19 Everyday you are choosing life or death!
This little tract is intended for professing Christians Only!
Everyday you are choosing life or death! Many people seem to go day-by-day, just whizzing along, but not really getting anywhere spiritually; we keep very busy, oftentimes too busy for God! I am amazed at how many people profess to being a Christian, and yet in so many ways they do not follow the Lord, but instead, they follow the principles of this world. Examine your life, yes, take a moment right now, use this little tract as a sounding board, find out how much of what you do and think is from the Lord, and is pleasing to God, and how much is of the world, and against the very precepts and teachings of the Lord Jesus.
Jesus was sent into this world with one objective, to seek and to save that which was lost! In Matthew 1:21 The Angel of the Lord told Joseph the mission of our Lord and Savior. "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." When we are saved by Jesus according to Matthew 1:21, we are saved from the bondage to sin! The Lord also wants to bring each and every one of us into a life of sanctification. Of course, in order for this to happen we must have a renewed mind. Ephesians 4:23 And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, also Romans 12:2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Colossians 3:10. And have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him. Until we have the “renewed mind” we will not understand the will and ways of God. We will forever be substituting “busyness” for peace! Until we beg of God to give us the “renewed mind” we will always be making the same mistakes with our spiritual life. This “renewed mind” is the mind of Christ, for when God’s word uses the phrase “renewed mind” it is speaking of nothing else but the mind of Christ. In the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve made a choice, and the choice that they made brought death to all of us. And it is from this choice that we must be saved. Let’s take a look at the choice that they made. Genesis 3:1-6 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, `You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.'" And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die! "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
Notice the name of this tree, which is in the middle of the garden, the tree the Devil wanted them to eat from, the only tree in the garden that God did not want them to eat from. Genesis 2:16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die."
What was the temptation the Devil tempted Eve with? Genesis 3:5 “Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Look at Eve’s response to the temptation. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” This is the choice that they made! Now she thinks that she is wise, and can decide what is good and what is evil. But the truth is that from the time they ate of that tree that God called “The tree of knowledge of good and evil” they started looking to their own understanding, instead of looking to God to lead them. They started looking to their own wisdom! This was the beginning of “walking by sight” in place of being led by God! One of the first acts they did, can be found in Genesis 3:8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. They hid themselves from the Lord! Human thinking, great isn’t it? Running and hiding from the only one that could help them. Now because they think that they can reason as well as God, they go about living their life without looking to God for His leadership.
Let’s see what the Bible has to say about human thinking, apart from God, Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” You might think you know what to do, yes, you might be really sure, but remember, our thinking apart from God “is the way of death!” Now let’s look at how Jesus operated, John 8:28. Jesus therefore said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And again in John 5:30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. Jesus did not go “the way of death!”
This is the only way we can live a holy life that is pleasing to God. We must be led of God’s Spirit, seeking God’s will, continually, from the time we awake in the morning until we go to sleep at night. The moment we start
taking over in the decision making depart-ment, we stop abiding in Christ. We cease being led of God’s Spirit, and the fountain of sin will start to flow again!
So you see, we must be saved from our self-willed way of life, our independence from God, our thinking that we can do the right thing without being led of the Spirit of God, without the wisdom of God. A better way of saying this would be for us to contradict the Devil, and confess, “Our eyes are not opened, and we are not like God, we don’t know good and evil apart from the leadership of God, apart from the very indwelling presence of God’s Spirit!” Without abiding in Christ we can do NOTHING! (John 15:5)
When we start a day without prayer, when we go though a day without continual fellowship with the Living God, we prove that we too believe the lie that Satan told Eve,“You will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the time comes for you to leave this world and enter eternity, you won’t want an “almost” consecration. If you have not lived your life to the glory of God you will not be at peace when the time comes for you to depart this world! TRUTH!
The Bible commands us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “Pray without ceasing.” This is so very important, but I have found out it is not important to those that still believe the Devil’s lie. If you believe that you really have the knowledge of good and evil, you will find that you can go days on end without feeling the need for prayer.
