CHOOSE LIFE
May 17, 2023
“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” – Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
In the latter part of the 1800s, there was a man named Edwin Thomas who was a master of the stage. He was a small man with a massive voice, and in the world of theater, he was among the best of the best.
Edwin also had two brothers, John and Junius, who were actors as well. One of his brothers, John, landed the role of Brutus who was the assassin in Julius Caesar. The reason that is so interesting is because the same John, two years later, took the role of a real-life assassin.
What I failed to mention earlier was Edwin Thomas’s full name, which was Edwin Thomas BOOTH. And his brother was John Wilkes Booth, the man who entered Ford’s Theater and fired a bullet into the head of President Abraham Lincoln.
As you can imagine, Edwin Booth was never the same after that happened. But one day, Edwin was waiting to board a train, when all of a sudden, a sharp-dressed young man lost his footing and fell onto the tracks. With the train approaching, Edwin reacted without thinking. He jumped onto the track, grabbed the young man, and pulled him to safety.
Once the young man realized he was okay, he looked up to thank Edwin, and when he did… he recognized who he was. Edwin didn’t know the young man, but a couple of weeks later, he received a letter from the office of General Ulysses S. Grant, thanking him for heroically saving the life of Robert Rodd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln.
He carried that letter in his pocket until the day he died. It is an amazing story because one brother killed the president and the other saved the president’s son. The two brothers had the same father, the same mother, and even the same passions. Yet, one chose life and the other chose death.
No matter who you are or what your situation is, we all have been given the freedom by God to make our own choices. The choices you make will determine the life you live and the blessings or consequences you receive. The choice is yours.
“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” – Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
In the latter part of the 1800s, there was a man named Edwin Thomas who was a master of the stage. He was a small man with a massive voice, and in the world of theater, he was among the best of the best.
Edwin also had two brothers, John and Junius, who were actors as well. One of his brothers, John, landed the role of Brutus who was the assassin in Julius Caesar. The reason that is so interesting is because the same John, two years later, took the role of a real-life assassin.
What I failed to mention earlier was Edwin Thomas’s full name, which was Edwin Thomas BOOTH. And his brother was John Wilkes Booth, the man who entered Ford’s Theater and fired a bullet into the head of President Abraham Lincoln.
As you can imagine, Edwin Booth was never the same after that happened. But one day, Edwin was waiting to board a train, when all of a sudden, a sharp-dressed young man lost his footing and fell onto the tracks. With the train approaching, Edwin reacted without thinking. He jumped onto the track, grabbed the young man, and pulled him to safety.
Once the young man realized he was okay, he looked up to thank Edwin, and when he did… he recognized who he was. Edwin didn’t know the young man, but a couple of weeks later, he received a letter from the office of General Ulysses S. Grant, thanking him for heroically saving the life of Robert Rodd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln.
He carried that letter in his pocket until the day he died. It is an amazing story because one brother killed the president and the other saved the president’s son. The two brothers had the same father, the same mother, and even the same passions. Yet, one chose life and the other chose death.
No matter who you are or what your situation is, we all have been given the freedom by God to make our own choices. The choices you make will determine the life you live and the blessings or consequences you receive. The choice is yours.
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