June 18, 2019
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Our kids played with it when they were little. Our grandkids have been playing with it since they were little. 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. 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. I mean they set the climate instead of thermometers just reacting to the climate around them. 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, this is 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 what God says no matter how they're feeling, they are strong, stable, and they're storm proof. It's your choice. You can go by your feelings or you can go 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 but 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 what God says in His Word. Maybe you're not even sure whether you belong to Jesus Christ, because you're going on your ever-changing feelings instead of the promises of God Himself 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, why don't you talk to Him like this, "Jesus, I resign from running my own life. It took your life to pay for my sins, and then you came out of your grave, and I'm asking you to come into my life. Beginning today, Jesus, I am yours." If you prayed a prayer like that then you can be welcomed today into God's family forever.
That's exactly why our website exists. It's to help you, at this crossroads moment, know exactly how to be sure you belong to Jesus Christ from this day on. That website is ANewStory.com and I think you'll be glad you went there.
It's just so good to know that you belong to Jesus. It's so good to know you're going to heaven when you die. Not because you feel it. Because you know you belong to Him. You know you're going to heaven and here's why: because God says so!