I want to share this preface to the book I’m presently working on because I think the message is needed now, and it will be awhile before the book is ready. All of the scriptures are from the King James Version of the bible. I hope this encourages you during this time of utter chaos across our country and many other nations.
Preface:
Welcome to “Choices and Consequences” a work God has inspired me to write to encourage people to persevere through the difficult struggles in life. In Choices and Consequences, I share lessons learned while walking through many challenges on my journey through life on earth, and onward down the path that leads to eternal life. Some lessons learned so far are:
- God was and is always with me. He loves me.
- God watches over and even carries me as I go through dangerous and dark places.
- God will never leave me or forsake me, even if I get angry because of the terrible things He allows me to go through.
- God keeps His promises. He is trustworthy. Even when I disagree with Him, He knows the best choice for me because God knows everything.
- God guides and leads me to the truth, even though I am often slow to learn, strong willed, and stubborn.
- Despite my humanity and mistakes, God continues to love, protect, provide for, and teach me. He is my creator, healer, hope, Lord, Savior, and sustainer of life.
I also share scripture passages, testimonies, and lessons learned from true accounts of people in the Bible. We can learn valuable lessons by looking at choices made by these people of the past, and the consequences they reaped because of their choices. We can learn from their mistakes so, hopefully, we can avoid making some bad choices and reaping the dire consequences.
Multitudes of people living in this world face overwhelming challenges that threaten their nations, communities, homes, families, and even their personal lives. Many of these challenges, whether momentary or long-lasting, are impossible for people to resolve using their own abilities and strengths. Though we sometimes spend years seeking answers to these issues, flawed humanity offers no lasting hope or lasting solutions to these difficulties. Yet we continue to struggle to find solutions.
As we live our lives in this fallen world, we face various kinds of adversity. Some adversity we create by making bad decisions, but others are not because of our choices. We are challenged by catastrophic natural events such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and violent windstorms, volcanic eruptions, and wildfires. These events are devastating, yet as humans we cannot control or stop them from happening.
Sometimes we face adverse consequences because of decisions others make that come upon us. Sometimes it is financial woes, physical health issues, and/or grave illnesses, and even death because others have addictions, don’t pay attention to what they are doing, make accidental mistakes, or even abuse or perpetrate evil upon us or other people we know. We also struggle with relationships, getting daily survival needs, spiritual struggles, and other various obstacles.
Because of these challenges, some people can find it hard not to get overwhelmed by depression, disillusionment, and hopelessness, as they try to persevere through these battles. Some people are overcome by their thoughts and believe they have no hope or reason to live, or they give up on enduring through the battle and choose to end their own life.
God delivered me from such a time by intervening in my situation. God or one of His angels woke my napping six-week-old son up from his nap, and he cried loudly at the exact time I put a sharp knife up to my wrist to cut myself. I froze in place, and suddenly thoughts about what would happen to him if I went through with my plans poured into my mind, and I realized I had to live for his sake if for no other reason.
I went to my son’s crib, picked him up, and carried him into the living room and sat down on the couch and tried to comfort him. Then the Holy Spirit began to remind me of the lessons I learned in church about Jesus, the miracles He did, and how much He loved people. Then I realized what Jesus had done for me. He intervened and stopped me from this horrible sin and ministered His love for me, personally that day.
No one else was there and I never planned to take my life, but the evil abusive words from my alcoholic husband’s mouth–telling me repeatedly how worthless I was–kept playing through my mind and overwhelmed my emotions and convinced me I was worthless and didn’t contribute anything. Therefore, I reasoned that I had no purpose to live, and asked myself, “Why should I stick around and endure the pain from this abusive relationship if I don’t contribute anything?” But God showed me a reason I needed to live and gave me a deep heart knowledge of His love for me, personally, that I will never forget!
God loves all people as much as He loves me and He never wants us to take our own lives. Jesus gave up His life so we could have abundant and everlasting life! We always have hope because Jesus is our hope!
We strive to find solutions because we are caught up in a great spiritual battle between darkness and light, good and evil, and Satanic forces who fight against the God of the Bible, God’s true people, and God’s eternal plan. The Holy Bible, God’s word, reveals God’s eternal plan and tells us about this great spiritual battle.
The Bible also foretells the future in places and warns us that evil will increase, and the battle will get more intense until God comes for His people, pours out His wrath on evil, and fulfills the final judgment on evil called the Great White Throne Judgment. (See Revelation, chapter 20.)
Upon hearing about the battles raging around me, when people face impossible health and other challenges, and I also see them on news reports as people go through catastrophic events, God tugs at my heart, encouraging me to keep sharing my testimonies and writing this book.
Choices and Consequences was born out of another difficult challenge that I faced many years ago. God used the book of Nehemiah to encourage, reassure, and motivate me to keep pressing forward through all the struggles. Through this challenging time, I learned many valuable lessons, experienced God’s comfort, and encouragement. Eventually, God did a miracle and resolved the problem for me.
A few years later, God began to let me know He wanted me to share this testimony and the story of Nehemiah. I will share this testimony later in this book.
