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The Choices We Make Make Us

"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.... But as for me [Joshua] and my household, we will serve the LORD."¹

“His lord said to him, 'Well done good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'”²

As a teen I was fortunate to be a member of a small, but very active church. In our youth group we were very much challenged to serve God with our life. Almost half of our group ended up in full-time Christian ministry. In one family the oldest brother chose to become a missionary and faithfully served God until he retired; of his two sisters, one dropped out of church but did reasonably well in the business world; the other sister not only dropped out of church, but became involved in an illicit relationship which ended in disaster. She started drinking heavily, and sadly, today in her retirement years has become an alcoholic having made shipwreck of her life.

Three friends—three different choices! One will certainly go to a positive heavenly reward. I’m not sure how the other two will fare.

The reality is that at the end of life’s journey every person will be required to give an account of his or her life to either Jesus Christ or God. For the Christian the Bible says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”³ Not so good for the non-Christian. We will address their plight in tomorrow’s Daily Encounter.

So, if we want to receive a good report when we give a personal account to the Lord, we need to make that our choice here and now, and to make any changes that are necessary, for we become the sum total of all the choices we have made in the past—and will become the sum total of these and all the choices we make in the future. As Brian Tracy reminds us: “It’s choice, not chance that determines our destiny.”

No matter what our past, the good news is that we can choose right now to start making productive choices, and do so at the beginning of every day so these choices will determine our ultimate destiny.

Let us remember too, that, as Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Albert Schweitzer agrees. He said, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

For the Christian our highest service is to serve God and we serve Him by serving our fellow man. In the words of another, “Our greatest legacy will be those who live eternally in heaven because of our efforts,” and Billy Graham said, “I am convinced the greatest act of love we can ever perform for people is to tell them about God’s love for them in Christ.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, my choice today is to love and serve You all the days of my life. Please make me usable and use me today and every day to be and effective witness for Jesus by helping me to be ‘as Jesus’ in some way to every life I touch and do this always for Your glory. So help me God. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

NOTE: Learn how to be a missionary right from your own home, and have a vital part in worldwide gospel outreach by becoming an ACTS People Power for Jesus Partner. It’s very simple, non-threatening, and without cost. See how at: http://www.actsweb.org/people_power_invite.php.

1. Joshua 24:15 (NIV).
2. Matthew 25:23 (NKJV).
3. 2 Corinthians 5:10 (NKJV).

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