bundle of choices, a by jim hohnberger

7/27/2019 Bundle of Choices, A by Jim Hohnberger

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J i m H o h n b e r g e r

B u n d l e

" C h o i c e s


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C o p y r i g h t 2 0 0 6 b yJ i m H o h n b e r g e rA l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d .P r i n t e d i n t h e U S A .A d a p t e d f ro m E s c a p e t o G o d , c o p y r i g h t P a c if ic P r e s s P u b l i s h i n g A s s o c , Nampa,I d a h o . U s e d b y p e r m i s s i o n .

P u b l i s h e d b y :A m a z i n g F a c t s , I n c .P . O . B o x 1 0 5 8Roseville, CA 9 5 6 7 8 - 8 0 5 88 0 0 - 5 3 8 - 7 2 7 5Cover design by Matthew M ooresText design by Greg Solie - Altamont GraphicsI S B N 1-58019-205-X


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A B u n d l e

0 f C h o i c e s

m^A l m l H o h n b e r g e

'Choose yo u th is day w h o m ye will serve."Joshua 24:15

ur efforts at simplification had yieldedI wonderful results. The 'busyness anddistrac tions of life had b een erad icated .But th is alone was no t sufficient to b rin g m e anylasting hap piness or peace. I knew the Lord h adled us out to the wilderness for the p rim ar y pu rpose of our spiritual development. While I hadstudied complex theological concepts for years,m y studies had never pro du ced the type of character changes that I desired to have in my life. Iwas still laboring under the misconception thatm ore knowledge, a m ore com plete un de rstan ding and a more perfectly understood theologywas all I needed to prod uc e a transform ation inmy life.


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2 A Bundle of ChoicesWith this in mind I purchased five booksfrom five well-known and respected theologians.Here in the wilderness, Ifinallyhad bo th the timeand the inclination to obtain a working knowledge of salvation. Eagerly I started to read. By thetime J finished the last book, confusion, unlikeany I had ever known settled upon me. It was

clear that not one of the leading scholars agreedwith the others. If they couldn't understand oragree on the gospel, what hop e did I have?I kn ew in m y hea rt of hearts that the gospelcould not be as complicated as man had made

it. Common sense told me that the true gospelwould save me from those areas of my life inwhich my willpower had proved useless. Thatgospel would prov ide m e a pow er with which tocontrol my feelings, my thoughts and my passions. Through the guidance of the Lord I hadmade many changes in my life and yet I stilllonged for peace with God. I still hoped for fullassurance of salvation.As I shared earlier, we realized early on tha tour suburban lives were too complicated, toobusy. O nly after we were in the w ilderness did itbegin to dawn on me that my theology was suffering from exactly the same problems that hadso plagued our life in civilization. It was time,once again, to simplify.


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A Bundle of Choices 3I went back to th e Bible with prayerful study.This time I didn't go to prove some theological

position or to gain some doctrinal understanding. I went to the Word of God as a sinner inneed of salvation. I knew that unless I found abetter, a deeper, a.riving experience capable ofsaving Jim H oh nb erg er from himself, I was lost!When I approached the Bible with that humbleand teachable spirit, it becam e a living fountain.From its pages flowed a gospel message th at w asjust as simple and h ad just as practical an app lication to my life as did the wilderness lifestylethat God had called us to live.

The Bible taught me a gospel message,which in its simplest form is about choices-simple, straigh tforward, everyday choices. Thosechoices, w hen com bined together, com pose thewhole length and bre ad th of the Christian experience . It is m y privilege in this chapter to sha rewith you these choices tha t have so transform edmy life.

Some may complain I am oversimplifyingthe gospel. I truly do not believe this is possible.The gospel should be presented so simply thatlittle children can unde rsta nd it.

Others may accuse me of teaching salvation by w orks. N oth ing could be further fromthe truth! Prior to discovering the true gospel,


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4 A Bundle of ChoicesI spent my entire "Christian" life attempting tobe good, to change myself, in my own humanstrength. Surely I understand the futility ofsuch an experience. Yet, I am un ash am ed of thegospel of Christ which not only can, but will,produce changes in the life of any m an , w om an,or child who accepts it. These changes are theinevitable fruit of th e gospel.Those who object to the fact that theC hristian can: truly obey and do good workshave never tasted grace, and experienced apower outside of themselves. This power ?isable to keep you from falling, and to presen t youfaultless before the presence of his glory withexceeding joy" (Jude 24).

