Wednesday, June 10, 2009
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Our kids played with it when they were little. Our grandson plays with it now. I play with it every once in a while. It's that colorful clay in the round can - it's Play-Doh! You can squeeze that Play-Doh into something flat, something round, something long. You can turn it into any shape you want it to be. Which is OK for a toy; it's not OK for people.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Play-Doh or Rock?"
Unfortunately, there are way too many people who are just like Play-Doh; they keep changing shape emotionally, that is. You never know if they're going to be up or down, happy or miserable, negative or positive, loving or selfish. As long as you run your life based on how you're feeling right now, you're going to be Play-Doh, constantly changing the shape you're in.
Then there are those people you can count on, people who are thermostats setting the climate instead of thermometers just reacting to the climate. Those are the rock people. Rocks are always the same shape, no matter how tightly they're squeezed. And you are one or the other; you're Play-Doh or rock, depending on what you base your responses on - the facts or your feelings.
In Luke 6, beginning in verse 47, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus described the person who "hears My words and puts them into practice" as being "like a man building a house" who "laid the foundation on rock." Jesus said the storm could not shake that house. Then He described a man who "hears My words and does not put them into practice" as "like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."
Those who run their life on their emotions are vulnerable to major mistakes. They are even collapsible. But those who know what God says, who base their responses on that, no matter how they're feeling, they are strong, stable, and they're storm proof. It's your choice - going by your feelings or going by the facts.
Maybe you've been going way too much on your feelings lately, and Satan loves that. He can twist and distort your feelings; he can't change the Word of God. You can choose to have your feelings overrule what God says or what God says overrule your feelings. Maybe even your spiritual life is run by your feelings without being anchored much in the Word of God. You're not even sure whether you belong to Jesus Christ or not maybe, because you're going on your ever-changing feelings instead of the promises of God like 1 John 5:13, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know you have eternal life." That's know you have, not feel like you have. If you're married, you know you are because you made a conscious commitment to your spouse. If you don't know you got married, then you didn't.
If you've committed yourself to Jesus Christ as your only hope of having your sins forgiven and of going to heaven, then you belong to Him. If there's never been a time you did that, you don't belong to Him, but you could today. This could be your Jesus day, the day that changes everything including your eternal destination. Right where you are, tell Him, "Jesus, I resign from running my own life. It took your life to pay for my sins, and now you came out of your grave, and I'm asking you to come into my life. Beginning today, I am yours." If you prayed that prayer; if you want to do that, I can congratulate you and welcome you into God's family forever. And I want to encourage you to go to our website, because there's some great information there that will be easy to absorb on how to be sure you've begun your relationship with Him. Go to YoursForLife.net.
It's so good to know that you belong to Jesus; that you're going to heaven when you die. No, not just because you feel it. You know you belong to Him. You know you're going to heaven, because God says so!