Friday, November 9, 2018
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When we were involved in building a new headquarters for our ministry, I have to confess that was new ground for me. I've been involved in building people my whole life, but not buildings. It became very clear that there is a specific order in which you have to do things. Obviously, you don't just start by having the carpenters show up and start putting up the building. No, there has to be a foundation laid first. But whoa, wait-you can't lay the foundation or start building until you have the detailed plans for the building. Yes, it takes contractors, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, pavers, and heating and air conditioning people. But first, the architect! Without his design, it's going to just be mass confusion at the construction site. But thankfully, God gave us a gifted architect who could lay out a detailed plan. And you know what? Things worked really well because everyone was going by the plan.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Starting With the Architect."
Maybe what you've been trying to build hasn't been going the way you hoped. The love, the happiness you were planning is not working out like it was supposed to. Or maybe you've been able to build your life pretty much as you wanted-the building is up but you're not satisfied living in it. There's restlessness, confusion, disappointment, maybe loneliness.
If your plans haven't worked, or if your plans haven't given you what you were looking for, it's time to go back and start with the Architect. In our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 100:3, God says, "Know that the Lord is God. It is He who has made us and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture." Three times God tells us whose we really are-we are His. We are made by our Creator, for our Creator, to live by our Creator's plan-sheep led by an all-powerful, all-loving Shepherd.
And why is our life turning out to be so confusing and unfulfilling? Because we've gone off building our life without the Architect who gave us our life. In Isaiah 53:6, God says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way." We're wandering without our Shepherd; we're building without our Architect.
When a newspaper asked Americans the one question they would like to ask God, by far the answer most given was, "What is the purpose of my life?" If you've wondered that yourself, realize the reason we don't know that is because we're away from the One who gave us our life.
But even though we've rejected our Architect and His plans, He loves us so much that He paid an awful, awful price to get us back. The Biblical statement that says we've all gone our way then says, speaking of Jesus, "And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity (that's wrongdoing) of us all." Jesus Christ, God's only Son, went to a cross where He paid the death penalty for all the sinning you and I have ever done. So it's actually possible to belong to the One who made you, who loves you most. And to have Him move into your heart and give you His inner guidance system to follow the plan you were put here to live for.
If you'd like to belong to Jesus Christ, to come home to your Creator, would you tell Jesus today, "Jesus, I'm yours. I'm putting my total trust in you and your death for my sin to forgive my sin and to change my life."
Our website has got information from God's own Word that will be such a help to you at a crossroads moment like this. I encourage you to go there and find the Architect's plan. It's ANewStory.com.
Haven't you lived enough years building it your way? Why not let today be the day that you begin living by the plans you were made for. In the words of the Bible, "Created by Him and for Him." You can begin today living in a love relationship with the person who made you.