Choose Life


​​©Jennifer Lynn Easton Joy​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ / שמחה איסטון לין ינייפר
Each day we are given the opportunity to make hundreds of choices through the words we speak, the thoughts we entertain, the actions we take, the movements we make, the songs we sing, the music we write, the hugs we give….
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In my late teens, a group of coworkers invited me out on a Friday night to the local hot spot in our city. Even though they all knew I was a Christian and did not drink alcohol, they thought it would be funny when I ordered fruit juice to replace it with a “Harvey Wallbanger.” I had never tasted alcohol before and even though I thought the juice mixture tasted funny, they assured me it was just the tropical island juice mixture. It simply did not occur to me anyone would do what they did. A couple of hours later, I became exceedingly ill and needed to be taken home. The remainder of the evening until the next morning, I was wrapped around the porcelain pedestal heaving up my insides. It was my first and last time of being completely intoxicated with alcohol. It is still incomprehensible to me why anyone would make a decision, a choice to be intoxicated or to intoxicate another. Obviously, my coworkers made a decision that affected my life in a negative manner. Yet, I decided to make the experience an exclamation point of my previous decision not to become intoxicated ever. 

Recently at a church gathering, someone asked me if I grew up in the “hippie generation” and when I answered, “yes,” he naturally assumed that I had participated in the drugs, alcohol, free love, rock music and rebellious atmosphere of that era because he had. He was completely surprised, perhaps even stunned, when I replied, “No, I have never taken drugs. YESHUA chose me when I was eight years old and I have been choosing HIM every single day since then.”

When YESHUA is our first choice every day, then all remaining decisions have the potential influence of HIS eternal and supernatural love, discernment, light, wisdom, frequency, truth, goodness, mercy, grace, joy, hope, peace, knowledge, revelation and kindness. This does not mean we live perfect lives. We choose to live in the embrace of HIS love surrounded by HIS grace.

“So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.” ~ Deuteronomy 30:19, NASB
"Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness,
​like the stars forever and ever." ~ Daniel 12:3, NRSV