CHOICES

The God given power to make choices is an awesome responsibility! The scary part for those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus, is that our choices can be either good or bad, right or wrong. We were not created as some sort of robot that can only perform certain predetermined functions, but were given a free will. Along with this free will, our Creator gave us the intelligence to make right choices based on our "conscience", which might be called our God given "common sense" that is meant to help us make right choices. When we look at the world around us today, and see the type of choices people are making, we can rightly ask what has happened to common sense? It would appear that they must suffer from some sort of "temporary insanity", or a complete loss of this God given common sense. That is the only way I can explain the stupid choices that some people make, and the mess they get themselves into because of wrong choices! The ability to make choices rests within that part of us known as our "soul", which is made up of mind, emotions, and will. This is the part of us with which we communicate with each other, as compared to our "spirit" with which we communicate with God. Both our spirit and our soul are housed in our body, thus making us a "tripartite being" created in the image and likeness of God. Notice that when God created Adam, He started by forming a body out of the dust of the earth, then breathed the breath of life into him, and Adam then became a living soul. (Gen 2:7). In the NT we see references to these three parts in (1 Thess 5:23), and in (Heb 4:12) we read that only the Word of God can divide between soul and spirit. This is a very important truth for us to get an understanding of, because often people confuse these two. Our spirit and soul are not the same, although they are both invisible and easily distinguished from our body which is visible. Our "will" that we use to make choices can be likened to a common item we use often when we take a shower. It is called a "diverter valve", and is the little device that directs the flow of water either directly into the tub, or up to the shower head. This is the function of our will, and it can be either controlled by our "flesh" or our "spirit". It will respond to instructions from either source, and the results will either be the "works of the flesh", or the "fruit of the Spirit", as described by Paul in (Gal 5:19-23). So if our life is to please our Creator God we "must" live by Paul's exhortation found in (Rom 8:12-14). A proper order is that our body should be taking orders from our soul, our soul should be taking it's orders from our spirit, which should be filled and directed by the Holy Spirit of God! This is the the proper way for our lives to operate in order to please the Lord!

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp