Tuesday, November 9, 2010
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My granddaughter obviously got her grace and coordination from me. She must have. Somebody's got mine, because I sure don't! She demonstrated some of that grace and coordination recently in a dance recital she was in with other four and five-year-olds. They actually had two little performances in one day. The first was in a little roped-off area in a small shopping mall. It was cute. That night, they did their real recital. Except this time it was on a big stage. You could tell the girls were excited and maybe a little intimidated when the curtain went up. And there was an audience of adoring fans: Moms and Dads, and Grandmas and Grandpas. I was thinking, "Well, I already saw this this morning. I'm here to support my granddaughter, though." Excuse me. They did the same numbers, but not the same way! They moved all over the stage like birds that had been let out of their cage. I realized that their morning performance had been on such a small stage that they could only do small things. But now they were showing what they really could do!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living a Much Bigger Life."
Those little girls showed that you can do so much more when you're on a much larger stage. And that may be what your heart is restless for right now. A life that does much more, and means much more than it has so far. Actually, it's God that plants that restlessness for more in your heart, because He wants to graduate you from the little, roped-in stage you may have been living on to the big stage that you were made for.
That big stage could be summed up in one word that's in Ecclesiastes 3:11, our word for today from the Word of God. It says: "(God) has set eternity in the hearts of men." You've got this "eternity" thing in your heart, which can only be satisfied by things that will last forever. God didn't make you just as a creature of time. Your 70 years or so on earth is not the whole story - or even a fraction of the story. The Bible says God created you a living soul, made in His image. You are a creature of eternity! And those who live big lives are those who see their life here against the great backdrop of eternity.
You make your life-choices and you set your life-priorities much differently when you're not just considering this week or this month or this year, or even just this life. You're made for a much bigger stage, where you live for the things that will matter forever, not just for a little while. Where you look at your problems and your pain against the backdrop of eternity, not just a few years. For example, the early Christian leader, Paul, wrote about the grueling hardships that he'd endured as a representative of Christ. But he said, "We do not lose heart...for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). When you're living on the big stage called eternity, earth-stuff just doesn't look as big anymore.
It may be that the reason that spiritual hole in your heart has never gone away is because all you've ever tried to fill it with is earth-stuff. You'll never have enough love until you have the only love that's everlasting. You'll never feel like your life really has meaning until you're part of something that's everlasting. You'll never be ready for eternity, whenever it comes, until you know for sure that you will have everlasting life in heaven. You can, if you pin all your hopes on Jesus Christ, who took the everlasting death we deserve for our sin. That's what He did on that cross. And today He's come close to you to give you a chance to choose Him; to begin living a life that will have eternal meaning, and to trade an awful eternity for a guaranteed eternity with Him.
If you're ready to graduate to the bigger stage you were created for - a personal love relationship with the God of the universe - you need to tell Jesus you're His from today on. That means turning over the wheel of your life to the One who gave you your life and who gave His life for you. A lot of people have been helped in getting started with Him by visiting our website and seeing the information there. I want to invite you to go there today. It's yoursforlife.net. Check it out.
You were made for so much more, and Jesus stands ready to take you there. Don't miss Him.