The Power of Choice
When God made man in the beginning he gave him dominion (or power) over
everything he made.
Gen. 1:28-30 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon
the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree
yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth,
and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
As we look at these verses you can see God gave man a lot of power over a lot of
things. But there is a power not mentioned here in Genesis chapter one.
Gen. 2:15-17
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it
and to keep it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die.
We find here in chapter two that God gave man another power that may be the most
powerful of all, the power of choice or to choose.
This is the first, thou shall not, found in the Bible. By God saying to Adam
thou shall not eat of it, we see the power of choice given to Adam. This is a
power we all have and use everyday. We make hundreds of choices everyday. But
most people don’t realize or take note of this power. We recognize the power of
other things such as our physical power, the power of emotions, the power of
money, etc.
But here is a power that goes unnoticed by many. It was there in the Garden of
Eden when the serpent was talking to the woman, she had the power to choose but
she made the wrong choice. She then took this fruit that God had said ye shall
not eat of and gave it to her husband and he ate also and they died. He could
have said no to his wife and everything would have been okay. The right choice
made by him would have saved them, but he didn’t and look at the price he paid.
There are so many we find in the Bible that made the wrong choices like Adam and
we see the price they have paid.
Are you making the right choices in life??
Josh. 24:14-15
Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put
away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in
Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. 15And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord,
choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in
whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
We find here that the man of God made a choice. He had to choose whom he would
serve, the gods of his fathers or the true God. You and I have a choice today as
to whom or what we will serve. I hope you make the right choice. If you don’t
you will pay a great price also.
Before I close on this thought I would like to say that there are some things
God has chosen for us and we have NO CHOICE, except to out right deny God like
Adam and the woman. Lets read here in…
Deut. 12:1-14
These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land,
which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that
ye live upon the earth. 2Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the
nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and
upon the hills, and under every green tree: 3And ye shall overthrow their
altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall
hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of
that place. 4Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God. 5But unto the place
which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name
there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: 6And
thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your
tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill
offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: 7And there ye
shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your
hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.
8Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man
whatsoever is right in his own eyes. 9For ye are not as yet come to the rest and
to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you. 10But when ye go over
Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and
when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in
safety; 11Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to
cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you;
your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering
of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the Lord: 12And ye
shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters,
and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your
gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you. 13Take heed to
thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest:
14But in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou
shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command
thee.
After reading these verses all I can say is that now the power of choice is
yours!!
What will you do?
Acts 2:37-38 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and
said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we
do? 38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost.
Peter tells us what we must do to be saved; again the power of choice is yours…
What will you do?
May God bless you and I hope you will always make the right choices in life. The
choice is yours.
The Church of Jesus Christ
Bis. Jarret R. Spence, Pastor
Portage, IN