.Choices.

..went to church with aunt hann, sarah lee and bern today..Perth Christian Life Church..sermon was very good..so good i decided i had to take down notes on my hp..so i looked ike i was smsing the whole service through..anyway, i'm gna share so here goes..

.Follow the cloud, not the crowd.

''Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter though it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and few can find it.'' - Matt 7:13

In life, we are always faced with the prospect of having to choose. What degree to do, what job to have, what car to buy, whom to marry, what God to worship..we always face decisions like that at different periods of our lives. But everyone knows it's not so much which choice we are faced with, but more what consequences we face when we make that choice.

God did not create us to be puppets, but instead, He gave us the ability to decide.

How many times have you been faced with a decision that seems so easy to make at first, but then suddenly u realise there is a flipside to it - one that doesn't seem so easy and popular, but u know deep down inside that it is the right one? I know i have; and many times too. The decision that God wants us to make always seems like the less popular one, but we all know it is the CORRECT one. It's simply what we want to believe in. We can look around and see everybody taking that big, easy, broad path and follow the crowd, or use our brains and decide what we should do.

C. S. Lewis wrote - "There are 2 types of people in this world - those who pray to God and say, 'Your will be done.' or those whom God look at and say, 'You will be done.' " Just because everybody chooses it does not neccesarily make it right.

Take a simple analogy for example : Pastor or high-flyer businessman? Many of us (including me, i think) would probably choose the high-flyer - why? Money, fame and everything else. But is that what really makes us happy? Sure, many of you will say without money we can do nothing - and that is true. But why not follow God's will and still be happy? It is possible. Sure, there won't be the luxury cars, big house, nice office, yatch, women, divorce, stress, backstabbing and stress, but again who really needs all these? Is that what we really want in life?

I always believed in life we make decisions and should never look back. What's the point of regretting when you have already decided on something? And it is true - life has no 'rewind' button. There simply is no point for that. So solution? simple dimple - choose properly!

God said, "(We choose)..not in the light of time, but in the light of eternity."

Life is not where everything ends, or is decided. Sure, we will fail at times, and even fall at others; but it is there - right infront of Him when on judgement day that we have to answer for every decision and choice we made in our lives. Eternal judment is what we should live for, people. Not the nicer choice, or the more easy decision. Think of what God has for you at the end of the day, not of what you can get here. God is calling out to you - take the narrow path. With that, i leave you with one thought and a prayer.

"If our rightful citizenship - what we fight for and hope for, is in Heaven, then why are we living like permanent residents here?"

"Dear Lord..i come to You in prayer today to repent.

I'm sorry for all the choices i have made that all seemed so easy,

but in fact only made me drift away from you.

You do not want us to go to hell,

but instead it is the choices we make that lead us to there.

Lord, i come to you today to ask you to draw me closer to You.

Teach me to make the right decisions in life.

And when i can't,

teach me to look up to You,

and not at the wider path.

Lord,

I only want to do what pleases You

And lead a life that will praise and glorify You.

Thank You for all You have done.

Lift up our eyes so that we may see You,

and what You have planned for each and every one

of us.

Amen."

-lu