Friday, November 5, 2004
Driving is never more exciting than it is during a major snowstorm. In fact, it is so exciting you ought to avoid it. Sometimes you just can't. I was scheduled to speak at a retreat in the Pocono Mountains one January weekend and a major snowstorm moved in right on the Friday when everyone is supposed to be traveling to Pennsylvania from New Jersey. I waited all day for the call, "Sorry, it's been cancelled." I got the call. They were still going, and by that time it was dark. It was snowing very impressively, so I traveled at a very reduced speed and it looked almost impossible to make it until I spotted my friend up ahead - my friend the snow plow. He was clearing a lane as he went. I just fell in right behind Mr. Snow Plow and followed him through the storm all the way to the state line.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Way There's No Way."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Isaiah 43:16. God says, "This is what the Lord says - He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters." Verse 18: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." God is described here as He who made a way. This is a very exciting view of our Heavenly Father. He's the way-maker when there is no way. Like when the Jews were on the banks of the Red Sea, every sense said it was over. No way. Now, young people often pick up phrases and dialogue from popular movies. One of those that came from a movie a few years ago was a response when someone says, "No way." You just go, "Way." That's short for, "No, you're wrong. There is a way."
Right now you might be facing a seemingly impossible situation and you're shaking your head like the Jews at the Red Sea and you're saying "No way." Then there's this unexpected whisper from God's heart to yours: "Way." He's just trying to assure you that He will make a way through mighty waters that seem overwhelming and unmovable - through the desert, a place where there seems to be no resources.
If you've committed yourself to Jesus as your personal Savior, you belong to a way-making God. What does that mean? You can't judge the outcome by how bad the situation is. Your Father can overrule that. You can't judge by how impossible it is. It's only impossible by earth standards. But your God doesn't have impossible in His vocabulary. You can't judge by how late it is. You say, "Man, there's not enough time for an answer now." Hey, God could do in an hour what men couldn't pull off in50 years.
Stand with Job on this conviction. It's in Job 42:2, "I know that you can do all things, Lord, no plan of yours can be thwarted." One treacherous snowy night I looked ahead at a road that seemed impossible until I saw someone going ahead of me who could clear that road.
One fearful day, God's ancient people stood on the banks of the Red Sea trapped before the attacking armies of Egypt until they saw someone who could part a sea and bury an army. That very same God, the great Way-Maker, is out in front of you.