Time for Decision

There are times when we need to make decisions in our daily affairs and in our faith as well. What if we hesitate and delay making a decision? If we do not decide on something but just think about it, we will always remain the same, unable to go forward at all; rather, we will be controlled by our circumstances and go astray.

Turgenev, one of Russia’s great writers, divided mankind into two basic types—Hamlet and Don Quixote. Hamlet represents a meditative, irresolute person whose power of direct action is paralyzed by self-doubt and reflection, whereas Don Quixote represents a decisive and active person who puts his or her thoughts into action with-out hesitation.

What type of person are we now before God? When we are given a time to make a decision on something, if it is God’s will to do it and it is a good and righteous thing that we ought to do, we don’t need to hesitate. The Bible has many records of the forefathers of faith who received blessings from God by taking the right path when they were given a time for decision making.

Decision of the apostles who followed the call of Christ

2,000 years ago, Jesus called His disciples as He was walking beside the Sea of Galilee. At that time, Peter, Andrew, James and John were busy catching fish.

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.Mt 4:18–22

“I will make you fishers of men.” When Jesus said this, the disciples including Peter made a decision without hesitation. It was in a town by the Lake of Galilee that they had lived until then. It was a comfortable place for living, where their parents lived and there were also their nets and boats which they were well skilled in using.

However, leaving these things behind, they responded to Jesus’ call to follow Him.

If Peter hesitated with a lingering attachment for his fishing nets and boat and for the environment surrounding him when Jesus told him to follow Him, the time for decision given to him would have just passed by and he would have ended up living his life as a mere fisherman. At that moment, however, Peter left all his nets and followed Jesus; he was really a decisive person. Since he had a time of decision for God, he was able to become a great apostle who set an example of upright faith to all people in the world.

Apostle Paul took a leading part in persecuting God’s people when he did not know the truth. From the viewpoint of Judaism, the believers in the early Church of God seemed abnormal and heretical. So, Paul even took the lead in stoning Stephen to death. However, while on his way to Damascus, he heard the voice of God and had time for decision.

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

Paul used to think that he had been working for God, but he found out that Jesus, whom he had been persecuting until then, was truly God Himself whom he had been serving. Shocked at this fact, Paul had time to make the decision to convert to the Church of God by correcting his wrong thoughts and behaviors. As soon as he made the decision, he became a worker of the new covenant to preach Jesus Christ and His teachings to many people, and up to the very last moment of his life on the earth he devoted himself exclusively to the gospel mission entrusted by God to him (Ac 7:58–8:3; 9:1–31).

Decision of Ruth—“Where you go I will go”

The Bible also records the story of a Moabite woman named Ruth who followed her Israelite mother-in-law Naomi till the end of her life. When there was a famine in Israel, Naomi and her family moved to Moab to escape the famine. After losing her husband and her two sons, she decided to return to her hometown. Then Orpah, one of Naomi’s two daughters-in-law, left her mother-in-law and went her own way, but Ruth made the firm decision to stay with Naomi for the rest of her life.

“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”Ru 1:15–17

In that situation, any other woman would consider her-mother-in-law as a burden and desert her. However, Ruth decided to stay with her mother-in-law. When she was given time to make a decision, she chose the right path to accompany her mother-in-law and to follow God.

Ruth followed Naomi to her hometown, Bethlehem, and started to make a living there. In Old Testament times, there was a custom for farmers to leave some grain in their fields for the poor after the harvest. So Ruth would go to the fields to pick up the grain dropped by the reapers, as a means of providing for her mother-in-law. Then Boaz heard of her filial conduct toward her mother-in-law and showed kindness to her.

So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.” At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?” Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”Ru 2:8–12

The favor that Boaz showed to Ruth was ultimately the blessing God gave her. God let David be born among the descendants of Ruth, so that she would become David’s ancestress. It is unusual for a woman’s name to be found in Jewish genealogy, which is usually patrilineal. However, Ruth is specifically mentioned by name in the genealogy. As a woman, she received that immense blessing. It is evidence that she made the decision which was truly beautiful, good and righteous in God’s sight.

Decision of Daniel and his three friends who followed God’s will at the crossroads of life and death

In the time of the prophet Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar gave a strict command to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego: “You must worship the image of gold which I’ve set up. If you do not worship it, you will be thrown into a blazing furnace.” It was time for them to make a decision: If they worshiped the idol according to the king’s order, they would disobey God’s command, and if they did not worship it, they would be thrown into the fiery furnace. The three of them decided to choose Heaven rather than to win transient favor with the king for a comfortable life on this earth (Da 3:1–13).

Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? … But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”Da 3:14–18

No matter how hard King Nebuchadnezzar tried to persuade Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to worship the golden image, they boldly told the king that they had already decided to follow the will of God. Furious with rage, the king commanded his soldiers to throw them into the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. However, they were not harmed at all even in the fiery furnace because God protected them from the fire. Then the king was amazed and called them out of the furnace, and he saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. Through this incident, King Nebuchadnezzar deeply realized the power of the God whom Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego served, and promoted them to even higher positions (Da 3:19–30).

