Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Security in Your Violent Storm - #5051

Monday, May 22, 2006

Weather wise, it was one of those wild, late-winter days. We'd been running around in short sleeves with 75-degree temperatures at 3:00 in the afternoon. Hooray for spring! Four hours later, we were wearing heavy coats and gloves; that temperature had dropped forty degrees! Boo for winter! And needless to say, the dramatic change did not come without our weather alert radio going off, and every TV and radio station in the area sounding the warning. Severe thunderstorm warning! Tornado watch! We never got a tornado, but we got attacked by a deluge of rain, lightning, and merciless hail. Our house just happens to have a room that's all concrete block with no windows. It's good to have that room. It's good to have a safe place to go when, as the song says, "The weather outside is frightful."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Security in Your Violent Storm."

It doesn't matter where you live, severe storms are part of the weather of your life. Not the kind that show up on Doppler Radar. We're talking the kinds of storms that show up in your family, or at work, at your doctor's office, in an important relationship, in an unexpected tragedy. In nature, it's often a sudden change that causes dangerous conditions. It's that way in our personal lives, too.

And it may be that you're being hit by the full force of a major life-storm right now. It's these turbulent times, when everything is suddenly out of your control, that you need the "safe room" to run to; a place where the storm cannot come. There is such a place. The Bible describes it in our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 18:10 . It says, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and they are safe."

The Lord it talks about here - the ultimate Controller of everything that goes on in the universe that He made. When you are in a close, love relationship with this awesome God, you can call on Him in the darkest, most desperate times. And you are "safe." I remember hearing one of the young women on our Native American team telling her personal Hope Story for the first time. Tearfully, she told a gym full of Native young people about being a sexual abuse victim at a very early age, and then repeatedly through her teenage years, and then the destructive choices she made as a result. Then she told of how she had discovered a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I'll never forget her final words, "When I gave myself to Jesus, for the first time in my life I felt safe."

Millions have had that same experience with Jesus, including me. Probably including people you know, but maybe not including you. This could be the day that you finally find the safety that only can be found in the "strong tower" of Jesus' unloseable love for you. The Bible says, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:13 ) That's "saved" as in "rescued." Jesus' name literally means "Jehovah God rescues." When you call on Jesus to be your personal Rescuer from all the sins of your life, He erases your sins from God's book, He cancels your hell and He guarantees you heaven. All because He died in your place on the cross and then rose from the dead.

That's not just history, it's intensely personal. He's ready to be for you what the Bible promises He will be, "an anchor for the soul, firm and secure," (Hebrews 6:19 ) it says. You've been through enough storms, you've lost enough that you were counting on, you know how much you need that anchor. Someone who loved you enough to die for you will never do you wrong. Someone who's powerful enough to walk out of His grave under His own power is bigger than any storm that could destroy you.

But you do have to "call" on Him, as the Bible says, to save, or rescue, you from your separation from God - from your sin. It goes something like this: "Jesus! I can't do this life without You. I have no chance after this life without You. You died for me so I could belong to You. And I want to belong to you from this day on."

If that's what you want, I think you might find some encouragement and help at our website. You can listen to or read a simple explanation thereof how to belong to Jesus. The website is yoursforlife.net. Or I'll send you a printed copy of Yours For Life is you'll just call us at 877-741-1200.

Run to Jesus. He's God's "strong tower." And for the first time in your life - for the rest of your life - you will be safe!