June 1, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Some people always sigh in thanking God. - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Joy in the Morning
For His anger endureth but a moment; in His favour is life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. - Psalm 30:5
In Psalm 30, as in so many other psalms, David promises to praise the Lord. He had experienced a great deliverance and was thankful. He cried unto heaven and the Lord heard him, bringing his soul back from the grave. Thus he exclaims that he will "Sing unto the Lord . . .for His anger endureth but a moment." This thought is reinforced by the delightful expression, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Psalm 30:5).
How often we have experienced the truth of this verse! Heavy trials weigh us down as we pillow our heads at night. Our minds seem unable to bear the pressure. Restlessly we toss and turn, but our body refuses to rest. We are miserable and feel helpless. Finally sleep comes, but only after hours of restlessness.
The Christian life is filled with the interchanges of sickness and health, weakness and strength, disgrace and honor, want and wealth. Sometimes we enjoy the comfort of being one of God's own; other times we bear the cross of that same privilege. On occasion the south winds of God's mercy blow over our lives; on other occasions blow the north winds of adversity. Nonetheless, when the nipping north winds of calamity chill our nights and cause us to be restless, we may rest in the promise of God that "weeping may endure [only] for a night." God always places a time limit on the suffering and restlessness of His children.
After such a night of struggle, we frequently awake with a vague sense of what transpired the night before. As we gather our thoughts, we wonder why it was so difficult for us to fall asleep. Why were we so helpless and despairing? Things do not look as impossible as they once did. What is it that makes the difference? It is the joy that comes in the morning when we cast our care upon the Lord, knowing that He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7; cf. Job 33:26; Isaiah 26:20; 54:7).
Not only are the trials of the night temporary; they are gifts from God as well. We cannot deny that Christians are often called to endure soul-shaking experiences. In the Christian life there is weeping, and sometimes plenty of it. The nights of adversity are long and frequent. But God never allows them to be endless or without cause.
The cupola of St. Paul's Cathedral in London was painted by Sir James Thornhill. It was necessary for Sir James to complete his work while standing on a swinging scaffold high above the pavement. One day when he had finished a particularly difficult portion with painstaking effort, he stopped to inspect his artistry. As a good artist does, slowly he began moving backwards in order to gain a more appropriate view of his work. A helper working with him suddenly recognized that if Sir James should take one step farther backward, he would be killed in a fatal fall. The man knew that if he startled the man with a shout, it might topple him from the scaffold. As quickly as possible, he grabbed a brush and made a sweeping stroke across the exquisite work that Sir James was admiring. Understandably disturbed, the artist rushed forward with a cry of dismay. When his companion explained why he had taken this drastic measure, Sir James Thornhill burst into tears of gratitude.
We may be sure that no physician ever weighed out medicine to his patients with half as much care and exactness as God weighs out the trials of a sleepless night to us. Perhaps the dawning light of relief seems far away to you, but remember, morning will come, and with it God's promised joy. You have God's Word on it..
MORNING HYMN
Does Jesus care when my heart is pained
Too deeply for mirth and song,
As the burdens press, and the cares distress,
And the day grows weary and long?
O yes, He cares; I know He cares,
His heart is touched with my grief;
When the days are weary, the long nights dreary,
I know my Saviour cares.
By Woodrow Kroll
Copyright �1996-2001
The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc.
www.backtothebible.org
June 2, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: A man who enjoys responsibility usually gets it. A man who merely likes exercising authority usually loses it. - Unknown
Encouraging Word For The Week From Brother Steve
(From September 5, 2000)
This Summer at our house we have had a difficult time with the gnats and mosquitos. Because of the construction of the carport, the bugs camp out under the shelter and manage to find their way into the house every time we open or close the door.
In battling the bugs this year we have tried three different methods --sprays, foggers, and a bug light.
After a few bites during the night, we decided to invest 3 bucks into a can of Raid Mosquito killer. We sprayed all over the area near the door on several occasions. What happened? Raid got 3 dollars and we kept our bugs. So we thought, "A fogger will do the trick". We fogged the carport 3 times and guess what? The fog lifted but the bugs stayed.
So, it came time to pull out the heavy equipment -- the artillery. We went to Wal-Mart and bought a Bug Zapper. You've seen them. It is a black light that is surrounded by an electrical field. The light attracts the bugs and before they can reach the light, the electrical field gives them a lethal jolt. Now, each morning I wake up to find dozens of bug carcasses on top of my deep freeze which is under the bug light. Also, we are not getting bit anymore either.
So, what's my point? If you want to stop being bit by sin, then develop a relationship with God that allows you to zap temptation before it hurts you. Some people try attending church thinking it will change them. This is like a bug spray. It may last a few hours, but come Sunday afternoon and Monday, you'll be bombarded with temptations again. Some folks try to just be very religious and attend every event possible at the church to keep them straight, but find that like a fogger, this doesn't free them of bugs either.
A 24 hour a day, 7 day a week walk with God is the remedy that we need to fighting temptation. Remember what James said about sin in James 1:14-15? He writes, "each one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." Therefore, to deal with sin, we must know how to properly deal with temptation.
In order to have that "force field" around you when the bugs come flying you need to remember a few things:
1) Be a person of prayer
2) Be a student of the Bible
3) Be committed to your church
4) Be in contact regularly with people who love you and will hold you accountable
5) Eliminate anything in your life that is a natural temptation into sin.
6) Read and listen to materials that will build you up and encourage your faith.
The combination of all these things will create a pretty good "bug zapper" in your life. It won't produce 100% elimination of temptation, but the impact will be significant.
Are you ready to plug it in?
Remember, God loves you and so do I.
Bro. Steve
[email protected]
June 3, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Reflect upon your present blessings--of which every man has many--not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. - Charles Dickens
The Words That Tear Down Walls
By Ron Hutchcraft
James 5:16
Normally, Hainan Island is thought of as a tourist attraction. But the 24 American military personnel who were held there by the Chinese in early 2001 probably didn't feel much like tourists. As the Americans reported it, their reconnaissance plane had been disabled by a Chinese jet that had flown too close and crashed into them. The jet pilot was lost and the American crew almost was, except for some extraordinary flying that managed to land their damaged plane on China's Hainan Island. There were days of tense negotiations, with the Chinese insisting on an apology and the Americans insisting on the release of their crew. The stalemate was finally broken by two words that President Bush included in a statement to the Chinese - words that expressed our sorrow over the loss of the Chinese pilot, not over the incident. The words? "I'm sorry." That's all it took. The next day, our crew was on their way home.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "The Words That Tear Down Walls."
The incident over our downed plane wasn't the first time a stalemate has been broken by those two little words. And I can't help but wonder how many marriages, how many children, how many churches, how many relationships could have been saved if someone had been willing to say those words - "I'm sorry." Or the longer version - "I was wrong." Maybe they're the words that you need to be saying right now.
Our word for today from the Word of God gives us a challenge that can have amazing effects in a damaged or strained or even a broken relationship. James 5:16 says, "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed." So much healing can begin when we are willing to swallow our pride and admit what we've done wrong. And the longer we wait to apologize, the higher the wall gets.
We'd rather focus on their sins, the things they did wrong. But God says, "Each of us will give an account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12). We're to confess our sins, not their sins - which we are more than willing to confess. But the Bible clearly encourages us to be quick to apologize - even to "leave our gift at the altar" and "first go and be reconciled" to our brother or sister (Matthew 5:23, 24). It's part of carrying out our Lord's orders in Romans 12:18 - "As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."
Well, it certainly depends on me to say "I'm sorry" for anything I've done that has caused hurt or misunderstanding. Even if I'm 10% wrong and they're 90% wrong (which is almost surely the case, right?). I'm responsible for my 10%. And not for a lame, often hedged apology like, "Well, I'm sorry if I've done anything wrong." Our healing apology should be as specific as possible.
You may have grown up in an environment where people never admitted they were wrong. You may be in a situation where the feelings are hard and the walls are high - and where you've been really wounded. But none of that changes your responsibility as a follower of Jesus Christ to say, "I was wrong" ... to say, "I'm sorry," when that's the case.
Ask God to use your two little words "I'm sorry" in a really powerful way. Sometimes, two little words are the beginning of a very big breakthrough.
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
www.hutchcraft.com
www.gospelcom.net/rhm
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft
June 4, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end. - Albert Schweitzer
Beauty In Out-Of-The-Way Places
By Ron Hutchcraft
Revelation 3:8
I have an inspiring view out of my office window. I look out at an Ozark mountain with this rolling field in between me and the mountain. The field dips down into a hollow - or a "holler" as they call it down South. In the Spring, some of the trees in the hollow start to bloom in living color. The rosebud ... the dogwood ... they just start setting out their blossoms in all their glory. Last spring, someone walked into my office, glanced out that window, and said, "Well, look at those beautiful trees down there." They are beautiful - but they're in a spot where very few people ever see that beauty.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Beauty In Out-Of-The-Way Places."
God doesn't reserve His beauty for places where lots of people can appreciate it. He also plants some beautiful things in out-of-the-way places. Maybe you're one of them. Not many see beauty when it's in an unlikely or a little known place - but it's no less beautiful.
As Jesus is evaluating each of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, He seems pretty unimpressed with the ones that look beautiful to everyone else. Like the church at Sardis that has "a reputation of being alive," but Jesus says to them, "You are dead." (Revelation 3:1) Or the rich and powerful Christians at Laodicea who Jesus says are actually "pitiful, poor, blind and naked." (Revelation 3:17)
But then there's this church - this out-of-the-way, little-known church - that Jesus thinks is beautiful. He says in our word for today from the Word of God in Revelation 3, beginning in verse 8, "I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept My word." Then He promises them something that He offers to none of the other, highly visible churches - "I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut." He's going to give them special blessings and opportunities because of their quiet faithfulness.
For someone listening today, that's how He feels about you. You've been asked to serve Him, to be faithful to Him in a little place, maybe a hard place, a place where you receive little or no appreciation or affirmation. Maybe where you work or where you live, you're in a situation where no one appreciates the beauty of Christ in you. But God wants you to know today that He loves to look at you - He thinks you're beautiful!
Think about Hannah in the Old Testament - a childless woman who kept on trusting the Lord. She was beauty no one saw - except God. And He made her the mother of Samuel, the greatest spiritual leader of his time. And Mary, the little known girl from a ridiculed, backwater village called Nazareth - but God knew all about her and He looked to her when it came time to find a mother to carry and raise His Son. God seems to have special rewards for quiet, unnoticed faithfulness.
It's easy to get discouraged and even down on yourself when you've been asked to bloom for God in a place where few can see you, where few appreciate your service or your sacrifice. But God sees you. You are His "something beautiful" in an out of the way place. And although there aren't many who see you blooming there, like those glorious trees hidden in the hollow outside my window, your life is no less beautiful.
