The late country singer George Jones recorded the song, “Choices,” which sounds like a confession regarding the bad choices he made in his life, with which he was “living and dying.” The Lord God made man to be a free moral agent; that is, he possesses the ability to make choices in life, either good or bad. That has been true since the time Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden.
Before his death, Moses, the great leader of the children of Israel, informed the people of the following. “And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal” (Deuteronomy 11:29). God did lead them to the mountains: Mount Gerizim was the mountain of ‘blessing’ and Mount Ebal was the mountain of ‘curse.’ Moses commanded six leaders from six tribes to stand on Mount Gerizim to pronounce the blessings that would come upon the people if they obeyed the commandments of God. He also commanded six leaders from six tribes to stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce the curses that would come upon the people if they disobeyed the commandments of God (Deuteronomy 27:11-28:68). In Deuteronomy 30:15, 19, Moses said, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” “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 my live.” The Lord God allowed the Israelites to choose between “life” or “death.”
Jesus Christ gave the people of His day a choice that is applicable for all of mankind as long as time shall stand (Matthew 7:13-14). “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (ESV). How sad indeed it is, that “many” will choose the “easy” way “that leads to destruction”! Only a “few” will choose the way that is “hard that leads to life.” On the Judgment Day when Jesus Christ will sit on the “throne of His glory,” your eternal destination will not be your choice, but instead, it will be His! You will either hear, “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” or “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:34, 41). The decision you make presently will determine the direction you will follow in this life, and eventually, your eternal destiny. Please remember, you are “living and dying” with the choices you make in this life. Prayerfully, you will choose life in Jesus Christ. If you do, you will “die in the Lord” and will be blessed in the eternal care of our Heavenly Father (Revelation 14:13).
