The Opportunities and Options by Jeff Arnold скачать в хорошем качестве

The Opportunities and Options by Jeff Arnold

Day after day we are confronted with a vast array of options. So many options that it will make your head spin. A question as simple as, “How do you want your hamburger?” can be quite a challenge. According to Burger King, the home of the Whopper, there 1024 different ways for a customer to order that iconic burger. Imagine the numbers for a place like Subway! It would take Jared the rest of his life to eat all the combinations. Man, do we have options! We have options in what we eat; in what we wear; in what we listen to; in what we watch; in what we drive, in what we do and what we think. It would be interesting if some statistician could figure out how many options the average American is presented with on a daily basis. The number would, no doubt, be mind-boggling. It wasn’t always like this. When Henry Ford began selling the Model T, He was known to have said, “You can have any color you want as long as it’s black”. And when you look at old grainy photographs of that earlier time, you’ll see crowds of men standing there in the same bowler hats and the same dark, Charlie Chaplin style suits. There weren’t always so many options in life. Industrialization has has opened up a world of options for all of us. This has been great blessing, of course. As individuals, we can do things that former generations could not even dream of. We are wealthy in comparison to them. Obviously, we have grown accustomed to our options. We are used to thinking in an optional way. So whenever our options become limited by some force or some voice outside of ourselves, we have a tendency to become dismayed, annoyed, and even angry. We like our options, thank you very much! Don’t mess with our options! There will in everyone’s life be difficulties, problems, and situations that you feel you cannot endure, never mention, rise up against and conquer. Sometimes because of fear, and the uncertainty of what will happen if we act, we do nothing, we sit in stagnation, and we settle. Too afraid and unable to stretch out on the faith that we claim to have, we sit. I’m here to tell you today that if you ask God for the strength, and make the 1st step, God will make the 2nd, 3rd , or however many steps it takes to bring you out of that situation. To illustrate this, I take you to Exodus, primarily the 14th Chapter. Here in Exodus, we find Moses leading the Israelites, through God’s direction out of Egypt. The Israelites are being led out of Egypt, out of their slave status, out of their bondage, away from the source of their heartache and disappointment, their unfair treatment. The Israelites were nonetheless afraid, they felt that they had no other choice but to stay and be bound by the Egyptians, stay and be under the rule of Pharaoh. The Israelites felt like this, but God did not see this as an option for them. God was aware of the fragile state that the Israelites were in, and because of this he made things easier for them, but, the Israelites still had to make the 1st move. God made it easier for them because, he knew that the quickest route was through the Philistine country, but, if they went through the Philistine country, they would have faced war, and God knew that being faced with war may have been enough to change the minds of the Israelites and frighten them into returning to Egypt. But, returning to Egypt was not an option for the Israelites, and God steered them in the other direction. You may remember from your reading that Israel was "armed" for battle, they were equipped with spears, bows, and slings, and they marched as a unit. But, you see, God knows all, and God knew that the Israelites were not "mentally" prepared for war.