110 Choice in Thought.

Remember! When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.

When my brother died, several years ago now, he died exercising his choice in thought and becoming a last-moment believer. How all of us had feared he would never make that choice. He was a tremendous intellectual and as pragmatic as they come.

For his own funeral he recruited the pastor of the church of my childhood and my sister’s continuing choice of church attendance (along with her substantial extended family and long-time friends). At the funeral, the pastor said this: “I can assure you that today your great friend has by his own full and voluntary choice received Jesus and has entered into Heaven in the Lord.”

Or words closely to that effect.

I wish I had a literal transcript.

It was a bright and shining moment for me when the pastor declared that good news because right up until the last days my brother had not to my knowledge budged an inch from his position against Jesus. I tell you, he lingered 2 years before dying and over that time there was such an outpouring of genuine and generous, personal and Christian love and attention paid to him that had he not made the choice for Jesus I have no idea how he could have borne the idea of leaving behind the great company of these determinedly Christian people, his lifelong companions, who so dearly loved, cared for him all his life and gave him such a great “send off” at the end.

As to my sister’s exercise of choice in thought, now that is another matter. She has clung to her faith all her life by joining and belonging to a Bible Study group for years and ongoing. She chairs the flower program at her church and does many more things. I am sure. The other day she said: “We are here to serve the Lord.” (And most certainly she does.)

Oh, if she only knew the power of her words on me. I’ve always loved a kaleidoscope, and with her words, all the beautiful elements of her faith and mine and all of us together fell into place for me (now that’s the power of family). I saw a future, a vast and beautiful future together with her and with all fellow believers in the New Community of the Kingdom of God.

The New Community of the Kingdom of God—the family of God—that’s where she’s bound in Christ Jesus. That’s where I’m bound, thank God. And I am praying that I will see you all there too. Gentle reader, the simple exercise of personal choice is what positions each and every one of us for this grand future in Christ Jesus.

Think on this: Ask any older person how short life is and they’ll tell you straight. It’s brief. Now, the young live in denial, and all, even the elderly, share Cary Grant’s perishable hope that somehow “they will invent a cure” for death before their time. But that won’t happen. The young know it won’t happen, you know it won’t happen, I know it won’t happen. Instead, time will fly by at a dizzying speed, instead of creeping by in a petty pace (Shakespeare). Death will come to all, and a poorly thought out investment in the here and now will, like many recent IRAs, fizzle and fall flat in value and return in the future.

Now me. Well, you surely know by now how I exercise my choice in thought, dear reader, how I have chosen Jesus. And as I come to the end of this segment of my sort-out, I am again fully convinced (and hope that you are too, gentle reader) that even more broadly speaking, daily choice in thought matters, what we think matters because that thinking determines everything we do.

To guide these thoughts, the Bible teaches, and it is my firm conviction that I need, we all need, thinking based on an external authority, not our own trickster mind-wanderings. We need thinking based on the guidance and authority of God, on the absolute authority of our beloved Triune God. And I (we all) need to exercise my (our own) choice in thought and embrace the testimonies of the Godhead. As Psalm 119:39 (NKJV) says and has instructed me so well over the years, “I thought about my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies.”

And so patient reader, in closing, I thank God that He has called me to realize that choice in thought matters, that now is the time to rightly exercise my choice in thought. I sing His praises for showing me that now is the time to act and that now is the time to choose, and to get on with it. And I thank God that His Bible regularly impresses upon me how important it is that I listen to Him, love and serve Him and obey Him in Christ Jesus. Truly, God is my Significant Truth #1 and I pray that I will always exercise my choice in thought to persevere (Revelations 3:10, NKJV) and overcome in Christ Jesus.

To be continued with Where to Next? . . .