MAKING CHOICES

We are called to walk with God
A walk that is separately His.
His walk.
Not to a walk that the world knows.

The values are not the same as the values we've known.
Certainly the intentions of heart and
the spirit of this walk
cannot be the same as what is found around us.

We are vessels to be filled with the nature of God,
His very Spirit: Holy Spirit.
Filled and changed by the flowing ...
To exemplify the character of God in the earth,
Our hands His hands, our speech His,
Our life His life.
He said He would write His law upon our hearts
by first giving to us hearts of flesh
instead of the stony ones we have. (a,b)
That's a promise.

We are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood
to show forth the praises of Him Who has
called us out of darkness
into His marvelous light! (c)

We pray to become what we are called of God to be.
We see our erring and we look to God for His grace.
To be more than forgiven.
To be changed.

Is He faithful?
Yes.
Is God able to change us?
Yes.
Is He teaching us His ways?
Yes.
Are we yielding to His ways?

If you sense there is a battle between what you used to do
and
what you want to do - because you belong to God,
then you are becoming pliable enough to truly yield.
He is working this understanding into you.
That's why there is this battle.

When you or I choose God's way,
then yes we are yielding.

Choices.
"I set before you life and death,
Choose life", Jehovah told His chosen people.
"Try my reigns, try my heart," David cried out.
"See if there be any wicked way in me..."  (d,e,f)

This is the trying of our reins,
This is The Trial:
The Choice.

Circumstances, schmirkumstances. They are not The Trial.
God creates circumstances, perfectly positioning them
just to
get you
and I
into position
to make
The Choice.

His way
or
ours.
His life
or
this life.
His words
or
my own array of speculation and conclusions.

I am remarkably wrong.
Books could be written on the depths of my errors, it seems.
But He is
incredibly, unmistakably, absolutely
True.
And He offers me His truth
into my heart
out of His love for me.

Ahh, His love...
His love is so great
So great that He invites us to walk with Him
in His holiness.

Holy means separate, different,
other than what is known.
So He is asking us to join Him in His
separate, different, unusual-to-us,
even perhaps lonely
walk
With Him.

We are not holy of ourselves.
No, we are common man by ourselves.
Only God is holy.
There's nobody like Him!

We walk with Him.
He does not walk "with" us.
Of course, we think He does,
but no.
God is fixing things so that we walk with Him.
With Him in His way, His path, His order, His ideas...

His love is so great -
that He invites us into the miracles
of His supernatural:
the power of His Spirit,
the unfolding of His mercy,
the depths of His compassion,
the heights of His judgments,
the vastness of His grace...

His grace...

Grace is unmerited favor.
Unmerited favor is attention and blessing that you don't deserve.
And unmerited favor from God Himself is
having the face of God shine on you and light your pathway
out of the darkness that you walked into
by your own choices.

And
God chose
YOU.

He picked you out to know Him and
somehow you responded to Him.
Somehow His love got to you and
made you come near to Him, and
...and now
you are finding out what
He is all about.

We are not an experiment
and He is not toying with us.
And we are not destined for failure
and He is not making a mockery of you,
His child.

You are favored by God,
Whether you feel it or not.
Whether you think you deserve it or not.
(And I'll clue you in - you didn't deserve it!)

Because your (and my) errors that deserved separation
FROM God,
were paid for
by God Himself
out of His great love for us!
Jesus died, rose from death,
and sprinkled his own blood
God's blood ---
God's blood that ran through the veins of Jesus--
onto the seat of Mercy in the heavens, where Jesus now sits.
God sees His own mercy when He looks at you.

And know this ---
HE LOOKS AT YOU.
His face shines on you.
Because you are in Christ when you received Jesus as your sacrifice.
And God sees Jesus, and you in Jesus' blood.
That is why you and I can stand before God, The King of All,
because we are covered.

We are God's, redeemed in Christ and His face is shining upon us,
making Day
out of our long, lonely Night.
Working this natural life around us to bring us to places
in His heart's desire for us...
yes, using everything in His command
to guide us, to shepherd us
into
more of His light
more of His life
more of His favor
more of His attention...
all of His love. (g)

Look up! See Him!
Look up past the hills, the sky, to the heavens
Seek God's face!
Honor His favor on you by giving Him your attention
which He so deserves! (h,i)
Choose Him!

Because of Love.

God's love shown and sent down to man,
God's love shown to us by His son, face to face,
God's love in us today, by His Spirit working in us,
His Love
will change our minds, transform us inside and out,
and take us home.


Ephesians 4:21-25New King James Version (NKJV)
       21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him,
as the truth is in Jesus:
      22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct,
the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
      23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
      24 and that you put on the new man which was
created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.


****Scriptural References from the NKJV *****

a) Mark 2:22
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins;
or else the new wine bursts the wineskins,
the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined.
But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

b) Ezekiel 36:26
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;
I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and
give you a heart of flesh.

Jeremiah 31:33
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in
their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their
God, and they shall be My people.

c)1 Peter 2:9,10 (KJV)
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an
holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light;
Which in time past were not a people, but are now
the people of God: which had not obtained mercy,
but now have obtained mercy.

d) Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;
therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants
may live;

e) Psalm 26:1-3
Vindicate me, O Lord,
For I have walked in my integrity.
I have also trusted in the Lord;
I shall not slip.
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me;
Try my mind and my heart.
For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes,
And I have walked in Your truth.

f) Psalm 139:23-24King James Version (KJV)
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

g) Ephesians 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should
walk in them.

h) Hebrews 10:12-17New King James Version (NKJV)
12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down at the right hand of God,
13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
       14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
    16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”[a]
    17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”[b]


i) Colossians 3
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.