"Our beloved brother Paul" (that's what Peter calls him!,2 Peter 3:15) tells us to "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5).
(a) The surrender of our "mind" to the Holy Spirit is our highest privilege in this life here and now.
(b) "Mind" means purpose for living; the choices we make that constitute our character what it is.
(c) And our character is our choices we make in living.
(d) Therefore DOING good is primarily CHOOSING to do good.
(e) You may think that your feet are locked into the path that leads to ruin; that you are a victim of pre-choices that have inevitably been made for you already; that you are in a huge rut formed of iron, out of which escape seems impossible for you; that you are pre-programmed to evil; that you have lost the God-given power of choice.
(f) But if you still possess the choice to take a breath and you don't have the choice NOT to take a breath, that means you still have the power of choice to think and to do what is right, by the grace of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, IS your Savior, and all of Satan's evil angels are powerless to take Him from you.
(g) That means that even if the wrong choices you have made in the past seem locked in for you that if you can still choose to take a breath you still have retained that precious freedom of choice that the Lord has given you as your eternal possession. (Have you noticed how impossible it is to choose to stop breathing? There's a lesson in the goodness of the Lord Jesus!)
(h) He has chosen for you to have eternal salvation--that's a pre-choice He has already made for you.
(i) We know this is true for we read in 1 Timothy 2:3, 4 that He "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."
(j) Therefore it is sure that He has made a choice already for you to be saved!
(k) And it follows that the only way that you can be lost is for you to negate His will, to deny it, to interpose your own perverse will with the purpose of canceling His good will for you.
(l) You don't want to do that! As surely as it is your own natural will to keep on breathing, so sure is it that the Lord's purpose for you is to inherit eternal life in Christ's salvation. Yes, the Samaritans were right! He IS the "Saviour of the world" (John 4:42).
(m) Now, don't crucify Him all over again! That's how serious are the choices before us today! I don't need to remind you that in the final day of judgment (which all of us must face), finding ourselves in that position is the most awful thing possible for any human being!
(n) Thank the Lord Jesus, He has pre-programmed you to eternal salvation; now don't contradict His choice for you!
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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