Okay, it was my fault my wife had tears in her eyes from reading my anniversary letter to her at our wedding anniversary just a few days ago. She didn’t really realize for a while that our little four-year-old granddaughter was watching, and when she did she put the letter down—my wife did—and her eyes were kind of moist. All of the sudden there’s this little hand on her bigger hand and a little girl saying, “I’m right here.” There’s one melted grandmother.
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and there’ve been many times in my life when that is the kind of support I really, really needed. It felt like no one else could understand the burden I was carrying. I was swamped by a wave of discouragement. I could have lost the love of my life at a couple of points. There are moments when you feel totally abandoned and isolated, alone and then there is Jesus; His hand on yours saying, “I’m right here.” That might be the kind of ‘be there’ person you need in your life right now.
The first century Christian leader, Paul, said from prison, “No one came to my support. Everyone deserted me, but the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength” (2 Timothy 4:16-17). That is all the difference when a life that matters is just a life that’s hurting; “But the Lord stood at my side.” I’m praying that you have that kind of love relationship with Jesus. He died so you could because our sin—our running of our own life—makes that relationship impossible. So He gave His life to erase all that. You open your heart to Him and you are never alone again. Oh yeah, lonely again, but never alone again.
If you want to begin a relationship with Him, go to our website. We’ll help you. It’s ALifeThatMatters.org because God put you here to live a life that matters.
I don’t expect to be inspired when I’m in the dentist chair, okay, but last week I was. I saw the dentist last in the winter time and there’d just been a horrible ice storm and it had split and destroyed trees all over our area. And he told me that he’d probably lost all his fruit trees. Well before he started messing with my mouth this time I asked, “How are your fruit trees doing?” He said, “Oh, they’re doing great. I think the storm actually made them stronger. It strengthened their roots.”
When our three kids were young, they'd run to the door to greet me when I was returning from an international trip. Isn't that tender! Yeah, but you need to know part of the reason for this enthusiastic greeting. You see, when I'm away from my family, I am a sucker for souvenirs. The one way I can be with them is by shopping for something for them, whether it's in Singapore, or Holland, or Australia. So there was a certain expectancy when old dad walked through the door. Oh, yes, there would be hugs and kisses, and we had missed each other, but the three kids each knew that those suitcases had things in them that weren't in them when I left. It's nice to come home with gifts for everyone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What You Bring in the Door."
Now, David was in the middle of an unforgettable experience as we read 1 Chronicles 16. He had led the Jewish people in bringing the holiest object in the world to the new capitol of Jerusalem. It was the ark of God. This was the center of the Lord's personal presence on earth at this point in spiritual history. After years of its being gone, David leads in the return of the ark and he sets up a tremendous leadership structure and worship program that everyone was just beginning to celebrate. But he left behind him memorable events in Jerusalem to go on another mission - he went home.
Our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Chronicles 16:43, "Then all the people left, each for his own home, and David returned home to bless his family." Not only did David bring blessing in public ministry, he brought blessing with him when he walked in the door at home. Do you? You see, each day when you return to your family from wherever you were that day you bring something in the door with you - stress, tension, or peace. Selfishness and looking to have your own needs met, or unselfishness - looking to help people meet their needs. Do you bring positive, encouraging talk, or negative, critical talk? Do you bring coldness or affection?
In many ways you set a tone when you walk in the door and you'll probably have to live with that tone for hours to come. After a stressful day it's just human nature to walk in with a pretty self-focused mind set, carrying the garbage of the day, which we then proceed to dump all over our loved ones! But, wouldn't you like to put your name in our word for today? "________ returned home to bless his or her family."
Well, how do you do that? You have to consciously discipline yourself to mentally close out your work day as you're traveling home. I used to call it "closing your mental briefcase" while you're on the way home. You have to consciously get outside of yourself and focus on how each family member was in the morning when you left. What was each one looking forward to? What were they dreading? What were they planning on? How was each one feeling? And then you enter their lives again before you are ever with them. Sort of with them before you're with them! When you walk through the door you're already in touch with these most important people in your life. Then, like a dad returning home from one of those big trips, you bring gifts through the door with you - like a sincere and specific question about some part of their day, or maybe a caring touch for each member of your family, or a word of encouragement for each one. Seek out each family member. Focus on them for a couple of minutes. Make them feel like they're the only person in the world. Give them all of you, at least for a short time. And if you make up your mind to bring blessing through the door with you, I'll tell you, the people at your house are going to be looking forward to your return! Come home with a commitment to give a gift - a gift of you, to each person you love.
NASA had high hopes for their first Mars orbiter - it would make possible some exciting new research into the Red Planet. They were stunned when suddenly, without warning, they lost the Mars orbiter in deep space. After the initial shock, NASA tried to determine what went wrong. The answer was almost as alarming as losing the orbiter itself. The fatal malfunction turns out it was the result of a tragic error in calculations - bad math doomed the Mars craft. One set of engineers had worked with English measurements, while another set of engineers did their calculations by the metric system!
Too Busy to Notice - #5646
Monday, September 1, 2008
One of the highlights of my life was the opportunity to visit Israel. I tacked it on to a return trip from South Africa. I hired a private guide, and I went by myself to some sites where I could, well like an old song says, "walk where Jesus walked." Now, I have to tell you, no site meant more to me than the place where many believe Jesus was crucified - "Skull Hill" it's called in the Bible. This particular hill lives up to the name with rock formations on the side of it that look very much like the features of a human skull. As I stood atop that hill, imagining the awful scene that first Good Friday, I was distracted by the noise below me at the foot of the hill. It turns out that the municipal bus depot is down there. And there, in the shadow of this holy ground, are these plumes of bus exhaust, the chaos of passengers hurrying to make their connections, and the total busyness of a city coming and going. It's like people are totally oblivious to what Jesus did for them on Skull Hill.
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