The Purpose of This Blog

In response to the challenge by the Southern Baptist Convention that churches take on the task to share the gospel with unengaged unreached people groups, the missions team of Harmony Pittsburg Baptist Association felt the need for a way to focus prayer on the task. This blog is intended to facilitate prayer for those contemplating their role in fulfilling the Great Commission. This on-line prayer guide may prove useful to those exploring a call to missions involvement as well as to those who have sensed a call to pray for those who will go to the front lines.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Choices

I attended two worship services at two different churches yesterday, and both of the sermons were on the topic of making right choices.  The texts and the approaches were different, but my mind made the connection because I had already been thinking on the subject.  Maybe the Lord is telling me something.

God has given us the responsibility of making decisions that have real consequences.  Philosophically, there is always a debate between freedom and determinism.  Theologically, we speak of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.  Are we merely playing out strings of cause-and-effect with only the illusion of making a difference?  If so, why does God judge us for the decisions we make?  Could it be that one of the ways that we have been made in God's image (for He is the First Cause, the Unmoved Mover) is in the ability to initiate new sequences of causation?

Our lives consist of a series of choices, both our own and those of others.  Others made decisions that have affected where and when we were born, our genetic makeup, our cultural mindset, and our set of opportunities.  Out of those conditions, we have become who we are today because of the choices we have made: who we married; where we went to school; the careers we have pursued; the purchases we made; the people we have associated with; the ways we have spent our free time.  My body is in the shape it is today not only because of genetics but also because of my choices about diet and exercise.

We are affected by the decisions of our society.  If our nation goes to war, we have decisions to make.  If our culture departs from God, we have decisions to make.  If our church or convention takes actions that are not aligned with God's will, then we have decisions to make.  We must beware of allowing culture too great an influence on our choices.  In spite of the set of circumstances surrounding us, we can still make the choices that will draw us closer to God.

The first time I heard someone say, "You are as close to God as you want to be," I rejected the idea.  Then I thought of times when I chose to hang out with friends rather than spend time in prayer or to watch TV rather than study the Word.  How often had I chosen what would please me rather than what would please Him?  Every choice I make either leads me closer to or further from Him.

I cannot change the decisions I have made.  My choices today will not alter my past but they will determine my future.  Joshua challenged the children of Israel, "Choose you this day whom you will serve" (Joshua 24:15, italics added).  The choices I make today will either bring me into fuller compliance with God's plan to reach the nations or will take me further down the path of following my own plan.

Let us choose today to follow Him to the ends of the earth.  Let's tell Him so in prayer.

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