2009-01-05T12:07:15-05:00 GCI info@gospel.com http://www.gospel.com/feeds/topics/encouragement http://hutchcraft.com/A-Life-That-Matters/Radio-Program/Broken-At-Christmas-8162 2009-01-05T12:07:15-05:00 ...may be that’s a feeling someone listening today knows all too well. Here we are in the season when everybody’s all “joy to the world” and you’re dealing with the pain of a broken relationship, or a broken dream, or a broken heart. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Life-That-Matters/Radio-Program/The-Casualty-of-a-Busy-Life-8155 2009-01-05T11:58:25-05:00 Now, here’s the problem: there have been way too many times that Jesus has been the victim of centrifugal force in my life. Because the faster my life is spinning, the more I tend to allow Him to get thrown to the edge, starting with my personal time with Him in His Book. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Life-That-Matters/Radio-Program/Thanksliving-8151 2008-12-08T12:03:40-05:00 I want to encourage you to put on your Thanksgiving glasses every day of the year—looking for, focusing on the things you have to be thankful to God for. Because, as Charles Spurgeon said, “Those who look for providences will never want for providences to see.” http://hutchcraft.com/A-Life-That-Matters/Radio-Program/A-Sunrise-Sunset-Savior-8146 2008-11-25T11:35:40-05:00 During praise and worship, we were led in singing that great old hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul”. The verses talk about “when sorrows like sea billows roll…whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, ‘it is well with my soul.’” I glanced over at that precious lady with Alzheimer’s who had appeared pretty unresponsive most of the weekend. Her lips were moving. She was mouthing those words! ”It is well, it is well with my soul.” It was hard for me to sing after that. Then she mouthed the words to the next song, ”My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine…If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now”. What a testimony to the kind of Savior we have. He’s our sunrise Savior, early in our life. He’s our sunset Savior when the darkness is closing in, and through every hour in between. http://hutchcraft.com/Life-Issues/Emptiness/Hollow-on-the-Inside 2008-11-20T12:09:45-05:00 This is a world where image and appearance are everything. We work on our fitness, our hair, and our wardrobe, making good comments, making good impressions, looking like we have it all together, but there might be another you. http://hutchcraft.com/Life-Issues/Emptiness/No-Vacancy 2008-11-20T12:08:45-05:00 Is there a vacancy in your heart? There are times when a hotel or motel has run out of rooms and there is no vacancy. You are turned down and you can't stay there. ... Now the One who died for you knocks on the door of your heart again, but He won't forever. One day you will, in a sense, be knocking on the door of heaven. If you have never opened your heart for Jesus to become your own Savior from your own sin, there will be no vacancy there for you. http://hutchcraft.com/Life-Issues/Emptiness/The-Deepest-Cry-of-the-Human-Heart 2008-11-20T12:07:07-05:00 In our world today, there are so many people crying for love. So many human hearts are saying, "Somebody, somewhere, love me." For many who believe in God, there is still that awful vacuum. It's possible to believe in God, to do God's things, and to still miss the deep experience of His love. Without that love, the emptiness and loneliness in your heart is never satisfied—no matter how many human love relationships you experience. http://hutchcraft.com/Life-Issues/Depression/Freedom-From-Depression 2008-11-20T12:05:14-05:00 Sometimes it's easy to feel like you're a bird locked up in a cage wanting to be free. Your cage may be your painful memories, a broken heart, or a broken dream. ... Maybe you’re caged in by an addiction, a habit, or some anger that is eating you up inside. It also might be depression or even suicidal thoughts that have you held in. There's a cover on that cage, whatever it is. It's dark in there and there isn't anything to sing about. http://hutchcraft.com/Life-Issues/Depression/An-Extravagant-Gift 2008-11-20T12:04:14-05:00 Maybe you haven’t been shown much unconditional love. Maybe there is someone who should have been there for you in your life, but wasn't. ... Maybe there is someone who has betrayed you or who's abandoned you. There is someone who has paid an extravagant price for you. He is the One who made you and holds your eternity in His hands. He loves you very, very much. Just look at the price he paid for you. http://hutchcraft.com/Life-Issues/Depression/Behind-the-Happy-Face 2008-11-20T12:02:04-05:00 Behind many a happy face hides a hurting heart, and maybe that describes you. The happy face helps you live in a temporary denial of the pain inside, and it keeps other people from knowing a you that you're afraid they might not accept. Like the beach ball that you push farther and farther under the water, the deeper you bury it, the higher it's going to go when it's released. You can't bury the real you forever. As far as everyone knows, maybe you're the happy one or maybe even the hero, but you know that there's a wounded monster inside you. You're a wounded person with no place to bleed.