Choices: Decisions That Last a Lifetime

By Tom Saunders

Do you feel that religion has put God in a box?

Are you looking for answers to life’s toughest challenges?

Have you ever considered God’s sense of humor?

Are you excited about being a Christian?

Are you satisfied with the path you are on?

Where have your choices led you?

This book is a candid look at these concerns. Religion paints a very different picture of God than the Bible does. The Bible is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom that leads us through the labyrinth of life if we are willing to heed the advice found within its pages, but God doesn’t force us to follow Him; he gives us a choice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685266240

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Choices

Decisions That Last a Lifetime

Tom Saunders

ISBN 978-1-68526-623-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68526-624-0 (Digital)

Copyright © 2022 Tom Saunders

All rights reserved

First Edition

Cover Art by Kori Saunders

Website: korisaunders.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

A SPIRITUAL ROLLER COASTER

BACK IN THE AIR FORCE AND CHURCH

IT’S OVER

FATHER REALLY DOES KNOWS BEST

WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?

THE CHARACTER AND NATURE OF GOD

RELIGION OR RELATIONSHIP

BE AN EXAMPLE

JUDGE NOT

MENTORING A NEW BELIEVER

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

FINDING THE ANSWERS

QUESTIONS OR EXCUSES

DECEPTION

SOME OF SATAN’S FAVORITE TACTICS

SEX AND THE CHURCH

CONFLICT

GOD’S LOVE

GOD WANTS ME!

I would like to dedicate this work, first and foremost, to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His love is a perfect love. I would also like to acknowledge the many people that helped me refocus my life on Christ and those that walk with me every day to keep me there. First of all, I want to thank my beautiful wife, Lauri. Her constant love, encouragement, and support sustain me every day. Next are my wonderful children Chelsea, Alex, Kori, and Keli. They are my motivation to be more like Christ. I love them beyond words.

I want to thank my brothers and sisters in Christ that brought me back to Him. To Scott Teutsch, Don Francis, Karl and Loriann Kaufman, Craig Brooks, Ruth Workman, and all my brothers and sisters at Eastwood Baptist Church. You not only directed me back to Jesus, you gave me the strength to carry on through very difficult times. I praise God for all of you.

To Mike Warner, Barry Howe, Randy Kitchens, Nate Turner, Dan (Dr. Dano) Boyd, and all my brothers and sisters in Christ that served with me while at Kunsan Air Base, Korea. You taught, comforted, and supported me through my time in the desert. Thank God you were all there.

To all my military brothers and sisters that served with me over twenty-two years in the United States Air Force, especially my family at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana: Robbie Watts, John Spronk, Dave Wyllie, Phil Semler, Doug Craighead, and Stan Barras. My God bless you all.

And, finally, to my family and friends, most of all, my grandpa, Ray Bradshaw. You are a wonderful Christian example and because of your quiet unselfish love, you brought many to Christ that might have otherwise spent an eternity separated from Him. Thank you for being a wonderful example and an even better grandpa.

Foreword

A photograph freezes time. It takes 1/1000 of a second out of the inevitable flow of existence and creates a static image. Forever still, a silent testament to a moment.

We as human beings, and spiritual beings, are not still. We are constantly in motion and our spirit is always striving for grace (even when we don’t want to be). We are learning, we are evolving, we are meeting new people and experiencing new perspectives. As this happens, we sometimes shed formally held beliefs, we learn something new that changes our view.

At least that is the hope.

Many people, when they encounter a new viewpoint, react as if what they believe is a photograph. Frozen in time, static. This is the truth as I know it, full stop. I will hear no argument to the contrary and anything you say on the matter is an assault on my sense of being. This is not to say that holding on firmly to a belief or a truth as you know it is a bad thing. Believe me when I tell you that gravity does not care whether you believe in it or not. It will continue to do what it does regardless of your belief. So please continue to believe that when you fall, you will hit the ground. (Because you will).

The book that you hold in your hands right now is like a photograph as well. It captures a moment of time in Tom’s life. What is wonderful about reading this book, is that it is much like looking at an old photograph along with the person that took it. They can tell you so much about what was happening when it was taken. How they were feeling, who else was there, how warm or cold it was, were they cheerful or sad.

This is such an invaluable resource to be able to tap into. A look behind and beyond the photo. Sure, the clothing or hairstyle in this old photo may be dated or out of style, perhaps like some of the beliefs that Tom has held in the past. But we luckily get to experience this with the author himself and chart a journey of discovery and spiritual growth right along with him. Much like hairstyles and clothing, things change, but the core message is still contained within. This is a man seeking the Lord and through many twists and turns of life finding Him.

Perhaps you have an old photo or belief collecting dust in a box somewhere. This book offers the perfect opportunity for you to take out that frozen moment from the box and look at it with fresh eyes and open hearts. Tom has, so can you…

Jason Galvas

Knoxville, Tennessee

December 2021

Introduction

Everyone has a story of how they came to Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior; I’m no exception. Along the way, I’ve learned a great deal about God and what He expects of me. I’ve also come to the conclusion that I was taught many things in the name of religion that were not in God’s Word: the Bible. This book is based partly on my experience as a leader, teacher, and counselor over the last twenty-five years and the lessons God taught me along the way. This is a book about taking God out of the box that religion has put Him in and how religion is turning people away from Christ. It’s also about where to find answers.

