Ponder this statement by Eric Greitens, with which I agree: "Remember that deciding is not doing, and wanting is not choosing. Transformation will take place not because of what you decide you want, but because of what you choose to do."

Jesus calls us to make a radical choice. The choice Israel needed to make was a prefiguring of the greater choice that confronts us today. The very worst decision we can make is to try to have every possibility at once. We cannot serve two masters.

God’s call to “Return to me, and I will return to you” (Zechariah 1:3) invites us to repentance, a choice only we can make. Despite past distance, God’s love and grace always offer a way back, urging us to reconnect with Him.

What we need is not the "freedom" of more lawlessness, but to return to the will of God and find our rest therein. In comparison to the yoke of the enemy, the yoke that Jesus offers is easy. It requires nothing but what contributes to our true good.

As Peter wrote to his beloved brethren, we should be "waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God" (2 Peter 3:12). Oh, to hear the glorious, triumphant sound of the trumpet of God! May we hear it much sooner rather than later!

No moderate remedy will do. In sin, we took our hearts away from our God, so we must give them back to Him. For after all, there are only two alternatives, only two possible "fathers" waiting for us in eternity. We must choose between them.

The Berean Jews knew that the ultimate test of Jesus' messiahship was scriptural: if this Jesus was the person the Hebrew prophets had spoken of, everything about Jesus would interlock with what had been prophesied about the Messiah.

We haven't "chosen life" if we're not doing the kinds of things Moses commanded Israel to do in Deuteronomy 30:20, "loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to him." Choosing life is not a passive experience but an active one.

"Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness," said Paul. It is only the rugged who will receive this crown, those who have fought and run and been tested. "The devil tempts that he may ruin; God tests that he may crown" (Ambrose).

"Resurrection" sounds good, but there is some dying that comes first. If there is anything other than God that we won't give up, then the devil has our heart. "Give it up," Jesus says. "Hold on to it, and you will die. But die, and you will live."

Having given us life and a free will, God will hold us accountable for the use of our freedom of choice between good and evil. Think of it in terms of "stewardship." With such great gifts, we will answer for our faithfulness in using them.