Choices Still Matter!

 What choice do I have?" All kinds! Whether buying a car or cookies or crackers or clothing, Americans daily have a plethora of choices. For decades preachers have told people to go to the "church of your choice." Now choices are endless in religion and moral lifestyles. Millions are absolutely sure nobody can be absolutely sure about anything, and they are absolutely sure about that! The result is a radical pluralism that insists all choices in religious and moral and ethical areas are equally valid, and all roads somehow in the end lead us to God no matter how different and conflicting they are. But that won’t wash! As somebody observed, it is true there are two sides to every question – but it is also true there are two sides to a sheet of flypaper, and it is a matter of life or death to the fly which side he chooses.

 Choices still matter. Some matter more than others, and some result in very significant consequences. According to a Reader’s Digest article (07/85, p 173), in 1920 the management of the Boston Red Sox chose to sell a player named Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. That choice mattered, for the Red Sox and the Yankees. After joining the Yankees, in 10 out of the next 12 seasons Ruth hit more home runs than the entire Red Sox team! Boston did not win a World Series between 1918, when Ruth was on the team, until October, 2004! Choice matters. In 1938 Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel made what turned out to be a super- bad choice and for $130 sold all rights to a comic book character they had invented. The character’s name? Superman. Some choices greatly matter. In 1955 Sam Phillips sold RCA his exclusive contract with a young singer named Elvis Presley. Did that matter? It did to Phillips. He lost out on royalties from sales of more than a billion records. Adam and Eve discovered choice matters. After choosing to eat forbidden fruit God said don’t eat (Genesis 2:17), they found themselves outside Paradise and away from the tree of life. Choice mattered for King David. His secret, one night fling with another man’s wife led to a tortured conscience, a dead baby, and years of family strife, dysfunction and grief. The prodigal son in Luke 15 chose to reject the teaching and oversight of his loving father and ended up in a penniless, pigpen existence – until he wisely chose to turn back to his father. Choices have always mattered. Choices still matter. A single choice to drink or smoke or use other kinds of drugs can begin a downward spiral that ends in addiction and immeasurable loss. Marriages are marred, homes are hurt, innocence is lost, and hearts are broken because men and women make bad choices. Young people choose to quit high school and literally pay a price, often for the rest of their lives. Prisons are filled because of bad choices. Millions choose to overspend and bury their family in a grave of debt that proves hard to dig out of. The devil doesn’t want you to know it, but sin is always a bad choice (Romans 6:23a * James 1:15). As regards where we will be in eternity, there are only two choices – heaven or hell. With characteristic clarity, Jesus spelled it out in Matthew 7:13-14 – "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it." Some choices don’t matter much. Some choices matter a lot. No choice matters more than the one Jesus describes in Matthew 7:13-14. God will some day choose what to do with you. That’s why what you choose to do with Him will always matter – more than any choice you will ever have to make. Choices still matter! 

   by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

 

Grandmas and Mommas of Faith – Rock On!

 The following story was told by J. R. Miller, a writer for the once very popular TV program "Hee-Haw." A drunk wandered into the neighborhood gym and spotted a man shadow-boxing in the center of the ring. He watched the boxer dancing and punching the air for a minute or so, then called out to him – "Hey pal, you might as well quit fighting. He’s gone!" This little article is not about shadow-boxing, but it is about a fight. Not a physical fight but a spiritual one. The one mentioned by the apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 6:12 as he encouraged his young preaching protege Timothy to stay in the fight against sin and Satan – "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." Timothy preached the gospel in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3), a city of 200,000 people, considered by most historians as the most important city in Western Asia Minor in New Testament times. The New Testament books of 1 and 2 Timothy were written by Paul to strengthen and equip and spur the younger preacher on as he fought the good fight. So how did Timothy do? Tradition tells us he fought long and well. According to extra-biblical church tradition, Timothy ministered in Ephesus from A. D. 64 till he was martyred at 80 years old in the year 97 A. D. He sought to halt a pagan parade in honor of the goddess Diana (her temple was in Ephesus – see Acts 19) by preaching the gospel and exhorting the idol worshipers to acknowledge the true and living God. In anger they seized Timothy, severely beat him, dragged him through the streets, and stoned him. He died from the beatings and stones, but stood firm in his faith and fought the good fight to the end.

 How do you make a man of such faith and conviction? The apostle Paul clearly had a great influence on Timothy(Acts 16:1-3 * Philippians 2:19-23, etc.). They went through much in their service for Christ (2 Tim.3:10-11). Paul’s spiritual influence on Timothy was profound and long-lasting. But there is another influence in Timothy’s life, equally profound, though it gets little ink in the New Testament. Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 1:5 mention very briefly two faithful women who played prominent if not very public roles in shaping Timothy’s Christian character and faith in God. There Paul wrote, "when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also." Wow – "genuine" faith in God can be a multi-generational reality! It was in Timothy’s case! The faith that was in him "dwelt first" in his grandmother and his mom. They taught him the Scriptures from "childhood" (2 Timothy 3:15 – the Greek word can be translated "infancy" –). These two ladies intentionally and constantly sought, from the get-go, to get the genuine faith that was in them into Timothy! They helped shape Timothy into a Christian and a preacher just as surely as the apostle Paul. Their influence on Timothy’s faith in God began before his birth! They rocked his cradle but that’s not all they rocked. They rocked Timothy’s world by influencing him for Christ. Their names live on in God’s household of faith. Timothy and a host of people he led to Christ will be in heaven because faith was "first" in Lois and Eunice! Momma, Grandma – in our age entire movements are seeking to "empower" women. But Lois and Eunice remind us – women of genuine faith have long held great power. Faith can rock your children / grandchildren’s world, in time and in eternity. Grandmas and Moms with genuine faith – rock on!

by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN