Choose God.

"When the author walks on to the stage the play is over.  God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else--something it never entered your head to conceive--comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left?  For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.  It will be too late then to choose your side.  There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up.  That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not.  Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side.  God is holding back to give us that chance.  It will not last for ever.  We must take it or leave it."~from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (emphasis mine)

C.S. Lewis really got me thinking today.  Life is a string of choices.  Every choice has a consequence. Most of the time we know where a particular string leads us; sometimes we are surprised.  The consequences range from simple to complex, from right now to later, from immediately aware of it to didn't really see that coming.  But there are also some areas of our lives where we have no choice.  For example, I have no choice that the hair on my head grows curly.  No matter how I cut it or if I take a straightener to it, the fact is, my hair will still grow out curly.  I also don't have a choice that I'm 5'9".  I can, however, choose to be taller by wearing heels, but the fact of the matter is that when I take off my heels, I'll still be 5'9".  

God has given us choice.  He did design us in His divine image without consulting us on the design.  (Can you just imagine if we did have any say in our design?!)  However, He has given us the freedom of how we choose to take care of His design.  He also has given us the freedom of whom we follow.  We all--every single one of us--will follow someone or something!  We were designed to.  Even great leaders of nations follow someone or something.  

"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Joshua 24:15

Think for a moment that you suddenly became blind with no chance of ever seeing again.  The choice of going to see what Paris looks like from the Eiffel Tower is gone.  The choice to see your baby smile for the first time is gone.  The choice to see the display of colors hidden in the corals and underwater caves of the Caribbean Sea is gone.  Your bucket list of things to see and do have become extremely reduced and limited.  This is how it will be when Christ returns.  

We will no longer have a choice of who we follow when He returns.  Right now we have a choice.  Who we follow will determine where we will be for all eternity.  Your choice is: Christ or not Christ.  It's as simple as choosing: right or left; up or down; on or off.  Some of you might be thinking, "Well, I have a hard time even making those simple choices!"  Let me help you out, then: Choose Christ.  You'll never regret it.  And when He does return--and He will!--or when He decides to take you from this earth, you'll never mourn the loss of ever having the choice again.  You'll be standing behind your choice with joy and thanksgiving.  In fact, if you choose Christ today, you won't have to wait for that joy and thanksgiving.  You'll be living it.

Don't wait or delay in choosing whom you will follow.  Choose God. He has already chosen you.

More of God

If you know anything about who God is, you would know His timing is IMPECCABLE, perfect, spot on.  You would also know that not only is His timing perfect, but what He provides at that precise moment is also perfect.

My small group takes a break over the summer months as many of us travel and our schedules are a bit more difficult to match up, so I had been thinking about what Bible study we would do when came back together in August.  I had several in mind, but none of them seemed like they were "the one" we all needed to hear.  Do you know what I mean?  Any of the selections I had thought of would have been great and we would've certainly gotten a lot out of them, but none of them felt like they would hit us in the deep core of our beings, where we needed to be hit with the truth the most.  I briefly (and I mean briefly like a passing thought) prayed about it.  Without any effort God directed me to our next study.  Don't you love when He does that?!

The best part about being directed to this next Bible study that my small group will be doing is that God provided me with the opportunity to be a part of the launch team in promoting this new Bible study for women!  How awesome is that?!  Truthfully, when I applied, I did not think I would be selected to be a part of the team.  I doubted and came up with every reason why I wouldn't be selected.  How often in life do we sabotage ourselves like that?  Didn't God Himself pick out people who appeared "Least Likely to Be Used by God" for His great purposes?  Remember Saul/Paul?  He was killing the very people He later risked His life to save for the kingdom of God.  And what about Moses?  He was very self-conscious about His leadership skills and speaking abilities, yet God chose Him to speak to and lead millions of people.  Why does God do that?  So that His glory is shown; so that He is known.  The less we are, the more He is.

#ArmorOfGodStudy
http://bit.ly/AOGLaunch

The less we are,

 the more He is.  

As I write these words, I realize how challenging this--being less--is for me.  I have to ask for your forgiveness if any part of this blog glorifies me.  My intention is to glorify God.  I'm at constant warfare over how to make Him more and me less.  I know it involves a daily (even a second-by-second) surrendering of self.  This is the battle we all face.  This is the war we are in. Which brings me back to the excitement of this new Bible study by Priscilla Shirer that's coming out August 1: The Armor of God.  God has fully equipped us to fight in this ongoing spiritual warfare, and I CANNOT WAIT to find out more about this "equipment" and how to use it in my daily battles!  God's faithful provisions are perfect, and His timing impeccable.

Click on this link (see below) to find out more about this Bible study for women and join me in fighting for the cause of Christ!

http://bit.ly/AOGLaunch

All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. 

~2 Corinthians 4:15~