Monday, April 23, 2018
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There was a movie years ago called "The Horse Whisperer." I thought it was about a man with laryngitis, but it's actually about this man who has an amazing ability to gentle horses-horses that it seems no one else can tame. In fact, the main character was modeled after a real man whose skill in gentling and training wild mustangs is almost legendary. In the past, people have used some pretty brutal methods to force a horse into submission. But the real horse whisperer doesn't "break horses." He uses body language and, yes, some quiet talking as his tools to gentle a horse that otherwise would be uncontrollable.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Wildness Inside."
We've all got it! We've got this wildness inside us. Or to use the language of "Star Wars," it's the dark side we all have. We can hide it-we can suppress it-this animal inside us, but only some of the time. And then there are times it takes over. The wildness can erupt in an angry outburst, a selfish lashing out, in a sexual sin, in words that cut people like chain saws, or in unfaithfulness to the person we love. It can surface in our deception, our secret sin, our jealousy, our prejudice, our criticism.
The things we've done because of the untamed animal inside us are the very things that make us feel ashamed and dirty inside. They're the things that hurt most the people we love the most. But through the years, millions of men and women have experienced the miracle of the animal that once controlled them being brought under control by the Master, and that's Jesus Christ. No religion, even Christianity, can tame the animal inside us. It can only give us good things that we can do to feel better about the bad things we do. No, it takes the power of the only man who's ever walked out of His grave under His own power. It takes Jesus to change us.
There's an amazing picture of His power that's just under the surface in the Bible's account of Jesus entering Jerusalem on the original Palm Sunday, just five days before He was crucified. In Luke 19, beginning with verse 30, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus tells two of His disciples to "Find a colt which no one has ever ridden. They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He went along, people spread their cloaks on the road."
At this point, this massive crowd starts shouting praises to Jesus. Now, hold on! Imagine this: He's riding on an unbroken colt through a screaming crowd who keep throwing things in his path. I'm thinking about bucking bronco here. How about you? But no, he's as peaceful as a lamb.
It's a picture, when Jesus is aboard, the peace of Christ settles in and the untamed animal is gentled by the Master. Not by His force, but by His love. That's the miracle Jesus wants to do in your life. You need to do something about the wild and hurting animal inside for your sake, for your children's sake, for the sake of your husband or wife, for the people you love, for the people you've hurt.
Ultimately, this wildness the Bible calls sin will carry you all the way to hell. That's the eternal price for a life lived our way instead of God's way. But it's a price the very Son of God has already paid when He loved you enough to pay for all your sin on an old rugged cross. This very day you can be forgiven of every wrong thing you have ever done. You can be set free from the guilt, the shame, and the dark side.
But He doesn't force His way into your life. He leaves the choice to you. Your new freedom, your new being "clean inside" awaits your saying to Jesus, "I am Yours, because You are my only hope."
I've actually put on our website the very things that will help you know the steps to be sure that Jesus is in your life and how to let the change begin. Appropriately, the name of that website is ANewStory.com. Maybe your new story can begin there.
When Jesus comes aboard, His peace settles over your life, and it tames what no one else could tame.