{"id":23253,"date":"2022-09-07T22:06:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T05:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2022-names-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T22:17:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T05:17:40","slug":"2022-life","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2022-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">Israel Institute of BS<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23254 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"261\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life-1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life-1-300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As the Children of Israel wait to cross into the Promised Land, Moses leaves them with the following simple instruction: \u201cNow choose life, so that you and your children may live\u201d (Deut 30:19). Staying alive is one of the most basic human instincts, so What does it mean to choose life?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23255 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life-2-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Making\u00a0an Active Choice<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the Bible\u00a0<strong>\u201cchoosing life\u201d is not just opposing death but leading a meaningful life<\/strong>. The key is that we must make an active choice to introduce meaning into our lives. If a life of righteousness is forced upon us, it cannot yield the blessings which God has in store for us.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23256 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life3.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life3-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>A Life of Meaning<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Hebrew Bible uses the verb \u05d1\u05d7\u05e8\u00a0<strong><em>(bahar)<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; \u201cchoose\u201d &#8211; very frequently. One might even argue that \u201cchoosing\u201d is God\u2019s most central action in the Bible: God \u201cchose\u201d Abraham to be the first patriarch (Neh. 9:7), He \u201cchose\u201d Israel to be his people (Isa. 44:1), and He \u201cchose\u201d Jerusalem as his city and David as his king (2 Ch. 6:6).\u00a0<strong>Leading a divinely sanctioned life means mirroring this essential act of making good choices<\/strong>: \u201c<strong>refusing the evil and choosing the good<\/strong>\u201d (Isa. 7:16).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23257 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life5.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/life5-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":23254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-23253","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/23253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/23253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23258,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/23253\/revisions\/23258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23253"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=23253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}