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
www.hutchcraft.com
www.gospelcom.net/rhm/
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft
June 5, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. - Elie Wiesel
Jesus' Prayer the Model, Not That of Jabez
A little book about a short prayer is sweeping the nation. Christian book sellers across the country are reporting record sales of Bruce Wilkinson's 'The Prayer of Jabez' (Multnomah Publishers).
Jabez, an otherwise unknown biblical character, is mentioned only in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 along with a brief prayer attributed to him. The prayer, according to Wilkinson, "contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God." It it a prayer, Wilkinson asserts, "God always answers."
These are bold claims to make for such an obscure prayer. This sort of praise is usually reserved for the Bible as a whole rather than just a short passage. Of course, it's hard to argue with success. If we want to equate book sales with truth value, then 'The Prayer of Jabez' is one of the greatest prayers ever prayed.
But soaring book sales do not establish truth value. The popularity of this book reveals more about the people buying the book than it does about the purpose and nature of prayer. The warm reception of 'The Prayer of Jabez' among Christians and non-Christians alike provides a profound example of our culture's commitment to material gain as a measure of spiritual blessing.
"Oh that you would bless me indeed," the prayer begins. Me, and me alone, is the subject of the prayer. Give me something that will make my life better.
Like what?
"Enlarge my territory," is the second line. Give me more of what I already have. Give me more of what I don't have. The greedy character of our society is laid bare in this "give me more" plea.
"Let Your hand be with me that I would be safe from evil and its pain." In other words, build a shield around ME. Protect me. Shelter ME from the world and its troubles. Give ME all I want and need, and don't let a world of need around ME encroach on what is MINE. And don't let ME feel any pain. Let ME coast through life without a worry or care. I've asked for it, God, now give it to ME.
The Bible says God answered Jabez's prayer. Good for Jabez. But just because Jabez got what he asked for does not make his prayer the model prayer. We don't know anything about him other than he was better than his brothers. That snippet of information does not qualify Jabez as a prayer guru for the rest of us. In Christian circles, that job has been reserved for Jesus.
In fact, it is striking to place the prayer of Jabez alongside the prayer of Jesus. The shallow selfishness of the prayer of Jabez becomes obvious when compared to the real thing.
Instead of "bless me," the prayer of Jesus begins "Our Father." The prayer of Jesus is not about me and mine. Jesus' prayer is about the possibility of "us". The "Our Father" is an invitation to recognize we are part of a community of human beings.
Instead of "enlarge my territory," the prayer of Jesus asks for God's kingdom to come, for God's will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. In the message of Jesus, the hope of the kingdom of God was justice and fairness. His prayer is not about getting more for me. The prayer of Jesus calls forth an image of a world where there is food for all and shelter for all.
The prayer of Jesus does not promise riches to the petitioner. Instead, we are taught to pray for our bread daily. The prayer of Jesus recognizes that we share a common dependency on the resources of this planet. Stockpiling bread might make us feel safe, but it often impoverishes our neighbors. Piling up bread for tomorrow and the next day may make practical survival sense for me and mine, but it destroys the hope of a community where sharing ensures the survival of everyone.
Interestingly, both prayers end with a plea about evil, but the tone and tenor could not be more different. The prayer of Jabez wants God to place a protecting hand around him. Protect ME and MINE. Don't let anyone get what I've got.
The prayer of Jesus asks that we not be overcome by the temptation to become unforgiving and uncaring. "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive those who are indebted to us." In other words, as we travel through this life together, we occasionally hurt each other or take advantage of each other. The prayer of Jabez would have us hide behind a safe wall that protects me from all of you. The prayer of Jesus would have us take down the walls that separate us so we can live together as a human family.
Wilkinson's book suggests that we pray the prayer of Jabez every day. Blessings will be ours, he says. Maybe. I seem to remember something about rain on the just and the unjust.
If we are looking for a prayer to pray everyday, a prayer that will really make a difference in our lives and in our world, I recommend the prayer of Jesus over the prayer of Jabez.
The prayer of Jabez feeds into our craving for private gain, safety, and security. It promises God's blessings simply for the asking with no further responsibility to God or anyone else.
The prayer of Jesus challenges us to engage one another as brothers and sisters in one family. To live together sharing resources and dealing with each other mercifully.
The prayer of Jabez leaves us with a cold isolation of material gain and privatized faith.
The prayer of Jesus creates hope of community and the promise of enough for everyone.
The prayer of Jabez begins with ME and ends with ME. That doesn't leave much room for anyone else.
The prayer of Jesus begins with "our" and ends with "forgiveness." In between is all the stuff we need to build and sustain our common lives.
By James L. Evans, Pastor
Crosscreek Baptist Church, Pelham, AL
Copyright 2001; The Birmingham News
June 6, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: The most valuable talent is that of never using two words when one will do.
- Thomas Jefferson
Downsizing For Success
By Ron Hutchcraft
Judges 7:2
Every time the economy - or corporate profits - take another dip in their roller coaster ride, you start hearing corporations saying "that" word again. Downsizing. Many companies have - and probably will - come to the conclusion that one way to increase their profitability is to decrease the number of employees they have. So they downsize ... to be more successful.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU about "Downsizing For Success."
Actually, God believes in downsizing, too - as His strange means of bringing about something bigger. In fact, that may be what He's doing in your life right now.
He sure did it to Gideon, in our word for today from the Word of God in Judges 7, beginning in verse 2. Here's the situation - the Midianites have invaded Israel year after year during harvest time to plunder their harvests, and nobody has been able to stop them. God calls Gideon to do it - even though Gideon argues that he is maybe the least qualified guy around. Of course, this happens a lot in the Bible - and still today.
Gideon is able to muster an army of 32,000 men - to go against a Midianite army of 132,000 men! And "the Lord said to Gideon, 'You have too many men for Me to deliver Midian into their hands." I'm sure Gideon didn't laugh, but I can't help it. Outnumbered four to one, and he's got "too many" men? God tells him to let go anyone who is afraid - and suddenly Gideon has twenty-two thousand men. Now he's outnumbered about six to one. After God has him downsize again, Gideon has 300 men left. He's outnumbered more than 40 to 1 now! But miraculously, that force wins the battle, and the Midianites aren't seen again!
Now why does God follow this strange plan for winning - reducing, taking away, cutting back, making smaller? God gave His reason to Gideon - "in order that Israel may not boast against Me that her own strength has saved her." It is a pattern throughout the Bible - God loves to win major victories with inadequate resources. He arranges mismatches and impossible situations so we will see how big He is and He will get all the glory!
God knows we all have pride issues ... we tend to be controlling people ... we tend to rely on the methods that have always seemed to get it done for us. But God puts us in situations where, like Gideon, we're left saying, "If there's a victory here, it's going to have absolutely nothing to do with me." So if you find yourself out-manned, out-gunned, under-resourced right now ... if it seems like God has been cutting you back and putting limitations on you - realize this may very well be the prelude to an amazing victory!
God is working on that wonderful addition and subtraction thing He does - John puts it this way: "He must become greater; I must become less." As God reduces the amount of you there is, He is increasing the amount of Him there is in the situation. He's been downsizing you so there can be more of Him - so He can show you a victory bigger than you ever thought you could be a part of. God isn't downsizing you so you'll lose - He's downsizing you for a victory so big that only He can get the glory for it!
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
www.hutchcraft.com
www.gospelcom.net.rhm/
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft
June 7, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have. - Unknown
Life Without Purpose is Just an Experience
Life without purpose is just an experience. Ponder that for a while.
If there ever was a man's life that had purpose it was Indiana Jones. His career was a college professor but his purpose was to find the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail. Because of his purpose, his life as a college professor had meaning. Plus, he had all kinds of adventures facing snakes and men with swinging swords that would really shape and mold him as he followed his path.
Then there is Batman. By day he was just a wealthy millionaire named Bruce Wayne. But his purpose is to protect Gotham City from crime, and when needed and crime threatened the people, that's when he would become Batman. His purpose gave meaning to his life and he was able to use his millions for good as well as using all those bat-gadgets. Here was a millionaire with integrity because his purpose shaped him.
Okay. I realize that these are fictional, Hollywood characters. So let's take a look at our heroes. Billy Graham had a purpose and that purpose has led him to see multitudes saved as well as being by the bedside of many great, dying former presidents and other world leaders. Did you know that before Kim Il-Syung died, the Communist "president" of North Korea, that he summoned Billy Graham to come share the gospel with him? Billy Graham paid a couple visits to the dying dictator and now only God knows if he repented of his terrible past. What a purpose!
Bill Wilson is the pastor of Metro Assembly of God in Brooklyn, New York. It is a church of 10,000 plus children who live in ghetto-type situations who have found joy as well as Jesus through a man who has dedicated his life to these children. Bill Wilson is a man whose mother left him sitting on a culvert at the age of 14 never to be heard from again. He could have ended up like so many other children had but there was another man, Wayne Pitts, a young pastor, who had a purpose. This man and his wife gave Bill a home and showed him what a loving relationship he could have with Jesus. From there he found a purpose for his life and has literally brought life and hope to thousands of children who live without hope.
What is your purpose? Or are you living from experience to experience? There is a difference.
Brenda Seefeldt
www.wildfrontier.org
June 8, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Have you noticed that even the busiest people are never too busy to take time to tell you how busy they are? - Bob Talbert
Human Decisions
For many, many people, the book of Acts is their favorite book of the Bible. It is where everything that was taught was lived out. It is full of some of the Bible's most exciting stories and completes the stories of some bumbling men we got to know who walked with Jesus. We, as a church, often take the stories in the book of Acts and try to find their place in our church today. We want to see Star Trek like experiences that Philip experienced. We want to see cities come to know God and key people in those cities turn in repentance. Some youth groups and some churches have even taken the name "Acts 29" as a way of saying that they are fulfilling the next chapter in that book.
Yet in my recent re-reading of Acts, I found something completely different. Because of the hype surrounding this book, I almost missed. The Book of Acts is full of people who wanted to give all they can for God and witnessed the very things I mentioned and more--yet made human mistakes in the decisions they had to make.
I have to make spirit-led decisions all the time. Maybe even more so than most because I am in the ministry--more is dependent on the outcome of the decision. It may have eternal effects. I have to make some decisions that are real doozies which I spend a great deal praying and pondering about. A great deal. Yet sometimes I have been wrong. Sometimes? It feels like it is more often than that. Then there is the "foot in mouth" problem. Wrong decisions made and some consequences that are yucky (I know - not a formal word but it so fits the situation) to go through.
The Book of Acts records plenty of this stuff. They were men who were excited about Jesus but didn't have a clue as to what they were doing. They just were going along, praying and pondering, and seeing great stuff happen. Yet not every decision they made was "right on." The Book of Acts records these too.
