Friday, August 17, 2018
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I was speaking at a Bible conference, set right near the shore of a beautiful lake. I was responsible for speaking about eighteen times in six days, literally, so I was a pretty busy boy. But I did something that would have made my wife proud, even in spite of how busy I was. I took time to smell the flowers; well, at least to admire the flowers. I have to admit, I'm partially colorblind, but even I was struck by these rich purple flowers blooming all over this sprawling vine in the garden outside my window. The flowers seemed to be everywhere in the garden. I asked someone from the conference what I was looking at. He told me it's a Vinca vine. He said they had transplanted that vine from a pot to the soil of this garden. And I was told a Vinca vine doesn't produce any flowers when it's in a pot-only when you plant it in the ground. Well, what do you know?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where You Were Created To Be."
In the words of the man who had transplanted that vine, "It thrives only when it is where it was created to be." Well, so do we.
And sadly, so many of us spend our whole life looking for, but missing, where we were created to be. And it is only the One who created you who can ultimately tell you where you were created to be. And He has in our word for today from the Word of God. In six little words, our Creator spells out for us the reason for our existence, the answer to life's most ultimate question, "Why am I here?" In Colossians 1:16, speaking of Jesus, God says, "All things were", now here are the six words, "created by Him and for Him."
So you were created by Jesus, you were created for Jesus, and you're going to have hole in your heart until you have Jesus. Maybe you've been trying to fill that hole in your heart for a long time. But no relationship you've ever had has done it, no accomplishment, no experience, no religion. They can't. See, the hole in your heart is so big it can only be filled by the person who created you.
And the reason we can't find the meaning we've been looking for, and the peace we need, the lasting love we desire, the reason is that we're away from the One we were made for. We're away from Him, not by His choice, but by ours. We were created for Him, but we've lived for ourselves. That's what "sin" is all about. Notice the middle letter of sin, it's "I." And nothing is really working, nothing is really fulfilling because your sin-your running of your own life-has cut you off from the love you were made for.
That's why Jesus came. In Colossians 2:13-14, the Bible says, "God forgave us all our sins, having canceled...what was against us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross." When you come in your heart to the cross where Jesus died for every wrong thing you've ever done; when you give yourself to the One who gave Himself for you, the sin-wall comes down and you begin for the first time in your life to be "where you were created to be."
Mark Twain once said, "The two most important days in a person's life are the day they're born and the day they find out why." I know you know the day you were born. This could be the day you find out why.
It begins when you say, "Jesus, I believe when you died on that cross you were paying for every wrong thing I have ever done. And, Jesus, I want your love. I want the wall between me and God to come down. This day I am yours."
Our website's called ANewStory.com, because in a very real way, the day you give yourself to Jesus is the beginning of your new story. I hope you'll go there and find out how you can be sure you belong to Him. ANewStory.com.
Your life really begins when you finally are where you were created to be, and that's in the relationship you were made for, with the person you were made by. And that relationship can begin for you today. You don't have to be outside His love one more day.