TWO OPTIONS by
Marsha Burns:
Choices! From
the time of the Garden Eden there were two trees:
Genesis 2:9
And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the
sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden,
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden
you may freely eat; but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat
of it you shall surely die."
Two options—life or death.
All of our lives are based on making choices from
opposites:
Right or wrong, good or evil, life or death, free or bound,
warrior or slave.
We are faced with decisions daily about how to respond to
people, situations and circumstances.
Our best option both temporarily and eternally is to choose
that which is the most righteous.
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.”
Job 34:4 Let
us choose justice for ourselves; let us know among ourselves what is good.
Proverbs 3:31
Do not envy the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.
Proverbs 12:26
The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked
leads them astray.
2 Corinthians 6:14
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
The point of choice is to do what is right in the eyes of
God. We make choices every day of
our lives, and I believe that God wants us to be deliberate in our decisions so
that we have the most beneficial outcome.
Matthew 5:20
"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of
the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
How is that?
The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was religious exercise and not
from their heart or because of relationship with God.
Philippians 3:8-9
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him,
not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.
Perhaps our most important choice in this life is to fight
evil where we find it. We don’t
want to be caught just doing a life style or fitting into our culture instead of
considering more weighty matters and making choices for the best outcome both
spiritually and naturally.
Matthew 6:33
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added to you.”
James 4:7
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
1 Peter 5:9
Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are
experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
Matthew 16:19
"And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on
earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in
heaven."
We have two options…to be a warrior or a victim.
As soon as we become warriors, we are no longer victims.
When we fight, the enemy has no hold over us.
He can no longer own us or use us.
When you feel like a victim, it’s time to go to war.
Realize once again your authority over the devil and the power you have
in the Holy Spirit to defeat him.
Luke 10:19
"Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over
all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
Fight back!
And, don’t feel guilty about fighting back.
We can either fight back or be taken captive.
Making choices demands that we pay attention to see what
choices are being presented at any given time.
We have to be spiritually and mentally aware of options as
they are presented.
For instance, we can either cooperate with God as He moves
us forward, or we can be like a stubborn little donkey that digs in and sits
down.
Faith in God is what allows us to move forward.
Faith that He will direct us and keep us safe as soon as we take our
first step on the path that He has set before us.
Psalm 91:
All of these verses require a choice.
We always have two options:
Dwell in Him or not
Trust in Him or not
Be afraid or not
Make Him a place of refuge or not
If we make the right decisions then, no evil will befall
us, nor plague come near our dwelling.
And He will give His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways.
If not, then not!
We have come full circle--back to the spiritual Garden of
Eden. If we choose correctly we
will have life in abundance.
John 10:10
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have
come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
I had a vision of a compound or a fort with high walls made
of stone. I was looking from a
distance and could see in the middle of the fortress a flag on a pole.
The flag was red with an insignia of a flame of fire in the middle.
The fortress and flag represented a military post—a place
of safety from which to fight the enemy.
The flame represented the power of the Holy Spirit.
We can only wage a good warfare through the Spirit of God, who gives us
discernment and the power to overcome.
Acts 2:1-4
When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one
place. And suddenly there came a
sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house
where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of
fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Romans 16:20
And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.