So.if you are inclined to be a critic, you maynot-look with favor upon the following pages.But if you, like me, long for something betterthan* that which you have experienced, if youwant full assurance of salvation, not just theological m um bo -jum bo , if you desire peace w ithGod and the resulting peace within( yourself,th e n tur n these pages and explore w ith m e thisbu nd le of choices.

A newly married.man^and his wife.startedit all. As they sat in the departure lounge of the


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A Bundle of Choices 5they visited quietly over the open Bible in hislap. The man was a recently ordained evangelical minister and his earnestness and zeal wereunmistakable. They were a hard couple not tonotice, so obviously in love and yet it was thatopen Bible which set them apart from the average traveler.

Al, a devout M orm on businessman noticedit too. He sat a little ways across from th em as hewaited for the sam e flight. H e observed the pairas discreetly as possible, averting his eyes if theyglanced in his direction. Al was a very properman and would never want to be considered sorude as to stare at someone. Too late he realized that the young couple had been aware ofhis interest in the m for som e tim e. Suddenly theBible shut as the young man stood and strodepurposefully to this stranger whose attentionthey had so clearly captivated.Al had visited m y family a few sho rt m onth sbefore. He was a successful bu sinessm an in western M on tana , no t terribly far from where we live.He came to our ho m e with two young M orm onmissionaries. I assum e the pu rp ose of the ir visitwas to enlighten me about Mormonism, butGod appeared to have oth er plans.

Al-became so enthralled as he-learned ofour lifestyle, our goals for country living, and


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6 A Bundle of.Choicesour understanding of the gospel that he and Idrew close together as we visited, forming thebeginnings of a lasting, friendship. Meanwhilethe two missiona ries were quiet and uncom fortable, hardly saying a w ord while A l un de rm ine dthe very reason for their visit with his interestin our religion. I found Al to be a fascinatingm an , an inde pend en t thinker w ho was unafraidto ex am ine h is own beliefs an d values. This raretrait end eared him to m e and I was determ inedto keep in touch w ith him w henever possible.

Traveling near Als office one day, I decidedto visit him . He.was genuinely glad to see m e andafter greetings had been exchanged , he p roceeded to tell me of his experience in the airport.

"Excuse me, Sir," the young minister saidas he approached,Al. "I couldn't help noticingyour glances in our direction. May I ask you aquestion?""Certainly" Al responded, while inwardlychiding himself for disturbing the quiet youngcouple."Sir, if our flight were to crash before wereached our destination and all of us were to diewould you be sure of ete rna l salvation?""I th ink I would," my friend replied."That's not good enough," said the earnestyoung man.. "You. must know! Now let me ask


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A Bundle of Choices 7you again. If you were to die today would yoube saved?"

"I don't know," was Al's honest response."Listen," said the minister. As he flippedth rough the pages of. his Bible, he read :John 3:15,16: "That whosoever believeth in h imshould no t pe rish, bu t have ete rna l life. For G odso loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in h im shouldnot perish, but have everlasting life," John 6:47;"Verily, verily I say un to you, He that believeth onm e hath "everlasting life," and finally John 11:25;"I am the resurrection.and the life: he that believeth in m e, tho ug h he were dead; yet shall helive." "There," he said trium ph an tly. "Now, if youwere to die today would you be saved?"

"Yes, I believe so," Al said."Then," said the young minister becominganimated, "you are a Christian and you haveeternal life.""You know," Al said to the yo un g m an . "I really adm ire yo ur en thusiasm . I used to have tha tkind of zeal w hen I w ent ou t on m y m issions."

"Missions!" the young man squawked."You used to go ou t on m issions! Why, are you aM orm on ?" he asked distastefully."Yes," Ah said, bewildered at the suddenchange.