Now, whenever I begin to doubt that I am writing what God wants or going the right direction or I get confused, I reach for my Bible and flippantly open it up to get encouragement. Frequently, it unexpectedly opens to Nehemiah, and the story or words of Nehemiah 4:14 seem to leap off the page at me. This reassures me to keep on going forward with Jesus and my writing.
At other times, I turn on the TV to watch my favorite television ministry program and one of the pastors will preach a message about Nehemiah or another encouraging topic. Several times my local pastors preached about Nehemiah when they had no idea how discouraged I was, and how much it encouraged me. It is a confirmation that God’s still there and I am on the right path. What a blessing to have God personally confirming and reassuring me as I continue to write.
Choices and Consequences began as a book about Nehemiah, a man of enduring faith. As I began researching for information for this book, God showed me that it was a much bigger story. It is a true story about nations, Jews and Gentiles, peoples, small groups of people, and individuals. It is about a fallen, frail humanity and the challenges we face as we live our lives in this fallen world. It is about good and evil choices, and the consequences of those choices.
Choices and Consequences” contains a story about people from Jerusalem and Judah who, throughout many generations, continued to make bad choices. As a result, they brought captivity, death, and great devastation on their homeland and their people. This true account was chosen not to bring condemnation or humiliation upon these people but because it is rich in content and because it is the one God wants me to use. Many other nations have made similar or even worse choices and reaped consequences because of those choices.
This story was also chosen because it is the true story that led up to the remarkable story of Nehemiah and the miraculous victory of these people. The Jewish people are still God’s chosen people, and He will fulfill the promises He made to them. Some of those promises include God saving a remnant of their people and giving them a Messiah who will rule on the throne of David throughout eternity. Yet many of the Jews do not believe the one who came, Jesus Christ, was their Messiah, the only begotten Son of God, the One who will reign on the throne of David forever, and the One who will fulfill God’s promises to the people.
I personally pray for these people and support them in their right to have a homeland as God also gave them the land of Israel. The promise God made included more land than the Jews live on in Israel today. I wait to see what happens to that little country as foretold events unfold in these last days.
In Choices and Consequences, I believe God wants me to encourage others to examine their choices in life, to share His word to awaken them to some possible consequences of their choices, to encourage them to continue and persevere through these tough times, and to tell them about the only One who can provide the answers to their impossible circumstances. I have not arrived and perfected my relationship and walk with God, so I do not assume I am anything other than a sinner saved by the grace of God.
As you read this book, it will challenge you to think about the choices you make for your personal life by showing biblical accounts of people from the past who struggled with many of the overwhelming circumstances we face today. By looking at these true accounts, we can see the choices these people made and the consequences they reaped. We can also learn how these people overcame their challenges, and how we can find workable solutions to our own. Maybe we can avoid making the same bad choices and reaping the adverse consequences.
Many people have become depressed and disillusioned. Even Christians can become apathetic and fall away from God. Some churches are also falling away, and multitudes are led by those who confess to be true Christians but know little or nothing about being born again or about the Holy Spirit. Some pastors and teachers deny one or more aspects of the three-in-one God and therefore create their own false version of God.
In addition, some Christians do not even read or study the bible so they can know the truth. Therefore, they fall prey to these false gods and teachings. They focus more on their challenges and forget the power of the one true God who can rescue them from all their troubles.
When we focus on our problems instead of God, the problems seem to turn into giants and God seems smaller. This is a great deception, and it can cause us to forget about our God, the things He has done in our lives, and His unfailing love and invincible power to save us from all our troubles. So, in the words of Nehemiah, a man of enduring faith, “(14) And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, ‘Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.’” (Neh. 4:14 KJV)
As I continue to write, by bringing up Nehemiah, God reminds me to keep my faith and keep focused on Him, not my problems. He has me in the palm of His hand. My job is to focus on Him, keep up my daily walk and relationship with Him, trust, obey, and keep on writing. With the all-knowing, all-powerful God watching over and helping me, I will make it to the finish line.
For people who do not believe in the God of the bible, there are still many lessons to learn from the examples in this story if you have an open heart and mind. Only then can you see and learn how these people resolve their challenges and use some of their techniques to help resolve your personal challenges. Perhaps you can avoid making some of the bad choices they made and reaping the bad consequences.
For Christians who are struggling, I pray and encourage you to hold on tight to Jesus Christ and the victory He already won on our behalf. He won the victory over sin and death by dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and being the way to eternal life in God’s heavenly household. Hebrews 12:1-3 KJV tells us, “Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (2) looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (3) For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
We are frequently challenged by battles and searching for answers. When we go through Choices and Consequences, you will see some battles these people faced and have an opportunity to learn what they did. Hearing about others’ problems may seem discouraging, but this is only one aspect of the story.
Choices and Consequences is also about answers, encouragement, faith, hope, insight, joy, love, and victory. It is about experiencing life, learning, loving, overcoming, and finding the ultimate source of love and answers to the burdens that face humanity. It is about finding the unfailing love, hope, and peace that surpasses understanding.
I believe God wants me to share about Jesus and His provision provided through His death on the cross, burial, and resurrection. God is the only answer to the challenges that are impossible for people. Scripture tells us, “(19) But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, ‘with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:26 KJV; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27)
Robin Ulbredtch, Christian Author 