Day 44 - Choice As A Lifestyle

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries                         LMCM

Nacogdoches, Texas                                                           Gal. 2:20  KJV

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 47

         

Michael’s book is available through: 

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       almi@abidinglife.com

Simple, yet profound.  Pricking the heart with each new sentence.  That’s what this “day” holds for every reader.  “Following Jesus” holds a new meaning after this…

(check out the colorization…lets you know how important I think these truths are!)

DAY 44

Choice as a Lifestyle

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” –John 8:12

After The Choice, the door is open to making hundreds of choices, each of which will have to do with the progressive conversion of seeing Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life in a particular situation. Each conversion (change in thinking) is uniquely situated in the order in which a believer needs to have it. The revelation that Jesus is living in a person comes more from what the person refuses to do than what he does do! The believer chooses to refuse bitterness, anger, justification, debate, hatred, self-righteousness, and competition, and instead follows the will of God. However, he knows that no matter how quickly or wholeheartedly the choice is made, it is really not his doing, but that of the Jesus that indwells him. The choice is not to ask Jesus for help to act like Him, but to ask Jesus to act through him. It is not the surrender of the will in passivity but the activation of the will through choosing Jesus. The choosing Christian never says, “Jesus, help me say the right thing. Jesus, help me love. Jesus, help me be pleasing to God. Jesus, help me be more like You.” No, the choosing Christian says, “Jesus, be my words, my love, my acceptance, and my life,” and allows the peace of God to rule in his heart. Any variation in peace causes him to back up, listen, and invite Jesus to be his Way, his Truth, and his Life. The choosing Christian discovers he can do things he never thought possible, things that in self were not attainable. The abiding/choosing Christian can say no to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life; he can say no to appetites because he is dead to sin and, in Christ Jesus, no longer a slave to it. Christ in him living through him as though it were he becomes a reality. The chooser is as active as the chooser was in Jesus, Who daily chose “not My will but Thine.” He chose not to follow anything but God’s will to the point of death! An active chooser picks not to be like Jesus but for the will of the Father to live out of him through Jesus.

Practically speaking, those we love the most will hurt us the most. I do not believe the abandonment from the crowd was as vexing to Jesus as the abandonment from those into whom He had poured His life. How could He be so positive as to say, “You will sit on twelve thrones”? Jesus made a choice to be yielded in His heart and embrace “not My will but Thine,” and the Father’s words came. So the believer is offended by one he loves; something rude is said, there is an explosion, past events are brought into the present, and the wound is deep. However, the believer has had a conversion and accepts that Jesus is his Way, Truth, and Life. Choosing anything other than “Your will, not mine” will result in feeling lost, lied to, and the stench of death the flesh brings with it. The abiding/choosing believer just will not sacrifice the peace of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Therefore, in the situation, he pauses, invites Jesus to be his life, his words, his love, and his wisdom. He hears His voice, “a kind word turns away wrath.” Jesus would only do through him what is best for him; love can do nothing else.

When Barbara and I became Christians, our pastor told us: “In being Born Again, you now have a new ‘Wanter.’  What you used to ‘want’ you will not want anymore…what you now ‘want,’ you never used to want before.”  Our choices from that day forward indicated that new “Wanter.”

Amazingly, we didn’t realize the door had been opened “to making hundreds of choices, each of which have to do with the progressive conversion of seeing Jesus as the Way, the Truth, the Life in a particular situation.  Having a new “wanter” is different from making a choice. 

To know and experience “conversion” as a “change in thinking” enables one to see the progression of Life becoming more prevalent and more beautiful.  Typically, most Christians think “conversion” happens only once…that which transpires at the time of being Born Again when one goes from trusting in “works” to trusting in Christ as “no one comes to the Father but through Me (Christ).”  Truly, life as a Christian should be a progressive conversion from the old way of thinking.

Interestingly, what many Christians don’t make provision for is that it is possible to “backslide” in the way of thinking, and wanting, and choosing.  That is really where Abiding comes in…”The abiding/choosing Christian can say no…”  Let us all encourage one another to Abide and have much progressive conversion in Christ!

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

P. O. Box 633244    Nacogdoches, Tx 75963                                      936-559-5696

Day 43 - Choice That Promotes Life

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries                         LMCM

Nacogdoches, Texas                                                           Gal. 2:20  KJV

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 46

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       almi@abidinglife.com

This is another one of those days where every sentence holds an important truth.  This day needs to be read carefully and read often by anyone still struggling with “learning” how to ABIDE.  Michael has given us an excellent look at the process God allows man to go through to get to the point of making The Choice.