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8 A Bundle of Choices"W hy didn't you say you were a M orm on?""You never asked.""Well, I'm sorry," said the minister, "butM or mons wont be in heaven." W ith those pa rting w ords he turn ed an d walked away.As he finished his story, Al slowly tu rn ed tome and said, "Jim, I'm confused. Can you shed

some light on this subject?""I'll try," I responde d. It was clear Al w asn'tconcerned about the unfair and prejudicedtreatment he had received,. He was intelligentenough to ignore the irrelevancy of the youngman's bias. Al was struggling with the deeperissue of how to know, really know, whether hewas saved or lost."Lord," I prayed in my thoughts, "give methe wisdom and the words to satisfy this man.Help me to reach across the barriers we place

between each other because of denominationalaffiliation and doctrinal bias." As I tu rned to giveAl m y full atten tion I said, "Can I have a piece ofpa pe r so I can illustrate?" Al ha nd ed m e a scrapof paper. I picked up my pen an d began."Al, the Chr istian life is no t m ade up of do ctrines, creeds, reforms; or church membership.It is not even made up of beliefs, but rather theC hr istian life is a bundle of choices. When Godbrings a truth or light to our understanding, it


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A Bundle of Choices 9always com es with a choice. We m us t choose tosubmit to the will of God or refuse. When Godhas all m y know n choices, then He has m e."Let's say for purposes of illustration thatthe Christian life in its entirety is made up of ahundred choices," I.said, placing the nu m be r onthe paper. "Remember the thief of the cross?" Iasked, looking at Al.He n od de d, so I con tinued. "Well, that thiefdidn't know a whole lot abou t the Christian life.His m ind m ay have only been aware of a handfulof the choices that compose the ChristianTife,let's say perhaps ten. But for those ten choicesthat he kne w of, he was fully subm itted to G od .Christ could offer him full assurance of salvation n ot because of his great know ledge, bu t because he chose to surrender to God in ALL hisknown choices. Had he lived longer he wouldhave had opportunity to have advanced in hisChristian experience and his choices wouldhave deepened and broadened to encompassthe whole gamut of the C hristian life.

"Then there was Caiaphas, the Jewish highpriest who wanted Jesus killed. He was awareof many truths in God's word. He had lots oflight and that gave maybe seventy choices," Isaid as I scribbled down the numbers. "Yet, let'ssay that he made a free will choice to submit


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10 A Bundle of Choicesto God in only fifty of those choices. He hadmore choices, was surrendered in more'of hischoices than


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A Bundle of Choices 11present life, or salvation in the life to come. Forthese two are inseparably one!

"You see, Al, the Christian life is not somuch a matter of how much you know or howactive you are, but whether all your knownchoices are surrendered in the present to thewill of God. All the known choices of the thiefon the cross were surrendered. Therefore, hewas one hundred percent God's, even thoughthere m ay have been areas in his life that nee dedcorrection of which he was unaw are.

"But Al, let a m an , any m an , stubbo rnly an dpersistently resist in even just one area and thisresistance will eventually lead h im to jo in in thegreat revolt against'God started by Satan himself. No matter how much we may desire Jesusto be our savior, no matter how much we feelour hearts are drawn out in love towards Him,determined resistance to His leadership, will inthe endj destroy us, just as it did Lucifer."

"I see, Jim. I've never understood this berfore," Al said; obviously struggling to come toterms with this new understanding. "Thankyou."

My conversation with .Al ended there, butthere is more in that Bible story that we couldunderstand. Two other men made choices we


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12 A Bundle of Choicescan learn from that same day. The .first wasPeter. He had followed Jesus for most of Hisactive.ministry. He had great opportunity andhad been exposed to great light. Though just asimple fisher-man, his exposure to Jesus mayhave given him,as many known choices as thehigh priest. And

Peter was in submission, to most of them.However, ifi a few small areas, he w ould not submit. His desire for self-exaltation, his cultivatednational pride, and his stubborn self-assurancewere no t surrendered to Go d, and soon he foundhimself denying that he even knew Jesus. Hewas Christ's own disciple andBhe failed becausehe had hot subm itted all his kn ow n choices.

Jesus is the other man who was faced withchoices that day. Jesus demonstrated only surrende r and subm ission to H is Father's will in Hischoices, but the struggle is evident in His pleasto His father in Gethsemane. "O my father, if itbe possible let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as th ou wilt. O m y father ifthis cu p m ay no t pass away except I d rin k it, thywill be done" (M atthew 26:39,42).He had to choose just like we do. If we willadopt Jesus' attitude of "not my will, but thinebe do ne" it will lead us to choose correctly evenwhen we don't feel like it.


