Empty journal …
While browsing recently, I had the opportunity to look at a fine, leather-bound journal. What struck me was the starkness of the empty pages as compared to the fine craftsmanship of the empty volume. It made me wonder what would some day be captured upon the blank lines of the white pages. Someone would, sometime in the future, record the happenings of their life on these pages.
What would be written?
Would it be a joyful tale of a life fully lived, that brought glory to God?
Would it be a tragedy? A tale of sorrow, full of pain and life, finally, lost?
Whoever would become the author of that fine journal would have a lot of choice about what would eventually fill the pages.
By making us creatures of free will, God gives us choices in what happens in our lives. It’s true that we sometimes … perhaps even often … face circumstances beyond our control, but even then we choose how we respond to such times. We have a great deal of choice about what will be the story of our lives.
The greatest choice is an ancient one, like the choice posed by Moses to the people of Israel so long ago and recorded in Deuteronomy 30:19, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!”
Is your own journal one of capturing the story of someone who has chosen life through the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you chosen to allow Jesus Christ to set you free from the shackles of sin, and breathe fresh life into you? Have you opted to allow God to make you into a new creature, no longer defeated by sin and death, but empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit who leads you in the things of God?
The only other choice is death.
Choose wisely.
Scotty
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