Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - A Hole in the Dam, Trouble Downstream - #6451

Monday, October 3, 2011

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Now, listen. When it's man versus lots of water, you know the water is often going to win. Oh, we've built dams and levees and water management systems. But sometimes, like this past spring, and then along the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, oh man, just too much water!

Of course, it's hard to see them having to dynamite holes in a dam, which they did. Now, they knew they were saving a town, but they also knew they had to inundate thousands of acres of farmland. So, there goes a crop. There goes a harvest. There goes some family's income. And then downriver, oh man, they had to open the gates on a dam, knowing that the resulting flood again might save a city but drown a town.

But there is some good news. In a lot of places, the dams and the levees managed to hold back the flood. If it weren't for those walls, well, the flood would wash away everything in its path.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Hole in the Dam, Trouble Downstream."

Now, I watched the news about all that high-water drama that took place during spring floods, and as it unfolded it actually gave new meaning to a personal testimony that I have shared with some people who are close to me. I've actually put it this way: I have told them that my time with Jesus is literally the dam that holds back the dark side of me; the sinful dark side that we all have.

In our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 119:11 , it says, "I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You." God's Word—that's what stands between me and the flood. I honestly cannot afford to miss a day where I spend time with Jesus in His Book. Not because it's my Christian duty to read my Bible, or because I'm afraid I'll get a flat tire or a sprained ankle, or some kind of curse will come on me if I don't, but because I really, really love Him. And I really, really need Him.

Hey, we all know about the war. It's talked about in the book of Galatians, "The sinful nature wants to do evil...the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires." You know that battle. "These two forces are constantly fighting each other" (Galatians 5:17 - NLB). Now, the difference is the sin-disarming power of the Word of God. Jesus put it this way: "Now you are clean through the Word I have spoken to you" (John 15:3 ).

I heard a story about a concert violinist once who said, "If I miss a day of practice, I notice. If I miss two days, my friends notice. If I miss three days, the whole world notices." Well, I tell you what, I can tell the days when I've been too "busy" to start my day in His Word, because the dam starts to leak. And the parts of me that God hates, and I hate, and the people who love me hate, those parts start to slowly take over again. I have found the power of daily being in God's Word to be, yes, that wonderful wall that holds back the worst of "old Ron."

So, I can't afford to miss many days, and I don't think you can either, because we've all got a dark side that will leak without the dam there. My time with Jesus in His Word? It can't be optional. No, it's got to be non-negotiable, because a hole in the dam can do so much damage downstream.