The apostles made some very great, very huge right decisions. Peter going to visit with Cornelius was a very good one--and one that Peter struggled with. Philip talking to the Ethiopian was also a very good one. But he had help to know he did the right thing by the amazing speed he acquired once he made the decision. Paul taking along Timothy was a good one, and even having Timothy circumcised was a good one. I'm sure Paul wrestled with the law of that decision but came out with the decision that it was really a small thing and it would lead to Timothy being so much better received.
But there were also wrong decisions. The disciples choosing Matthias to replace Judas appears to be wrong. Not just because they drew lots to make the decision. It seems they rushed into a replacement, like twelve was some spiritual number. If they had waited on the decision, it is likely that Paul would have been chosen. But at the time he was Saul and out to kill them. The time needed to happen. Someone should have said no to the dice and agreed to wait. No one knows, not even in all the apocrypha, whatever happened to Matthias. This is his one moment in history--the winner of drawing lots, a shake of a dice, picking a number between 1 and 10.
What about the decision over John Mark. I am sure Paul and Barnabus both spent a great deal of time praying about that one. Yet they couldn't agree, they even argued. Who made the right decision?
Even Paul appealing his case to Rome might not have been the right decision. It says in Acts 26:32 CEV that "Agrippa told Festus, 'Paul could have been set free, if he had not asked to be tried by the Roman Emperor.'" Did Paul in his zealousness, and maybe a bit of pride in his Roman citizenship, overdo it here?
Lots of very good things did happen because Paul went to Rome including fulfilling a word God gave to Paul. "That night the Lord stood beside Paul and said, 'Don't worry! Just as you have told others about me in Jerusalem, you must also tell about Me in Rome." Acts 23:11. (Does anybody else feel a tinge of jealousy that the Lord stood beside Paul in this dark time and we just get more distant revelations?)
Huge and great things did happen. Even with the split of Paul and Barnabus, good things happened. More people heard the good news of Jesus Christ. But isn't that just like God. He always makes something good come out of human decisions. You've heard the testimony, or even have the testimony, of lots of bad decisions when you were younger but now you are able to be a more effective minister because of what you learned from those bad decisions. A lot of good came out of these decisions made in Acts, but were all of them "from God" or "led by God?" The Bible is filled with so many other human mistakes, it does not surprise me at all to find human mistakes in the Book of Acts. But with the hype of the book, I have missed it all these years.
Brenda Seefeldt
www.wildfrontier.org
June 9, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Encouraging Word For The Week from Brother Steve
(From August 29, 2000)
One of my favorite stories of the working of God comes from a book entitled, "The Revived Life". In this book it shows how widespread spiritual revival occurs in the masses after it has gotten its start in one person or a few. Today, I want to share an amazing story that began in 1904 that is a great encouragement to me today.
It was in the Rhondda Valley of South Wales where this great event occurred. It changed a coal mining area into a place that would experience a supernatural phenomenon.
It began at a small Welsh pastor's training institution where a guest Evangelist by the name of Seth Joshua had been invited to speak to the students. This was not an unusual event. Special quests have always been a part of theological training. During one of Joshua's messages, the evangelist struck the theme of doing God's will. In the course of this sermon he said, "God could mightily use any person whom he could bend to His will." Many were mightily moved. Involved in the service on that occasion was a twenty-six-year-old minister named Evan Roberts. The words of the Evangelist hit Roberts like hammer to his sensitive soul. In deep distress, he sank to his knees and from a crushed conscience cried, "O God bend me!" God bent him!
Evan Roberts, with others, had been earnestly praying for their beloved country for some time. The spiritual sterility of Wales as the twentieth century emerged on the scene was overwhelming. Queen Victoria and her age had died; the church had seemed to die with her. So Roberts prayed and prayed that God would revive his work. And through the young preacher, God did just that.
Those dynamic days stagger the most stable historians. One would have said it was impossible that such things as were regularly occurring could actually take place. It seemed that the whole countryside was resurrected from the depth of secularity to the delights of spirituality in a single stroke of the Spirit.
In a short time, the churches all up and down the Valley, and finally over the entire nation, were jammed to overflowing twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Singing, preaching, rejoicing, conversions, and newness abounded everywhere. As the miners spilled out of the collieries they bathed and went directly to their chapel, many to stay most of the night. There was no problem gathering people to church. It seemed the whole population was there.
Some rather humorous episodes were actually recorded during these exciting times. The production problem that emerged in the mines as a result of the revival is a case in point. At the time, coal had to be drawn out of the deep shafts by horses. Prior to the awakening, the animals heard their commands punctuated with cursing. The Welsh miners were, for the most part, a pretty rough lot. So many of the miners were converted and their language cleaned up, that the horses did not know how to work. The animals literally had to be taken out of the mines and retrained.
Civic and social righteousness swept in like a flood. The jails emptied; the pubs closed; the dance halls shut their doors; the entire country was transformed. At that time in Wales, if no crimes were being committed the judges wore white gloves to signify the fact there were no cases to try. All the magistrates were so clothed. What were the police to do in such a crimeless country? They hit upon a solution; the officers organized themselves into singing groups and made themselves available to the churches.
No denomination was exempt from the movement. The Church of Wales, the Presbyterians, the Baptists -- all were caught up in the blessed time. And it all began when one young Christian man permitted God to "bend" him.
(Taken from "The Revived Life", pages 17-21)
This leads us at FBC to a question? DOES GOD STILL RESPOND THE SAME WAY TODAY? I suppose this could be answered with another question. ARE WE WILLING TO RESPOND TO GOD WITH A "BEND ME" ATTITUDE?
God's would love to begin a "Doyline Revival", but we must have a "Bend Me" willingness that begins on bent knees.
Let me challenge each of you to seek this kind of heart. If we'll do this, then God will take us where we've never been before.
Have a Wonderful Week,
Bro. Steve
[email protected]
June 10, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: How much did I hear of religion as a child? Very little, and yet my heart leaped when I heard the name of God. I do believe every soul has a tendency toward God. - Dorothy Day
It's Not Just Tim McVeigh
First, the verdict came in - guilty. Then the sentence - death. And the last-minute appeals for a delay - denied. Finally, the irrevocable outcome - Timothy McVeigh must die for his crimes.
From the first moments that the searing images of the Oklahoma City explosion flashed on our television screens, Americans have felt deeply connected to that awful tragedy, that monstrous crime. And Timothy McVeigh's expressionless face has become a face we will not soon forget.
For me personally, the people and the pain of that awful day in Oklahoma City became even more real when I visited the Memorial there a few weeks ago. It makes the execution in Terre Haute a little less remote ... a little more personal.
For some of us, this death penalty business is an important political issue or humanitarian or justice issue. But not many of us feel it as a personal issue. It is. For every one of us. In reality, a death penalty is a deeply personal issue. It's about a death penalty, not from a human court, but from the Governor of the universe.
In just six unsettling words in the Bible, God spells out the troubling news that is actually declared all through the Bible - "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) That sentence goes back to the beginning of time. In the Bible's account of mankind's first sin, God announced the penalty for disobeying Him - "You will surely die." (Genesis 2:17) There is no doubt that sin carries with it a sentence of death - as sure as that of anyone on Death Row.
In the same book of the Bible that speaks of the death sentence for sin, God says, "All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) That "all" cuts off any appeal you or I - or even the most religious person on this planet - could have. No one can say, "this spiritual death penalty doesn't apply to me." There is no such thing as a "not guilty" plea before God.
Our spiritual crimes are not the horrific crimes of a mass killing in Oklahoma City - they, are in fact, cosmic crimes. Sin is not the violating of some religion's rules - it is the hijacking of a life that our Creator was supposed to run. We have - some very politely - raised our fist to the One who made us and said, "My way, God, not Your way." In a universe where galaxies obey Him, where angels obey Him, where nature obeys Him, we dare to defy the rule of God by rebelling against the ways He created us to live.
We treat people as we feel like treating them ... we do with our mouth, our passions, our money, our life what we want to do. We take a life He designed to be lived for Him and live for ourselves - and think that somehow a little religion and some good deeds will somehow satisfy our sentence.
But "the wages of sin" is still "death." Not just death as in your heart stopping and your brain flat lining - but death as in eternal separation from God, the Source of everything good in our lives in our world. The death penalty for my running of my own life is far more frightening than any lethal injection or electrocution - it is, again in God's own words, being "shut out from the presence of the Lord." (II Thessalonians 1:9)
The bad news from God is really bad. But the good news is about as good as it gets. The same "death sentence" that proclaims the wages for our sin also announces the amazing alternative that is open to all of us - to you at this very moment. It says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) You can walk away from the death penalty you deserve and receive a Heaven you could never deserve.
If you take His "gift." A gift, by its very nature, is something you don't pay for - it's paid for by someone else. And that is exactly what Jesus did for you when He died that brutal death on the cross. In the Bible's words, "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities (wrong-doings); the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." (Isaiah 53:5)
All the religions of the world offer a way of life that it is hoped will "pay for" eternal life. But the only thing we can "earn" is "the wages of sin." And there are no good works that can pay a death penalty. A death penalty can only be paid one way - by someone dying. Someone did. Jesus loves you so much that He stepped in as your sinless Substitute to satisfy the justice of God. You did the sinning, but Jesus did the dying.
God's one and only Son died so you don't have to. That's what makes what you do with Jesus so very important. God will never forget what you do with His Son - not after all His Son did for you. You cannot earn this "gift" of eternal life, no matter how good you are - you can only reach out and take it, like any gift. Which He is giving you the opportunity to do right now.
You trade in hell for Heaven when you tell Jesus you are resigning from running your own life and giving your life to Him. You can tell Him right where you are - "Jesus, I've been running my own life, but I resign as of today. I've been living for me. I'm sorry for my sin. But I believe your Son Jesus Christ paid my death penalty when He died on the cross. Right now, I'm turning from a life of "my way" and I'm putting all my trust in Jesus Christ to erase my sin from Your book, to give me a relationship with You, and to get me to Heaven. Lord, from today on, I'm Yours."
It's not a decision to be postponed - the stakes are just too high. That's why God says, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." (Hebrews 4:7) If He's moving in your heart, consider that His knock on the door - a door you have to open. When you do, He opens a door for you - the one that will allow you to walk out of Death Row forever and into a life that will never end.
If you're not sure you belong to Jesus, and you would like to make sure today, Ron would like to send to you a free copy of the booklet, "Yours for Life: How to Have Life's Most Important Relationship." To read the online version, go to: www.hutchcraft.com/yours/ OR, to request your free copy of "Yours for Life," you can order it online at: www.hutchcraft.com/yours/yflorder.html
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft.
