Monday, April 4, 2016
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Governors' desks were vacant. Senators' offices were empty. They might as well have just put a sign on the door – "Gone to Iowa." Yep! The election season had begun a few months ago. Then they went to New Hampshire and South Carolina and on and on in the wild and crazy 2016 Presidential election year.
For a long time, the Iowa caucuses saturated cable news because that's where it all started. It was over and I was still trying to understand how it worked. But there's no doubt that the road to the White House started in the cornfields and ethanol wells of Iowa.
Every four years, cash becomes Iowa's bumper crop. Restaurants, motels, TV and radio stations, stores – they open their arms to the invading political army for months in advance. And then, in a single day, boom! They're all gone; Iowa in the rear view mirror. Next primary states, here we come!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When It's 'Love Ya!' Then 'See Ya!"
One Iowa store had some pretty funny caucus shirts back then. One said, "Is there a bale of hay I can interview you in front of?" Another one captured the cynicism of a state that knew the Iowa-fest was over when people voted, "Don't forget to wave next time you fly over."
"We love you, Iowa, and then we leave you" after they've served their political purpose, of course. That kind of "love ya as long as you can do something for me" is one thing when it comes to a state. But it's a broken heart when it's a person dumped by someone who said they loved them.
The "'til death do us part'" that changed to "I just don't love you anymore." The company you gave the best years of your life to that says one day, "We don't need you anymore." The people who cheered for you once are nowhere to be found now. The lover whose l-o-v-e seems now more like u-s-e-d. When "love ya!" turns to "see ya!" it hurts. It really hurts.
I've spent a lot of my life sharing with people the good news about love that changed my life and millions of others. Because I'm profoundly grateful that there's a love that will never betray you, never abandon you, never die on you.
It's obviously got to be bigger than any human love. But it's a love even little kids can understand. I know. Because I sang about it a lot when I was a kid – like millions of kids still do. "Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so."
Yes, it does. The Bible says in Romans 8:39, our word for today from the Word of God, "Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord"; Nothing on earth, nothing in heaven, nothing in hell, nothing in death. Jesus guaranteed this in Hebrews 13:5, I will never leave you or forsake you." And He said, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
The more love has hurt you, the harder it is to believe that. Before that "nothing can separate us," God says, "He did not spare even His own Son for us." That's when Jesus hung on a cross, to pay the death penalty for our hijacking the running of our life from God.
Today it is possible for you to embrace the love that will never let you go. You've lived this long without the love of Jesus. Don't live another day without Him if you want to begin a relationship with Him. He went to a cross to have this relationship. He walked out of His grave to prove to you He can deliver love that will last forever. Right now tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours" right there where you are.
Would you go to our website then? I've set it up in such a way that it has information there that is easy to grasp that will help you make sure you really do belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com.
If Jesus was ever going to turn His back on you, it would have been when He was going through your hell on that cross. But He didn't. He went the distance for you. He will never break your heart. His was broken for you. Jesus loves you. This I know.