2009-11-19T17:15:06-05:00 GCI info@gospel.com http://www.gospel.com/feeds/topics/your+most+important+relationship http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/the-forever-stormy-sea-5961 2009-11-19T17:15:06-05:00 We've gotten away from the God who made us, and the God we were made for. And there's no peace there. Our soul is missing the only One who can remove the things that keep that sea in our soul so turbulent; our guilt over the mistakes we've made, our regrets over things we never should have done, the restless searching for what will give life real meaning, the uneasiness about what's going to happen to us when we die. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/the-bread-for-tomorrow-5955 2009-11-06T09:17:16-05:00 Maybe you've been let down by others in the past, and maybe you're often anxious about whether you'll have what you need and you'll have it when you need it. With God as your Heavenly Father, with you as His child purchased with the life of His Son, that's unnecessary worry. And in a sense, it's an insult to the God you belong to. You are living with the greatest security in the world. You are living from hand to mouth. From His hand to your mouth, and what you need for tomorrow is as good as already in your hand. 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/how-to-banish-the-darkness-5949 2009-10-29T09:29:49-05:00 When it's the darkest, when it's the hardest to praise Him, that is when you need to praise Him the most, because praise is that blinding light from heaven that dispels the darkness and banishes your enemy. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/beauty-from-brokenness-5948 2009-10-28T09:59:58-05:00 They can see through your wounds the amazing beauty of a joy and a hope that only a Savior like Jesus can give. If you'll turn away from your despair, and maybe bitterness, anger, and self-pity, and give your brokenness to Him, He can do that miracle for you. The songwriter was right when he said, "All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife. But He made something beautiful of my life." http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/one-unloseable-hope-5944 2009-10-22T10:07:52-05:00 That unloseable relationship with God comes only one way, because we're away from the God we need so much; away by our choice, not His. We've repeatedly chosen our way instead of His way and we've built an eternal wall between us and God. A wall that God Himself acted to tear down by sending His only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for all our sins when He died on the cross. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/how-to-know-where-you-are-going-when-you-cannot-see-5942 2009-10-20T09:15:36-05:00 Through His forever-trustworthy words, God will keep for you His promise for the days when you can't see where you're going. You can stake everything on this promise: Isaiah 42:16 - "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/how-to-be-sure-you-will-make-it-home-5941 2009-10-19T09:25:49-05:00 Beginning this day, you can know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are going to heaven when you die because you've put yourself in the hands of the only One who can take you there. And whenever your last day on earth is, you'll just be going home. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/a-cup-of-rice-or-a-bag-of-gold-5932 2009-10-06T09:11:42-05:00 When God's Son, the Prince of Heaven, is hanging on that blood-stained cross, He is totally impoverishing Himself so you can have God's love, and God's resources, and God's heaven. It's hard for us to see that we're the beggar, but the Bible says we are spiritually bankrupt because our running of our own life has cut us off from our Creator. Only Jesus can bring us back. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/paving-over-it-2573 2009-10-02T11:19:06-05:00 The biggest problem of all - the sin that haunts our past, poisons our present, and threatens our future. Covering it will not work - removing it will. Only Jesus can do that. He's waiting for you to ask Him to.