DAY 43

Choice That Promotes Life

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” –John 14:6

Finally, the truth is that in Christ I can choose no longer to sin! In Him I am free! A new birth happens once, but conversions, or changes in thinking, occur throughout one’s life. One day I stopped thinking that Jesus was a man in history and began to think that He was a man that was alive today. It was a conversion in my thinking, one of many to come. The first choice we make is the choice to believe in Jesus as the Sacrifice for our sin, a choice preceded by our own failure and sin. The second choice will come by the same means, failure and sin; we must choose Him as our Way, our Truth, and our Life. Years and sometimes decades exist between the first and the second choice. For many of us, these are the lost years, the wilderness years, or the dark nights of the soul. During these years two dynamics meet daily in a clash, leaving few unscathed; on the one hand is the strong desire to “pay back” Jesus for all that He did and has done; we feel this is primarily accomplished by “acting” like Jesus. This is, of course, exactly what it is, an act! Initially believers are convinced that we have retained some strength, hold some solution, and possess something at our disposal that will make us act like Jesus. There will likely be something hidden, a secret, so most of us really do not want Jesus invading every area of life, not when we can continue to believe in our way, our truth, and our life and discreetly to trust our idols, sedatives, victimization, bitterness, anger, and passivity to resolve life’s daily issues and enable us to imitate Jesus. When things go well, we are confident and full of pride and glory. When things fall apart, we blame ourselves or others, leading to depression, frustration, and the wish for life to pass. The time between the two choices is a very mean time, for man was not created to imitate Jesus, but to be a vessel for the living Jesus. As believers approach the second choice--The Choice--we are confounded by all of the other choices that are presented to us in the form of advice. If only there were more Scripture memory, quiet times, prolonged studies, witnessing, or stronger resolve, then we believers would be like Jesus. The tension of trusting self (a self that prefers its reign to the reign of Jesus in our life) for the provision to act like Jesus is absurd and will eventually cause the believer to begin to break in pieces. In the power of a self that has at its disposal all the old methods of performing and coping, we try to displace self. Think of the absurdity of self’s removing self; that actually keeps self actively alive! Man becomes a house divided and begins to fall apart.

The dichotomy of wanting to act like Jesus in the flesh and at the same time to have flesh despising the potential rule of Jesus creates a tremendous amount of guilt, which is said to be the undertaker’s best friend. However, guilt in the hand of God produces some wonderful results. We believers become weary of being and feeling guilty, and it is in this state that the enemy takes opportunity to whisper to us, in a voice that sounds like ours, “I cannot change. I cannot choose a better way. I am stuck!” Imagine hearing such a thing when we hold the key of choice in our very hand. At this time, the fullness of time, we believers are ready for another conversion in the form of recognizing that it is not about imitating Jesus but participating in His Life, being attached to the Vine, and having exactly Jesus flowing through us. As the Holy Spirit brings the revelation, we do not hesitate or argue but embrace the fact. We are abiding, Christ is in us, and apart from Him believers can do nothing. Jesus is now accepted as life, and The Choice is made. 

Jesus accepted as life.  Participating in His Life.  Not wanting to act like Jesus in the flesh, but being attached to the Vine, and having exactly Jesus flowing through us.  Wow!  Why does it take so long for so many to move from the first choice of believing in Jesus as the Sacrifice for our sin to the second choice of accepting Jesus as our life?

Having pastored for over 30 years I have seen a sad situation that has been thrust onto the people in the denomination I have been in…I like to say we have been the world’s best at telling folks that salvation is a gift, but once saved here is a list of things to do to be a good Christian.  Couple that with doing a poor ministry of helping people get past their past and we have multitudes living in the “wilderness” (truly “dark nights of the soul” for many).

But once anyone realizes the beauty of abiding and living by the grace of God (what He does through us) there is the day-by-day victory that we have by choosing that which promotes life.  And the truth that in Christ I CAN CHOOSE NO LONGER TO SIN is staggering!  What freedom!  What Life!

I wonder how many Preachers and Sunday School teachers are teaching this?  I wonder how many Christians are living this?  Well, amen.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

P. O. Box 633244    Nacogdoches, Tx 75963                                      936-559-5696

Day 42 - Choice Between Life and Death

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries                         LMCM

Nacogdoches, Texas                                                           Gal. 2:20  KJV

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 45

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       almi@abidinglife.com

It is interesting that the Apostle Paul points out we choose to either render service as to the Lord, or to men, “knowing that whatever good thing each one does this will he receive back from the Lord.”  And certainly we are to choose to render to the Lord, and not to men.  Aha, another “choice” issue…  However, in today’s writing, Michael points out one powerful “cause” of to whom, and why, each makes certain choices.  Ought to be a lesson for all to learn and live by.

DAY 42

Choice Between Life and Death

With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. –Ephesians 6:7, 8

We have been looking at problems encountered with our ability to choose, and one involves the feeling that apart from Him we can do something. It is true that outside of Christ man still has the power of choice; however, a man wanting to be the god of his life will only choose the things that strengthen the flesh; he will eat from the tree of Good and Evil, choosing self-righteousness or unrighteousness, the only choices made by any man except for those living in and abiding in Christ. Many in the “power of positive thinking” crowd teach that man can choose whatever he wants, including his destiny, that it is completely up to him what he becomes. The crux of this type of teaching does not include any reliance on Christ, so it simply cannot be true. A person can choose, but all choices will strengthen the flesh, causing a great outbreak of the flesh later. The Pharisees chose some incredible disciplines, and their flesh was so strengthened that they killed Jesus. In the same way a person can choose unrighteousness, which will cause an outbreak of self-righteousness later. I have heard former addicts speak with absolute contempt of drug addicts that they know. The unbeliever is a slave of sin. Just like any other slave, in his mind he can despise following the master, but he must choose to follow or suffer the consequences. My point is that even being a slave does not negate the fact that one still must choose. 

Well, did you pick out the “cause” that Michael points out?  “…a man wanting to be the god of his life will only choose…”  Startling words, aren’t they!  It’s the “wanting” that dictates the choosing.  And the choice dictates the outcome.

Why would man want to be god, when God is so gracious to provide so much through the Lord Jesus Christ?  True commitment to the Lord gives Him an open door to release His life through us in all the freshness and power of divine action.  We have all that He is.  Who wants to be god with a Life like His living in and through us?!?  AND…life shows us that “a man wanting to be god of his life will only choose the things that strengthen the flesh, choose from the tree of Good and Evil, choose self-righteousness or unrighteousness…the only choices made by any man except for those living in and abiding in Christ.”

I don’t know about you, but I want to choose to commit to Christ exclusively.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

P. O. Box 633244    Nacogdoches, Tx 75963                                 936-559-5696

Day 41 - Choice or Default

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries                         LMCM

Nacogdoches, Texas                                                           Gal. 2:20  KJV

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 44

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       almi@abidinglife.com

More about “choice.”  Michael brings up a terrific issue in this matter…”stuck” with the way things are?  How hopeless is that!  One of the greatest victories in Life With Christ In Us is that we have HOPE!  There is no hope apart from Christ, and when a Christian “feels” or “believes” that they have no “way” out…no “way” out?!?  Jesus is The Way.  And every other “way” is not The Way!  Well, amen.  Read and find out how to pass on HOPE (JESUS) to someone “stuck”…

DAY 41

Choice or Default

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants. –Deuteronomy 30:19

Two addicts receive the same information, and subsequently one stops substance abuse and the other does not. Why is that? Is it not choice? There is a deception involving the belief by those who need to make a choice that they cannot do so, that it is impossible in certain areas of life to choose a different way. Many simply believe that they are stuck with their obsessions, addictions, anger, self-righteousness, and all the other deeds of the flesh. They are like the person standing in the snow outside of his house, holding the key to the locked door and screaming, “Would someone please let me in?” How can the believer be stuck and locked out of victory when he is the only one holding the key? Let me illustrate. One man said to me, “I am addicted to pornography!” At that I responded, “I imagine your family is sick of watching porno with you!” He replied, “Oh, no! I never look at it around them!” My question is simple: How can he be addicted if he can choose when and where he watches the porno? How can a drug addict not be able to choose against taking drugs when he chooses to purchase them and chooses to do them out of sight? We hate to be confronted with this truth, but we are doing exactly what we want to do and choose to do! We are not unable to choose; we simply do not want to choose the right thing. We are in unbelief and are constantly choosing. We have to pick between the words of Jesus and the voice of the flesh. When we CHOOSE the flesh, it is an inescapable fact that we have chosen bondage and have chosen on the side that resists the spirit. We are where we are today because of personal choice.

Some will argue, “It was not my choice to be molested, to have an alcoholic parent, to be emotionally and verbally abused, to be abandoned, to be unloved, and more.” All quite true, and at first a person may well react out of instinct. However, with maturity he chooses through his lifestyle what his reaction toward earlier events will be. After getting the proper information, some choose not to see God working, thereby opting to remain victims and blame others, to make those around them miserable, to make others pay, to live in self-hatred, and to try to undo the past by duplicating it. Two people with a common, horrific event in their lives may, years later, have developed into very different people, with one being sweet and the other bitter. Why? We want to avoid the obvious and give excuses, but the fact is that one believed that choice was greater than the past, and the other did not. 

The author in Deuteronomy gives a strong “warning” to his readers:  “I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today…”  WOW!  Got my attention!  Do I think I don’t HAVE a choice?  Do I think my choice DOESN’T MATTER?  Think again, Lee!  In fact, the whole Book of Deuteronomy is about life and death, blessings and curses…and it being a matter of making a choice.  And as Yogi Berra would have said…”You can’t not make a choice by not making a choice!”  Some of us remember Yogi…

Praise God we get to make a choice or choices.  Count me out of being one who doesn’t think I have a choice, or that I am stuck and can’t make a choice. 

I love Michael’s words which make choosing so plain and simple:

“We are doing exactly what we want to do and choose to do!  We are not unable to choose…we have to pick between the words of Jesus and the voice of the flesh…we are where we are today because of personal choice.

And the writer summed it up…”choose LIFE.”  Oh, yeah, another writer quoted Jesus: “I am the way, the truth, and the LIFE.”  I choose JESUS!  He is my LIFE!

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

P. O. Box 633244    Nacogdoches, Tx 75963                                     936-559-5696

Day 40 - The Will of God Is That Man Can Choose

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries                         LMCM

Nacogdoches, Texas                                                           Gal. 2:20  KJV

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 43

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       almi@abidinglife.com

In Blog #5 (go to www.leemccm.blogspot.com, and search past blogs, Oct. 2012…Day 39) you will find my first look at Michael’s teachings on “choice.”  Incredible truths.

We are living in a day where Christians will not only rise or fall on their “definitions,” but on their “choices”…as perhaps never before.  So, I have decided to look at the 5 “days” in MWfHS that immediately follow Day 39.  Starting this week with Day 40, and continuing for 4 more, we will glean all we can from what God wants us to have to face these interesting days of our lives.

Lord Jesus, come and show us Your Truth…Yourself…in these teachings.

DAY 40

The Will of God Is That Man Can Choose

Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. –Matthew 6:10

As I think through choice, it seems that one key deception is that choice is not resident in the human realm but is held by God. Many ministries make a covert claim that their information holds the key to making a person choose. The brochures of seminaries claim that they are in the process of “producing men and women of God!” Just how does a book, a professor, or a building produce a man or woman of God? If the very best information is not chosen and followed—and we all know some students will follow and some will not--then what good is it? For the students who do choose to follow, was it the school that made them choose? Is it right for the institution to focus on the one who chose and use him as an example of the power of its teaching? A lesser truth gives way to a greater one, so was it the information or the will that was the change factor? I used to do this myself! I would only tell the victory stories that came out of my counseling, and the subtle message was, “See what power there is in this teaching?” Claims are made for methods, teachings, ministries, and institutions that even Jesus Himself would not make, for Jesus never indicated that He could make a choice for the people.

We are all partly responsible for the continuation of the deception; we cannot just blame the institutions. We want to hear that a program can do for our mate or child what only their choice can do. We seek out and pay these institutions to lie to us! Notice those same confident experts who promise to turn a situation around never offer a money-back guarantee. Why? I have watched the human-behavior experts in court, under oath. All of a sudden what used to be an absolute becomes a vague mumbling with a resounding, “I cannot help someone who does not want it!” True, but this was not said initially when clients were being drawn in. We must realize that if God Himself cannot make a person choose, then what about us? We will never be able to make someone choose. Herein lies a warning about how some will allow us to believe that we are in charge of their choices. This is a trap, for they will continue to choose what they want and covertly manipulate us into taking responsibility for it! We will find ourselves working all the harder, pleading, watching, and attempting to control their behavior, all the while having enabled them to become free from their responsibility.

Unlike Day 39, this day does not hold, in number, as many “truths”…but oh, of what magnitude the statement is: “for Jesus never indicated that He could make a choice for the people.”  Very profound.  For years pastors and disciplers have had to deal with person after person who wanted someone else to make a decision or choice for them.  Even way back in Bible times, people were like that, even wanting God to decide for them.  I won’t give the illustrations…I will just let you search and recognize them for yourself.

Let me summarize 3 points that none of us can afford to miss, and forget:

1.  choice is resident with me, not God
2. if I have the very best information, but don’t choose or follow it…it is of no good
      to me.
3. no one, including God, can make me choose…or, choose correctly.

Don’t miss the last thing Michael points out:  “some will allow us to believe we are in charge of their choices.”  There isn’t a minister alive who doesn’t have one or more persons right now that is doing all of the things Michael mentions following the noted statement.  AND…many ministers are wallowing around doing all the things Michael mentions in his last sentence!  How tragic!

Aha!  Choices.  My responsibility.  My decision.  My choice.  And I have to live with each and every one.  Oh, me.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

P. O. Box 633244    Nacogdoches, Tx 75963                                       936-559-5696