Choosing the Best: Living for What Really Matters
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About this ebook
Making a quality choice between several alternatives is tough. To ease the path and alleviate the problem of making wrong choices, this book presents twelve major criteria you should consider in making choices. These criteria include:
The Greatest Tragedy
The Greatest Mistake
The Greatest Priority
The Greatest Knowledge
The Greatest Pursuit
The Greatest Motive
The Greatest Motivation
The Greatest Influence
The Greatest Enemy
The Greatest Friend
The Greatest Helper
The Greatest Power
These criteria affect our personal, social, and spiritual life.
Choosing the best involves making choices in view of the criteria. It involves having priorities and being focused in life. Choosing the best is knowing what God wants you to accomplish in life and investing your resourcestime, talent, and treasureon just that. In short, it is to live for the things that really matter in the long run.
Matthew N. O. Sadiku
Matthew N. O. Sadiku is a professor emeritus at Prairie View A & M University, Prairie View, Texas. He is a Life fellow of IEEE. He is the author of over 1,000 professional articles and over 100 books including “Elements of Electromagnetics” (Oxford University Press, 7th ed., 2018), “Fundamentals of Electric Circuits” (McGraw-Hill, 7 ed.,2021, with C. Alexander), “Computational Electromagnetics with MATLAB” (CRC Press, 4th ed., 2019), and “Emerging Internet-based Technologies” (CRC Press, 2019). In addition to the engineering books, he has written Christian books including “Secrets of Successful Marriages,” “How to Discover God’s Will for Your Life,” and commentaries on all the books of the New Testament Bible. Some of his books have been translated into French, Korean, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. He can be reached via email at sadiku@ieee.org
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Choosing the Best - Matthew N. O. Sadiku
© 2012 by Dr. Matthew N. O. Sadiku. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Patrick Villareal
Copyediting by Kathie Scriven
This book is composed in Garamond
Unless otherwise stated, scripture quotations are from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, used by permission of Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version.
Scripture quotations marked TLB are from The Living Bible.
Scripture quotations marked RSV are from the Revised Standard Bible.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the New Living Translation.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in books, critical articles, and reviews.
Published by AuthorHouse 03/20/2012
ISBN: 978-1-4685-5299-7 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4685-5298-0 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4685-5297-3 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012902982
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
CONTENTS
Other books by the same author
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART 1: CHOICES AFFECTING YOUR
PERSONAL LIFE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
PART 2:
CHOICES AFFECTING YOUR SOCIAL LIFE
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
PART 3: CHOICES AFFECTING
YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
APPENDIX
Other books by the same author
Secrets of Successful Marriages
How to Discover God’s Will for Your Life
Wisdom: Your Key to Success
Romans: A Pentecostal Commentary
Ephesians: A Pentecostal Commentary
Galatians: A Pentecostal Commentary
To my daughter, Ann
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In addition to a grateful acknowledgment of my debt to earlier scholarship, I would like to thank all who have contributed directly to the completion of this book. I wish to express my deep appreciation to my students Dave Hunt and Byron Cole for their assistance in drawing the figures. I would like to thank my daughter, Joyce, for redrawing the figures when the old ones were lost. I am grateful to Dr. Josiah Bonire, Dr. Emenike Ukazim, Dr. Stephen Akintoye, Rev. Moses Ajayi, Robert Gross, and Gayle Roper for their critical comments on the manuscript. I am also grateful to Donna Hislop and Kathie Scriven for their thorough editorial work. To my wife, Kike, who gave me the necessary support, encouragement, prayers, and freedom to spend extra hours on the word processor, I owe a great debt. Finally, special thanks go to my daughter, Ann, without whom it never would have occurred to me to write Choosing the Best.
INTRODUCTION
Where is the man who fears the Lord? God will teach him how to choose the best. He shall live within God’s circle of blessing, and his children shall inherit the earth (Psalm 25:12,. 13 TLB)
For those of us who are parents, in the process of raising our children, we learn lessons we cannot learn otherwise. I have watched my daughter Ann¹ having hard times making choices. Sometimes she wants to eat but does not know exactly what to ask for. She watches Mom and Dad carrying books, so she wants to carry books as well, but she carries books that she does not really need. As I watch her, it dawns on me that even adults often have a hard time making decisions.
