“Choice” the greatest form of Love.  Grace is offered to all, it is only our response to the gift of God through choice that we are at all set apart.  At each threshold for growth in the Lord we are faced with that catalyst of “choice”.  Just as any child has the choice to obey a Parent’s rule, we know Father God’s expectations and consequences and may choose to obey or disobey.  Any Father who forces obedience through tyranny cannot love.  He must explain the rules, counsel wisdom and then deliver justice or reward based on a child’s choices.  No one can say that this is not what God has done.  He is Just, Righteous, Loving and Fair.  What we receive is entirely based upon our actions having fully known God’s expectations and consequences.

However God’s Love is even greater than just the extension of an option to His children.  Our natural state after the fall is one of “total depravity”, meaning because of the original sin we adopted a nature that had no love for or even fear of the Lord.  Absent God’s prevenient Grace, we at our core are “totally evil” incapable of the knowledge of God.  Jesus affirms this in John 6:44, where He says, “No one comes to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up a the last day”, and in Romans 3:10 where Paul states, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” In order to even have the option of choice the Lord had to make His grace available so that we could even comprehend His existence.  Through this prevenient grace God extended the call to salvation for all men.  Now that is love.

Salvation was offered to all  through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His shed blood.  We must choose to accept redemption in order to receives its inherent benefit.  Again the love is extended but the choice is the catalyst for receipt.

Even as Christians having made the choice to accept Saving Grace we can forgo the subsequent choice of Sanctifying Grace and remain “Baby Christians” as it were wandering in the desert.  This is where so many believers reside in the churches, powerless, immature, unholy and unprepared to do the work or face the return of the Lord for His Church.  Just as the bridesmaids with no oil in their lamps they will find themselves scurrying to acquire the necessary filling of the Spirit to count themselves ready for the Lord’s anticipated return.  They will as believers have made the choice to disobey the Lord’s direction.  Each of us has the power, authority, gifts and joy to accomplish great works for the Kingdom, but we must choose to surrender to God’s will.  We can have treasures in Heaven that when subjected to the test of Holy Fire will remain, but we have to choose to store up these treasures as Christ commands.  Why do you think that the devil has used the twisted, carnal understanding of “Choice” to represent a woman’s right to end the life of her child?  Because choice is the catalyst by which we accept the Truth, Promises, Commands, Will and Joy of the Lord.  As always the enemy seeks to corrupt everything that the Lord creates, but we can choose to withstand the attempts of the enemy by standing on the Promises of God given us in His Word, Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  Praise Jesus, Amen.

http://youtu.be/Z2z1syAsHQ8  Commentary of The Love of Choice 11/16/11