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A Bundle of Choices 13It is at this point that many are confusedand finding difficulties in .living the. Ch ristian

life, for becom ing a C hristian is no t a one -tim echoice but rath er a minute-by-minute, continuous choice to let G od have all of me.-Day in and day out I am to live for Jesus.My focus is to be in His will, His way. M any at

tem pt to accomplish this throu gh their own hu m anity. They set ou t w ith the ir strong willpowerand their teeth gritted in determination to livethe Christian life. It always ends in defeat.How then is it possible to live every day,

every hou r, every m om en t to the g lory of God?It's very simple. We are to live as Jesus did. Everymorning Jesus took t im e with G od. We too, mu sttake time to give ourselves to G od every m o rn ing, to surrender at the beginning of every day.It can't be a rushed thing, but has to allow timefor.us to co m m un e w ith Go d a nd really listen towhat He's saying to us individually. God speaksto us thro ug h th e Bible, nature, providence andthe impressions in the mind. Then after comm un ing w ith ou r Father, and m aking sure thereis no th ing to prev ent us from he arin g His voice,we can rest assured that He will gu ide us.

W hen w e leave our place of quiet dev otion,it is essential, to take God with us in order tocommune with Him throughout the day. We


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14 A Bundle of Choicesneed to learn to ask, "W hat w ould tho u have m eto do?" (Acts 9:6). G od wants us to know we arenot in this alone. We need help from a sourceou tside of ourselves at the beg inn ing of the dayand then all through the day. As we learn to besensitive to the Holy Spirit's promptings uponour hearts, and learn to submit our wills to always do His will, then it is that "Christ liveth inme" (Galatians 2:20).

But then temptation comes, perhaps thevery sam e tem ptatio n that we have often yieldedto before. In the past, we have gritted our teethand tried to resist the tem pta tion un til we eitherfailed or forced ourselves to obey. There is nopeace or joy in such an experience. Friends, thetru e conflict of tem pta tion occurs in the heart. Ifirst m ust decide if I want to rem ain surren deredto G od . W h en sur ren de r is m y choice, then selfdies and the victory is won and then God supplies all the pow er to m eet the tem pta tion .

This experience is hard because self mustdie, but it is the only path to peace and joy asa Christian!Now choice doesn't merit me anythingwith God. I am not saved by my choices. Thevery desire to make the choice of subm ission toGod is a gift from His grace. Salvation is fullythe giftof God, yet it is that choice to submit


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A Bundle of Choices 15which allows G od the freedom to transform ou rlives throug h the m inistry of H is grace up on thehuman heart .It is-vitally important to see-this for mostwho have taken the n am e of Christ live a strangeamalgamation of Christ and self, contendingfor the management of the life. This type ofChristian life is like a yo-yb, continuously upand down. Being born of the Spirit is goingfrom this experience to allowing Christ to besole ruler of the life. When this amalgamationends, there is rest for the soul: Then we learnthe true science of salvation and the languageof heaven, which is simply how to allow Christfull access to all my decisions and then -by Hisgrace, through a living faith, to say yes to Godand no to self.

Every choice to which we are brought offers an opportunity for us to choose to surrender our. will and way .to God." The. Bible speaksof this as a death to self. Christ illustrated itthis way, "except a kernel of wheat fall into theground and die, it abideth alone; but i f . i t die, itbringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24).How is wheatgrown? It must be buried inthe grave, so to speak, and for the rest of theplants life it draws its strength from this grave.Christians m ust live in the same m anne r, rooted
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16 A Bundle of Choicesin Calvary, not merely an assent to Calvary, buta true entering into a Calvary experience.No, we cannot die for sin as Christ did;but we can die to sin. Paul wrote about this inGalatians 2:20: "I am crucified w ith C hrist: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but C hr ist liveth in me:and the life which I now live in the flesh, I liveby the faith of the Son of God."Paul also said, "I die daily" (1 Corinthians4:10). Obviously Paul did not literally die dailybut what he referred to is the true Christianexperience where we must die to self daily. Weare encouraged to "reckon ourselves dead tosin and self and alive unto God through JesusCh rist our Lord" (Rom ans 6:11).

The choice of pu tting self to death an d subm itting to G od's will is well illustrated in scripture. Perhaps 2 Corinthians 4:11 says it best:"For we which live are always delivered untodeath for Jesus sake that the life of Jesus mightbe made manifest in our mortal flesh." This istrue Christianity. Let me illustrate.

One cold winter morning not that verylong ago Lawoke at my normal time and spentm ore tha n two ho urs in Bible study and prayer.Lseek after God in the morning, knowing myown weakness and realizing that yesterday'sexperience will not save me from today's trials.


