God wants you to know that you have the power to make choices and that you can choose whether or not to call upon God or not. Many people think that life and everything that happens to us is God’s will and that we as human beings have no power to change anything – that is something called Fatalism. And sometimes that is true. Sometimes we must accept our fate and we must accept what is happening to us because we cannot change it. But sometimes we can choose to do things differently; we have the power to determine our fate. You can say that we are just following God’s leading and that could be very true.
Salvation is a choice
Jesus said it best when He said:
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” – John chapter 3
Jesus said: “Those who do what is right come to the light”. Some people want to do what is good and right; other people don’t care. Some people are sorry for the sins they have committed; and some people are not. Some people are sad because they have hurt others; and some people are not.
People who want to do what is right and feel sorry for their sins and who want to live a more godly life will come to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. We are all human beings and we all sin; we have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have all sinned; all of us have gone astray and become like lost sheep in need of a shepherd.
You can choose a new path
You don’t have to do what other Somalis do; you don’t have to believe what they believe; you don’t have to live like they live. You have a choice.
Do you have to chew quat or miraa? Do you have to stay up late or stay up all night chewing quat? And the losing sleep, not eating properly and starting to avoid your family? No you can choose to say no to quat.
Do you have to go and fight for a warlord? Do you have to join those other violent people who want to go and kill others? No you do not have to. God says:
“My child, if sinners entice you,
turn your back on them!
They may say, “Come and join us.
Let’s hide and kill someone!
Just for fun, let’s ambush the innocent!
Let’s swallow them alive, like the grave;
let’s swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death.
Think of the great things we’ll get!
We’ll fill our houses with all the stuff we take.
Come, throw in your lot with us;
we’ll all share the loot.”My child, don’t go along with them!
Stay far away from their paths.
They rush to commit evil deeds.
They hurry to commit murder.
If a bird sees a trap being set,
it knows to stay away.
But these people set an ambush for themselves;
they are trying to get themselves killed.
Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money;
it robs them of life” (Proverbs chapter 1).
You have a choice. You can say no to evil people and refuse to go and join them when they want to do something evil. You have the power to say No!
Say yes to God
The Bible says that: “This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time. And I have been chosen as a preacher and apostle to teach the Gentiles this message about faith and truth. I’m not exaggerating—just telling the truth.” – 1 Timothy 2
God is calling out to you to be saved. God wants you to be saved. God wants to give you eternal life. God is knocking at the door of your heart and He wants to come in and live inside of you. HE is waiting for you to invite Him in; God is waiting for you to open the door of your heart and let HIM in; God cannot go into the heart of a man who does not want Him to be there. If you want God to be your Lord and Saviour just say yes to God and let Him do what He wants in your life. Ask Him to come into your life; invite Him to come into your life.
Does God choose us or we do choose God
Some people say that God is the one who decides who will go to heaven or not; and some people say we can decide whether or not we want to go to heaven. Who is right?
Both are right: we are the one who decide if we want to go to heaven, and God is the one who decides whether we will go or not.
The Bible says:
“Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” – Romans 10:13.
And Jesus says:
“You must be born again.” – John 3:7
God is the one who has the power over life and death: “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
God is the one who has the power over the second death. Jesus is the one who has the power to write your name into the book of life. The authority and power belong to God. But He will make his decision to write your name in the Book of Life depending on whether you call out to Him to be saved or not.
If you seek the Lord with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul and strength God will write your name into the Book of Life. If you ask God to forgive your sins and to wash you clean from all the bad things that you have done, then Jesus will be faithful and He will wash your sins away and give you a new life in Him.
There is hope. How can we live on this earth if we do not have the hope of eternal life? We will all one day like the grass fade away; flower grow and they die; grass grows in the dirt of the earth and one day dies. This whole world is passing away and the heavens will one day roll up and disappear. But God and His Word will remain. God is faithful. God will hear your prayers and if you call upon His name He will save you and give you eternal life.
Call upon the Lord and be saved
Don’t wait for the day of judgment to find out whether you are going to heaven or not. The Bible says: “It is destined for man to die once and then the judgment.” But if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour then you will not be judged. You have already passed fro death into life. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour then you have already escaped the judgment that is coming upon everyone who is on the earth.
When you stand before the Great White Throne in heaven, when your sould stands before God after you die and leave this earth, God will see your white clothes of righteousness; He will look upon you and see the wonderful righteousness that comes from the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ – and God will say “enter into my Kingdom”.
You have a choice
God has given us each the ability to choose the path for our own lives. If you smoke 5 packs of cigarettes a day you will die of lung cancer; if you don’t smoke you probably won’t get lung cancer.
If you choose to chew quat everyday you will become skinny and your teeth will become dirty. If you eat properly and brush your teeth everyday your teeth will be clean.
Don’t choose money over God
So choose to give you heart to God today. Don’t let the decision of money stop your from following God. Maybe God is calling you today and you hear His voice and you know that you can have eternal life if you ask Jesus to come into your heart and forgive you of your sins. But then you start to think about the money and food and place to live that you get from your family. You start to think that if you become a Christian people will find out and then you will not have a place to live and you will have no food.
Do not make the mistake of choosing to reject God for a plate of rice. Don’t let the things of this earth make you choose the earthly things instead of the heavenly things. There was a man in the Bible whose name was Esau and Esau had a great blessing waiting for him. But Esau chose to live for this earth and traded all the blessings God had for him for a bowl of food. “Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”
You have a right to be born again; you have a right to accept and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to have your sins forgiven. Salvation is available to all people – so don’t choose the things of this world over the things of heaven.
In South Africa many Somalis earn money by operating small shops called spaza shops. And the South Africans hate the Somali because the Somalis are taking away money and jobs from the South Africans. So the South Africans call the Somalis – Makwerekwere – that means “you are taking away our money.”
South African’s are mad that Somalis are making money in their country – and they will kill Somalis because they are so angry and jealous.
Don’t do things just for the money – there are more important things in life. It is only a matter of time until your shop might get burned down; and there is only so much time on this earth and then you will face the judgment. This whole earth is going to burn – find your peace and salvation in Jesus Christ right now.