June 11, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: If you realize that you aren't as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you're wiser today. - Unknown
Our Substitute
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8
Ed Leonard, an employee of a Canadian mining company, was working in Colombia, South America, when he was captured by rebel soldiers in 1998. In an unprecedented move, Norbert Reinhart, the owner of the company, secured Leonard's release by taking his place. Reinhart was then held hostage for 94 days.
Centuries ago, Jesus took our place, becoming our substitute. Romans 5:8 says, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
So profound is the meaning of that act that scholars have struggled to explain its mystery. The Bible teaches that God loves us but must uphold His perfect justice by punishing us for our sin. As part of His plan to redeem us, He sent His Son Jesus to become a member of the human race (John 1:18). Although He was sinless, Jesus, who is fully God and fully man, took our punishment on the cross. With sin's penalty paid, He rose from the grave and offers forgiveness and eternal life to all.
Just knowing these facts, though, doesn't mean that we are forgiven. We must admit that we're helpless, lost sinners (Romans 3:23), turn from our sins, and personally reach out in faith to Christ and receive His offer of forgiveness. Then He truly is our Savior, our Substitute.
Was it for crimes that I have done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree! - Watts
Knowing a creed is no substitute for knowing Christ. Read Romans 5:1-11
Written by Dennis J. De Haan
From 'Our Daily Bread'
www.rbc.net/bread
�2001 RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI 49555
June 12, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: A friend is one who makes me do my best. - Oswald Chambers
A Brand New You
II Corinthians 5:15
On a recent business trip, my friend Rich found a site that advertised caverns and an Indian artifact museum. An Indian man, with his coal black hair pulled back and a face my friend described as "well-weathered," offered to take Rich on the museum tour - which he thought would last about fifteen minutes. Nearly two hours later, he had received an incredible history lesson on the Shawnee Nation. The guide said that the Shawnee Nation is made up of many different Indian tribes which the Shawnee have "adopted" into their nation. And several times the Shawnee man pointed out that when his tribe allows this to happen, the adopted people or person may never speak of his former tribe or nation again!
Several times, Rich's guide asked if he really understood that concept - and my friend assured him that he did. Suddenly, the Shawnee man stepped back a few feet and said, "You're a Christian, aren't you?" Rich gave him a wholehearted "yes" - and asked how he could tell. The Indian man's response: "Only a true Shawnee or a Christian can understand forsaking all past life and accepting a new life." Later, as they prayed together, it was clear that this man - who my friend described as "truly amazing" - was both a Shawnee and a Christian.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "A Brand New You."
That Indian brother really understands what it means to become a part of Jesus' tribe - far better than many of us who claim to be following Jesus. What he said is almost a paraphrase of exactly what God says in our word for today from the Word of God in II Corinthians 5, beginning in verse 15.
"Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves (stop and ask yourself - are you really living for yourself?), but to live for Him who died for them and was raised again ... Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" And paralleling the Shawnee experience, the way we became "in Christ" was "to be adopted as God's sons through Jesus Christ." (Ephesians 1:5) Adopted, not to have part of us in our old family - which is really the devil's family - and part of us in God's family ... no, we're talking here about leaving one way of life for good and taking on a brand new you! Which may make some of the junk in your life right now a little hard to explain.
You can't really hold Jesus with one hand and, with your other hand, some of the junk that killed Him. After all, in God's words, "He bore our sins in His own body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness." (I Peter 2:24) Imagine how it must make Jesus feel to see you still hanging onto sins that He died to get you out of!
It may be that you've missed the imperative Jesus gave us to "repent" when we come to Him. It would be easy to miss - nobody talks about repenting much these days. But it still matters just as much to Jesus. And your failure to really repent may explain your constant spiritual roller coaster, your recurring doubts about whether or not you really belong to Jesus. In Acts 3:19, the call is to "repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord." Repenting of that sin isn't just saying, "I'm sorry" - it's saying "I'm not doing that stuff any more!"
You've tried carrying your dual identity long enough - you're a halfhearted sinner and a halfhearted Christian. It's time to turn your back, once and for all, on that junk that's shackled you for so long. Here's what you can tell Jesus right now - "Jesus, with Your power, I'm dropping this junk and saying goodbye to the old me once and for all. You died to get me out of this stuff - and beginning today, I am Yours ... all Yours!"
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
www.hutchcraft.com
www.gospelcom.net/rhm/">
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft.
June 13, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: All the danger is when the world gets into the heart. The water is useful for sailing the ship; all the danger is when the water gets into the ship; so the fear is when the world gets into the heart.
- Thomas Watson
Understanding The Heart Of God
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. - Jeremiah 29:13
A friend was eulogizing a man who had suddenly passed away, saying, "He had such a good heart!" To really know the heart of a person means going beyond the veneer of respectability and getting to know a person from the inside out. Occasionally we talk of intimacy with another person, saying, "He really opened his heart with me," something we are not often prone to do.
If it is true that we seldom bare our hearts to each other (and I think you would probably agree that such a statement is true) is it possible that finite man can ever really get to know the heart of God? Bringing it home where you live, can you understand the heart of God? Can a human, any human, ever get so close to the Almighty that he can, even in a small measure, understand the heart of God?
There are some barriers that stand between us and a knowledge of God's heart, barriers which can come down. The first barrier that keeps us from knowing the heart of God is the simple fact that we don't know God. The first step in righting this situation is the understanding that you were made in the image of God, not God made in your image. No one can understand the heart of God until he first understands that man's heart has been darkened by his rebellion against God. In the days of Noah, "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain," so says the book of Genesis (See 6:5,6).
A second barrier which has to come down for you to know the heart of God is to overcome your pre-occupation with yourself. Long ago, God said, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13), and that promise is valid today; but when we are only seeking handouts from God, thinking that He is a divine "office boy" to do our bidding on command, our focus is need-centered, not God-centered. To know the heart of God means that you must focus upon Him, get to know Him, strive to see life from His perspective and understand how different is His view of our lives and our problems. To know the heart of God demands changing our focus from self to the divine.
The third barrier that must come down if we are to know the heart of God is our ignorance of the nature and character of God. Long ago the prophet Hosea wrote, "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6), and his lament is far more descriptive of our generation than any one in recent years.
A. W. Tozer wrote, "The Bible assumes as a self-evident fact that men can know God with at least the same degree of immediacy as they know any other person or thing that comes within the field of their experience. The same terms are used to express the knowledge of God as are used to express knowledge of physical things." Your physical senses bring knowledge of the Almighty in the same way that they bring knowledge of your best friend, but there is one more barrier that must be crossed. It is overcoming the barrier of our lack of knowledge of His written Word, and the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.
A relationship with Jesus Christ opens the window of understanding to the heart of the Father, and to know Him requires an understanding of God's Word, the Bible.
Going back to that initial question, can you really know the heart of God? Indeed you can, and knowing the heart of God brings all of life into focus. The path of discovery is the way of life itself.
Resource reading: Colossians 3.
By Dr. Harold J. Sala
� GUIDELINES INTERNATIONAL
Box G, Laguna Hills, CA 92654
www.guidelines.org
June 14, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as visible. - Oswald J. Sanders
Understanding The Thoughts Of God
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. - Colossians 1:17
The Psalmist wrote, "The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations" (Psalm 33:11). But the question is: Can you really know the thoughts of the Almighty? Only a fool would deny that man and God think differently. We just don't track on the same wavelength. Isaiah had that in mind when he penned the words of God, saying, "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts'" (Isaiah 55:8,9). Yet that same passage declares that you can seek the Lord and find Him; you can turn to Him and He will show mercy towards you.
Understanding the thoughts of God--is it really possible? To understand His thoughts demands that you saturate yourself with an understanding of God; and how is this accomplished? By reading books about God? By listening to tapes? Following a guru or religious leader who claims to have an inside track with God?
If I want to understand the thinking of a great author - say, for example, William Shakespeare - I wouldn't want to read what people have written about Shakespeare. I would saturate myself with Shakespeare himself, striving to think his thoughts, to see life through his eyes, to try to understand the world in terms of his world.
In doing this with God, there are several things you will discover very quickly. First, you will discover that His view of life is much different from ours. Like what? His perspective is different. We take the short view; He takes the long view. We look at life in terms of the immediate, whereas God views life as a whole. He sees the end from the beginning, and what we attach much importance to, He understands is not all that important.
Want to understand the thoughts of God? Then look at life from the long-term perspective and see beyond the crisis of the immediate.
Second, in understanding the thoughts of God you quickly discover that God looks beyond the surface, whereas we look at life from the outside. Long ago God told Samuel, the prophet, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (I Samuel 16:6).
We tend to be impressed with beauty, money, lovely hair, soft eyes, and accomplishment. God wants to know if there is integrity within. Does beauty come from a beautiful life? Is a person as good as his word? Want to understand the thinking of God? Then learn to look beneath the surface.
Third, to understand the thoughts of God demands that your value system undergo a drastic regeneration. Paul put it so pointedly when he wrote, "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him" (I Corinthians 1:27-29). Focus on the importance of relationships, values, and character, and avoid the trap of the tyranny of the urgent.
A final thought: To understand the thoughts of God you must understand that right is greater than might; that the battle is not to the strong nor the race to the swift; but God is sovereign and He sets one aside and raises another. To understand the thoughts of God you must realize that God is God and He is from everlasting to everlasting--a long, long time. Only then can we begin to understand the thoughts of the Almighty.
Resource reading: Revelation 4.
By Dr. Harold J. Sala
� GUIDELINES INTERNATIONAL
Box G, Laguna Hills, CA 92654
www.guidelines.org
June 15, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Through faith they saw the invisible, they chose the imperishable, and they did the impossible. - Vance Havner
The Ultimate Tragedy
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. - Hebrews 10:31
It was an immense tragedy. More than two million pilgrims had gathered outside Mecca to take part in an annual religious event when something caused a stampede. After the dust had settled, nearly 200 people lay dead, trampled in the mad rush.
Imagine the irony! These worshipers were attempting to get closer to God. When they died, however, they found out sooner than they ever imagined whether their devotion had brought them nearer to God or not.
The real tragedy of the situation was not in the deaths themselves, as heart-wrenching as that is. Death spares no one, though its icy grip ensnares some before others. It's not death that is the ultimate tragedy but death without Jesus Christ. For any person who does not know Jesus Christ as Savior, the tragedy of death is compounded by eternal separation from God (2 Thessalonians 1:9; Hebrews 10:31).
Acts of religious devotion do not gain for us access into God's eternal presence. Entrance to heaven is a free gift, received by faith in Christ - believing that He lived, died, and rose from the grave to rescue us from the penalty of sin.
If you're not depending on Jesus, you'll suffer the ultimate tragedy. Don't let it happen to you.
Salvation is a gift of God,
Not something earned or won;
He freely gives eternal life
To all who trust His Son. - Sper
You can have tons of religion without an ounce of salvation.
