The document discusses the theme of choices, noting that while choices exist, not all choices are equally good or lead to the same outcomes. It provides several biblical examples of people faced with choices, such as the Pharisees who chose whether to follow or oppose Jesus. The conclusion emphasizes that God gives people free will to choose but ultimately desires they choose life, blessings, and to love and follow Him.

1. Choices – Not All Are Bad
• Luke 13:31 (NIV) 31 At that time some Pharisees
came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this
place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to
kill you.”
• Luke 14:1 (NIV) 1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went
to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he
was being carefully watched.
• John 3:1-2 (NIV) 1 Now there was a man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the
Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at
night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a
teacher who has come from God. For no one
could perform the miraculous signs you are
doing if God were not with him.”

2. Choices – Not All Are Bad
The teachings of Christ reveal him to be a realist
in the finest meaning of that word. Nowhere in the
Gospels do we find anything visionary or
overoptimistic. He told his hearers the whole truth
and let them make up their minds. He might grieve
over the retreating form of an inquirer who could
not face up to the truth, but he never ran after him
to try to win him with rosy promises. He would
have men follow him, knowing the cost, or he
would let them go their ways.
A.W. Tozer (1897-1963)
It is this way. The Lord, he is always voting for a
man; and the devil, he is always voting against
him. Then the man himself votes and that breaks
the tie.

3. Choices – Not All Are Bad
• Luke 13:31 (NIV) 31 At that time some Pharisees
came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place
and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill
you.”
• Luke 14:1 (NIV) 1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went
to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he
was being carefully watched.
• John 3:1-2 (NIV) 1 Now there was a man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the
Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night
and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher
who has come from God. For no one could
perform the miraculous signs you are doing if
God were not with him.”

4. Choices – Not All Are Bad
• Pharisee = “separate”
• Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection
or angels
• Paul
• Philippians 3:4-6 (NIV) 4 though I myself have
reasons for such confidence. If anyone else
thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the
flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth
day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to
the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting
the church; as for legalistic righteousness,
faultless.

5. Choices – Not All Are Bad
• God regenerates us and puts us in contact with all his
divine resources, but he cannot make us walk according to
his will.
• Our destiny is not determined for us, but it is determined
by us. Man's free will is part of God's sovereign will. We
have freedom to take which course we choose, but not
freedom to determine the end of that choice. God makes
clear what he desires, we must choose, and the result of
the choice is not the inevitableness of law, but the
inevitableness of God.
• We put one foot on God's side and one on the side of
human reasoning; then God widens the space until we
either drop down in between or jump on to one side or the
other.
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

6. Choices – Not All Are Bad
• God always gives his very best to those who
leave the choice with him.
James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905)
• God asks no one whether he will accept life.
This is not the choice. The only choice you
have as you go through life is how you will live
it.
Bernard Meltzer
• God gave us a free choice because there is no
significance to love that knows no alternative.
James C. Dobson (1936- )

7. Choices – Not All Are Bad
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV) 19 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 20 and that
you may love the LORD your God, listen to
his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD
is your life, and he will give you many years
in the land he swore to give to your fathers,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

8. Choices – Not All Are Bad
Ten Sets of Things to Choose From
1. Good or evil (Deut. 30:15)
2. Life or death (Deut. 30:15,19)
3. Love or hatred of God (Deut. 30:16)
4. To walk in God's ways or to reject them
5. To keep commandments, statutes, and
judgments or to transgress them
6. To cleave to God or turn away from Him (Deut.
30:17,20)
7. To hear God or to refuse to hear Him
8. To worship God or other gods
9. To live long or to perish quickly (Deut. 30:18)
10.Blessing or cursing (Deut. 30:19)

9. Choices – Not All Are Bad
F.L.I.P. It
F old our hands; fold ourselves into God’s
protection and preservation
L et go of our own flesh intelligence; let God’s
wisdom reign
I nhabitthe situation and circumstance; allow God
to inhabit the situation and circumstance
P repare our testimony; allow God to use the
situation and circumstance to bring Him glory

10. For The Glory of God
Philippians 1:20 (AMP) 20 This is in keeping
with my own eager desire and persistent
expectation and hope, that I shall not
disgrace myself nor be put to shame in
anything; but that with the utmost freedom
of speech and unfailing courage, now as
always heretofore, Christ (the Messiah)
will be magnified and get glory and praise
in this body of mine and be boldly exalted
in my person, whether through (by) life or
through (by) death.

11. Choices – Not All Are Bad
• Choose to love-rather than hate
• Choose to smile-rather than frown
• Choose to build-rather than destroy
• Choose to persevere-rather than quit
• Choose to praise-rather than gossip
• Choose to heal-rather than wound
• Choose to give-rather than grasp
• Choose to act-rather than delay
• Choose to forgive-rather than curse
• Choose to pray-rather than despair.