Filters – Choices, Decisions, and God.

The Mill Ministry
Filters – Choices, Decisions, and God.
Session 1

There are many decisions we make everyday – some are life changing, others are trivial. This can range from the clothes we buy, to where we eat, to where we go to college, to whom we marry, to whether we really are ok to drive after pounding another shot of vodka.
However, we can find that the myriad of small, little decisions we make every day can have a large impact on the few big decisions we make later on. And we find our future choices directed, limited, and sometimes enriched by smaller decisions we made before.
For example, if you know deep down in your heart that you want to go into the mission field, then perhaps going to Harvard and racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt isn’t the best option.

So let us consider the lens, the filter through which we view these choices and options and ultimately come to a decision.
For instance, if the filter by which you act is your personal happiness, ‘what will make me happiest right now,’ then you will act and live your life so that you can experience the most gratification now.

So what does God have to say about all this?

Our behavior and our choices, the works of our flesh don’t determine our salvation, since that is through faith, by grace, because of the work already completed for us on the cross. So, our behavior does not determine our inclusion in the family of God. But once we are in the family of God, He would have us behave in a way that demonstrates our membership within His family.
Christianity isn’t a moral code, it is a gift of grace, but there are some things that God expects of His people.
Heart transformation irresistibly results in behavior modification.
Once Jesus Christ, becomes your Lord and Saviour, and transforms your heart, then out of this change – this shift – your principles, your foundations, your perceptions, your pleasures, are all shifted to what God desires.

That is the first lens.

Filter #1 – Is it right or is it wrong?

Usually referred to as commandments, when God gives us these instructions it then becomes a matter of obedience. You will do it or you will not. The former is to obey, the latter is to sin.
Now, there are some pretty clear cut things which God very plainly tells us to do.
We shouldn’t murder. [Exodus 20]
We shouldn’t get drunk. [Ephesians 5:18]
We shouldn’t make money and the luxuries of wealth the focus of our lives. [Matthew 6:24]
I won’t list all of them but we must always remember the sanctity of what God has commanded us. When Satan wanted to deceive Eve, the first thing he does, the first conversation recorded was this – “Did God really say…” [Genesis 3:1]
He called into question the authority and sanctity of what God had commanded Adam and Eve and, well you know what happened next.

And so, when you come to any choice, whether big or small, ask yourself, is it right or is it wrong?

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” [1 Corinthians 6:19-20]

Undefeated

Invictus

“Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”

– William Ernest Henley