Read Hebrews 9:27-10:18
By J. David Branon
Our Daily Bread
www.rbc.net/bread
�2001 RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI 49555
June 16, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: No child of God sins to that degree as to make himself incapable of forgiveness.
- John Bunyan
Encouraging Word For The Week from Brother Steve
(From August 3, 2000)
One afternoon three children, two boys and a girl, entered a flower shop. They were about nine or ten years old, raggedly dressed, but at this moment well-scrubbed. One of the boys took off his cap and gazed around the store somewhat doubtfully, then came up to the person who owned the stored and said, "Sir, we'd like something in yellow flowers."
There was something in their nervous manner that made the man think that this was a very special occasion. He showed them some inexpensive yellow spring flowers. The boy who was the spokesman for the group shook his head, "I think we'd like something better than that."
The man asked, "Do they have to be yellow?" The boy answered, "Yes, sir. You see, Mickey would like 'em better if they were yellow. He had a yellow sweater. I guess he'd like yellow better than any other color."
The man asked, "Are they for his funeral?"
The boy nodded, suddenly choking up. The little girl was desperately struggling to keep back the tears. "She's his sister, " the boy said. "He was a swell kid. A truck hit him while he was playing in the street." His lips were trembling now. The other boy entered the conversation. "Us kids in his block took up a collection. We got eighteen cents. Would roses cost an awful lot, sir--yellow roses, I mean?"
The man smiled. "It just happens that I have some nice yellow roses here that I'm offering special today for eighteen cents a dozen." The man pointed to the flower case.
"Gee, those would be swell! Yes, Mickey'd sure like those."
The man said, "I'll make up a nice spray with ferns and ribbons. Where do you want me to send them?"
One of the boys responded, "Would it be all right, mister, if we took them with us? We'd kind of like to--you know--give 'em to Mickey ourselves. He'd like it better that way."
The florist fixed the spray of flowers and accepted the eighteen cents somberly and watched the youngsters trudge out of the store. And he felt within his heart the warm glow of the presence of God, for he had remembered anew the meaning of the words of Jesus: "Even as you have done it unto one of these little ones, you have done it unto me."
IN YOUR LIFE, DO YOU EVER SELL YOUR ROSES FOR EIGHTEEN CENTS A DOZEN?
REMEMBER: WE WORK TO MAKE A LIVING, BUT WE GIVE TO MAKE A LIFE.
I love you all,
Bro. Steve
[email protected]
June 17, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: One act of obedience is worth more than one hundred sermons. - Deitrich Bonhoeffer
Criticism
Let all things be done unto edifying. - 1 Corinthians 14:26
How do you respond to criticism? Some are extremely sensitive to the slightest bit of criticism and they respond very negatively to it; others couldn't care less what people say of them. Some world leaders are keenly aware of the press, and when the news media criticize them they vindictively lash out, deeply hurt - or they seek revenge. Others, though, take the attitude of Frederick the Great, who was asked how he felt about the sharp criticism that he had drawn. He replied, "I go through my appointed daily stage, and I care not for the curs who bark at me along the road." Most of us do not have quite as thick a hide as did Frederick the Great. We do care what others are saying, and down in our hearts, we often care a great deal more than we are willing to admit.
What can you do when you are criticized? I see at least five clear responses. There are many variations, but five choices confront you.
First, you can resent the criticism. You can say that you were not deserving of the criticism, and that the person is entirely wrong. You can say that his motives were not right. And you may be correct, but letting your hatred turn to poison in your heart brings only suffering to YOU and, accordingly, YOU are the one who has been hurt.
There is a second choice: You can lash out at the one who criticized you. It is easy to do--you feel that you have been hurt. However, answering your critics is seldom the thing to do. If you believe that you were right, your actions need no defense; let them speak for themselves. To answer your critics may look as if you were wrong and are now trying to find reasons to buttress what you did. Truth needs no defense. Lives of great men indicate that they seldom stooped to the level of their critics. They knew what they were doing, and resolutely, but firmly, they kept at their task and did not lose time by answering criticism.
This, though, does not mean that you are indifferent to criticism, so the third choice that is open to you is to analyze the criticism. Look at it carefully, and try to sift out the personal bias. It is probably true that what your critics may have said was said out of a wrong spirit--a vindictive attempt to hurt you. Look at it carefully, and try to determine what is bias and what is truth.
Again, it is possible that the criticism was meant to be constructive, and you can profit a great deal from that situation which leads us to the fourth choice: Learn from the criticism. Regardless of how it was offered, is there something that you can learn from it? Perhaps you are in the wrong! Look at the criticism carefully. If you were wrong, it takes a big person to acknowledge it, but you will want to do it.
The fifth choice that is open is simply forget the criticism and put it behind you. There are times when this is by far the best course of action. If you know you were right, forget it and do not let it be a weight that hangs around your neck. Do not let criticism make you vindictive; do not let it be a poison that blights your outlook on life. There are times when others may not understand you; but if you are right, commit that criticism to God, and keep on keeping on.
Travelers in the northern lanes of ocean traffic have often seen icebergs moving in one direction when the winds were ferociously blowing in the opposite direction. The explanation is simple: Eight-ninths of their hulk is under water, and the current deep in the ocean was moving it forward--no matter which way the wind was blowing.
Be sure that you are right. Let God's Word, the Bible, provide the guideline for your life, and then, regardless which way the winds of criticism may blow, stay with your convictions. Do not retaliate! Just analyze and profit from criticism, then forget it.
Resource reading: Exodus 18.
By Dr. Harold J. Sala
� GUIDELINES INTERNATIONAL
Box G, Laguna Hills, CA 92654
www.guidelines.org
June 18, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Everything in life which we commit to God is really safe. And everything which we refuse to commit to Him is never safe. - A.W. Tozer
Stranded On This Side Of The Rainbow
John 4:13-14
So what was the greatest song of the Twentieth Century? That was the question on a major survey taken in the first year of the Twenty-First Century. And the winner - Judy Garland's signature song from "The Wizard of Oz" - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The tragedy is that Judy Garland herself could never seem to get there. She was an international star at the age of 17, and she remains one of the towering entertainers of the century. But tragically, her search for health and happiness led her down a road of drug addiction, disappointing relationships, psychiatric hospitals, and a physical collapse. She died of a drug overdose in a London hotel. It's painfully ironic isn't it? The voice that tried to take us "over the rainbow" could never make it there herself.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Stranded On This Side Of The Rainbow."
"The rainbow" means something a little different to all of us - but it ultimately represents the fulfillment, the worth, the love we all want to fill us up inside. But Judy Garland's inability to ever get what her heart craved is not an isolated exception. In a sense, maybe you feel stranded on this side of the rainbow.
It isn't for lack of trying. It's just that every achievement has left you feeling hollow afterwards ... every relationship has left you still feeling unexplainably lonely ... every great experience - even spiritual experience - has left you strangely unsatisfied. In a sense, you've been searching for as long as you can remember - but, so far, never really finding. The rainbow is still beyond your reach.
It always will be - until you belong to the Person who gave you your life in the first place. Every other "rainbow" in our life is a terribly inadequate substitute for a love relationship with the God of the universe.
In our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is talking to a woman who's been looking for the end of her search in relationships with men. You can fill in the blank and put in there whatever your rainbow has been. Jesus has run into this woman at a well where they were both looking for water, and in John 4:13 & 14, He says, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." There's the problem with every "rainbow," every "well" we've thought would do it for us - we end up "thirsty again."
Jesus goes on to say, "But whoever drinks the water I give Him, it will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life." Jesus is offering to her - and to you - a spring inside that will never leave you thirsty again, a relationship with Him that will literally give you life here and life forever in Heaven. We've cut ourselves off from our Source by stubbornly living our way instead of His way. And there would be no hope of belonging to the One we were made for, except that Jesus died on the cross to absorb the death penalty you and I deserve.
And He's coming to you today to offer you the relationship with Him that will end your search once and for all. He's reaching out to you - but you have to reach back and grab His hand as your only hope of being forgiven ... your only hope of going to Heaven. If you want to belong to Jesus from today on, tell Him that right where you are. And, if you'd like, I want to send you the booklet I wrote about this relationship called "Yours For Life" - just let me know you want it.
If you're tired of seeking ... if you're ready to find ... then make this your "Jesus day." He's everything your heart has always looked for and never found. Until today.
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
www.hutchcraft.com
www.gospelcom.net/rhm/
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft
June 19, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Give me humility, in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride, which is the heaviest of burdens. - Thomas Merton
Unguarded Beaches
Proverbs 24:11-12
There are two words that will inevitably cause a look of excitement to appear on any face in our family - "Ocean City." That's the name of this charming town on the Jersey shore where our family has made a lot of memories over the years. Not long ago, several of us rendezvoused there for a couple of days of time together and making a few more memories. As I was riding my bike along the boardwalk there, I passed some Herculean young men jogging the boards. Their shirts had four letters on them: OCBP. That's Ocean City Beach Patrol. Actually, they recently celebrated their centennial - no, not the young joggers, but the Beach Patrol itself. A century ago, as Ocean City was becoming a tourist mecca, the number of drownings began to increase. So, the Beach Patrol was formed. They have a record to be proud of. In 100 years, they have never lost anyone at a guarded beach. Now I do remember a time some years ago when a young Amish woman drowned in the Atlantic Ocean, but that was on an unguarded beach.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Unguarded Beaches."
I've seen those lifeguards in action. They concentrate on their stretch of water and the people in it as if it's a life-or-death matter. It is! Just like the rescue responsibility God has entrusted to you.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 24:11-12. As you listen, try to picture some of the people on the stretch of beach God has given you to guard. He says, "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?" God's saying here, "If you have a rescue responsibility, there is no excuse for you letting people die without your trying to do something about it."
The awful tragedy is that so many Christless lives are being lost - eternally - because one of God's spiritual lifeguards is leaving their beach unguarded. Your beach is that circle of influence God has given you - the people you work with or live near or go to school with. But too many of us lifeguards just stay in the lifeguard station, enjoying the fellowship of the other lifeguards, singing lifeguard songs, planning lifeguard meetings - while people are dying in the surf.
Maybe we leave our stretch of the beach unguarded because we forget that telling people about Jesus really is life-or-death. The people around you may not look or sound like they're dying spiritually, but listen to just a few of the words God uses to describe them. "Those being led away to death" (Proverbs 24:11), "lost" according to Luke 19:10. Or in Ephesians 2:12, "without God, without hope." In John 3:36, "whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." 2 Thessalonians 1:9 says those who don't know God "will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord." And in Revelation 20:15, God says, "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." These are people you know - or ought to know. And you carry in your heart the one message that can change all this - the message of a Savior who loved them enough to die so they don't have to.
