Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - No Life Without the Source - #5050

Friday, May 19, 2006

For my wife, it was sort of a symbol of the day she was born - daffodils. Growing up in the South, she was always able to have some fresh-picked daffodils for her birthday. But then we got married and found ourselves living pretty much in the North, where daffodils don't grow early in the year. So every year, as my honey's birthday approached, I had fun trying to find some florist that somehow had some daffodils for sale. I did. And once again, my gal had daffodils for her birthday. But even though they were very beautiful, the sad secret is they didn't last long - just like most of the flowers in the florist shop. They started to die as soon as they got cut from their stem.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Life Without the Source."

Someone has said that you and I are living in a "cut-flower civilization." We look like we're alive, but we're really cut off from the source of our life. That would be the God who designed us, who wired us - who planned us. He is, as the Bible says, "The author of life." (Acts 3:15 ) As spiritual "cut flowers," it's not that we don't try to generate life on our own. But no matter who or what we try, that strange loneliness and emptiness creep back into our soul. What we don't realize is that our loneliness is cosmic loneliness. Our emptiness is cosmic emptiness. We're missing the God who made us.

The Bible describes our true spiritual condition in eight sobering words. They're found in our word for today from the Word of God in Isaiah 59:2 , "Your iniquities" - that's sins or wrongdoings - "have separated you from your God." Separated from God. In this life, that means never finding the purpose of your life; never finding the love that could satisfy your heart. And at the end of this life, "separated from God" means an awful eternity. In the single word the Bible uses, it means hell. God didn't put up the wall that keeps us from Him - we did. Those "iniquities" are made up of every time you and I have done things the way we wanted to do it instead of God's way. Over a lifetime, it's impossible to add all those up. But each sin, each "me first" choice, has put another brick in the wall.

So, separated from the One our life came from, we're slowly dying inside. And every day is one day closer to the ultimate separation of an eternity away from God, of paying sin's horrific death penalty. But in spite of the way you and I have marginalized and ignored our Creator, He was not willing to let us be cut off from Him forever. To reconnect us to Him required the greatest act of love in the history of the human race. In the Bible's words, "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him." (1 John 4:9 ) So Jesus came, and Jesus died, to remove the sin-wall that keeps us cut off from God. In fact, when He was dying on that cross, He was cut off from God so you would never have to be.

That's why your decision about what you do with Jesus is the ultimate life-or-death decision. Because, as the Bible makes very clear, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:11-12 ) Either you have the Son of God in your heart and you have life forever, or you don't have the Son of God in your heart and you will miss eternal life.

You "have the Son of God" when you open your heart to Him, trusting Him as your only hope of having your sins forgiven, of having the wall between you and God come down, of going to heaven when you die. It's all about Jesus and whether you say yes or no to Him. If you don't say yes to His leadership in this life, you have whether actively or passively, said no. And I believe there's someone listening right now who would like to get this settled today. You need to tell Jesus that as soon as you can.

That life you were made for, the God you were made for, they're within your reach right now. If you'd like to listen to or read a brief explanation of just how you can experience this relationship for yourself, I hope you'll visit our website where that's what you'll find. That website is yoursforlife.net. Or you can call and get the booklet, Yours For Life, at 877-741-1200.

Please, don't risk another day without Him.