January 7, 2021
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She was only days old when she was abandoned by her parents. The lady who found her took her to an orphanage where she spent the first year of her life. It was a caring place, but of necessity, it was unheated. So she was too bundled up most of the time to fully develop her motor skills, and she was one of some twenty infants in tiny cribs in a small room. She got to play sometimes in their playroom, but it was pretty small, too. Small is the word, I guess, that would really describe her whole world. Then one day a couple from America came and her caregiver placed her in their arms. That day, she had her first ever ride in a motorized vehicle and her first view of the world beyond the orphanage. Since then, there's not a day that goes by that she doesn't have some new experiences that just keep blowing the walls off her world. She's not an orphan anymore. She's home!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When the Lid Comes Off Your Life."
This is not just the story of one little girl. Spiritually speaking, it's the story of millions of people across this world - including me. Something happened. Actually, someone happened that has blown the walls off our world. For someone listening right now whose world has felt pretty small and pretty empty, you might be minutes away from the step that will blow the lid off your life.
For that little girl from the orphanage, her life could pretty well be divided up into "B.F." and "A.F." - before she had a family and after she got a family. For me, and for so many others, it's "B. C." and "A. D." - before Christ and after Christ; before we began a personal relationship with Jesus and after we did. In fact, once you belong to Him and see how life was supposed to be all along, you tend to see all the years without Him the way the famous British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge saw his fifty plus years without Christ. His autobiography is entitled, "Chronicles of Wasted Years."
There are some folks who think that giving themselves to Jesus will actually limit their life. How wrong they are. Jesus made this awesome promise in our word for today from the Word of God in John 10:10, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." The opposite of full is empty. And that's how so many people feel inside, how they feel when they think about what their life really means. It just seems empty.
Jesus said He came to make it full. And better yet, He came so that, as the Bible says, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life" (John 3:36), a full life on earth - eternal life in heaven. Because when you find Jesus, you find what and who you were made for. The Bible says about Jesus, we were "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). Without Him, it just doesn't work.
To make this God-life available to you, it cost Jesus His life. The sin that separates you and me from God could only be removed by God's Son paying the death penalty for it - the penalty that we deserve. Then He walked out of His grave to prove that He really is the Life-Giver. When you get Jesus, you plug into the plan you were made for; you get heaven's direction for your decisions; you get inexhaustible, "unloseable" love; you get God's grace to help you weather every crisis; you have someone who's bigger than every challenge that's bigger than you are.
In short, the lid comes off your life. But not until you place your life in His hands; hands that still bear the nail prints that prove how much He loves you. Maybe you're not sure you've ever done that. This could be your day to begin your personal relationship with Jesus by telling Him that you're ready to turn from the sin that He died for and put all your trust in Him.
If that's what you're ready to do; if you're ready to begin life as it was meant to be, centered on the One who made you for Himself, then I would encourage you to go to our website today. There's a lot of helpful information there that has been a real encouragement to people at the same crossroads moment that you're at right now. Just go to ANewStory.com.
Jesus came a long way. He paid a high price to hold you in His arms and make you one of His family. He's the home that your heart's been needing, and it's time to find your home.