Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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So what was the greatest song of the Twentieth Century? That was the question they asked on a major survey taken early in the Twenty-First Century. And the winner: Judy Garland's signature song from The Wizard of Oz believe it or not "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The tragedy is that Judy Garland herself could never seem to get there. She was an international star at the age of 17 and she remains one of the towering entertainers of the century. But tragically, her search for health and happiness led her down a road of drug addiction, disappointing relationships, psychiatric hospitals, and a physical collapse. She died of a drug overdose in a London hotel. It's painfully ironic isn't it? The voice that tried to take us "over the rainbow" could never make it there herself.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stranded On This Side Of the Rainbow."
"The rainbow" means something a little different to all of us, but it ultimately represents the fulfillment, the worth, the love that we all want to have fill us up inside. But Judy Garland's inability to ever get what her heart craved is not an isolated exception. In a sense, maybe you feel stranded on this side of the rainbow.
It isn't for lack of trying. It's just that every achievement has left you feeling hollow afterwards. Every relationship has left you still feeling unexplainably lonely. Every great experience, even spiritual experience, has left you strangely unsatisfied. In a sense, you've been searching for as long as you can remember, but so far never really finding. The "rainbow" is still beyond your reach. It always will be until you belong to the person who gave you your life in the first place. Every other "rainbow" in our life is a terribly inadequate substitute for a love relationship with the God of the universe.
In our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is talking to a woman who's been looking for the end of her search in relationships with men. You can fill in the blank and put in there whatever your "rainbow" has been. Jesus has run into this woman at a well where they were both looking for water, and in John 4:13-14, He says, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." There's the problem with every "rainbow," every "well" that we've thought would do it for us. We end up "thirsty again."
Then Jesus goes on to say, "But whoever drinks the water I give Him, it will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life." Jesus is offering to her and to you a spring inside that will never leave you thirsty again, a relationship with Him that will literally give you life here and life forever in heaven. We've cut ourselves off from our source by stubbornly living our way instead of His way. And there would be no hope of belonging to the One we were made for, except that Jesus died on the cross to absorb the death penalty that you and I deserve.
And He's coming to you today to offer you the relationship with Him that will end your search once and for all. He's reaching out to you, but you have to reach back. You have to grab His hand as your only hope of being forgiven - your only hope of going to heaven. If you want to belong to Jesus from this day on, would you tell Him that right where you are, "Jesus, I'm yours beginning right now."
I'd love to help you make sure you belong to Him, and have actually put information on our website that has helped a lot of people get started with Jesus. Our website is YoursForLife.net, and I would urge you to go there as soon as you can today while this is still on your heart. Or if you'd rather I'd send you my little booklet Yours For Life with a lot of that same information in it, you could call us for that toll free at 877-741-1200 or our website YoursForLife.net.
If you're tired of seeking and you're ready to find, then make this your Jesus-day. He is everything your heart has always looked for and never found - until today.