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A Bundle of Choices 17Every morning just before breakfast time, wegather togethe r to worship G od as a family an dto ask H is guidance and protection thro ug ho utthe day. It.is a,special time for our family thatdraws us together in strong bonds ofjove thatlast throughout the day.

After our family worship time; I looked outthe window on th e beautiful sight of sixteen newinches of white fluffy snow. My wife was m akin gwaffles and I could see the blue be rry sauce b ub bling on th e stove to go over the m . Now, I lovewaffles and adding the blueberry sauce is justlike icing on the cake. With'one of my favoritebreakfast meals underway, I decided to-take afew m inu tes while th e waffles were cook ing an dplow out th e driveway.

We get a lot.of snow in the mountain valley where I live, many, m any feet of it each w inter, and there are several ways we can removethat snow. I can use a snow shovelthe hardwayor I can use our large snow blowerbet;terbut shortly after moving to the wilderness,I decided I needed a plow to fit on my ToyotaLand Cruiser.You will remember that we were livingon a_very small income and a three thousanddollar western plow with hydraulic lift was totally out of the budget. However, using a little


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18 A Bundle of Choicesingen uity and investing ab ou t $60 in some lum ber, I built a V shaped plow out of trusts andcovered itwith tin . I attached this to the front ofm y bu m p er and it w ou ld free float over the roadclearing the snow and saving m e huge am ountsof time.

I was very pleased with my homemadeplow, and while it wasn't necessarily beautiful,the effort it saved me was beautiful. Travelingdo w n m y drivew ay w ith- th e sn ow flowingoff the plow to each side, i was enjoying theChristmas cardscenery and having a great daywith the Lord. My driveway is a third of a milelong and towards the end I could see that therewas a great big berm of snow left by the hugecounty snowplow.

I.sensed the still small voice of God warning me that.I should not try and fight my waythrough, but I reasoned it away. After all; I hadplowed through piles of snow before. The plowrode up over the berm then dropped down toward the.road surface. In the meantime whilethe plow was dropping downward, my vehiclewas driving up over that big pile of snow. So,w he n the front en d of the vehicle started to d ropback dow n tow ard the road , it lodged firmly ontop of the plow, holding it in the air. The fronttires were useless.


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A Bundle of Choices 19My four-wheel.drive vehicle was stranded:I was stuck with my truck blocking the road

and I began to-get concerned because whereI live-there is-a long blind curve and.,anybodycoming up thatway could easily hit m e w ithoutever having a chance to stop. Just as^this anxiety began to rise in m y flesh, th e Lord called formy heart."Jim, surrender it to me," that still smallvoice said.I had chosen that morning to surrender allmy choices to Him. Now I had to renew thatchoice and even though I hate inconveniences,I chose to.surrender my thoughts and feelings. Then I quickly added; "Lord, I am.in adangerous position here. I know our road-getsvery little traffic, but please don't let me get hitout here."

There was only one th ing to do. I was go ingto have to get unde r the vehicle and jack up thefront end. This would enable me to disconnectthe plow and pull it out of the way. With theplow ou t of the way I could lower the vehicle tothe ground and reattach the plow.Crawling under the front end I found myselfimmediately facing a new frustration and tem ptation to let go of Jesus and give vent to m y feelings.You see when you are plowing fluffy white snow


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20 A Bundle of Choicesand you crawl under a hot- engine, all the snowthat has been kicked up on the undercarriagemelts. I felt like I was in a shower. It was drippingdown m y exposed face an d neck. As if this wasn'tbad enough, the drops fell in my eyes, whichwould have been irritating w ith clean snow melt,but this melt carried with it all the grime of theundercarriage right into my eyes. Immediately Iwanted to feel sorry for myself. I was so tem ptedto say poor m e and have a pity party.

"Yield it to Me," God called, in His quietvoice to m y tho ug hts."But Lord," I resp on de d. "I do n't like this!""Jim, it is not a question of whether youlike this. It is a question of your willingness tosu rre nder even these irritations to me." You see,self-surrender,is the substance of the teachingsof C hris t. I was still learn ing this ha rd lesson."OK, Lord, you can have these circumstances," I responded. "Just don't let me get hithe re in the m idd le of the road."Almost instantly I coUld hear another vehicle coming down the road. Oh no! I thought

and as I rushed to extricate myself from underthe truck, I struck my .head on the back'of theengine. It was anice hard whack, the kind:thatraises a lump on your skull. "Lord," I said, "thisjust isn't fair and I don't like it!"