I want people to know that God provides us with all the information we need to answer any question or deal with any situation we face during our life in the Bible. And if we diligently search His word for those answers, He clearly reveals Himself to us. I want people to know that our Lord and Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, is a loving, compassionate, and forgiving Savior. And though the Bible tells us he was a man of sorrows, Jesus had a great sense of humor. He loved to do the unpredictable and He loved to laugh. I want to challenge people to think outside the lines concerning their image of Jesus.

The Bible has a wealth of information, knowledge, and wisdom to offer us if we are willing to search its pages for direction. I’m excited about what the Lord is doing in my life, and it is my prayer that every Christian feels that same excitement. If not, why? Do you have God in a box? Is the Bible a nuisance to read? Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He leaves the choice to us to accept His offer. (The introduction as it was in 2003.)

Since the first edition of this book, published in 2003, my life and beliefs are very different. In the nearly twenty years since the first release of this book, many difficult and wonderful events served to change the trajectory of my life and service to the Lord in amazing and sometimes very challenging ways.

When I first published this work, my family status was much different than it is now. My eight-month-old daughter is now nineteen and did the artwork for this new release as well as my recently published books, The Road Between Us: The Elder and the Atheist, and Faith Like a Dog. Our family also grew by one daughter and two grandchildren. There are a couple of notes in this revision that speak to these changes.

I also spent many years serving as a jail chaplain and the last six years serving at a small intercity church in a location struggling with crime, poverty, and substance abuse, not to mention some traditional religious paradigms that stifled the churches’ growth over the years.

Because of the challenges, and blessings, I experienced since the first printing of this book, some of my theological positions changed as well. The reason is simply because I relentlessly began searching God’s Word for answers to better understand who God is and how to share that wonderful knowledge with others. I didn’t note those shifts in belief in this update, but they are evident in the above-mentioned title as well as the follow-up to that book being released in the next two years or so. It was difficult not to make the changes about what I now believe and even more difficult to read, but leaving them illustrates how our understanding of the Bible can and will change as we search its pages for God’s revelation as He renews our way of thinking.

One thing has not changed—my love and devotion to my Lord and Savior, Jesus. The challenges have only brought me and my family closer to Him. Now reading the Bible is more exciting than ever as the passages now seem to leap off the page. Scripture has never been so clear, and the main reason is that the haze of religion no longer clouds the message God is sharing with us through His written word and living word: Jesus.

That’s why I published this book to begin with. I witnessed far too many people being turned away from the Lord because of religion and religious people, not followers of Jesus. Jesus gave us one command…two commands: love God and love people! Love! God is love, and Jesus is the perfect representation of that love. For over six years, a sign has hung in the foyer of the church I pastor that says, Love like Jesus. That is what God expects of everyone that claims to be followers of Christ! Jesus says, The world will know you are mine by your love for one another. If people don’t see that love in us, it might be time to reevaluate our walk with the Lord. That was my heart nearly twenty years ago when this book was first published and that passion is even stronger now.

In 2003, in the first printing, I mentioned in the Perspective that if one person is saved because of this book, it was worth the time and expense of getting it published. As God would have it, the first person that received the book, the truck driver (Don) that delivered the books to my house, read it and asked Christ to be his personal Lord and Savior. Praise God!

Let’s all Love like Jesus. How awesome would our world be if we did!

Perspective

My perspective of God has changed tremendously over the years. As a boy, I really had no understanding of who or what God was and I went to church on a sporadic basis. From time to time, I’d involve myself with the youth group until I became bored or found something better to do. I accepted Christ as my Savior at the age of twelve and followed in baptism on February 28, 1971. I believed what I professed, although I’m sure in retrospect, I didn’t really understand what dedicating my life to Christ was all about.

I believe that when a person accepts Christ, they can never lose their salvation. However, as in the case of Charles Templeton, if they completely renounce and reject Jesus, the Bible is clear on this point. Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So, he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them (Isa. 63:10). It also says, The fool says in his heart, there is no God (Ps. 14:1). These people like Templeton were probably never saved in the first place.

I first learned of Templeton while reading The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel. He tells of how Templeton went from preacher to agnostic because of his reasoning, much the same way Sigmund Freud tried to reason away faith. Both lived a life of futility. When I contemplate the great thinkers of history and their contributions to the human race, I always come back to the passage of scripture that reminds us that man’s wisdom is foolishness in the eyes of the Lord.

Regardless of their brilliance, it amounts to nothing in God’s eyes. Albert Einstein had the right idea when he said, I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.

I’m also quite convinced that we can fall away from God to the point that we grieve and quench the Spirit and become so distant from the Lord that we can’t hear His voice any longer. The Bible says, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). That’s not to say God left us or went in a different direction; we moved away from Him. I found this out in a very personal and painful way.

There were many contributing factors to my move away from God, but I can blame nobody but myself for the choices I made: some based on youthful arrogance, some because of ignorance, and some were just plain stupid.

Unfortunately, religion was one of those factors. Not the church or the Bible, but religion. (I’ll discuss both choices and religion later in the book.) Now I’m as close to Christ as I’ve ever been in my life, and religion had nothing to do with building my relationship with Christ.

I’ve probably just lost much of the religious right with that statement, but they’re into religion. The Bible, Christian fellowship, mentors, research, love, and prayers turned my life around, not to mention the very painful pruning process the Lord uses to mold us into a more correct image of Christ.

But isn’t that what being a Christian is all about: being Christlike? As I look back on my life, I can see how the Lord used the trials of life to teach and change me along the way. I know