Tuesday, June 2, 2009
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I know advertisers have to hate it, but the truth is that a lot of times we remember their commercial, but we forget their product. Recently, I saw a commercial like that. The ad really impressed me, but I have no idea what they were advertising. Anyway, it showed some scenes from recent explorations of space and some appropriate galactic scenery. And then, these words appeared on the screen, "The last frontier isn't space." OK, then what is it? The next words answered that question. "It's the human imagination." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Taming the Final Frontier."
I'd say that idea is close, but it's not the prize winner. The last frontier isn't outer space; in fact, it's inner space...what's inside you and me. Which includes our imagination, but plenty more. God's view would seem to be that the "last frontier is the human heart." That is the vast and violent wilderness that remains untamed inside us. And it's usually the people closest to us who can attest to the fact that our dark side is alive and well and yes, it is untamed. They get to see and feel it all too often.
In our word for today from the Word of God in Jeremiah 17:9, our Creator says this: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Then God reveals that He isn't going to judge us based on the exterior that humans can see. He says, "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind."
What the Lord finds in our heart may be things others can't see, but things we all know too well - things we are either ashamed of, or ought to be ashamed of. God knows all about the stubborn selfishness in our heart, the unspeakable desires, the lust, the arrogance, the anger, the moral pollution. But it's not just God who knows that dark side of us. The people around us - often the people we love - experience it through the way we treat them sometimes, the devastating things we say, the meanness, the self-centeredness, the dirt.
Beneath our carefully cultivated image, beneath our impressive religiosity, is this untamed monster that God has called "sin." And no person, no matter how religious, can have a relationship with a perfect God or live in His perfect heaven with this sin not dealt with. But God, who knows all about us, knew that all of our best human efforts to tame the monster, all of our best efforts at being good, were no match for the beast inside us.
So, God sent His Son to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. In 1 John 4:9-10, He put it this way: "God sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." When Jesus died on the cross, He absorbed all the guilt, all the depravity, and all the hellish death penalty for our sin. So we could have every wrong thing we've ever done erased from God's records. So we could live the rest of our life totally forgiven, possessing His power to beat what's always beaten us, and knowing that we are going to heaven when we die.
So if you're tired of that darkness in your heart, if you're ready to put your total trust in Jesus Christ to forgive you and change you as only He can, why don't you tell Him that right now. And if that's what you want, then I hope you'll pay a visit to our website sometime in the next few hours and pick up some information there that will help you begin your relationship with Jesus or be sure that you belong to Him. The website is YoursForLife.net. Or I'll send you my booklet, Yours For Life if you'll just call us toll free at 877-741-1200.
Something very miraculous, something transforming happens when Jesus enters the darkness in our heart. The lights go on. The darkness isn't winning anymore, and He's waiting to make that miracle your miracle.