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A Bundle of Choices 21"Surrender those feelings to me, Jim. Don'tyield to them. I'm with you."O nce again I ha d to choose and once againthrough thei'grace of God I submitted to Godand gained the victory over my thoughts andfeelings. Faith is not only belief in God, butalso a surrender, of all m y choices to H im , daily,

hourly, m om ent by m om ent.Looking over at the vehicle on the road, Inoticed it had stopped and two men got out.They were trappers and came over to investigate. They looked at my plow and the mess Iwas in with amusement. They hadn't even said"hello" to me and they were making fun of myplow. I wanted to straighten them out, but theLord spoke to me again and asked me to surrender the irritation to H im .

"W hy don't you get a real plow?" on e of themen said.I could just feel the anger rising iii m e. M yflesh wanted to rise up and fight back and againJesus called to me to surrender it and by Hisgrace through faith, I made the choice to surrender those feelings to H im . The gospel is qu itesimple. It's just a matter, of saying "yes" to Godand "no",to self. That's a faith that works.

"Look," I said, Tnvin quite a fix here. Doyou fellows think you could hook up a chain


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22 A Bundle of Choicesto the front of the plow and use your truck topu ll it out from under me? That way I can hookit back up in just a minute and get.out of themiddle of the road, so you guys can continueon your way."

They consented to do this and w ithin m inutes I was back in business. I thanked themand they went on their1 way. My youngest sonAndrew came down the driveway at this point.My wife knew how long it should take to plowthe drive, so she-figured there must be a problem and sent him dow n to check on m e.

Seeing that I was OK he asked, "Whathappened?""It's a long story," I told h im ."Well, as long as you're all right," Andrewcontinued, "I am going to go down the road tothe neighbors. They're away and I promised tofeed "Odie" for them."I felt as though I had just fought a war andhad w on. It was only nin e o'clock in th e m orn ing and I was exhausted. In the past any singleone of those .inconveniences would have beenenough to make me let go of Jesus and giveway to self. Sadly I cou ld recall, all too well thatwhen I would let go and give in to the frustrations I would take it out on my wife and family. I would be grumpy with them as if it were


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A Bundle of Choices 23their fault. You see that's what sin does inour lives. It makes us, and everyone aroundus unhappy."Andrew" I said "why don't you hop in and,I'll drive you down there. You can feed the dogand I will plow outtheir drive. That way whenthey get home they will be pleased that theydon't have to dig themselves out."Great!" saidjAndrew and down the roadwe went to the neighbors. Turning down theirlong, sloping drive, I had plowed most of theway t o th e hou se w hen I cam e up on four treesthat had fallen over the driveway in the snow.

I am stuck! I can't back up their drive because of the homemade plow and now I can'tcon tinue forward.: I felt like I shou ld never havegotten out of bed this morning. Again I had tochoose to submit my feelings and thoughts toGod; For it is only by a constant renunciationof self and a-continuous dependence oh Christthat we can live the Chr istian life.

"Andrew," I- said- at last, "go ahead on inand feed their dog and I will get on theTadioand asked mother to send Matthew down herewith the chain saw so we can remove thesetrees and be on our way home." So, off he wentto the house. Sally promised to send Matthewright dow n and I got out of the truck to look the


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24 A Bundle of Choicessituation over, only to glance dow n and see thatI had a flat tire.

"No, Lord. This is just too much. I don'tw ant to have a flat tire!" I wailed."You don't have to let go, Jim. You cancho ose to hold on if you w ant to""All right, Lord. I will submit this to you.But I'm getting tired, Lord." I got out the jackan d proceeded to change the tire, by wh ich tim eA nd rew was back.

"Odie won't let m e in the door!" he exclaimedI wanted to get upset and again I felt theconstraint of the Lord to keep quiet and speakgently to my son. Matthew should have beenhere by now, but he was nowhere in. sight andonce m ore th e flesh w anted to rise and th ink allm an ne r of evil abo ut m y son because he was notthere by the tim e I felt he shou ld be."Jim," God's still small voice spoke in thequiet of my mind, "yield those thoughts to me.You have held on this far. Don't give up now.I will never leave you nor forsake you. Pleasedon't forsake me, Jim""OK , Lord . I'll just go and look for him."Starting out to see what had become ofMatthew, we.had barely climbed up the drivebefore he came panting do w n hauling the chainsaw. What struck me most was that he had


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A Bundle of Choices 25obviously been working hard. He was perspiring and just covered in sawdust an d woo d chipsfrom the chain saw."Father, I have been cutting down the treesleaning over our driveway and. . .""Never mind son." I said. "We'll talk aboutit later." There was no way I could trust myselfto speak to my son. The prom pting s of the Lordwere clear. Besides it mattered not where thecommunication had broken down, the chainsaw was here now and I could almost taste thewaffles.