There are certain things we don’t choose—our race and parents, for example. We have no control over those issues and they are not the thrust of this book. But there are infinitely more things we do choose and have control over. The need for making choices comes at every moment of our lives, and choices come in different forms. Some choices are insignificant, while some involve major forks in the road. The choices we make actually turn around to make us. For the most part, we become the sum total of our choices. Our choices have the potential of increasing or decreasing our joy in life. The way we choose not only affects us but has domino effect on others.
Young adults must choose their friends, their careers, whether or not to go to college, whether to marry now or later., etc. Married couples must choose whether to have children or not, how many children to raise, when to buy a home, whether to accept a job offer, etc. Homemakers need to make choices confined by limited budgets. Workers must sometimes choose between doing what they enjoy and what the supervisors demand; executives often choose between pleasing workers and pleasing the shareholders. Pastors must choose between spending more time with church members or family members.
The process of making choices is not limited to our physical existence; it extends to the spiritual as well. In fact, the Bible is a book about decisive choices. God demands that we make a choice between serving Him and serving other gods. This was the challenge made by Joshua (Joshua 24:14-28), Elijah (1 Kings 18:21), and other prophets. The call to follow Jesus Christ has always involved making a radical choice. Jesus challenged a man to choose between following Him and burying his father (Luke 9:57-62), His disciples to choose between the wide and narrow ways (Luke 13:22-30), and the rich young ruler to choose between his riches and following Him (Luke 18:18-30). The apostles were confronted with choosing between obeying men and obeying God (Acts 5:29), and between preaching the Word and serving tables (Acts 6:2).
In both the physical and spiritual realms, we must choose. Not to choose is also a choice.
The quality of our choice is determined by three important factors:
• information,
• a set of criteria, and
• vested interests.
To make a quality choice among alternatives that are presented to us, we should be well informed about them. The choice must be based on some set of criteria. The choice will also often depend on whether or not our interest is at stake.
Making a choice out of many alternatives is sometimes difficult and painful. It can be difficult because we are forced to select one out of many possibilities. It is sometimes painful because we have to reject some alternatives.
In His providence, God has made conditions such that—within limits—man has the freedom of choice. This is why in the final analysis we are responsible for the choices we make. Nevertheless, we don’t have to panic in making a choice. As a father, God is infinitely interested in our choices. He can help us choose between the good and the better or between the better and the best. He knows the difference and He knows the consequences of our choices. He is therefore willing to teach us how to make the right choice. Psalm 25:15 says:
Where is the man who fears the Lord? God will teach him how to choose the best (TLB).
God has provided some key concepts in His Word that will help us in making choices. These concepts include:
• the greatest tragedy,
• the greatest mistake,
• the greatest priority,
• the greatest knowledge,
• the greatest pursuit,
• the greatest motive,
• the greatest motivation,
• the greatest influence,
• the greatest enemy,
• the greatest friend,
• the greatest helper, and
• the greatest power.
These major concepts deal with our personal, social and spiritual life. This book suggests what these concepts should be and encourages us to choose the best and make the most of life in view of the concepts.
Let us begin the process of discovering how to choose the best by understanding the worst choice one can make. This worst choice leads to the greatest tragedy in life.
34290.pngNotes
1. Ann was five years old when the writing of this book began.
PART 1: CHOICES AFFECTING YOUR
PERSONAL LIFE
Chapter 1 The Greatest Tragedy
Chapter 2 The Greatest Mistake
Chapter 3 The Greatest Priority
Chapter 4 The Greatest Knowledge
CHAPTER 1
THE GREATEST TRAGEDY
In my opinion, nothing is worthwhile, everything is futile.
For what does a man get for all his hard work?
(Ecclesiastes 1:2, 3, TLB).
Nearly everyone we encounter every day is longing to find answers to life’s major questions including:
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
What is life all about?
What is my purpose in life?
Our answers to these questions will affect most of the choices we make from day to day. So we must ask ourselves these questions again and again (perhaps a million times) until we find satisfactory answers. The inability to provide adequate answers to these questions results in a life that never achieves fulfillment. The search for meaning is a primary force that drives us in one direction or another in life.
The greatest tragedy is to go through life without meaning, purpose, and direction. Life without meaning is boring and profitless. It is at best absurd and lacking in worth. Purposelessness sickens our very soul. It makes us lose focus, feel miserable, experience confusion, and suffer identity crises. Bill Hybels rightly said:
There are things to be feared more than death:
A wasted life.