Your job isn't to persuade them to come to Jesus - it's only to present Jesus. But if you haven't done that, then they don't know they're dying and they don't know who to grab to rescue them.
You may think there's someone better to rescue the people around you, but God put you in the middle of them. This is your stretch of the beach. The people there are your responsibility. Don't leave your beach unguarded. Too many people are dying at unguarded beaches.
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
www.hutchcraft.com
www.gospelcom.net/rhm/
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft
June 20, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Heaven is full of answers to prayers for which no one ever bothered to ask. - Billy Graham
Lighting Up At The End Of The Game
Joshua 14:10
As a New York Knicks basketball fan, I've had some victories and some playoff games to cheer for. But I've had my share of disappointments, too. And too many of them have come at the hands of one particular opponent - a player named Reggie Miller. This man has done more to stop my team than just about anybody I can think of, because something happens to this man in a close game, when there's suddenly just a minute or two left. He's on fire! He may or may not have had a lot of points earlier in the game, but somehow he seems to save his best for last. With time running out, Reggie suddenly becomes a scoring machine, making fantastic shots, often scoring enough points to send my team home for the season. Any player is a powerful force when he knows the end is near and lights up to make a difference!
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Lighting Up At The End Of The Game."
You may be at a point in your "game of life" when you feel as if most of the game is behind you. You've scored just about all the points you're going to score. You're just sort of coasting from here to the end of the game. Well, that is no way to finish your game!
Consider Caleb from our word for today from the Word of God. He was one of those 12 scouts Moses sent ahead to check out the Promised Land before the Jews were to enter it. Ten came back saying, "Giants there! No way!" Two came back saying, "God is with us! Way!" But because of the unbelief of the people, a whole generation wandered in the wilderness for 40 more years until all the adults of that unbelieving generation were dead - except those two believers, Joshua and Caleb. Now, with the new generation taking the Promised Land, Caleb is 40 years older than his first visit there. But is he ready to hang up his sneakers and call it a game? No way!
Here it is. Joshua 14:10, "So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as He said." Not bad for 85, huh?
Here is one of God's players who is near the end of his game - but he wants to light up the scoreboard. He say, "Give me that mountain! I'll take on those giants as if they're in the way of what God wants!" That's the kind of fourth quarter players that God is looking for! Yes, your body may slow down, your energy may not be what it once was, but you aren't dead yet! God wouldn't be leaving you here if He still didn't have work for you to do, lives for you to touch, a difference for you to make! In the Holy Spirit's great outpouring just before Jesus returns, God says in Acts 2:17, "Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams."
Maybe you've allowed yourself to slip into a survival mentality, or maybe you've become self-absorbed or self-pitying. In the fourth quarter, some people just settle into a reward mind set. "Well, I've worked hard all these years. I'll just settle back and relax now. It's time just to reward myself for what I did in the first three quarters of the game." Wait a minute! The game isn't over yet! We'll rest in Heaven. We'll get rewarded in Heaven. But, for now, we can't waste any of the all-too-few days that we have to serve Christ. As the Apostle Paul neared his finish line, he said he was "poured out like a drink offering." He wanted to cross the finish line having given so much for his Master that he had nothing left when he collapsed into Jesus' arms! Don't you want to do that?
That's the kind of four-quarters heroes God is looking for. So make up your mind that you're going to finish your game well. For, as Amy Carmichael said, "We will have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only a few short hours to win them." And we are in those few short hours.
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
www.hutchcraft.com
www.gospelcom.net/rhm/
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft
June 21, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: It doesn't take much to say, "I quit." It takes a lot more to say, "I'll try."
- Thelma Wright, stroke victim
Can You Hear Me?
Luke 6:37-42
A man was having some difficulty communicating with his wife, and he concluded that she was becoming hard of hearing. So he decided to conduct a test without her knowing about it.
One evening he sat in a chair on the far side of the room. Her back was to him and she could not see him. Very quietly he whispered, "Can you hear me?" There was no response.
Moving a little closer, he asked again, "Can you hear me now?" Still no reply. Quietly he edged closer and whispered the same words, but still no answer. Finally he moved right behind her and said, "Can you hear me now?" To his surprise and chagrin she responded with irritation in her voice, "For the fourth time, yes!"
What a warning to us about judging!
Most of us criticize others to cover up for the same faults in our own lives. We also tend to find fault with someone when in fact we are the ones in the wrong, not the other person.
Jesus knew human nature well. That's why He said, "Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged" (Luke 6:36-37).
Don't be too hard on the person who sins,
For the yardstick you lay on another
May someday be used as a measure for you;
Oh, be gracious and judge not, my brother! - Bosch
If you are looking for faults to correct, try looking in a mirror.
By Richard W. De Haan
Our Daily Bread
www.rbc.net/bread
�2001 RBC Ministries-Grand Rapids, MI 49555
June 22, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Love your enemy - it'll drive him nuts. - Anonymous
The Choice
He placed one scoop of clay upon another until a form lay lifeless on the ground. All of the Garden's inhabitants paused to witness the event. Hawks hovered. Giraffes stretched. Trees bowed. Butterflies paused on petals and watched.
"You will love me, nature," God said. "I made you that way. You will obey me, universe. For you are destined to do so. You will reflect my glory, skies, for that is how you were created. But this one will be like me. This one will be able to choose."
All was silent as the Creator reached into Himself and removed something yet unseen. A seed. "It's called 'choice'. The seed of choice."
Creation stood in silence and gazed upon the lifeless form. An angel spoke, "But what if he...."
"What if he chooses not to love?" the Creator finished. "Come, I will show you."
Unbound by today, God and the angel walked into the realm of tomorrow.
"There, see the fruit of the seed of choice, both the sweet and bitter."
The angel gasped at what he saw. Spontaneous love. Voluntary devotion. Chosen tenderness. Never had he seen anything like these. He felt the love of the Adams. He heard the joy of Eve and her daughters. He saw the food and marveled at the warmth.
"Heaven has never seen such beauty, my Lord. Truly, this is your greatest creation."
"Ah, but you've only seen the sweet. Now witness the bitter."
A stench enveloped the pair. The angel turned in horror and exclaimed, "What is it?" The Creator spoke only one word: "Selfishness." The angel stood speechless as they passed through centuries of repugnance. Never had he seen such filth. Rotten hearts. Ruptured promises. Forgotten loyalties. Children of the creation wandering blindly in lonely labyrinths.
"This is the result of the choice?" the angel asked.
"Yes."
"They will forget you? They will reject you?"
"Yes."
"They will never come back?"
"Some will. Most won't."
"What will make them listen?"
The Creator walked on in time, further and further into the future, until He stood by a tree. A tree that would be fashioned into a cradle. Even then, He could smell the hay that would surround Him.
With another step into the future, He paused before another tree. It stood alone, a stubborn ruler of a bald hill. The trunk was thick, the wood was strong. Stony brow of another hill. And soon He would be mounted on it. He felt the wood rub against a back he did not yet wear.
"Would you go down there?" the angel asked.
"I will."
"Is there no other way?"
"There isn't."
"Wouldn't it be easier to not plant the seed? Wouldn't it be easier to not give the choice?"
"It would," the Creator spoke slowly. "But to remove the choice is to remove the love."
He looked around the hill and foresaw a scene. Three figures hung on three crosses. Arms spread. Heads fallen forward. They moaned with the wind. Men clad in soldiers' garb sat on the ground near the trio. They played games in the dirt and laughed. Men clad in religion stood off to one side. They smiled. Arrogant, cocky. They had protected God, they thought, by killing this false one. Women clad in sorrow huddled at the foot of the hill... Speechless. Faces tear-streaked. Eyes downward. One put her arm around another and tried to lead her away. She wouldn't leave.
"I will stay," she said softly. "I will stay."
All heaven stood to fight. All nature rose to rescue. All eternity poised to protect. But the Creator gave no command. "It must be done..." He said, and withdrew. But as he stepped back in time, He heard the cry that He would someday scream: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He wrenched at tomorrow's agony.
The angel spoke again. "It would be less painful..."
The Creator interrupted softly. "But it wouldn't be love."
They stepped into the Garden again. The Maker looked earnestly at the clay creation. A monsoon of love swelled up within Him. God's form bent over the sculptured face and breathed. Dust stirred on the lips of the new one. The chest rose, cracking the red mud. The cheeks freshened. A finger moved and an eye opened.
But more incredible than the moving of flesh was the stirring of the spirit. Those who could see the unseen gasped. Perhaps it was the wind who said it first. Perhaps what the stars saw that moment is what has made them blink ever since. Maybe it was left to an angel to whisper it: "It looks like... it appears so much like...it is Him!"
The angel wasn't speaking of the face, the features, or the body. He was looking inside--at the soul. "It's eternal!" gasped another.
Within the man, God had placed a divine seed. A seed of his self. The God of might had created, not a creature, but another creator. And the One who had chosen to love had created one who could love in return.
Have there ever been times in your life when you doubted God's power?
Surely if he was the God who made the heavens and the earth, how could he allow my friend to die? How could He allow millions to starve every night? Isn't God suppose to be almighty?
Let's stop blaming God and blame ourselves. He spared not even Himself to bring about the salvation of man. He knew that He could lose us and yet created us. The most beautiful of all is that He gave us a choice to love Him because He first loved us.
by Max Lucado
From the Global Christian Network newsletter
www.gcnhome.com
(C) 1999 by the Global Christian Network, Inc. and the Author.
June 23, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. - Sir Winston Churchill
Encouraging Word For The Week
As I write, I am freshly back from a week of vacation and a wonderful time at the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans.
Our plan was to spend the first week with my mother in suburban New Orleans. During this time we would go to the new amusement park, Jazzland. Also, we would visit my sister, who recently got a new swimming pool, and allow the kids a few opportunities to swim. Lastly, we would just enjoy getting out and relaxing.
Unfortunately, Allison wouldn't cooperate. She is not a disgruntled family member, but a Tropical Storm. As many of you are aware, the storm dumped about 2 feet of rain in southeast Louisiana over the course of 5 days. As a result, we spent a lot of time indoors enjoying each other's company, but many of our other plans had to be scraped.
As the days passed, I started realizing something -- DOING NOTHING IS NO FUN. Sure, I enjoyed 2-3 days of nonproductivity and playing couch potato, but it didn't take long for this to grow old. Rest is good, but purposeful living is better.
Most of you reading this are looking forward to "do nothing weeks" this Summer. You are excited about packing the bags and leaving your busy worlds behind you. Some of you are even anticipating a break from the church for a Sunday or two in order to catch a breather from the responsibilities you hold. If this is true for you, then you are no different than me.
