Monday, February 25, 2008
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Larry Walters was just tired of sitting in his backyard, watching the same old folks in the same old neighborhood do the same old thing. He was ready for a change. So he decided to do something different. He went out and bought 45 six-foot helium balloons and attached them to his lawn chair, which was tethered to a car to keep it from taking off. Then, he donned a parachute, packed a bottle of soda pop, a CB radio, and a BB gun to shoot out balloons so he could come down. He thought he'd get a great view of his neighborhood. He got a little more than that. When his friends cut his lawn chair loose, he shot a thousand feet into the air in a minute. Before long, Larry and his flying lawn chair were 16,000 feet over the Los Angeles area. That's like three miles up, man! A TWA pilot radioed the tower and said, "We've spotted a man in a lawn chair at 16,000 feet." I can't even guess what the tower must have said back to the pilot. Meanwhile, Larry is yelling into his CB radio, "Mayday! Mayday!" He eventually managed to shoot out enough balloons to come down, where he landed in some wires and caused a power outage in Long Beach, California. He got down OK, he got some TV appearances, and an FAA fine. Not bad for an ordinary guy in a lawn chair.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You're Ready for a Change."
Here was a man who was tired of same old, same old and willing to take a risk to go where he'd never been able to go before. In a way, that's what I'm asking you to consider today, because like many people, you may be ready for a change. Because life is lonely the way it is now; because life seems pretty meaningless. The question, "Why am I here?" still doesn't have a satisfactory answer after all these years. You're ready for a change.
Maybe life hurts, too. There's been a lot of pain and not much healing. And life's not safe either: there are terror alerts, bad news from the doctor that can change everything, losing people you counted on and those unsettling thoughts whenever you go to a funeral, reminding you of the day that it will be you there. You're tired of same old, same old. You're ready for a change.
Into that restlessness for something better comes these hope-giving words of Jesus Christ that are recorded in our word for today from the Word of God in John 10:10. He said: "The thief (that's the devil) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; but I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Contrary to the misconception some people have, Jesus doesn't put a lid on your life. He blows the lid off your life by doing something about the loneliness, the meaninglessness, the pain, and the danger of our future.
How? He came here to fix what makes life so lonely and meaningless and hurtful and dangerous. And that's the Grand Canyon between us and God, created by a lifetime of you and me doing things our way instead of God's way. Sin, the Bible calls it. The one whose love we were made for - that we're lonely for - is on the other side of the canyon. The one who put us here and knows why we're here is on the other side. We're separated from the one who can heal our pain, who can replace an uncertain future with a guaranteed place in heaven. It took Jesus putting a cross over that canyon to get us to the God we need so desperately. It took His dying to pay the death penalty for what you and I have done.
And now Jesus has come to where you are this very day to offer you the life He died and then rose again to give you. But like any gift, you have to reach out and take it. You have to tell Him in faith, "Jesus, I'm tired of running my own life. I'm yours now." The moment you do that, you have crossed that canyon into the arms of the God you were made by and made for. If you're ready for that change, you tell Him that right now where you are. Then I would invite you to our website, and I think you’ll find there some great practical help in being sure that you have crossed into the arms of God and you will belong to Him forever and then you’re going to heaven. The website is yoursforlife.net. And I hope you’ll go there right away today.
Don't waste one more day without Him.