Thursday, February 25, 2010
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It wasn't the first time they'd had problems with the space station, but this one was pretty serious. There are four gyroscopes that the space station really depends on. One had been dysfunctional for a while. But now a second gyroscope had gone down, leaving the station and its crew all too vulnerable. With no backup now, one more gyroscope failure and they would be in big trouble. NASA hustled to find a solution because the gyroscope performs an essential function for that platform in space. It keeps it pointing in the right direction so it will have the power it has to have.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Your Life Is Drifting."
"Drifting" may be a word that describes a little of how you feel about your life right now. You can be successful but not satisfied. You can be winning but still wondering what your life is all about. This drifting feeling affects all kinds of people: young and old, single, married, those who have it all, and those who have very little. It's a sense that my life doesn't have any direction that gives it real meaning. So there's this like emptiness.
There's a reason we feel that way. Our spiritual gyroscope is missing. We're pointed in the wrong direction. In the words of our Creator, recorded in the Bible, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way." We're created to have our life pointing in the direction of our Creator, but we haven't lived like that. As the Bible says, we've "turned to our own way," often doing what we want with no consideration for what God wants. Consequently, we're adrift in the universe, with this deep cosmic loneliness. It's no wonder that a survey published in USA Today asking Americans what one question they would ask a Supreme Being showed the largest group would ask, "What is the purpose of my life?"
Centuries ago, one of the most successful men in history found himself adrift and searching. King Solomon, the richest and most sought after man of his time, wrote these words recorded in Ecclesiastes, beginning with chapter 1, verse 2. It's our word for today from the Word of God. After tasting every accomplishment and pleasure you could think of, he said: "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." Maybe you know that feeling. Later he says, "God has set eternity in the hearts of men" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). He realized that only something eternal can fill the hole in your heart. And after years of searching, he says, "Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments...For God will bring every deed into judgment...whether it is good or evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Ultimately, it's all about having a personal relationship with the God that we're away from.
It wasn't easy to make it possible for us to finally point our life in the right direction. There was nothing we could do to fix it. But God sent a rescue mission - His Son Jesus, who died to remove the guilt and the penalty of our sin and our wandering. So we could, by grabbing Jesus in total faith, have every sin forgiven, our hell cancelled, and the God-relationship we were made for finally begun. It's why God brought us together today, so you could have this chance to be His. To give yourself to the one who gave His life on the cross so you could have the life only He can give you and the heaven only He can give you.
If you're tired of a life that just isn't going the right direction, if you'd like to experience for yourself this awesome love, this awesome plan of God, I'd urge you to tell Jesus this very day, "Jesus, I'm Yours. I give up the control - the steering wheel of my life. I'm putting all my trust in what You did on the cross to pay for what I have done against You. Right now, I'm giving all of me to You."
I want to encourage you, if you are interested in knowing that you belong to Jesus Christ, that you would check out our website as soon as you can today. It's so there for someone who's at that point in their life. It's YoursForLife.net. I hope you'll go there right away.
You weren't made to live without direction, without meaning, without peace. You were made to belong to the person who made you, and that relationship can begin this very day.