Monday, October 3, 2005
We had been shopping for the place where God wants us to build the radio studio that we desperately needed. And we were looking at a possible location - this big barn of a room with a high ceiling and it was totally bare. Well, I saw a big, bare room, but not Kasey. No, no, no. He's a carpenter and he started talking about this wall here and that partition there; the control room in that corner where the doors would be, and how we could soundproof the floor. It was amazing! He was seeing all kinds of things in that room that I sure couldn't see! But, then, that's the great thing about carpenters!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Carpenter's Eye."
I think that's how Jesus looks at you. After all, He's a carpenter, you know. His earthly father, Joseph, was one and Jesus grew up with a carpenter's skills - and a carpenter's eye to see what someone could become; not just what they are.
The blueprint is given to us in our word for today from the Word of God, Ephesians 2:10. And it's an eye-opener, really, as to who you really are and why you're here. "We are God's workmanship." You're no random assembly of molecules. You're a handmade, one-of-a-kind masterpiece creation of Almighty God. You may not have been treated like you're that valuable, but that's who you really are. And your Creator is the One who says so. Here's what the whole statement says, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
When Jesus looks at you, it's like my friend, the carpenter, looking at that empty room. He sees what that room could be after his skilled hands are finished renewing it. Jesus knows the masterpiece you were created to become, the difference you were created to make, the value you are created to have. That's what He sees. Maybe other people have only seen the bare room, and maybe you've been made to feel pretty worthless, incompetent, unloved, unworthy. But they don't see what Jesus sees, what you were born to be.
And here's why you may have missed knowing how much you're really worth. You're missing the One who gave you your worth. You're missing Jesus. The Bible says we have marked up this masterpiece God made with our self-centered living. God calls it sin, and our sin has built a wall between us and the God we were made by and for. So, we're cut off from the One who loves and values us the most; so much that He thought you were worth sending His Son to die for!
And you will never really know how valuable you really are until you open your heart to the One who loved you enough to die for you. You and I did the sinning. Jesus did the dying, and you don't have to spend one more day away from the One who made you to be a masterpiece. The One who sees you through His Carpenter's eye - and sees one He created with His hands, paid for with His blood, and one He wants to forgive, restore, and renew.
But it's your move now. He made His on the cross. Now you have two choices: put your trust in Him to be your own Savior from your own sin, or you tell Him, "No thanks, Jesus. I'll just settle for more of the same." If you're ready to belong to the One who can love you like no one else ever could, then why don't you tell Him that right now. "Jesus, I turn from running my own life. I was never meant to. I want to put my life in the hands of the One who gave me my life - in the hands of the One who gave His life for me. Jesus, beginning this very day, I am Yours." Your soul is home then and you belong to the One who gave you your worth in the first place and who gave everything He had to bring you home to Him. If you want to begin your relationship with Him, then I want to send you my booklet about beginning with Him. It's called Yours For Life. It's helped a lot of people. I think it might help you. Would you let me know you want it?
Jesus, the carpenter, sees in you what everyone else has missed, and maybe even you have missed - the person you were born to be. And today, He simply waits for your invitation to start making you all you were meant to be.