_Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no ones comes to the Father but through Me."_ [John 14:6](https://www.youversion.com/bible/111/jhn.14.6) Finally, the truth is that in Christ I can choose no longer to sin! In Him I am free! A new birth happens **once**, but conversions, or changes in thinking, occur **throughout one's life**. One day I stopped thinking that Jesus was a man in history and began to think that He was **a man that was alive today**. It was a conversion in my thinking, one of many to come. **The first choice** we make is the choice to believe in Jesus as the Sacrifice for our sin, a choice preceded by our own _failure and sin_. **The second choice** will come by the same means, _failure and sin_; we must choose Him as our Way, our Truth, and our Life. **Years and sometimes decades exist between the first and the second choice.** For many of us, these are the lost years, the wilderness years, or _the dark nights of the soul_. During these years two dynamics meet daily in a clash, leaving few unscathed; on the one hand is the strong desire to 'pay back' Jesus for all that He did and has done; we feel this is primarily accomplished by 'acting' like Jesus. This is, of course, exactly what it is, **an act!** **Initially believers are convinced that we have retained some strength, hold some solution, and possess something at our disposal that will make us act like Jesus.** There will likely be something hidden, a secret, so most of us really do not want Jesus invading every area of life, not when we can continue to believe in our way, our truth, and our life and discreetly to trust our idols, sedatives, victimization, bitterness, anger, and passivity to resolve life's daily issues and enable us to imitate Jesus. When things go well, we are confident and full of pride and glory. When things fall apart, we blame ourselves or others, leading into depression, frustration, and the wish for life to pass. The time between the two choices is _a very mean time_, for **man was not created to imitate Jesus, but to be a vessel for the living Jesus**. As believers approach the second choice - The Choice - We are confounded by all of the other choices that are presented to us in the form of advice. If only there were more Scripture memory, quiet times, prolonged studies, witnessing, or stronger resolve, then we believers would be like Jesus. The tension of trusting self (a self that prefers its reign to the reign of Jesus in our life) for the provision **to act like Jesus is absurd and will eventually cause the believer to begin to break in pieces**. In the power of a self that has at its disposal all the old methods of performing and cooping, we try to displace self. Think of the absurdity of self's removing self; that actually keeps self actively alive! **Man becomes a house divided and begins to fall apart**. The dichotomy of wanting to act like Jesus in the flesh and at the same time to have flesh despising the potential rule of Jesus creates a tremendous amount of guilt, which is said to be the undertaker's best friend. However, **guilt in the hand of God produces some wonderful results**. We believers become weary of being and feeling guilty, and it is in this state that the enemy takes opportunity to whisper to us, **in a voice that sounds like ours** "I cannot change. I cannot choose a better way. I am stuck!" Imagine hearing such a thing when we hold the key of choice in our very hand. At this time, the fullness of time, we believers are ready for another conversion in the form of **recognizing that it is not about imitating Jesus but participating in His Life, being attached to the Vine, and having exactly Jesus flowing through us**. As the Holy Spirit brings the revelation, we do not hesitate or argue but embrace the fact. We are abiding, Christ is in us, and apart from Him believers can do nothing. Jesus is now accepted as life, and The Choice is made.
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