For Daniel there was a time for decision, too. During the time of King Darius, the king’s officials tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel and instigated the king to issue a decree that anyone who prayed to any god or man for one month, except tothe king, should be thrown into the lions’ den. Even after learning that the decree had been published, Daniel prayed to God with his face towards Jerusalem as usual. He was firm in his decision not to lose his precious time to pray to God by yielding to the circumstances around him.

As a result, although he was cast down into the den of lions, they did not harm him at all. Even in the lions’ den, Daniel was not afraid, but he kept his eyes fixed on God, staying peaceful and calm. Since he had lived while looking only to God every moment and in any dangerous situation, he stood by God’s side without hesitation at his time of decision and consequently he was protected by God, while all those who had slandered him became food for lions (Da 6:1–28).

Decision of the ancestors who obeyed God’s word right away

Like our aforementioned ancestors in faith, we need to make a decision. If we hesitate when we are given a time to decide on something, we come to waste more time and our heart is troubled even more. If we have much time, we may think it over, but if it is definitely God’s word and will, we must put it into practice right away, without hesitation, so that we will obtain gracious results.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going… . By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,Heb 11:6–11, 17

When God commanded Noah to prepare an ark, he did not hesitate but made a firm decision. The Bible says that Noah did everything just as God had told him to. As a result of his immediate obedience to God’s word, he and his whole family were saved. Abraham also obeyed God’s call and went without hesitation, even though he did not know where he was going. Afterwards, whenever he needed to make a decision, he always kept his heart towards God.

God also asks us to make a decision. He commands us to save all souls and to bring them to heaven together, saying, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Mt 28:18–20).

We should make it a practice to immediately obey whatever God tells us. This is the duty of God’s people who have faith. Those who hesitate and delay cannot go forward at all. Such people always remain the same, like balloon dolls swaying in the wind. While just hesitating, they cannot become disciples of Jesus like Peter, they cannot do the work of displaying God’s glory to the world like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and they cannot save many souls as gospel preachers like Apostle Paul.

There are still many people around us who have not entered the path of salvation without knowing the truth. Let us have time to make a decision to preach the truth of the new covenant to them and to all nations, so that the glory of God will be preached in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Time of decision for the salvation of the world

There is a large, deep crater lake named Cheonji (meaning “sky lake” in Korean) at the top of Mt. Baekdu. A region around the lake gives rise to two rivers. It is said that when a concentrated rainfall occurs in that region, if the stream of water flows to the left even just a little bit, it goes into the Amnok River, and if it flows to the right just a little bit, it runs into the Duman River. In other words, according to which side the stream of water chooses to flow to, it separates into two and the separated waters run into different rivers and ultimately arrive at opposite destinations—the West Sea and the East Sea.

In the same way, according to what kind of choice we make, we may live different lives—the life for the eternal kingdom of God and the life for this sinful world, and as a result we will arrive at a completely different destination—heaven or hell. Everyone wants to go to heaven. However, since Satan the devil tries to hinder us by putting all kinds of temptations and obstacles in our path, it is not easy to go towards the right direction. So we need to take the time to make a decision.

In order to go to the kingdom of heaven, we should take our steps towards heaven. Let us only follow the will of God, putting all other things aside. If we continue to do so, we will find ourselves in heaven at one instant of time. Whenever you need to make a decision, please ask yourself which side you must stand on and make the right choice in accordance with God’s will, so that you will run towards heaven.

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.1 Co 15:58

The work of the Lord refers to the gospel work—the task of saving dying souls. Worldly things often go wrong and everything we have worked hard for may disappear overnight. However, no effort we make to do the work of God is in vain.

God says that He will spit us out of His mouth if we are lukewarm—neither cold nor hot (Rev 3:15–16). If we assume a lukewarm attitude of faith instead of taking a definite stand on God’s side, our faith cannot help but be trapped in a dangerous situation. We reap what we sow. However, if we just think about whether to plant or not or where to sow, we can reap nothing. Those who sow the seed of the Spirit will reap the fruit of the Spirit, and those who sow the seeds of their sinful desires for the world will reap perishable fruit. So God tells us to sow the seed of the kingdom of heaven.

The time for a decision is not always given to us. If Peter had not responded to God’s call right away, he would have been deprived of his blessing by another person. If Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had not shown their firm determination not to worship the idol at that moment, their faith would have been in vain. Since they made a decision and took their stand on God’s side right at that moment, they were able to display the holy glory of God to the world in obedience to God’s will.

As God tells us to preach the gospel in Samaria and to the ends of the earth, now let us have time for a new decision. A time for a decision is a time for a blessing as well. The time when Peter made a firm and resolute decision to follow Jesus was the time for a once-in-a-lifetime blessing to him.

Now there are so many people who are waiting for us. We must not hesitate whether to preach to them or not, because we may never be able to meet them again. I earnestly hope that you will all reap good fruit by boldly preaching the words of life and sowing gracious things for the eternal kingdom of heaven, as the new covenant workers who are pleasing to God.