2008-11-13T15:42:24-05:00 GCI info@gospel.com /feeds/topics/motivational+articles/ http://hutchcraft.com/Motivational-Articles/The-Relationships-You-re-Restless-For/Pursuing-Your-Master 2008-11-13T15:42:24-05:00 God's Word says in Psalm 42:1-2, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” David then asks what is probably one of the best questions in the Bible: “When can I go and meet with God?” If you are a follower of Christ, you have an instinct to say, “I want to go where my Master is and be with Him. As soon as I get a chance, I want to be in His presence.” Perhaps, though, this might be what is missing in your relationship with the Lord. http://hutchcraft.com/Motivational-Articles/The-Mission-You-Were-Made-For/Getting-Through 2008-11-13T15:41:10-05:00 In Matthew 13 of the Bible, Jesus says, “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up” (verses 3-4). That seed never stood a chance. In verse 19 Jesus explains that “when anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.” This doesn’t say they didn’t want the Gospel or that they rejected it. It says they didn’t understand it. http://hutchcraft.com/Motivational-Articles/The-Power-You-Need/Impressing-God 2008-11-13T15:38:55-05:00 That skill of making a good impression gets more and more important as our responsibilities grow. Some people even hire a company to write a good résumé for them. We get pretty good at analyzing what will impress others until we meet a person who isn’t impressed by any wardrobe or résumé. http://hutchcraft.com/Motivational-Articles/The-Hard-Times-That-Hurt-You/Slow-Down-for-Construction 2008-11-13T15:37:09-05:00 These words present a beautiful scene, but there are some potentially troubling words here: "He makes me lie down..." We tend to slow down rather unwillingly, but God has a lot of ways of putting on the brakes. God can use one visit to the doctor, a child who is in crisis, an emergency in the life of someone we love, or bad financial news as brakes to slow us down. It could be a dramatic change that we never could have anticipated. The brakes are different, but the result is the same—we get slowed down. http://hutchcraft.com/Motivational-Articles/The-People-You-Love/The-Rebuilder-s-Dream 2008-11-13T15:35:30-05:00 Gideon was hiding in a pit and didn’t look like a mighty warrior at all. God comes along and says, “Mighty warrior.” God didn’t see what Gideon was, He saw what he could be and what He intended to make him. God did the same with Peter. Peter was a flake when he came to Jesus; he was always up and down and very inconsistent. Jesus said, “You will be a rock when I am finished with you.” http://hutchcraft.com/Motivational-Articles/The-Tripper-Uppers-That-Hinder-You/Spun-to-the-Edge 2008-11-13T15:30:14-05:00 Martha is spinning in this story, and she is spinning so fast that she spins Jesus right to the edge. Could it be that your life has become so busy that you are neglecting Jesus? You don’t mean to, and you never meant to. The irony of Martha’s story, and maybe yours too, is that she was busy serving Jesus. You’re not out doing bad things. You’re out doing His work, but Martha has Jesus right in her home, and she misses Him. In fact, the phrase “distracted by all the preparations” literally means “pulled away.” She was saying, “Jesus, I’d like to be with You, but hold it. Have you seen my To Do List? Have you heard all I have to do? I have to take care of the roast. Oh, there goes the phone again.” http://hutchcraft.com/Motivational-Articles/The-Relationships-You-re-Restless-For/Always-in-Touch-With-the-Tower 2008-11-13T15:25:41-05:00 There is a problem with us busy people. We check in with the tower when we take off in the morning, and then don’t usually check in again until the end of the day’s flight. As the day heats up, we tend to turn off our radios, take off our headsets, and make a hundred little decisions on our own without consulting the Lord. We get cut off from the tower, so we end up in a lot of turbulence and sometimes get off course. We crash into people and we make unnecessary mistakes. Following Jesus means listening to the Spirit’s directing all day long, not just at the beginning and the end. http://hutchcraft.com/Motivational-Articles/The-Mission-You-Were-Made-For/Words-From-Higher-Up 2008-11-13T15:23:41-05:00 Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” An ambassador is an interesting role. They drop in on the prime minister of a country to which they are sent and they deliver messages straight from the president. If you know Christ, you are His ambassador. http://hutchcraft.com/Motivational-Articles/The-Power-You-Need/The-Silence-of-the-Good-Guys 2008-11-13T15:20:28-05:00 Psalm 107:1–2 of the Bible says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say this—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe.” This is a call to God’s people to make some noise. http://hutchcraft.com/Motivational-Articles/The-Hard-Times-That-Hurt-You/Pieces-and-Masterpieces 2008-11-13T14:55:41-05:00 Genesis 50:20 from God's Word says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Joseph is speaking to his brothers who left him in a pit and sold him into slavery. Now he is second-in-command of Egypt, saving their lives with the food program he has developed. Up close, this looked like tragedy but when you look at the big picture, it was the tapestry of God.