“Today I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore, choose life so that you and your descendants may live!” (Deuteronomy 30:19; NET).

Choice. Freedom. Freedom of choice. As Americans, these words and phrases are woven into our cultural DNA. The Oxford Dictionary defines choice as: “An act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities,” and, “The choice between good and evil.”

In the Garden of Eden, Adam was told he could eat off any tree in the garden, except one (Genesis 2:17). When Satan came to Eve as a serpent, he presented her with the first real choice we see in Scripture (Genesis 3:1).  A choice that was contrary to God’s desires for them.

God had also told them that death would be the alternative for not following His instruction. Nothing was hidden about the consequence. Adam and Eve chose to listen to a voice other than God’s, and sin and death entered our world.

We value choice in our world today. We have choices coming out of our ears: where to shop, what clothes to wear, what cars to buy, what schools to go to, our places of work, our relationships, which internet service providers to use, and which apps we want to download that cater to us and make our own lives easier.

We say proudly as Americans that our land is founded on freedoms of choice. Two of the most basic freedoms of choice that we proclaim and hold dear are the freedom to choose our speech and the freedom to choose our religion. And today, those include the freedoms to proclaim and teach that there is no God, no Ultimate Truth, no Absolute Moral Standard or Eternal Life.

The Lord made it clear in the beginning with the first two individuals He created. He made His way known to them, and by extension, to us. But He also gave every human being the right to choose. He wants us to love Him as He loves us because we choose to, not because we’re forced to. Therefore, we can listen to the voice of the Living God that leads to life or we can reject His voice. We choose.

Lawful or unlawful according to human laws, we are born with the ability to recognize all possibilities in front of us, and then choose alternatives just as Adam and Eve did. What kind of subtle, ancient, insidious voice is it that would whisper to us to shout and proudly proclaim our right to choose death?

Let us beware. Those choices that we often crave and fight so vigorously for, many times within our families and even people on the streets, what kind of choices are they? Each day we have the right to choose a Living God – a loving, compassionate, redeeming God who can work out anything for our good and His glory. A God that does, indeed, restore us to Eternal Life.

I write this as a witness.

Christina Starnes