Compared to other countries, America has a great deal of choices available. In another land, if you can find a grocery store, it may only have bulk items in the open air. Brand names, plastic wrap and cardboard containers and FDA stickers are nowhere to be seen. Americans have multiple choices for everything from cell phones to trash services. It is in the challenge of making the right choice that we often fail to grasp the consequences of our actions. 

On a mission trip to Paraguay, I saw an interesting consequence of the abundance of choices. Our small group took a boat up the Paraguay River to minister to the local Guaraní people with health care professionals and a local pastor. At the first village we found a meek group of families living in very modest quarters. Their sturdy homes were made of items they found in nature. Most had dirt floors and none had electricity, yet all of them were healthy and well fed from products found on the land and in the river. Their children were happy and all attended a school that was built by missionaries. We had a joyful time playing, eating, ministering and telling stories. In their secluded place in the world, there was very little influence from the outside world.

The second day, we traveled further up the river to visit another group living at a cattle ranch. Their homes were well built wooden structures left behind by the previous owners of the land, which was once a timber company, before the trees were all removed. There was electricity, running water, gas powered vehicles – and multiple choices of vices. There was no school for the children, yet there was greater opportunity for work and income, which gave them greater choices to pollute their bodies and the land. The health problems in this place were as diverse as the choices for a variety of vices.

Between the two villages, the simpler, less complicated life seemed to be healthier and happier, because there were fewer choices to sin.

Look at the complicated story of King David in the Bible.  He had climbed to the top where others were fighting his battles for him. David chose to stay home and hang out on the balcony to watch the pretty ladies bathe on the rooftops on a warm summer evening. The consequences of this one choice led to other bad choices which triggered an unending chain of events.

1) David stayed home instead of going to battle (2 Samuel 11:1). 

2) Watched Bathsheba bathe (2 Samuel 11:2). 

3) Invited her to his home and slept with her, even though he knew she was married (2 Samuel 11:4). 

4) Tried to cover up his sin (2 Samuel 11:13). 

5) Murdered Bathsheba’s husband with the stroke of a pen (2 Samuel 11:14-15). 

6) Bathsheba had to choose a coffin for her husband (2 Samuel 11:26). 

7) David had to choose a coffin for their baby (2 Samuel 12:19). 

8) David’s son Amnon slept with David’s daughter Tamar (2 Samuel 13:11-14). 

9) Tamar’s life is ruined (2 Samuel 13:20). 

10) David chose to do nothing about it (2 Samuel 13:21). 

11) David’s son, Absalom, ordered the murder of Amnon because of Tamar (2 Samuel 13:22, 28-29) 

12) David’s house was divided (2 Samuel 14:28 – 15:6). 

13) Absalom tried to take over the kingdom (2 Samuel 15:10-13). 

14) David chose to abandon Jerusalem (2 Samuel 15:23) 

15) Ahitophel, Bathsheba’s grandfather/Absalom and David’s counselor, hanged himself in the confusion (2 Samuel 17:23). 

16) Absalom died trying to dethrone David (2 Samuel 18:9-15). 

17) David’s grandchildren warred among themselves and divided the kingdom (1 Kings 12:20). 

David’s first choice to sin was against God. The consequences of his sin continued well beyond his death, even to today.

Are you following God’s plan or your own ill-conceived choices? How is that working for you?

I challenge you to make a choice today, with the same challenge Joshua gave -  "And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)

Pastor Jay Merritt

All of us have worked alongside complainers and encouragers.  I prefer encouragers.  The Bible has a record of a great encourager who was instrumental in getting the early church started: Joses. 

The Bible does not say when Joses became a believer in Jesus, but he was well known by the apostles, for they nick-named him Barnabas, which means Son of Encouragement, (Acts 4:36).  In Acts 4:37 we see that he was a generous man, for he sold some of his land and gave to the apostles, to further the cause of Christ.  How encouraging it must have been to the apostles when they received this gift.

In my opinion, if Barnabas had not followed God’s call, much of Europe and Asia might not have heard the Gospel.  He was instrumental in identifying, encouraging, and introducing perhaps the world’s greatest evangelist to the apostles: Paul. 

Paul had had a tough time.  Before Paul’s conversion, Paul had been a persecutor of the followers of Jesus.  After Paul’s conversion, he preached in Damascus, to inform the Jews about Jesus being the Christ, but they wanted to kill him for saying such things.  Paul escaped in the middle of the night with little more than the clothes on his back (Acts 9:23-25) and fled to Jerusalem. 

Paul tried to join with the rest of the believers in Jerusalem, but they were all afraid of him and thought the whole story of his conversion was a lie (Acts 9:26).  It was then, in Jerusalem, that Paul ran into Barnabas, the “Son of Encouragement,” who grabbed Paul by the arm and took him to meet Peter, James and the other apostles, where Barnabas encouraged the apostles to let Paul into their group (Acts 9:27).

Paul may have quit if it wasn’t for this chance meeting.  The Jews wanted to kill him.  The young Christian community didn’t believe him – except for Barnabas.  Not only was Barnabas an encourager, but he also had courage to take Paul in, when no one else would.

How many of us have done the opposite of what Barnabas did?  We hear of the miraculous conversion of a person whose soul we wrote off as lost long ago, and we scoff in disbelief.  All we can think of is the old person and can’t focus on the possibilities that God can create for every new believer.  As the Bible shows, through the example of Barnabas, it is better to err on the side of belief, than to let a new believer get lost in discouragement.

The Lord began doing great things in a place called Antioch in Syria.  There was a group of Jewish believers in Jesus and a group of Greek believers.  The apostles sent Barnabas to Antioch alone, without Paul, to encourage them in the Lord (Acts 11:23).  If you look closely at the specific encouragement he gave, it was “with purpose of heart” to remain true to the Lord.  I think he was telling the believers that their faith needed to be “on purpose” and not by happenstance.  He could also have been thinking that discouraging people and circumstances would come one day, and if their faith was not in a place of priority in their hearts and minds, it could easily be toppled if it was not on a secure foundation.

Because Barnabas was “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith,” “a great many people were added to the Lord.” – Acts 11:24.

Paul had been debating with the Greeks in Jerusalem so heatedly, that they tried to kill him there, too.  Luckily the believers rescued him and sent him back to his home town of Tarsus where he would be safe.  Paul was sent home because his preaching style was too disruptive.  How discouraging!  But here’s the beautiful thing: Barnabas went out of his way, 250 miles round trip, to pull Paul back into the ministry, in Antioch. 

It seems that this second round of encouragement from Barnabas is what Paul needed.  The two of them taught and preached together for a full year.  In this place, where the evangelist and the encourager worked side by side, the followers of Jesus were first called Christians (Acts 11:26).

Barnabas was generous, full of “on purpose” faith, went out of his way to encourage, was a team player, and never gave up on people.  Today’s followers of Christ will have a tough time living up to the same name he was given – Christian.

Who will you encourage today?







Pastor Jay Merritt