AWWY

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A WORD WITH YOU
By Ron Hutchcraft
#5133 - "Bring Your Bowl and I'll Feed You"
Psalm 81:10

Listen to the audio broadcast!
http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/ramhurl?p=pnm&f=/rhm/sounds/awwy/awwy5133.rm

   I was with some missionaries in Guadalajara, Mexico. David was there leading a team that was reaching young Latin Americans through a historic youth radio broadcast. Now David is a big guy and I had my picture taken with him; he was wearing a tie - I was wearing a sport shirt. It looked like "bring your son to work day." Guess who looks like the son?Because of the crime rate in David's area, he and his family needed a guard dog, and they had one - a big one that's a match even for his master, David. The dog is appropriately named General and he's pretty much in charge at the house. When David came home from a night of ministry, General was right there at the gate, waiting to play. Playing with this aggressive German Shepherd could cost you a finger or two if you're not careful. But, somehow, David had done a good job of mastering the dog.  In fact, I heard him tell General, "Get your bowl, and I'll feed you!" General just wanted his master to give him food, but David wanted!
  him to go for it. So, this German Shepherd bolted up the walk to his big, empty plastic bowl, grabbed it in his iron jaws, and trotted up to his master with it. Sure enough, if he got his bowl, his master would fill it.

   I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bring Your Bowl and I'll Feed You."

   God has so much more He wants to give you. So much more He wants to do for you than you've experienced yet. But He may be waiting for you to take a step in that direction first. Psalm 81:10, our word for today from the Word of God: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." Sounds familiar! In a sense, God is saying "Bring your bowl and I'll feed you." He wants us to want it; to pursue it.

   Here's the sad reaction God often receives from His people though. The passage goes on to say, "But My people would not listen to Me; Israel would not submit to Me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.  If My people would but listen to Me, if they would follow My ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes? You would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." God is saying, "I have so much to give you, but you're too busy going your own way to pursue it."

   But I believe there is someone listening right now whose heart condition could be described in one word - restless.  You go to God's meetings, you believe God's beliefs, you work in God's work, you eat what's served to you spiritually, but your heart isn't satisfied, is it? Here's why. Deuteronomy 8:3 - "I caused you to hunger so I could feed you with manna neither you nor your fathers have tasted." God said to His ancient people, "I made you hungry, I made you want more, I made you restless, so you'd be ready for something more amazing than anything you or your parents have ever experienced."

   If you're hungry for God's "something more," He's more than ready to pour it into your life, if you'll open up to it. You'll have to say good-bye to spiritual business as usual, to mediocrity. Are you willing to say, "Lord, I want more of You than I've ever experienced, whatever it takes. I want to make more of a difference than I've ever made whatever it takes"?  Then, start to pray that way. Immerse yourself in His Book with this appetite for a new touch from God. Be with others who want a personal revival. Go after the sin in your life aggressively.

   When my friend told his dog to "Get your bowl and I'll feed you," the dog dropped his toys, stopped everything else he was doing and did what he had to do to get what his master wanted to give him.  Your Master is saying to you, "There's so much more for your marriage, your relationships, your ministry, your relationship with Me." It's time to drop every other trivial pursuit and go for God's banquet. Jesus said it, those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness" are the ones who will be filled.

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A WORD WITH YOU
By Ron Hutchcraft
#5134 - "Beyond the Walls"
John 4:4

Listen to the audio broadcast!
http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/ramhurl?p=pnm&f=/rhm/sounds/awwy/awwy5134.rm

    Once upon a time there was a machinist who lived with his wife, his four-year-old son, and his new baby boy in a cheap apartment on the south side of Chicago. He spent a chunk of his meager earnings on alcohol and cigarettes and gambling, and then the bottom dropped out of his life. His baby boy died suddenly at the age of only six months. He was crushed by inconsolable grief, and this machinist (John was his name) took his one surviving boy to church. Now, John didn't go in. He didn't go to church. But he did wait out in front in his car, smoking his cigarette and reading his Sunday paper. Until the day one of the men of the church looked outside and noticed that man in the car. He didn't wait for John to come in. He went outside to John's car, introduced himself, asked a few questions, and then invited him in. Well, when John said he wasn't dressed for it, the man told him it didn't matter how he was dressed. That little boy gave his heart to Jesus in that church. And !
 only a few months later, his Dad started coming to the men's Bible class. John tearfully walked the aisle on Christmas Eve; accepting Christ's forgiveness for his sins. He would grow in Christ and ultimately he'd become a deacon, and then the chairman of the deacons, and then an active Christian lay leader. The little boy was me. The machinist in the car in front of the church was my dad.

    I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beyond the Walls."

    We were the unchurched. We were the lost. But someone went outside the walls of the church to reach my father. Because he did, my father is in heaven today. There are more people than ever like my father; they will never know Christ if we wait for them to come inside the walls of the church. We'll have to go out where they are if they're going to have a chance at heaven.

    This is not a new idea. In John 4:4, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says, "Jesus had to go through Samaria." It was there that Jesus encountered the woman at the well and led her out of a life of promiscuity and emptiness into a new life in Christ. And ultimately she went back and told her village about Jesus and they all came to Him. John 4 tells us that "many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the woman's testimony."

    Now why did Jesus have to go through Samaria when Jews did everything they could to avoid going through Samaria? Because Samaria is where you go it you want to reach Samaritans! If we want to follow our Master, we'll need to go where the lost people are. Most of them don't ever plan to go to our religious meeting to listen to our religious speaker talk on a religious subject in a religious place; which is usually how we go about trying to reach them. It's no wonder they're still lost.

