{"id":16205,"date":"2017-07-13T07:01:11","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T11:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/?p=16205"},"modified":"2021-10-13T13:30:32","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T17:30:32","slug":"the-gift-of-choices-and-the-difference-they-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/the-gift-of-choices-and-the-difference-they-make\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gift of Choices and the Difference They Make"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Choices<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When God created man, He gave him a very special gift. That gift is the gift of choice. God desired mankind to make choices and it is those choices that have shaped our world. More specifically, it is YOUR choices that have shaped your world.<\/p>\n

Adam and Eve were presented with a choice: Obey God or accept the offer from the serpent. God\u2019s command was clear, but the serpent\u2019s offer was cunning, dressed in beauty and designed to be something strongly desired. The serpent appealed to Eve\u2019s five senses. persuading her to make the decision to partake of a tree, the fruit of which God had forbidden. Their source had been God\u2019s word and their food the tree of life, but the attractive fruit of the forbidden tree, combined with the sales pitch of the serpent were just too good to pass up. Therefore, God kept His promise, mankind lost His presence and has suffered ever since.<\/p>\n

Thankfully when the time came, God sent His Son and provided mankind with an opportunity to make a new choice. Another tree was presented and on that tree hung a Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That tree (cross) was not pretty and was hard to look at, but by choosing that tree mankind could be restored to an even fuller experience of God.<\/p>\n

The only way for man to be reconciled to God is to accept the \u201cfruit\u201d of the cross, Jesus Christ. When one makes that decision, instead of dying, they live. This life is very special for it is eternal and loaded with the abundance of everything man could ever want or desire.<\/p>\n

If you are reading this article, I am assuming that you have made the choice to receive Jesus Christ as God\u2019s unique way back to Him. God decided long before the world was that He wanted a relationship with us. That relationship was broken in Eden, but was restored at Calvary. But as with all relationships, it must be nurtured.<\/p>\n

When a man and a woman meet, they begin as acquaintances. Then after a relationship develops, it often culminates in marriage. In a healthy marriage, the relationship grows as does the couples love for each other. However, in over 50% of marriages today, the relationship is not maintained and the result is divorce. The reason this happens is because choices were made during the course of the marriage that hinders them from developing the relationship. Often distractions diminish interest in building a relationship. A couple actually grows apart and eventually feels that there is no value to continue as man and wife.<\/p>\n

I believe the same thing happens with many Christians. They make a choice to receive Jesus and are reconciled to God. But, sometimes immediately, more often over time, the relationship suffers by all kinds of distractions. Whether the Christian knows it or not, they end up divorcing God! How did that happen? Choices were made that led to the separation. Just as in Eden, a person who starts out in an amazing relationship with God ends up losing God\u2019s presence and suffers the pain of living alone without God in the world.<\/p>\n

Many who say, \u201cLord, Lord!\u201d will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Many will not be prepared for death or the Lord\u2019s coming and be cast into outer darkness. Many will be cut off as a worthless branch and cast into the fire (Matthew 7:21; John 15:6). How could this happen? Choices were made that created a chasm between God and the man or woman who once believed, resulting with the relationship being broken. I know this thought is uncomfortable, but it is a Biblical truth. Just because someone is a Christian doesn\u2019t mean they will escape the fire! \u00a0Remember what Jesus said, “Narrow is the way the leads to life and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:14)<\/p>\n

My friend, I hope this article will awaken you. I hope it will startle you and cause you to make the decision to RUN to God and develop a strong relationship with Him, His Word, and the Holy Spirit. God will not force you into a relationship with Him and He will not force you to stay in a relationship with Him. It\u2019s your choice!<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this article please like and share it with others. Thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as in Eden, a person who starts out in an amazing relationship with God ends up losing God\u2019s presence and suffers the pain of living alone without God in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[494,1,202],"tags":[582,583,581,580,579],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}