2013-10-04T14:47:08-05:00 GCI info@gospel.com /feeds/topics/identity/ http://faithgateway.com/downside-up-discovering-the-real-you/ 2013-10-04T14:47:08-05:00 Identity: Who Am I Really? I am amazed how a word of admiration or expression of affirmation can create energy that lasts for days. I don’t know about you, but a compliment can change my entire day. Positive affirmation creates energy and confidence. Admit it, when a total stranger walks up to you and says, […] http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/your-work-and-your-worth-6664 2012-08-06T10:59:59-05:00 It's time to dig down deep into where our identity was supposed to be; being God's workmanship, the Bible says; paid for by the blood of God's Son, who thought you were worth dying for. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/paper-trunks-and-permanent-wardrobe-6483 2011-11-16T13:32:38-05:00 Life is a series of new starts. What happens after the children are gone? Those new starts last from starting kindergarten, to college, to marriage, the empty nest, job changes, retirement. And we wear those identities for a period of time. But if you're ever going to find personal security, you need a transcendent identity—someone you can be forever. And Paul gave it to us, "In Christ." http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hindrances/what-the-quake-exposes-6409 2011-08-08T11:57:33-05:00 Jonah revealed the high price of diverting our trust from the true God to another god. He said, "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs" (Jonah 2:8). If we only knew all we could have from God...but for the idol. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-relationships/a-parent-s-hardest-job-6338 2011-04-28T15:05:55-05:00 We're assigned to nudge our children slowly but surely toward the gate. The gate's called personal responsibility. And if we do it well, they'll one day rise up and call us blessed. We just don't dare need them too much for our own identity. See, we're supposed to be getting them ready to leave. And that's a parent's hardest responsibility, but it's also one of our most important jobs. http://hutchcraft.com/a-life-that-matters/radio-program/undervalued-8283 2009-09-18T13:56:51-05:00 One newspaper said, “Susan Boyle is a Disney movie waiting to happen.” Well, maybe so. She was a contestant on England’s Britain’s Got Talent TV show. She was described as unglamorous, unfashionable, unknown, and when she walked on stage the judges just rolled their eyes. And then she sang, and she blew everyone away! A YouTube clip of her singing attracted over 40 million hits. Nobody realized the treasure she had inside her. http://hutchcraft.com/a-life-that-matters/radio-program/our-many-flavors-god-9183 2009-02-05T13:52:01-05:00 My friend turned me loose after hours one night in the store he owns. It’s a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store with all those flavors—lots of flavors. That’s actually how God feels. ... I’m Ron Hutchcraft, and you can tell that just by looking at us…God likes variety in the people He’s created. He’s made many flavors—a rainbow of colors. You know the song’s right, “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.” http://hutchcraft.com/A-Life-That-Matters/Radio-Program/Mary-s-Un-stealable-ID-8169 2009-02-05T10:18:36-05:00 I’ve got to tell you, I am really challenged by how this teenage girl understands who she really is. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Life-That-Matters/Radio-Program/Forgetting-Who-You-Are-8135 2008-11-07T11:54:29-05:00 I am convinced that so many of the damaging choices we’ve made in our life are because of one fundamental amnesia issue. We forget who we really are. We start believing we are who our critics say we are, or our friends, or our culture, or our feelings, or the devil. A life that matters is anchored in the identity given us by the God who made us, who sent His Son to die for us. http://hutchcraft.com/A-Life-That-Matters/Radio-Program/The-Homeless-Feeling-8126 2008-10-24T12:05:33-05:00 You don’t have to be without a home or a memory to need those same answers, “Who am I and who do I belong to?” Those soul questions are bottom-line for living a life that matters, and they’ve driven people to look in relationships and recognition and even religion to find answers, only to leave us still haunted by that homeless feeling.