"Matthew," I said you get in and drive thetruck and I will go in front of you and saw thosetrees out of the way" This is what we did andshortly the last tree was rem oved.I told the boys, "Listen, I'm going to clearthe area by.their garage. Matthew, you go downto the house with your brother and help himfeed that dog. Odie knows you real well. I'msure he'll let you in."

As I finished the last couple of swipes infront of the garage, I could see the boys werehaving problems. The dog was not letting themon the porch to feed him."He's not letting us in" M atthew said.The tem ptation to com plain a bo ut m y boysimm ediately rose up in my flesh an d I wanted to


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26 A Bundle of Choicessay, "Can't you guys d o any thing by yourselves!"Thankfully the Lord had not left me. He wasstill there, pleading for my heart. The devil wassaying, "Let go! G o a he ad an d let go!" G od wasthere too. He was whispering to me. "Hang onJim! Hang on to me. You don't have to let go ofm e an d say w ord s you'll regret." N on e of us haveto let go. It's always a matter of choice.

"Listen, boys," I said. "I'm going to g rab holdof that d og and when;I do, you ru n in there an dpu t that food and water do w n as fast as you can.Then we will go home and have breakfast. I 'mhungry!" Then to myself I added, "Lord, pleasedon't let that dog bite me! That would just betoo much!"

Odie is not a little toy poodle. He is anAlaskan Elk H oun d and just as big and tough asthe nam e of his breed . I grabbed the dog and gothim in a headlock. He was growling and snuffing and fighting for all he was worth. My boysnever moved so fast as they fed and wateredthat dog. They were out of the house in shortorder. As soon as I let go, he ran over to h is bow land started to eat. I shut the door and climbedwearily into the driver's seat.

"You're doing great, Father!" my boys encouraged m e. No one knows us; or the struggleswe go th roug h , like our families. M y boys kn ew


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A Bundle of Choices 27that their father would normally have been inreal trouble with only a fraction of the problem swe had faced this m ornin g."Well, praise the Lord," I managed to sayweakly. "But I'm ge tting t ired. I feel like I foughtWorld War I, World War II and the VietnamWar all by myself this m ornin g. T ha nk G od it'sover, all over," I said pulling in to o ur driveway.Amos 5:19 tells of a man who lots of trouble. He was fleeing from a lion w he n h e ran intoa bear. Finally he got into a house and leanedhis han d on the wall only to have a serpen t bitehim . That's the kin d of m orn ing I was having. Ihad been running from the lion and had evaded the bear and guess who was waiting for meat hom e?

That's rightthe serpent. There never is atime when the Christian can ;relax and say it'sall over. That's just when the devil loves to kickus, knowing we are tired and starting to relax.The w ords "Than k G od it's all over" were hard lyout of my m ou th, when the bottom of m y plowfell off, stopping me almost within sight of thehouse. "Lord," I breathed to myself, "this is notfair! I'm very.tired. I can almost smell the waffles and now another problem."

"You're right Jim. It's not fair the. trials youare having this m orn in g a nd it was no t fair tha t


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28 A Bundle of ChoicesI should have to leave heaven to die for yoursins. Jim, fairness has nothing to do with thesituation. You have a choice! This may be unfair bu t you can still su rrend er it to m e and gainthe victory"

"Very-well, Lord," I said, "you can'have it."I w ent to the garage to get a h am m er and som enails. A nd rew got out the snow blow er to cleanthe area around the garage and Matthew wentin to help his mother. I continued to wrestlew ith the plow. I had p laced a false- bottom onthe plow to keep snow from accumulating inside it, and weighing it down. Now I nailed itback in place and pu lled u p to the h ouse .

