24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: ²⁵ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
²⁶ “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: ²⁷ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” (from BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup Matthew 7)

We learn that the storms came upon the godly and the ungodly.

Foolish is the person who builds his house on the sand. Jesus also spoke about two ways. Jesus said, "enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it". To go the narrow way and find life, is not to be narrowminded, because it's the best way. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life".

Jesus is the Way, because we are lost without Him. Jesus is the Truth, because we've been deceived by satan. Jesus is the Life, for we were dead in tresspasses and sins.

If there were many ways, it would not only be confusing but contrary to Jesus' Word.

God gave us a free choice. Without free choice we will only live mechanical and worship Him mechanical. But He's given us a choice and put before us Life and death.

God gave Adam and Eve also a free choice. They were in the perfect environment, Eden. One day satan came by and deceived Eve. He pointed to the one tree they were forbidden to eat from. If that tree was not there they would have had no choice. It was pleasant to obey God for He gave them everything so abundantly.

There is another tree planted by God on Calvary. Of this tree God said, "taste and see that the Lord is good. Look and live."

But here too you have a choice to make. It is not forced on you.

In Acts 17:16 and onwards, Paul proclaims Christ and His resurrection to the Greeks.
Those who heard Paul made one of three choices:

• Devision - they laughed and mocked
• Delay - they put the matter off until a more convenient time, and wanted to hear him again.
• Decision - a few became followers of Christ Jesus.

So too, each one has to make a decision totay. There is no alternative. You will either mock, delay or decide for Christ.

On Dec 25 we celebrate Christ's birth. Some will argue that that is not the day Christ was born. That might or might not be true. But what we do know is that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He was born of the virgin Mary in the little town of Bethlehem. Each day should be Christmas in our lives, and Dec 25 is as good a day as any other to celebrate these wonderful facts.

We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of our sins is death. However, God still gives us a choice. He said, "Whoever calls on the name of Jesus will be saved".

Rev Bill Bathman related how he travelled to New Mexico in Central Arizona. Somehow they ran out of gas (petrol) in the middle of the night and just made it to a little, run-down petrol station. The attendant obviously had a bad day, and as he was filling the car with petrol, he cursed and swore while smoking all the time. Rev Bill confronted him and said to him, "I heard you just mentioned the name of a friend of mine, Jesus". "Oh", the man replied, "Sorry, I didn't know you were religious". Rev Bill answered, "I don't believe in religion, but in a personal relationship with Jesus, Who died for my sins, and reconciled me to God, so that He can be my personal Friend and I can have daily fellowship with Him". For the next two hours Rev Bill talked to him about Jesus and then asked him if he too would like to have Christ as his personal Saviour. A friend of the attendant also stood close by and listened to the whole conversation. Both of them received Christ as their personal Saviour that night. They made the right choice. They chose life.

Will you make the right choice today? The Bible says, "as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God."