Many people that believe the Devil’s lie only pray in earnest when they, or someone that they love, are in big trouble!
Listen to the words of Jesus in John 15:5-6 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Many people in this life, only have a halfway commitment to God, that might be convenient sometimes, at least for the “old man,” but at the time of death this lack of commitment will be devastating to you! I have read many testimonies of people that when on their deathbed, they could not find any peace because of the way they wasted their lives while in this world. If you do not abide in Christ now, when you are about to pass from this life to the next, you will have great anxiety. No one, not even your pastor will be able to say anything that will bring comfort to your soul! Yes, a life has been wasted, and why? Because you did not beg of God for the renewed mind, because you were so caught up in the things of this world that you had no time for the world that is to come; because you did not see a daily need of abiding in Christ, and praying without ceasing. Yes, your passing from this life to the next will be very unpleasant, if this is you!
We seem to always have a feeling that some day we will completely yield to God, and sometimes we come close to doing it. Why do we postpone it? Why do we put off yielding completely to the Living God? It is because our Flesh, our “old nature” wants nothing to do with yielding to God. Listen to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. You see, your old nature will never co-operate with God, it does not want to! Now, listen as Paul explains to us what has happened to those that are truly on the road to life; Galatians 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And again the Apostle explains the penalty for yielding to the flesh, Galatians 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Jesus said, “with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” You must hunger and thirst for righteousness in order to be ultimately saved. Are you at this very moment hungering and thirsting after righteousness? If not, you might need to find a Church that preaches the Gospel in such a way that you do hunger and thirst after righteousness. This is so important because we will only go after that which we desire. The un-regenerated human being is a constant want, a constant desire; we whirl around after this and then after that, and are truly never satisfied. The reason being, that only when we are redeemed and filled with the presence of the Living God, can we be satisfied!
Many Churches today do not even preach the same Gospel that Jesus preached! You must find one that will preach all of the counsel of God. This is a very important thing; we are truly choosing life or death each and every day of our life. Which one did you choose yesterday? Which one are you going to choose today?
Make this the very business of your life, right now; God has a plan for your life, a wonderful plan, you must seek Him and find out what His plan is for your life. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. The only reason God leaves us on this earth after we are converted and make our decision to follow Him, is so that He can use us to snatch others from the very jaws of Hell.
Now faith is the very necessary and essential thing that must be in our lives. Without faith we cannot please God! The question naturally arises, how can we have this faith that pleases God? I believe the answer is prayer; we must be in the practice of taking every circumstance of life to God in prayer. Only in this way, when we pray and believe that God will definitely answer our prayers will our faith grow and become a tree of faith. Matthew 17:20 . . . If you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, `Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. DO you believe this? Do you trust God and His Word? This is very important, do not go through life pretending to be a man or women of faith when, in fact, you have NONE!
God is in the business of making men and women of faith! How, you may ask can I become a person of great faith? It always begins when we take God’s promises and start living our lives on the premise that God’s promises are TRUE!
Start this very moment, don’t pray another prayer until you know in your heart that when you ask of God, He is going to perform His Word in you that very moment. When you start praying, believing that God will perform miracles, when necessary, to answer your prayer; you will start on a journey that will end in your becoming a person of great faith. I say great faith because I have discovered that we only have two types of faith, dead faith and great faith, nothing else lies in-between.
Every time you pray believing (knowing) that God is going to answer your prayer your faith grows, but every time you pray in unbelief your faith diminishes. Don’t do this; it does not honor God nor does it help you or anyone else. Decide today that indeed you are a new creation in Christ Jesus and you are a person that will have their prayers answered!
ARE YOU ABOUT YOUR FATHER’S BUSINESS?
This is a very important question; we are to be ambassadors for Christ, we are supposed to be about our Father’s business.
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Do not forget, walking with humility and love every day of your life, is God’s desire for you! If pride has a toehold in your life, you are at this very moment Hell-bound! Repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ.