"Anyone who trusts in Him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust Him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to Him.”  (John 3:18, The Message) [emphases mine]

             Sounds kind of harsh, doesn’t it? Being told you’re “condemned” or already put under a “death sentence” because you haven’t yet made a decision for Jesus? I mean, after all, there’s still time to make that decision later on after I get some more things accomplished, or “straighten myself out” before I turn to Him, right? (And don’t forget, this IS Jesus talking up above there…) But as we have started off this New Year of 2009, I’d like to challenge everyone (including myself!) to begin to make conscious decisions this year.

            So, what’s up with this “conscious decision” spiel? As we have all known and done, the new year always comes in with us making “resolutions” to do better in many things: “I resolve to lose weight and eat better,” “ I’ll spend more time with my family,”  “I’ll get out of debt and control my spending this year,” “I’ll find more time to pray and read my Bible this year,” and so forth and so on… These are all noble aspirations, (and believe me, I’m guilty of every single one of them this year!) but what usually happens is that we get so distracted with our daily routines and the way of life we’ve gotten so used to (which is the reason we got in this mess in the first place!) that a few days go by where we really haven’t put forth the effort to do what we resolved to do, and that’s where frustration comes in. Days turn into weeks, and we’re even deeper into our rut! Finally, we throw our hands up in the air and scream at God saying, “I can’t do this! I need Your help!” What do we do when we reach that point, or better yet, what can we do now to keep us from reaching that point? The simplest answer is to begin to make smaller conscious decisions that fit within the framework of what we’re trying to accomplish…

            James tells us in his letter that “faith without works is dead.” (James 2:20) In other words, your good intentions or high aspirations without your corresponding actions are dead, no good. To be practical, before we get back to today’s main thought from Jesus, let’s take a couple of examples… For instance, if my goal is to lose weight and begin eating healthier, I must begin my making smaller conscious decisions and acting upon them, like “I will drink four ½ liter bottles of water today” and make yourself do it. “I will eat an apple in the morning, a banana in the afternoon, and a salad for lunch,” and then follow through. “I will begin getting closer to God by reading one chapter from the Bible at my earliest convenience today, and another before I go to bed,” and then don’t go to bed before you’ve done so! I know it sounds simplistic, but hear me out: do you notice that the things that are best for us are always the harder things we seem to do during the day? (I mean, why drink water when there’s Dr. Pepper in the fridge? Why read your Bible when your favorite TV show is on, or you can play your favorite video game and get to it later?)

But the truth is, when we begin to make conscious decisions over what we will do throughout the day, we are actually setting our minds to do so, and then beginning to lead our hearts toward what we desire, rather than being led by our heart, which the Bible says is “deceitful, and desperately wicked…” (Jer. 17:9) The Bible’s terminology for that is repentance, or simply, an intentional changing of the mind toward that which is good.  I stress “intentional” because that opposite of that mindset is the great failure that gets us in trouble in the first place, passivity. Whether it is passivity by simple neglect due to other distractions, or whether it’s procrastination, (putting things off until later,) which I call “active passivity”, it is the great enemy of our time, our goals, and then eventually, as Jesus states in our opening thought, our very souls. You can see Jesus’ mindset in this as he tells Nicodemus that it is an active choosing to believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God that saves a person, in other words, a conscious choice; passivity (through neglect),  procrastination (putting it off until later), or active refusal to believe is what condemns the person. Simply speaking, you must make the choice! Putting it off until later will kill you! (Putting it off hasn’t done much for those resolutions, now, has it?)

So, how about it? Anybody else ready to dive in with me as we make more conscious choices for life today? First off, if you haven’t already made the conscious decision to trust Jesus for your life, both now and eternally, don’t put it off any further, do it today! The Bible declares that “this is the hour to receive God’s favor; today is the day to be saved!” (2 Cor. 6:2, GNB) If you’ve already made that decision, my challenge to you today is reply to this blog with at least one area of your life that you will begin to make smaller conscious decisions toward the betterment of it, and let’s keep up with each other and encourage one another as we urge each other on towards greater works, and let’s see how we’ve done at the end of this year!

Running with you towards the finish line,

Cedric (Pastor Ced)