As I approached the garage I could seeAndrew pushing our snow blower around thecorner of the garage. You don't push a snowblower! They are self-propelled. This couldonly m ean one thing . It was broken! N O ! I justcouldn't take another problem. I felt tired andweak. My blood' sugar was down. I was shakyand as I walked toward Andrew, I could hearGod calling to my heart, calling for me to surrender. Instead, I chose to vent! I gave way toirritation. I blurted out in harshness and anger,"WHO DID IT?!"

A nd rew just stopp ed dead in his tracks andsaid nothing. Matthew and Sally had come out


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A Bundle of Choices 29to the po rch to call us in to eat, an d there I was.Everyone, had seen and heard what had happen ed. I lifted up the snow blower and drop pe ddown on my knees to look for the problem. Icould-hear God calling on my heart. "Comeback, Jim. M ake thing s right!"

But I wasn't sure I wanted to. Looking atth e snow.blower.1 could see that a little se tscrewthat held the gears in contact with the driveshaft was missing. We live in th e w ilderness andit is a three -hou r roun d trip to,town to get a newsetscrew. Closing my eyes I said, "Lord, if thereis any mercy, please be merciful .to me and forgive me."

O pening -my eyes I saw som ething outof the corner of my eye, a little black speck.Walking over to where it lay, I saw it was thesetscrew. The Lord had allowed me to see morethan twelve feet away in sixteen inches of freshsnow. W hat a good G od we serve! I replaced thesetscrew and joined my family at the table forour belated breakfast.I had a grin on my face that went almost

ear-to-ear. My family was incredulous! I couldeasily read their th ou gh ts. W hy can you be sm iling? You jus t let go. We all saw you do. it!"Look," I said to my family, "I know youare wondering why.I am so happy, but today I


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30 A Bundle of Choicesheld onto Jesus in more trying circumstancesth an I have ever held on to H im before. I gainedvictories over irritation today that I have neverga ined before. Yes, I know that I failed ou t therewith the snow blower and yet I didn't wait foran hour or a day or even several days to returnto the Lord. I repented right away and askedHis forgiveness and now I ask yours. I'm excited not because I failed, but because I cansee the Lord working in my life and I knowthat H e w ho ha s begu n a good w ork in m e willfinish it!"

Praise God, externals don't need to control us. When we learn to choose Christ asfirst, last and best in everything continually,soo n ou r choices becom e habit an d habits formour character.For example, my family was privileged to

spend a month on the island of,St. Croix. Thisisland, a former British possession, "retains several customs from the United Kingdom. Theone we noticed most was driving on the leftor the wrong side of the road as we view it.After obtaining a rental car from the airport,I pulled over and told the whole family thatthey were going to help me drive this car because absolutely everything was on the wrongside. It was the most awkward experience I can


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A Bundle of Choices 31recall. I had to force myself not to revert to olddriving habits.Amazingly enough after thirty days I foundthat I could drive about without even thinkingabout overcom ing the old habits. I had retrainedmyself and now it was as easy to drive this newway as it had been to the old. On our returnto the United States, we wondered whetherwe would have the same kind of adjustmentback to the old ways. There was no transitionat all. We could still drive just the same as wealways had.

Here was a lesson w e cou ld readily apply tothe Christian walk. It is hard for us to changethe m an ne r in which we have always respo nd edto God and many who start to walk with Godfind it so awkward and so crucifying to theirself-will that they are inclined to quit . Yet if theypersevere, they will find it becomes easier andeasier to submit.

However just as we found we could stilldrive in the U.S., so will the Christian find thathe can still choose at any tim e to go back to theold life of sin. Choice is precious to God andHe never takes the power to choose away fromany of His children. He has instead given us abundle of choices. Those choices dete rm ine ou reternal destiny as well as o u r present happiness.


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32 A Bundle of ChoicesEscaping to God is simply returning all ourchoices to H im , con tinually until habit becom escharacter and we are fully His!


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V i s i t u s o n l i n e a tw w w . a m a z i n g f a c t s . o r g

a n d c h e c k o u t o u r o n l i n e c a t a l o gfilled w i t h o t h e r g r e a t b o o k s , v i d e o s ,

C D s , a u d i o t a p e s , a n d m o r e !O r c a l l 8 0 0 - 5 3 8 - 7 2 7 5 .

D o n ' t m i s s o u r F R E E o n l i n eB i b l e P r o p h e c y c o u r s e a tw w w . b i b l e u n i v e r s e . c o m

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bundle of choices, a by jim hohnberger

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