The Morning Star Rising on the First Day

Why our Choices are Important

Our previous post communicated that the meaning of our lives is manifest in the choices that we make here on this earth. A perfect example of this is the loss of Eden (as well as a perfect relationship with God) that resulted from one bad decision by way of the trickery of the devil. The result is that we live in a world that is drastically different it was in the Garden of Eden.

 

The Garden Of Eden

 

Our world is filled with evil temptation around us and only one good choice, that of Jesus the Tree of Life. I would say that this is exactly the opposite environment found in the Garden, where goodness was everywhere and only the tree of Good and Evil presented an evil temptation for us.

In America today we have evil in our TV programs (and this is getting worse with time), in our movies, in our songs, on the internet, in our dance, on our streets, in our governments, in our businesses, in our friends, in our families and even in our churches. The devil is a deceiver who is trying to get us to buy into his lies so that he can place us under his evil domination again. He tried it with Jesus so why not you?

His goal is to deceive us into giving up on our destiny with God, to sidestep our purpose in this life, and to deny that we are children of the living God. Again, this is what he tried with Jesus.

The devil uses trickery to deceive us like he did in the Garden. He has a number of strategies he likes to deploy. He may for example, try to influence us by convincing us that God does not exist, or that he (the devil) does not exist so that there is no relevancy to the choices we make. He will try to trick us into thinking that is nothing wrong with having an affair, or that there is no harm done by aborting a pregnancy, or that murder can be justified. The devil even invents catchy slogans to get the masses to buy in to his evil programs. Here are a few of them for your reference: What ever feels good baby! If it feels good, do it! He who dies with the most toys wins! Wine, women and song! Sex, drugs and rock and roll! You got to play the game, right? What the devil does not tell you is that the choices you make for self indulgence and the gratification of the flesh will ultimately result in your perpetual agony under his domination. Therefore, it is easy to see that it is to Satan’s advantage to defeat you in this world with his trickery.

Let’s take a look at what Satan gets from your defeat. First of all, he will get great pleasure from your bondage and torture because he hates you with a perfect hatred. This hatred loves to see you sick, broke, homeless, depressed, high or living in sin. After all, if you are in these states then you are ignoring who you are and your purpose for being here. Secondly, by deceiving you now he bypasses the obligation to worship you in the eternity to come. Thirdly, by choosing his evil a second time, you will suffer the second death of which we previously communicated as living forever without God in perpetual agony. If this is what you choose, then you will once again fall under the devils domination and be subject to him in the Pit of Fire and Brimstone forever. In effect, this would nullify the work that Jesus did on the cross for you. Your defeat would be a double win for Satan and a double loss for you. So choose Jesus and live with God forever in eternity.

 

Jesus is the Light of the World

 

So, the major difference between today’s world and the Garden of Eden is that in today’s world there is really only one good choice, while there was only one evil choice in the Garden. Our good choice is Jesus, “The Tree of Life.”

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. (Revelation 22:1 – 3)

If we believe in Jesus and eat of that tree (via communion) we will live with God forever.

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”; therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22 – 24)

Those who believe in Jesus reject the self centered and carnal activities of the world. Instead, they choose to abide in the Holy Spirit of Jesus and seek to do His will. They choose to love, to forgive, to pray, to preach, and to feed the hungry, to heal the sick, to be a friend, to defend the poor and downtrodden, to strive for justice and mercy and do the things that Jesus taught us through the actions of his life.