We had an awesome event at our church this weekend which reached out to a group of people who don't typically set foot in a church. The core message of this event, and indeed the core message of Christianity, was salvation through Jesus and Jesus alone. This salvation, the forgiveness of sin and granting of fellowship with God, is a gift. The only catch is the catch common to all gifts.
You have to accept it.
When a gift is offered, you have a choice. You can accept it, or reject it. A gift can be received or refused. Being offered a gift does not make it yours. It is not yours until you take it and make it yours. Until then, until you make that conscious decision to possess what has been offered, you don't really have it. It doesn't belong to you until you say it does. Until you make that choice.
Salvation through Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God is such a gift. It's there, offered to everyone, but you have a choice to make.
Will you accept it, or not.
Following Jesus is a choice.
Receiving Jesus Christ is the first step, the first, and most important, choice to be made, but it doesn't stop there. Once you have chosen to accept Jesus, then you have to choose to follow Him. While accepting Jesus is a one time thing, following Him isn't. Following Him is a series of choices you will make for the rest of your life. Every day, every hour, you will be presented with choices to make. Will you follow Jesus, or won't you.
How will you respond to the temptations around you? Will you use your time and resources to further God's work, or to satisfy your own desires? How will you treat that person who goads you to anger? Will you forgive when wronged? Will you be merciful? Gracious? Loving? Will you hold your friends accountable, and allow yourself to be held to the same standard?
Accepting Jesus is once for all, an event, a point in time. Following Him is a journey for life. It is a choice you make every waking moment of every day.
Every choice has a consequence.
Following Jesus is always the right choice. The way to follow Jesus is to obey His commands, to do what He, through His Word, says to do. Without fail, doing God's will is always the right choice to make.
We have been led to believe that doing the right thing will always lead to a reward. I believe that is true, but not as we might expect. We have been taught, trained, indoctrinated with the belief that gratification needs to be instantaneous. In other words, when we do the right thing, we expect to be rewarded immediately. As soon as we do what we're supposed to do, we expect a trophy and a pat on the back.
God doesn't work that way.
God's reward system isn't focused on this life. Do I believe that God sometimes rewards us in this life for being obedient? Yes, I do. Do I believe He always does? No. Our reward is not here. The prize we are to be pursuing, the treasure we are to be storing up, the gratification we are to receive is not here, but there. In heaven. In the presence of our God and Father. It is there we will receive our eternal reward.
Bad choices have consequences as well. That doesn't necessarily mean that if you don't follow God you will fail in this life. Look around. There are a lot of "successful" people who don't have a clue or give a second thought to God. That doesn't mean God is rewarding them. That doesn't mean their disobedience doesn't have consequences. Once again, our reward, and our lack thereof, isn't centered here. This life is temporary. The next is eternal.
We do not, however, always skate away scot-free here, either. God does respond in our lives today according to our behavior. He does reward those who are faithful and punish those who are wicked. We may, or may not, recognize it, but it happens. Those people who succeed in life without God--how successful might they be with Him? Those mishaps in life that seem to come from nowhere--might they not be the very hand of God reprimanding His wayward sheep?
We won't always know, but of this you can be sure: Every choice has a consequence.
What choices will you make today?
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