A life unattached to God’s great endeavors.
A self-willed, self-absorbed existence, narrow and routine and ultimately unsatisfying.¹
Over the years, wise men and woman in different nations have pondered the mysteries of human life. In the book of Ecclesiastes, for example, we are given the summary of the investigation into life issues by Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived. Solomon investigates the monotony of life, the vanity of wisdom, the futility of wealth, and the certainty of death. But his investigation was limited to under the sun.
Like Solomon, our perspective on life will determine whether our life is vanity or victory, which in turn leads to how we view our destination—death or transformation. To put it another way, our most important choice is between loving and hating God, life and death, blessing and cursing (Deuteronomy 30:15, 18; TLB). The Bible (Deuteronomy 39:20) puts in plain terms that:
CHOOSING THE LORD = CHOOSING LIFE
Life is a gift of God and is meant to be enjoyed. No one can fully enjoy life apart from God, the Giver and the Author of life. Pascal, a well-known French philosopher, said:
There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which only God can fill through His son, Jesus Christ.
So the starting point in pursuing a meaningful life is choosing Christ as our Savior and Lord. In this chapter, we will focus on:
• why you need to choose Christ and
• the benefits of that choice.
WHY CHOOSE CHRIST?
There are several major reasons why we need Christ in our lives. First of all, God is the Author of life and He gives us abundant life through His Son, Jesus Christ. There is no real living apart from Christ.
He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son has not life
(1 John 5:12).
In his book Born Again, Chuck Colson confessed the emptiness he felt within himself in spite of his high-profile activities with President Richard Nixon. Popular cartoonist Ralph Barton committed suicide, leaving a note including this statement: I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up twenty-four hours of the day.
These and thousands of others were highly skilled and responsible individuals, but they lacked meaning in their lives. They were searching for meaning, fulfillment, and comfort in the wrong places. Some people even look for help from chemical reinforcement, wrongly assuming that a pill, a bottle, or an injection can provide life’s missing ingredient. The plight of a man or woman without God is aptly described in Job 8:14, which reads:
A man without God is trusting in a spider web. Everything he counts on will collapse (TLB).
Only God can give us lasting satisfaction and happiness. Only He can satisfy the soul which He made for Himself. Noble Saint Augustine understood this very well when he wrote:
You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in you.
Second, in a complex world full of snares, danger, and death, there is no safe treading but in the ways of God. The wise man said it best centuries ago:
A man is a fool to trust himself! But those who use God’s wisdom are safe (Proverbs 28:26, TLB).
There is no safety in going through life without God. A person without God is a transgressor and the way of the transgressor is hard (Proverbs 13:15, KJV). His way is not only hard but dark. In fact, a person without God walks in darkness (Proverbs 13:15, KJV). Waking in darkness denotes ignorance, error, sin, hopelessness, and misery (Proverbs 4:19). A transgressor lives under a hard task-master, Satan. He dearly needs Jesus, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light (Matthew 11:30).
Third, there is no escape from your consideration of Christ. What you do with Him determines your destiny. To choose Christ as your Lord and Savior is to choose life. Not to choose Him is to choose death and eternal doom. Christianity is not just a religion; it involves one having a relationship with a person, Jesus Christ. In commenting on the uniqueness of Christ, C.S. Lewis wrote:
There is no half-way house and there is no parallel in other religions. If you have gone to Buddha and asked him, ‘Are you the son of Bramah?’ he would have said, ‘My son, you are still in the vale of illusion.’ If you have gone to Socrates and asked, ‘Are you Zeus?’ he would have laughed at you. If you had gone to Mohammed and asked, ‘Are you Allah?’ he would first have rent his clothes and then cut your head off. If you had asked Confucius, ‘Are you Heaven?’, I think he would have probably replied, ‘Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste.’ The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which undermines the whole mind of man. ²
There is no question about Jesus being the only Savior, for He himself claimed this was so and God confirmed it. Millions of honest, responsible, and intelligent men and women over the years have found out by experience that Jesus is truly the only way to God. You too need to consider Him.
Lastly, salvation is found in only one way. Contemporary religious
thinking and society promise many avenues for salvation in the here and now. Some of today’s wisdom
promises that salvation depends on goodness and works of righteousness. Society seems to imply that salvation depends on success. The average seeker is left confused, not knowing what to choose. The ways of death are many,