    If we want the lost to be at our outreaches, we need to have some of those outreaches in places they will come to - neutral places. And you've been strategically placed right in the middle of some spiritually dying people. You work with them, you live near them, you go to school with them, and you recreate with them. You are God's program for rescuing the lost people who are around you. That's why God placed you there, to save some lives. See, you're already where the spiritually dying people are!

    It's very possible that the reason my dad is in heaven today is because someone left where it was comfortable and someone went outside the walls to reach him. That's where an awful lot of lost people are, and that's where they'll have to be reached; including people you know very well. You see, going outside the walls may be the only hope for a lot of people in your town - for someone you know and for someone you love.

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Gary, these are beautiful studies. I am having trouble listening to the audio, don't know why I have real player, and windows media player, and sound I keep getting an error message.

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    The events of September 11, 2001, changed a lot of things, including our definition of the word "hero." Because we saw what real heroes look like - those police and firefighters who went into those burning towers, knowing they might not come out alive. But there were people to rescue. Immediately, professional football and baseball players began to speak out, telling the world they aren't the heroes. The people who risk their lives to save others are. By that definition, the rescue swimmers of the United States Coast Guard more than qualify. We saw them in action after Hurricane Katrina submerged much of New Orleans. They were the men dangling from those helicopters, scooping desperate people off rooftops. That was easy compared to some of their rescues, like plunging from a hovering chopper into an angry sea to save a life. A recent movie told the story of these heroes and portrayed how they lived out their motto, "So others may live." The seasoned veteran who is traini!
 ng a class of rookies shows them the depth of a rescuer's life-saving commitment. It's all about grabbing the hand of that person who's about to die and making this promise: "I won't let go." And they don't.

    I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hand That Won't Let Go."

    Those four words touch a nerve in my heart and maybe yours. "I won't let go." That's what we want: someone that really will never let us go, no matter what. But our lives are littered with so many who shouldn't have let go, but they did. Maybe your parents didn't hold on like you needed them to. Friends we thought would always be there aren't anymore, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, or your family. It's seems as if no one is able to always be there to hold on when we're going down, even a great husband or wife. People change. People leave. People are human. People die.

    Years ago, there was a movie with a title that stuck with me: "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter." Our hearts are hunting for an anchor person; that one person who will grab our hand and never, never let go. No matter what changes, no matter how we look or act or change, and especially when the storm is about to sink us.

    Over centuries, millions of people have grabbed the one hand that will never let go, and He never has. He's the One who made the promise recorded in Hebrews 13:5-6, our word for today from the Word of God, "'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we may say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?'" That promise is from Jesus Christ - the One who loved you enough to actually die in your place to pay for the sins that have always put God out of your reach.

    A lot of people may have failed to hang on. Jesus will never fail you. He says of those who come to Him, "I will never reject them" (John 6:37). If He was ever going to turn His back on you, it would have been when He was going through your hell on the cross. But He stayed there so you could live with Him forever. He will not abandon the one He paid for with His blood. When He died for you, He proved He's got the love that won't let you go. When He walked out of His grave on that first Easter morning, He proved He's got the power to hold onto you through everything life and death can throw at you.

    But you have to grab the Rescuer's hand. Has there ever been a time when you reached out to Jesus and grabbed Him as your only hope of being rescued from your sin? You could have been religious your whole life and yet never grabbed His hand for yourself. He's reaching for you today. I don't know how much longer you'll have to take His hand. I only know you have the chance today.




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Many of the regulars remember me being in and out of this site.......and it has really been a while since I have been active. In the time I have been away, there were so may things going on that I did not know which way to turn. So many things that brought sorrow.

I said I did not know which way to turn........and yet I did. Through all the trials of the last few months and the trials I still have to face, I find that I always look to see if God is still there........................and He always was. I don't deserve the friend I have in Christ, but I value that friend over all others. He has been with me through every single trial in my life and many of yours that read this. I chose the avitar I use because that is how I feel. Like Christ is there to comfort me. He always is, and always will be.

He never let go, even when I tried to, He never did. He never will.

I'll never be able to repay my God for his love, but I can do everything He asks of me and tell as many as will listen, about the love of our God and what He has done.............and not done for me.

Never let go of the joy of the Lord our God.

God be with you all

Gary

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Many of the regulars remember me being in and out of this site.......and it has really been a while since I have been active. In the time I have been away, there were so may things going on that I did not know which way to turn. So many things that brought sorrow.

I said I did not know which way to turn........and yet I did. Through all the trials of the last few months and the trials I still have to face, I find that I always look to see if God is still there........................and He always was. I don't deserve the friend I have in Christ, but I value that friend over all others. He has been with me through every single trial in my life and many of yours that read this. I chose the avitar I use because that is how I feel. Like Christ is there to comfort me. He always is, and always will be.

He never let go, even when I tried to, He never did. He never will.

I'll never be able to repay my God for his love, but I can do everything He asks of me and tell as many as will listen, about the love of our God and what He has done.............and not done for me.

Never let go of the joy of the Lord our God.

God be with you all

Gary

Amen Brother Gary!

You are really speaking for all Christians. This life would be unbearable without JESUS, so we have a burden for the lost and know how much harder things are for them. It's nice to know that Christians are just passing through, and our real hopes are NOT of this world. We can know that our Citizenship is in Heaven - JESUS CHRIST, our HEAVENLY FATHER, and Heavenly Hosts await our homecoming.

But for now, GOD walks with us every step of the way, and the HOLY SPIRIT is our guide and comforter. I love what the Apostle Paul said about this life and what he wanted to do:  fight a good fight, run a good race, finish his course, and one day hopefully hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

In the meantime - KEEP LOOKING UP!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Matthew 18:20 NASB  "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."

Ephesians 2:19-22 NASB  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.