At the same time, if you get use to this, you are in spiritual trouble. Christians across our country have been on spiritual vacations for years. One day, they backed off and never came back. Oh, they may have returned to the church building, but the depth of their commitment and conviction didn't come with them. They allowed discouragements, circumstances, or distractions to zap their devotion to Christ and His church, and have grown use to an unfulfilled Christianity. In fact, they replaced their conviction for Christ with criticism for church. Their former excitement has been erased by apathy. Such Christians do nothing productive, feel nothing inspiring, and look forward to nothing life changing.
For me, vacation is as much about getting back as it is going. I like leaving because it makes me appreciate what I'm missing.
Our Lord Jesus Christ often sought to get away from the crowds and by himself in prayer. Why? So that he could get back to the crowds and give himself away.
In America, we love recreation. People have RVs (Recreational Vehicles), camps, and other activities through which they find release. Have you ever thought about the word "recreation"? It literally means to "create all over again".
When Jesus went on the mountain to pray, he found recreation with God. When he went in the garden on the night of his arrest, he found recreation with God. His life was a constant cycle of being filled by God and emptied into man.
Looking back over the last two weeks, things turned out really well. I retreated to my Mother's to rest. The storm didn't stop this. I went to the convention to be refilled. Mission accomplished. I came back home to be emptied. The rest is a matter of obedience.
The need of our world today is not more churches that are full of people, but more people who are full of Jesus. Is it time for you to say, "Lord Jesus, re-create me?"
Enjoy your Summer, but more importantly, know your Savior.
Bro. Steve
[email protected]
June 24, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" Vanity asks the question, "Is it popular?" But conscience asks the question, "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Good News About The Bad Stuff
Romans 8:28
Listen with RealAudio!
Get a couple of veteran airplane travelers together, and before long, you're bound to hear some "war stories." In fact, you're about to hear one now! Basically, it was one of those days at the airport. I was scheduled on a morning flight from the West Coast back to the New York area with a connection in a Midwest city. When I arrived at the airport, I learned my flight was being delayed for about four hours, thus killing my options for getting home for a while. Another flight on the same airline had been canceled, so there was a long line of us not-so-happy campers at this airline's ticket desk - for an hour and a half, we were in line. The longer we had to wait, the more options were slipping away. Well, I quietly prayed and reminded Jesus (and me) that Jesus is Lord. The men behind me were becoming increasingly vocal about their unhappiness, so being the crazy man I am, I decided to try a little humor and lightheartedness. Pretty soon, we were laughing at our situation instead of overheating about it.
When we finally reached the front of the line, one man said, "Hey, I'm glad we had someone like you in this line." To which I said, "Hey, you can't pick your situation, but you can pick your attitude." Well, when the ticket agent finally figured out a way to get me home, he said, "I think you owe me." See, Instead of a flight where I had to change planes in another city, it was non-stop. Instead of arriving at 10:30 at night, it would arrive at 8:30. And as I was just about to board, the agent called me back and changed my seat assignment - to First Class! Where I had a great meal, the room to get a lot of work done, and a divine bump-in with a flight attendant I knew from 18 years ago, who really needed a pastor that night! Well, needless to say, I had no complaints with God's happy ending!
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "The Good News About The Bad Stuff."
That frustrating day at the airport, I saw God do again what He is so good at doing - allowing the bad thing to happen to us so He can do a better thing for us. There's no way I could have flown non-stop, first-class, and gotten in earlier that day unless the airline made it happen at their expense. They did, but only because of the bad stuff that had happened.
That's one microcosmic example of how God loves to work in the lives of His much-loved children. In fact, we have His word on it that He is always working on the better thing to come out of that bitter thing. It's in our familiar word for today from the Word of God, Romans 8:28 and following. It's a statement you may know very well, but which you need to apply to the hard things you're facing right now. Here's the rest of the picture beyond what you can see from where you are now. "And we know that in all thing God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son ... And those He predestined, He also called; those he called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified."
God's got a lot tied up in you! After working this incredible, detailed, eternal plan to bring you this far, do you think He's going to mess you up now? The Plan is still on course ... still on schedule. And if there's bad stuff, be assured God is taking you through that so He can do something much better than you could ever expect.
Look at the worst thing that ever happened - the Cross. But through that came the most beautiful things God has ever done. When my baby brother died when I was four, it looked like a senseless tragedy. But that death brought my whole family to Christ - including me - and indirectly, all the people it has been our privilege to bring to Jesus over the years. Through the bitter thing, God is taking you to the better thing. If you depend on His promise to work this together for a greater good, you can choose your attitude - joy - even if you can't choose your circumstances.
Like me standing in that long airport line with dwindling hopes that day, maybe all you can see and feel is things getting worse. But little do you know that at the end of this ordeal, God is waiting for you with something that is more "First Class" than you could have ever dreamed!
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
www.hutchcraft.com
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft.
June 25, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it. - Samuel Johnson
When Swimming Can't Help
1 Timothy 1:3
If you don't know how to swim, it's just not cool to let your friends know it - and it's just not smart not to ... especially if you're going into the lake with them to swim. This is not theory we're talking here. It's history - my history. The scene was Lake Michigan. The 10-year-old who couldn't swim was me ... and I was too proud to tell my friends. Suddenly, as I waded deeper and deeper, I lost my footing and I began drinking the lake! My friends thought it was funny. They just laughed and said, "Look at Ronnie. He's such a clown!" Uh, I was dying. I had gone under for the second time - and I can almost feel the terror of that moment even now as I'm telling you about it. Now obviously, something happened or I wouldn't have lived to tell you about it. I was helpless. I couldn't contribute a thing to my getting back to shore. Thankfully, someone came who could ... and that rescuer did it all!
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "When Swimming Can't Help."
That day in the lake I had only one hope - a rescuer. Only one person jumped in to save me, and I'm alive because of him.
Now, our word for today from the Word of God - I Timothy 1:3. "God our Savior ... wants all men to be saved ... There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men." The saving God is talking about here is from the effects and the punishment for the way we've run our lives - actually, because we've run our lives when they were supposed to be God's to run. The Bible makes it clear that we're drowning in the guilt of our sin, in the death penalty that God attaches to sin.
And God says that when you and I were drowning spiritually, His own Son Jesus jumped in to rescue us. He loved you so much that He couldn't stand to lose you. In God's words, "He gave Himself a ransom." That means paying the price to get you back. For Jesus, that meant absorbing all the hell and punishment for your sin as He died on that cross.
But you can still go under. You can still drown, if you won't let Jesus rescue you. It may be hard for you to admit that you can't somehow swim to God on your own. In fact, you've done some very good things to make it to Him - but not good enough to meet God's perfect standard. In Romans 3:10, God includes every person when He says that by His standards, "There is no one righteous, not even one." Not even one. Not even you. Like me that day at the lake, there is nothing you can contribute to your rescue. Your only hope is a savior. And only one person jumped in to save you - Jesus.
All that any religion can offer you is a book of swimming instructions - their way to swim to God. But it doesn't matter if they're Protestant swimming instructions, or Catholic swimming instructions, or Jewish, or Moslem, or Buddhist, or New Age. Swimming instructions won't rescue a drowning man or woman. Only the Savior can do that. And only Jesus did the dying it requires to get rid of your sin and get you into a relationship with your Creator.
Even now, through these few minutes, Jesus is coming to you, offering to do for you what you could never do for yourself - save you from your sin. All you can do is grab Him as if He's your only hope - He is! You can't rescue yourself. Won't you finally put your pride aside and all the religion and goodness you thought would get you to Heaven, and just reach for Jesus? Tell Him right now you are grabbing Him like a drowning person would grab a lifeguard - to be your Savior from your sin.
If you want to begin this life-saving relationship with Jesus Christ, I want to send you the booklet I wrote about it called "Yours For Life." It's available without any cost to you if you'll contact us with the information we are about to give you. I hope you'll let me know you're beginning with Jesus.
The day I was going under, I had only one hope - and that one hope was enough. The rescuer had come. That's what Jesus wants to be for you, beginning right now. Please, grab your Savior and hold on tight.
If you're not sure you belong to Jesus, and you would like to make sure today, Ron would like to send to you a free copy of the booklet, "Yours for Life: How to Have Life's Most Important Relationship." To read the online version, go to: www.hutchcraft.com/yours/.
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
www.hutchcraft.com
www.gospelcom.net/rhm/
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft.
June 26, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Success is never final; failure is never fatal; it is courage that counts
- Sir Winston Churchill
The Danger Zone Alarm
1 Thessalonians 5:18
An alarm may be annoying but, face it, most alarms are your friend. The alarm clock in the morning - without which you'd lose your job. The smoke detector. The fire alarm. Now most of us don't carry an alarm with us, but for some people, it's a very positive idea. Recently, my wife was in a nursing home on an errand of mercy when suddenly this loud alarm went off. Immediately, a nurse came running to a door where she intercepted one of their elderly residents who was headed for that door. The manager explained that some of their residents are afflicted with serious memory loss or disorientation, so much so, that they have left the building and wandered off, not knowing where they were - including right into the middle of the road! So the woman who triggered the alarm has been fitted with a special bracelet - one that triggers an alarm whenever she is on the edge of a possible danger zone. Apparently, she does remember what the alarm is for. When it went off, she instinctively stopped where she was. That alarm could literally save her life.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "The Danger Zone Alarm."
When you're moving into danger you don't realize, it's good to have an alarm that alerts you. And it's good to pay attention to that alarm. Your Lord has built that kind of alarm into you - in the person of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you as a follower of Christ. Jesus said the Spirit would "convict the world of guilt in regard to sin." (John 16:8) One important ministry the Holy Spirit has to you is warning you when you're wandering into the danger zone spiritually. A danger you may not know is there, but a danger that could do you a lot of harm.
That's why God's warning is in our word for today from the Word of God. It's so important - 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Four words: "Quench not the Spirit." After that, it goes on to say, "Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil." When the Holy Spirit is talking to you inside, don't ignore Him. Don't put out the fire He sets inside you. Don't blow right past His warning that you've crossed the line.
The Holy Spirit is active in your heart, your mind, and your conscience all day long, representing how God feels about what you're saying, what you're watching, what you're listening to, what you're doing with His temple (your body), what you're thinking about, fantasizing about, the motives behind what you're doing. And when you're starting to wander out of bounds, He puts a check in your spirit - a restraint, or even a twinge of guilt. The alarm goes off - God's quiet inner alarm that says, "You're out of bounds. You can't see it, but you have just entered the danger zone."
See, the Holy Spirit knows exactly where the choices you're making are going to ultimately end up. Like a disoriented older person, where you want to go looks very desirable and perfectly harmless. But God knows this will take you into deadly heavy traffic - and by the time you realize it, you may not be able to get out. No sin remains isolated. The first compromise may be hard, but it seldom stays just one compromise. The next one is always a little easier, until one day you have done what you never thought you'd do, you've become what you never thought you'd become.
