The last time this happened, it may occur to some how this nightmarish limbo became the familiar place for many of us that made Making choices and moving on with our lives increasingly difficult.
What America forgets today is where it rebelliously discounts it's disgraceful shadow of old it still has the real time potential to humiliate this nation all over again but this time far worse where slow learning or Knew better has no excuse before the world community nor God.
First Kings 18:21 describes a crucial moment of decision. It’s the final showdown between the God of Israel and a false god called Baal. Elijah calls God’s people to choose once and for all between the living God who delivered them, and this false god who has captured their affections: “‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.’ But the people said nothing.”
They seemed unable, or unwilling, to make a choice. They wanted to hedge their bets, sit on the fence, and keep their options open.
So, How different are we in the New Millennium? And how can any truthfully justify that we are still not in slavery to Nixon's Shadow?
When waiting isn't wise.
It’s right to be careful in our decision-making, of course: to pray, to seek counsel from Scripture and from wise Christians.
The bigger the decision, the more careful we should be. But there comes a point when pausing becomes procrastination, when waiting is no longer wise. There comes a point when not to choose becomes idolatry. It becomes a lack of trust in the God who ordains the decisions we will make, gathers up the frayed ends, and works all things for our good and his glory.
Be wise, but then rest in God’s total sovereignty and goodness, and choose. Commit. Make a decision. Be wholehearted and single-minded.
James 1:6–8 puts it like this: “[B]elieve and [do] not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. . . . Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
Trust that God is good and sovereign, and redeems every choice we make. If even the choices of those who murdered his own Son were ordained for our own infinite good (Acts 4:27–28), then how can we doubt that he intends good to come from our choices, however ill-advised they may be?
Another reason for rejecting the god of open options is because the living God himself is a God who chooses. And he made us in his image.
Not Choosing is a Choice.
Over the years, the Israelite's had seen themselves delivered from slavery — repeatedly, spectacularly, and miraculously — by the living God.
The Egyptian gods were powerless against him, as were the gods of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Yet here they are in 1 Kings 18, their faces licking the dust before Baal, worshiping another soon-to-be-defeated god.
It should disgust us. But as God’s people today, how different are we? We have been delivered from slavery to sin by Christ’s death and resurrection, spectacularly and miraculously.
Yet here we are, many of us, worshiping the very gods that Christ has triumphed over, when we know they are defeated gods, and will only drag us to our deaths if we cling to them.
We worship the god of open options. And he is killing us. He kills our relationships, because he tells us it’s better not to become too involved. He kills our service to others because he tells us it might be better to keep our weekends to ourselves. He kills our giving because he tells us these are uncertain financial times and you never know when you might need that money. He kills our joy in Christ because he tells us it’s better not to be thought of as too spiritual.
What is most frightening of all about the god of open options is that you may not even know that you are worshiping him. Because he pretends not to be a god at all.
In fact, he promises you freedom from all gods, all responsibilities. “Keep your options open,” he says. “Worship me, and you don’t have to serve anything or anyone. No commitment necessary. Total freedom.”
Similarly, the Israelites thought that by saying nothing (1 Kings 18:21) they were not committing idolatry. But when they chose not to decide, they made a choice. By refusing to act, they were actually turning away from the living God who rescued them, and committing an obscene act of spiritual adultery by worshiping the god of open options. Some modern translations describe God’s people as “wavering” between two different opinions, but the Hebrew is closer to our word “limping.” Their indecision was crippling them.
The living God — the loving, triune God — did not create us to keep our options open. He didn’t create us to live in fear of making a choice. He didn’t create us to be like Robert De Niro’s character in the 1995 movie Heat, a man who vows never to get involved in anything he can’t walk away from in 30 seconds. God created us to commit. But to him, and to others. He created us to choose.
You Must Choose. Jesus said, “You cannot serve two masters.” At any given moment, you must choose whom you will follow. And if you choose the god of open options, you cannot at that moment choose the triune God, the one who deliberately closed off his options in order to save your life.
Nothing narrows your options more than allowing your hands and feet to be nailed to a wooden cross.
“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life” (Deuteronomy 30:19–20).
Choose the God of infinite possibility who chose to limit himself to a particular time, a particular place, and a particular people. Choose the God who closed off all other alternatives so that he could pursue for himself one bride.
Choose the God who chose not to come down from the cross until she was won.
Choose the narrow way.
Choose the God who chose not to come down from the cross until she was won.
ReplyDeleteThe god of open options is a liar. He promises you that by keeping your options open, you can have everything and everyone. But in the end, you get nothing and no one.