Choices

Have you ever thought about the choices you make and how it would affect your future or someone else's? Have you ever thought about where you are in life and how you came to arrive at this place? Ultimately, choices were made for us by our parents at the beginning of our lives and we either continued in making the same kind of choices or strayed from what they chose for us. In the past several months, I have thought about my life and my heritage. I come from a Pentecostal background. If you go back a couple generations in my geneology, you will find that it wasn't always like that. My grandfather was a very different man when he enlisted in the army to fight in World War II. While in Japan, fighting for our country and our freedom, he saw many things. Things that we would find very difficult to face and understand. As the story has been told, he faced many challenges and at one point cried out to God for help. One day, while fighting in the fields, he found himself trapped and wondering if he would get out alive. He asked God, "God, if you get me out of here alive, I will serve you the rest of my life!" Needless to say, he got out of the difficult situation and God began to show him many different things. There was another day during the war, that the Allied soldiers were under attack and they went to take cover in a bunker. My grandfather felt the Holy Spirit discouraging him to go to the bunker, but to take cover somewhere else and try to bring as many men as he could with him. Although it was difficult to go the other location, he went anyway, because it was such a strong urging. Some men chose to follow him, while many others did not. Later he realized the protection of God, as the men who took cover in the bunker were killed by a bomb. My grandfather accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and was committed to serve Him the rest of his life. When he returned home, he moved from his family's farm in North Dakota to Zion Bible Institute in Zion, IL. He fulfilled his promise to God, and became a preacher. He met my grandmother at Bible school and started ministering in Wisconsin. His choices to follow Christ and trust in Him for ALL things were instilled in his 8 children. Those eight children had a choice to follow in the same way. One of those 8 children, is my father. He taught us, along with my mother, the value of living for Christ and trusting Him for ALL things. We all have a choice to follow Christ or to follow someone else. I accepted Jesus Christ, as my Savior, at the age of 10. It was the most important decision I could ever make. A choice that I have never regretted making. There have been many trials and difficulties in my life, in which, the Lord has been by my side each step of the way. I hate to imagine what my life would be like without Him. What kind of choices are you making today? You may affect generations to come! Will you choose Jesus today?