Thursday, November 19, 2009
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Some of our most memorable vacation moments as a family have been spent on the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina. It hasn't always been beautiful for ships that were navigating those treacherous shoals that are off the shores of the Outer Banks. It's estimated that over 2,000 ships have gone down there over those centuries. But a lot more lives could have been lost there if it hadn't been for the Cape Hatteras Light, one of the most famous lighthouses in America. Its octagonal tower rises massively above the beach and the sand hills, and it's been the guiding light that kept many ships from going aground. It's stood there for nearly two centuries. Imagine the storms that she's weathered; including more than a hundred hurricanes! Storms that blew away so many other structures, but the lighthouse still stands.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Light That Weathers All Your Storms."
So many lights that people have depended on just couldn't survive the storms. The marriage that was supposed to give love for a lifetime, the job we thought would always be there, the person that was supposed to be an anchor, the retirement plans that you thought was so secure. But they're gone. Our health that we always just took for granted, even our religion that just wasn't enough to sustain us through the storm.
But there's something in us that yearns for - that really needs - one certain light that will always be there, no matter how stormy it gets, no matter how dark it gets. We need something that's unshakably secure that helps guide us through the toughest times. In fact, we are created with a need for that - a need that was designed to be met by the One who put us here in the first place. Actually, we are made for Him, and our Creator is the only light that never goes out; never goes away.
In John 8:12, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus took us straight to the light that weathers every storm. He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." For two thousand years, through every changing culture and circumstance, Jesus has been the light that has dispelled the darkness for millions of lives, the one love that no storm has ever touched, the one security that lasts a lifetime, and lasts for an eternity. Jesus is, in fact, the light for the darkest journey you will ever take - the last one. He's the light that will guide you all the way to heaven.
But for Jesus to be our light, He himself had to go through the darkest darkness any human being has ever endured - that cross. That awful death on a cross where Jesus took on Himself every wrong thing every one of us has ever done, including every sin of your life. It was literally your hell that Jesus was taking there so you could go to heaven. Because the deepest darkness of all is the darkness inside us; the sin that only the Man who died for you can forgive. That only the man who conquered death can overcome.
I know a relationship with Jesus can weather every storm. He's loved and sustained us through losing a baby, through financial crises, through all the struggles of parenting, through major medical battles, and at the casket of so many we've loved. Jesus has never abandoned, never let down anyone who's put their life in His hands. He is the one certain light that your heart needs. He died so you could have a relationship with Him. But you have to choose Him for yourself by telling Him, "Jesus, I don't belong at the steering wheel of my life. You do, and I'm putting all my trust in You to remove the wall between me and God. I want to belong to you from this day on."
If that's what you want, then I would urge you to go pay a visit to our website before today is over. There's nothing magic there. It's just some very practical help from the Bible in how to be sure you've begun your relationship with Him; how to have that relationship for now and forever. The website is YoursForLife.net.
For all your storms, for all your dark times, even for your final journey, there's a light that will always be there. His name is Jesus.