It may be that God's alarm has been going off in you recently, warning you not to keep telling or living that lie. Or making you feel shame or guilt or uneasiness over something you watch or listen to or laugh at. Maybe warning you against leaving your family when it looks so tempting to bail out. Or the Spirit-alarm may be trying to move you away from that wrong relationship, that dangerous flirtation, or that growing anger or bitterness.
God's warning is clear - don't quench the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. Listen to God's alarm going off in you. You don't know the trouble this is taking you into. He does! Back away from this door. It takes you where you do not want to end up. You are entering the danger zone.
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602
www.hutchcraft.com
www.gospelcome.net/rhm/"
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft.
June 27, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: To have more, desire less. - Unknown
My Life, My Plant
They were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot Me. - Hosea 13:6
Guests probably wonder why I keep a scraggly fern in my living room. I've gotten so used to its unsightliness that I seldom think to explain. The plant symbolizes a friendship that has become fragile, and I keep it in a prominent place as a reminder to pray for my friend, which I do whenever I water it. Its dried leaves make it obvious that I don't water it often enough, which also means that I don't pray often enough for my friend.
My fern is drying up because I don't water it until it wilts, and I carry that attitude along with me into my spiritual life. As long as my life is not in crisis, I figure that prayer can wait a while. But I'm wrong. When God's blessings make me think I don't need Him, I am more needy than ever.
The book of Hosea summarizes God's relationship with His chosen nation in words that parallel my own spiritual experience. God blesses, I grow; God satisfies, I take credit; God withholds His blessing, I realize my neediness; God reveals my sin, I repent; God forgives, I renew my devotion.
I've learned from my plant that I must pray even when I don't see the need. I need God just as much when I'm being blessed as when I am in crisis.
It's easy to forget to talk to God
When everything is going our own way;
But that's the time we really need Him most,
Lest we depart from Him and go astray. -Hess
There is never a day when you don't need to pray.
Read: Hosea 11
Author unknown
Taken From "Our Daily Bread"
www.rbc.net/bread
�RBC Ministries--Grand Rapids, MI 49555
June 28, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Never close your lips to those to whom you have opened your heart. - Charles Dickens
Perfect - The Enemy Of Good
Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. - Luke 12:23
"Perfect is the enemy of good..." so explained one of our day's top surgeons as he told why he advised against a second operation. Dr. John James, a brilliant children's surgeon who pioneered a radical approach to helping babies whose heads would otherwise be deformed, is Professor of Pediatrics Neurology at the University of Virginia's School of Medicine. Our family, along with thousands of others, owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. James. Because of his brilliance our little grandson's head now looks perfectly normal, though the bones in the top of his head didn't separate as they normally do before birth.
But when another doctor suggested the possibility of further surgery, Dr. James opted against it, explaining that "perfect is the enemy of good." He went on to explain that while surgery was absolutely necessary the first time, further surgery, in the quest for perfection, carries with it greater risks than benefits. Those words stuck in my mind: perfect is the enemy of good. Being committed to the cause of excellence is one thing, but being addicted to perfection is totally something else. Has our generation been so hyped by the media and the glitz of the perfect figure, the perfect face, the perfect body that we have lost sight of the importance of being genuine and authentic? I, for one, am convinced we have.
I couldn't help pondering this just last evening as I read the latest in the ongoing discussion as to whether silicon breast implants do more to hazard a woman's health than they do to enhance her figure.
Who says that our bodies have to be picture-perfect? The media that dazzles us with beautiful young women who have neither borne children nor had their hands in dishwater? Plastic surgeons who are paying for vacation homes, yachts and European vacations with fees gleaned from elective surgery? Who sets the standard that says you should risk your health because your body isn't the mirror of an 18-year-old starlet?
Pondering the quest for perfection, I couldn't help thinking of the number of people I have talked to in recent years who have become so disenchanted with the lack of absolute perfection in a mate, that they abandoned a relatively good marriage. Irene was like that. Married to a thoughtful middle-aged man who was a good provider, Irene shocked family and friends by announcing that she was walking out on her husband. Leaving behind two teenaged daughters, a well-marked Bible filled with clippings, and a modest library of books on marriage and family living, she announced that while she was yet young enough and pretty enough to attract someone else, she had decided to look elsewhere for happiness.
The addiction to perfection which makes so many unhappy today is an enemy of the good which is part of our humanity. Who says you need perfection? Frankly, that voice doesn't come from heaven, so the madness which demands perfection is neither godly nor realistic. The flaws of aging and the imperfections of our humanity are part of life. They need to be accepted, not fought or camouflaged. Long ago Paul advised, "Don't let the world force you into its mold," and that goes a long way in addressing the issues confronting us today (See Romans 12:2, Phillips).
Before you give up something which is good, searching for that which is perfect, better take a look at the side effects and hazards of perfection. Yes, perfect is the enemy of the good! If you have a good thing, better hold on to it. Perfection is an illusion.
Resource reading: Genesis 1: 26-31.
Dr. Harold J. Sala
� GUIDELINES INTERNATIONAL
Box G, Laguna Hills, CA 92654
www.guidelines.org
June 29, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: I always prefer to believe the best of everybody--it saves so much trouble.
- Rudyard Kipling
A Word With You
Which List Is Your Name On?
John 3:36
A friend of mine recently saw an exhibit that I really wish I could see - it's the Titanic exhibit that has been on display in select museums across the country. My friend told me about the re-creation of the Titanic's grand staircase, the simulation of one of the ship's cabins, the artifacts that have been retrieved from the Titanic's watery grave. As you enter the exhibit, y ou're given a ticket with the name of one of the ship's passengers or crewmen. At the end of the tour is this large wall with two lists of names, one short list and one long list. Next to each name is one of four designations: first class, second class, third class, and crew. But no matter what your class, your name ultimately appears on one of those two lists - which are under one of two headings - "Saved" ... "Lost."
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Which List Is Your Name On?"
Tragically, the short list is the one that says "saved" - the long list is the names of the "lost." As you read the Bible, you begin to realize that all humanity is divided into those same two lists - "saved" and "lost." There's no third list - and you're on one or the other.
Our word for today from the Word of God is one of those passages that helps us determine which list we're on. And, perhaps surprisingly, we determine whether we're saved or lost, not God. John 3:36 says, "Whoever believes in the Son (that's Jesus Christ) has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." Saved. Lost. Earlier in the same chapter, God says, "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." (John 3:18) Saved. Lost.
One thing is very clear - which list your name is on depends totally on your personal response to Jesus Christ. That's because He is the One God sent to rescue us from the death penalty of all the things we've done wrong. Nobody else died in our place - so nobody else can save us. We tend to divide people up by what class they're in, what race they are, what religion they're from - but God only sees two kinds of people. Saved. Lost.
And today could be your day to move from one list to the other. What sentences us to being "lost" forever is that we simply "do not believe" in Jesus. You don't have to openly reject Him - you can just passively miss Him. And "believing" the Bible doesn't mean just agreeing with Jesus or giving mental assent - it's grabbing Him to pull you into the lifeboat, holding onto Him as if He's your only hope. He is. And it may be that you've never really put yourself completely into His hands to be your Rescuer from your sin.
This could be your day. Tell Jesus that you're putting all your trust in Him to save you from a spiritual death penalty you could never save yourself from. And if you're reaching out to Jesus, I'd love to send you the booklet, "Yours For Life" that I wrote about beginning your personal relationship with Him. Just let me know you want it.
At the moment you open your heart to Jesus, you have literally, in the Bible's words, "crossed over from death to life." (John 5:24) Forever, God will move your name from "lost" to "saved."
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
www.hutchcraft.com
www.gospelcom.net/rhm/
Copyright (c) 2001, Ron Hutchcraft.
June 30, 2001
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Never undertake anything for which you would not have the courage to ask the blessing of Heaven. - George Lichtenberg
Encouraging Word For The Week from Brother Steve
First Baptist Church
"The Steeple Talk"
July 2001
"I don't want to!!!" These are the least said, but the most lived out words in the lives of people in response to God.
For Adam and Eve, they were told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They said, "We don't want to!" As a result, sin came into the world.
Years passed. Man continued to say to God, "I don't want to". God sent a flood. Only Noah and those who said, "I will", were allowed to live.
Years passed. The Israelites were captive for 400 years in Egypt. God freed them. He said, "Take the Promised Land". They said, "We don't want to. The land is full of giants." The people wandered for forty years. Those who said "no" died.
Years passed. God's chosen people followed idols, practiced immorality, and scorned their maker.. He allowed their nation to be conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. When this happened they said, "Why?" God replied, "I gave you what you asked for".
Years passed. A teacher, healer, lover, forgiver, prophet, miracle worker, and shepherd said "Follow Me" to the masses. They answered with profanity, spit, and spears--a resounding message of "We don't want to!" His scars and crown conveyed their response.
Centuries passed. People who wanted the freedom to worship Jesus Christ without the mandate of government interference or religious dictatorship decided to set up shop on the west side of the Atlantic. God blessed their journey and proved their faith to be true. They founded a nation with freedom to worship God. These committed disciples built churches, established the authority of heaven in the documents of human government, engraved "In God We Trust" on coins and in the marble of Washington D.C. Yet, over time, this nation became a people with God written everywhere except on the heart.
Sadly enough, this became most evident in the churches of this once great nation. It was here where the Bible was read, prayers were prayed, praises sung, and sermons proclaimed, yet, the people in these holy halls still responded to God, "We don't want to!"
The problem of America in 2001 is the same as it was in the Garden of Eden � those who know what God wants aren't willing to do it God's way. Those who should know better aren't living better. In fact, the world doesn't need to be reached with the truth of the gospel any worse than the average American church and church member.
As you read this and examine your life. Are you saying to God "I don't want to"? The way to know this is to ask the opposite� "In what areas of my life am I saying �I want to' to God?" If you are not saying "yes" to Jesus in any area of life, then you are saying "no" by default. Frankly, most Christians are not living in willful rebellion, just unconscious neglect. In God's eyes, this is the same. Realistically, it may be worse because such a response causes me to say "I don't want to" without thinking about it. It allows me to get cozy with a lifestyle in opposition to God and not think it is all that bad.
Church, it is time we get uncomfortable with ourselves and start searching our hearts. It is time for personal responsibility for our homes, churches, and nation. It is time to look around us and understand that we are salt and light in God's world and because most Christians aren't saying "yes", the nation we live in is spoiling in the darkness.
What is my purpose? To call you to repentance so that you can say "Yes, I will."
"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, �Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? 'And I said, �Here am I. Send me!'"(Isaiah 6:7)
"�Come, follow me,' Jesus said, �and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him." (Matthew 4:20)
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20)
Let's go,
Bro. Steve
[email protected]