2008-08-29T01:24:32-05:00 GCI info@gospel.com http://www.gospel.com/feeds/topics/ecclesiastes http://hutchcraft.com/A-Word-With-You/Your-Relationships/Always-Beyond-Your-Reach-4462 2008-08-29T01:24:32-05:00 Celebrate everything you do have. Focus on all the good things your Father has done for you, and let Him turn praise for Him into blessed contentment for you. Because this stubborn push to always get what we don't have - well, it's for babies. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Word-With-You/Your-Personal-Power/Mighty-Rivers-Mini-Beginnings-4373 2008-08-27T15:48:11-05:00 The Mississippi River is actually a living example of how God loves to work. Something very big comes from something very small. Something very impressive comes from something very unimpressive. It's how He makes mighty rivers ... and mighty lives. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Word-With-You/Your-Most-Important-Relationship/Why-You-re-Waiting-So-Long-4378 2008-08-27T15:44:18-05:00 OK, here's my guess. Your Heavenly Father is working on something for you that you're going to love, but you're having to wait for it. And it's a long wait. And it's driving you crazy. In fact, you may be starting to panic and considering doing it your way instead of waiting for God to do it His way and in His time. There are millions of His children, living right now with the consequences of their impatience, wishing for all the world that they had waited for God's answer. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Word-With-You/Your-Hard-Times/Paralyzing-Predicaments-4203 2008-08-25T13:03:57-05:00 Even though that horse was scared, she was smart enough to let someone help her. Sadly, she was smarter than many of us when we're hurting or in a predicament. Maybe you're struggling with something right now, but you're struggling alone. You're not letting anyone else in to help you - and you're stuck in your problem. Like that horse, you may not be able to move on unless and until you open up to some help. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Word-With-You/Your-Mission/When-Your-Life-is-Drifting-4811 2008-08-20T11:22:25-05:00 It wasn't easy to make it possible for us to finally point our life in the right direction. There was nothing we could do to fix it. But God sent a rescue mission - His Son Jesus, who died to remove the guilt and the penalty of our sin and our wandering. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Word-With-You/Your-Relationships/Milestones-and-Manure-4122 2008-08-18T16:06:01-05:00 There's a passage of scripture I've been familiar with most of my life that has recently taken on a graphic new meaning to me. Because, in a very real way, it's about manure. I know this is a strange subject for a Christian discussion, but tell that to the Apostle Paul. He's the one who used the analogy. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Word-With-You/Your-Hindrances/The-Harvest-of-Doing-Good-4166 2008-08-18T12:14:27-05:00 Mark is reaping the good work he did many years ago - now he's enjoying the benefits of those efforts. It's a reminder of one of the wisest laws in the Bible - "Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7) We usually think about that in terms of the bad consequences of the bad seed we sow. But there's another side to that reaping equation. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Word-With-You/Your-Hindrances/Feel-Down-at-the-Top-4960 2008-08-12T11:42:49-05:00 From adolescence through adulthood, we keep thinking what we're looking for is just over that next hill. But no matter how many hills you've climbed, the peace and meaning wasn't there, was it? You need to climb one more hill - the one with that cross on the top where Jesus is dying for your sin so you can finally experience the God-relationship you were made for. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Word-With-You/Your-Relationships/The-High-Price-of-Hurrying-4962 2008-08-12T11:33:10-05:00 When you commit your way to the Lord, when you're really trusting in Him, you are also submitting yourself to His timing - which almost always means waiting patiently. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Word-With-You/Your-Most-Important-Relationship/Why-More-is-Never-Enough-5026 2008-08-07T14:13:59-05:00 We're lonely for God. We're away from God; so far away that it took the death of God's only Son to bridge the gap between us. Our self-run lives (the Bible calls that sin) place us under the death penalty for all rebels against God. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead three days later, was to pay for every wrong thing you've ever done and to open the door to love and life that never ends; that eternity you were made for.