2009-10-30T09:15:25-05:00 GCI info@gospel.com http://www.gospel.com/feeds/topics/new+beginning http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/the-trouble-with-lifes-great-catches-5950 2009-10-30T09:15:25-05:00 We have tried to fill a God-sized hole with things and people that can't begin to take His place. If we live like this, we'll live without peace and without meaning. If we die like this, we'll spend eternity without God and His love. He didn't leave us separated from Him. He pursued us. He sent His Son, Jesus, to sacrifice His life for yours and mine; to take the rap for all our sin, that defiant self-rule of our lives. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/the-greatest-miracle-known-to-man-5930 2009-10-02T09:10:40-05:00 Jesus, this name you have to believe in, means "Jehovah saves." So when you "believe in His name," you're telling Jesus that you're taking Him as your personal Rescuer from the death penalty for your sins, because He's the only One who died for them. Which brings us to the eternal life-or-death question: has there been a time when you've done that? http://biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%205:17&version=NIV 2009-10-01T17:37:03-05:00 When our sins are forgiven, we're not just an "improved" versions of our old self--we're a completely new person! We're no longer bound to any of the guilt or shame that previously bound us; we are, spiritually speaking, a new creation. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/life-saving-pain-5921 2009-09-21T09:15:53-05:00 The longer you refuse to repent of your sin, the more God is going to turn up the pain, and the higher price you're going to pay. Not because He doesn't love you, but because He does; too much to let you keep going down a road that's destroying you. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/the-verdict-and-the-penalty-are-already-in-5917 2009-09-15T09:22:30-05:00 There's one verdict, and one sentence we don't have to wait for - yours and mine. The verdict and the penalty are already in. Not from a jury, but from the Judge. The Judge we must all face - God Himself. Deep down inside, we know that on the other side of our last heartbeat, which He decides by the way, we'll face our Creator. The Bible gives us a sobering warning about that: "Prepare to meet your God." http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/front-lines-surrender-and-front-lines-victory-5910 2009-09-11T13:05:29-05:00 The battle looming ahead of you is not the battle that will decide what happens to you. It's the battle inside you. The battle that can be settled today as you quit fighting God and walk into the arms of Jesus, the strongest arms in the world. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/the-deepest-cry-of-the-human-heart-5899 2009-09-11T12:15:21-05:00 It's possible to believe in God, to do God's things, and to still miss the deep experience of His love. And without that love, the emptiness and loneliness in our heart is never satisfied, no matter how many human loves we experience. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/go-when-the-gate-is-open-5882 2009-09-11T11:03:10-05:00 The Lord may not always be able to be found. He won't always be near. That's why you have to come to Him while He is. The gate to get to God could not be clearer. It's not a religion - no religion including Christian religion. It's a person. Jesus said, "I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved." http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/no-such-thing-as-mission-impossible-5860 2009-09-10T14:45:21-05:00 I can't imagine anyone in the world of the early Christians whom they would have considered a greater "mission impossible." But there's no such thing when it comes to God, including that person in your life who seems to be so hard, so far from God, so antagonistic, so impossible to get through to http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/deeply-personal-5856 2009-09-10T14:29:32-05:00 "For me. What He did there is to pay for every sin I've ever committed, for every wrong thing I've ever done." It's at that point that you realize Jesus is your only hope of being clean, being forgiven, of ever having a relationship with God, your only hope of going to heaven someday. And you surrender yourself to this Son of God who gave His life for you.