We make lots of decisions in life, business, and ministry. Hopefully, we make informed decisions based on the best information available at the time. Businesses study everything from demographics to traffic flow before building or establishing a new location. On my drive home each day, I’m watching the construction of what looks like a fast-food restaurant, or maybe a coffee or tea place. I’m sure the company involved has thought about which side of the road to be on… whether people will be on their way to work or home. Decisions, decisions!

Ministry mentor Fred Smith says we need to make decisions in both the ministry and the spiritual realms.

“We as individuals have to answer: ‘What is the tendency of man: good or bad?’ Do people tend to be good with a high potential for bad, or do they tend to be bad with a high potential for good? Until we get the answer to this fundamental question, we can never understand ourselves or the universal need for the Gospel.”

Smith understands that people tend to be bad but have a high potential for good. That is supported by Scripture and by our own life experiences. You don’t have to teach children how to be bad. They just gravitate that way. As someone has said, if you untie a boat from the dock, it naturally drifts away, usually into trouble. Fred Smith says:

“Left alone, an organization always tends to deteriorate. Because of this, we are constantly building up, encouraging, challenging others toward constructive ends.”

This is why Christian media is so important. We share the Good News with a world that is inherently bad. Yet God has given each person the ability to choose the right path that leads to hope found in faith in Jesus Christ. This evil nature was evident in the Garden of Eden and is underscored in Genesis 6:

The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.

Genesis 6:5 NLT

Of course, this tendency continues today. We are evil creatures, though we have the opportunity to do good.

The Apostle Paul, writing to the Roman believers about this tendency to sin, acknowledged that we are all basically bad at heart.

As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one….”

Romans 3:10 NLT

Paul spends much of chapter three discussing our sinful nature. We were slaves to sin until Christ offered us a better way.

But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.

Romans 6:22 NLT

We have the opportunity…and the obligation…to share the Good News with a world headed toward death and Hell. God’s message of salvation guides them in the right direction, to Heaven and home. And that is the best decision anyone can make.

God’s best,