be right... to be "fair" .... to be just.

It's really easy to say we believe in Christ; as the cliche goes: so does the devil.

But it's an entirely different paradigm to LIVE as Christ calls us to live....forgiving AND releasing in totality when we, socially speaking, have the "right" -- often legal right -- to harbor offense and demand imminent justice; or as we often say "just desert".

The bottom line is YOU and I have choices to make daily that either reflect the principles of society or reflect the principles of Christ's Kingship.  Understand, these two are POLAR opposite to one another.  ZERO gray zone.

His principles are forever intertwined in an irrevocable SELFLESS manner with the Cross and the Father.
The world's principles, in stark contrast, are deeply rooted in self-first at all costs.

While society would have us believe we have the "right" to seek justice and "collect blood," so to speak... Christ blitzes all of humanity's circuits and cries out today, just as He did some 2000 years ago, "FORGIVE them for they know not what they do."    Do we ego His words?

(Oh, I know, dear ones, this STINGS.  I implore you... let it sting. In the end, it is a purifying sting.)

How is the extension of forgiveness exercised in the face of unimaginable breaches such as murder, affairs, abuse?  It is exercised once we get down off our pompous pedestals and realize we are ALL wretched and undone sans Christ.

There is NO offense, NO sin too great that Christ's sacrifice has not already settled.

One can live a fractured, "settlement issued today - things are better off this way" kind of existence that lines up with society's ill-fated attempt at what defines just.....

OR

...they can wrestle their humanistic inflated opinion out before Christ, guaranteed to have them leaving the ring with a far superior Kingdom understanding than when they dared to enter the ring.

I've walked out a very long season that did not endure for weeks nor months, but years.... not knowing with certainty what the outcome would be.  I didn't have a preset outcome in mind, often stating to those closest to me, "I do not hold the pen, therefore I do not determine the period."  Each day I awoke, I set the goal that my walk would honor Him...no matter what.  There was never, not once, an "easy day" in all those many years because to walk with Christ takes a path altogether uncommon and altogether uncomfortable to our mortal being.

Understand, the same evil that cried out "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" some 2000 years ago is the same evil that cries out today to you and I , "Crucify him (or her), crucify him  (or her)!"  The question is ---  will you take the bait, go the way of the world, and crucify him or her; OR will you determine to walk the mind-blitzing-God-honoring way of forgiveness and mercy -- leaving justice - true justice to the One Innocent who was slain?

The POWER of CHOICE

Choose WISELY....

"Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, 

I saw the sin of them.

Jesus Christ had died for this man; 

was I going to ask for more?""

Corrie Ten Boom

Live long enough, claiming Christ as your Savior AND your LORD, and you, likewise, WILL most certainly be challenged to forgive what you think is THE worst. 

I cannot emphasize the magnitude your choice holds at these pivotal forks in the road:

Will you take the path rarely traveled, embracing the searing pain of injustice with the understanding, "I do not hold the pen, therefore I do not determine the period"...

OR...

Will you take the common path by many, seeking to escape the pain of injustice by taking matters into your own hand, daring to write your own ending?

Do you know what often determines which path is taken?

Patience and humility;
be they absent or be they present.

The carnal man is impatient and thinks highly of himself, wanting what he wants now, the way he wants it. It is the way of a child. But those who commit to grow in Christ, who want growth more than their next breath, learn to traverse life with patience in surrender to the One who authored it.  LIFE itself obeys one Master.... and neither you nor I am it.

Do you have such an understanding, or at the very least, can pinpoint growth in your understanding?

We are all sojourners here ....temporary dwellers. Make no mistake: to walk with God demands a death, a calling to a place you will never envision nor obtain apart from Him.

My edification to you; my heart for you: COURAGE UP, dear ones, and take the path rarely traversed....the Kingdom path....authored by the Only One True King.....