Friday, May 16, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I'm in our van sitting at a red light - and suddenly this cloud of dark, acrid smoke starts belching out of my exhaust pipe. It was disgusting! Apparently, the motorists behind me felt the same way - they started honking at me. That helped tremendously. I just wished honking would have solved the problem. Believe it or not, it didn't. One mechanic told me, "I wouldn't leave town with that van if I were you." He was right - of course, the smoke wasn't the problem - the problem was the engine. No, it didn't need to be fixed. It was far too gone for that. It had to be replaced!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The New Engine Difference."
The van I drove away from that garage looked like the same van I drove into that garage. Wrong. It was new on the inside - and as a result, it was no longer leaving an ugly trail behind it.
Actually, a lot of us have some emissions coming out of our lives that aren't too pleasant either. Maybe you know some of those feelings - too often there is anger spewing out - or self-pity because we feel like a victim - or negative, critical attitudes. We say what we later regret we said - we do what we later regret we did - we're hooked on what we wish we could stop - we leave a trail behind us of people who have choked on the smoke we put out. And it's not that we haven't tried to fix it. From New Year's resolutions to religion to self-improvement, we've tried to stop polluting our own lives and the lives of those around us but we've got a problem inside.
God diagnoses that problem in His book. In Jeremiah 17:9 it says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" In other words, the engine is shot, and it can't be fixed. It has to be replaced, which leads us to God's tremendous offer. And it's our word for today from the Word of God, Ezekiel 36:26, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you a heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit in you."
God says our heart is too darkened and hardened by sin to ever quit putting out pollution. We can certainly never get into His totally unpolluted heaven with this polluted heart we all have. Our only hope for this life - and for eternal life - is a new heart. We can't perform heart surgery on ourselves! Only the divine surgeon can do that! He stands ready to take that heart of yours that's been hardened by all the hurt and the anger and the sin and replace it with a heart that's clean and sensitive and new! He'll put His Holy Spirit in you to make you the person you've wanted to be but you never could be.
But the operation had to be paid for just as the engine replacement on my van had to be paid for - and I didn't have anything to pay it with. But to my amazement, some of God's people quietly got together and they paid the bill. That's what Jesus was doing for you when He was agonizing on that cross. He was paying the bill for your sin; a bill you could never pay - so you could be forgiven.
You ready for a new heart? Then it's time to open your heart to Jesus Christ. I would love to help you be sure that you have begun your personal relationship with Jesus Christ - that you belong to Him.
I think one way we might be able to help and encourage you at this crossroads time in your life, is if you will go to our website. It's really been set up to explain in simple, non-religious terms how to be sure you belong to Jesus Christ. The website is yoursforlife.net. And I'd encourage you to go and visit us there before you forget about it. Maybe you'd rather just write for my booklet Yours For Life, where you'll get much of the same information about how to begin a relationship with Jesus and get a new heart. You can call for that booklet toll free at 877-741-1200.
All of our lives we try to stop the ugly stuff that comes out of us, but it still keeps coming until we get a new engine - a new heart. Jesus is waiting for you to tell Him right now that you want it.