Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Just when you think little kids are pretty much all about their toys, TV, and what’s to eat, they amaze you again. Our daughter had one of those times when our grandson was puttering around the house in his jammies one early morning, and he wandered over to an East window. He stared out at the brightening early morning sky for a few moments and then he suddenly launched a question Mommy’s way, "Mommy, who painted the sky?" Before his mother could answer, our grandson answered his own question, "Jesus did."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Behind the Painting."
That little guy saw something in the beauty of creation that morning that many grownup people tragically miss: that there’s someone behind the beauty, and He is the point of it all! I mean, a two-year-old seemed to understand, in his own way, what many of us miss if we just admire the painting. The point is to know the Painter! If you consider yourself a spiritual seeker, it’s important to realize that God has, throughout your life and even now, been putting life experiences and life scenery in front of you for one reason. To get your attention, so you would give yourself to the One who does such awesome things. But so far, maybe you’ve missed Him.
In our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 1, beginning with verse 19, God says of us: "What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." God says here, "After all the ways I’ve displayed My greatness and My power to you, you have no excuse for not having a personal relationship with Me." He then spells out the tragic mistake that so many of us have made without ever realizing it: "They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator." We’ve gotten hung up on what He made for us and missed Him.
You’ve had a number of God-sightings in your life, even if you don’t realize it or acknowledge it. You got a glimpse of His power and love in the birth of a baby, in a time your life was spared, in encountering the amazing engineering of the human body, in the majesty of the ocean that you felt, the mountains, the skies, or some scenic rush you felt. You brushed close to your Creator when you were thinking about death and that it's inevitable; when you looked at the way a follower of Jesus lived or died, or in the question or insight of a little child.
Over and over, your Creator has been trying to get your attention, trying to direct you to the one way you can have a love relationship with Him that you were made for. The Bible says, "Christ died for sins...to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
The ultimate reach of God for you was the sending of His one and only Son to love you enough to die for the sin that has been the wall between you and Him. You may say, "Well, I believe in God." The Bible says, "Even the demons believe (in God) and shudder" (James 2:19). No, the issue isn’t believing in God-it’s belonging to God. He’s the belonging you’ve been looking for your whole life.
Here’s how it begins according to the Bible: "To all who received (Jesus)...He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12). Imagine, born into God’s family, loved and protected by Him forever. That’s the possibility God’s putting in front of you today.
Your personal love relationship with Almighty God begins when you tell Jesus that you're putting your total trust in Him to remove the wall between you and your Creator. Why? Because He’s the only one who died to pay for your sin. He’s the only one with the power to walk out of His grave under His own power and deliver eternal life to your soul.
Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I've been seeing in my life without even realizing it, you've been all over the place trying to get my attention. Today you have it. Today, Jesus, you have me, because nobody ever loved me like you do." Our website's called ANewStory.com, because a new story for your life could begin then. I hope you'll go there today.
This painter of all that’s beautiful and awe-inspiring can make a masterpiece out of the rest of your life.