We had rented this nice cabin in the mountains, and we really didn't want to leave it much. The view across the valley was like a painting. It would change as the sun changed and the weather changed; all kinds of moods, you know, like you see in the mountains.
I had looked at the mountain across the valley from us many times, but I finally took a good look in that direction at night. That's when I saw it - the cross. There was a lighted cross on top of the mountain, glowing in the night from a vantage point where it could be seen all around. Actually, that cross is there all the time but you don't really see it until it's dark.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Light in Your Night."
You know, for many of us, the greatest discovery of our lives came when it was night; one of those dark times that we all go through in our life. A lot of people have learned that when it's night, you can see the cross, often for the first time in your life.
The cross - that awful place where Jesus was brutally crucified - turns out to be the ultimate proof of how much God loves you and me. If it's sacrifice that proves love, then we don't ever have to wonder how God feels about us. God the Father gave up God the Son to absorb the guilt and the hell for every wrong thing you and I have ever done. There's never been a greater sacrifice. There's never been a greater love.
But we can know about what happened on that cross. We can be around it for years and still miss that forgiveness, that love, even the heaven that Jesus died to give us. Maybe you've been kind of skirting the issue of dealing with Jesus personally. Maybe you feel someone's been pressuring you about Jesus, and that's just made you resist Him even more. Maybe it's pride that's kept you from having a life-changing encounter at the cross, or it could even be your Christianity, because you've had so much Christianity you thought you had Christ.
It's easy to go very busily about the routines of your life and never really see that cross until...it's suddenly night time. Something happens to your health, to your family, to your job, whatever you've counted on for security. And none of your answers, none of your fixes are enough. That's when a lot of people look up and finally see the cross, shining there in the night, showing them where hope is.
In John 12:32-33, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus said, "'When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself.' He said this to show the kind of death He was going to die.'" See, that was it - lifted up to die on a cross. But there would be a magnet in that old hunk of wood; a magnet that would draw the people He died for right to His side. It sure did that for me.
Which is exactly why you might be feeling that tug in your heart right now. Jesus is drawing you to come to the cross, to give yourself to Him; to find what you've spent your whole life looking for. All those religious hang-ups, all those lame arguments, all the proud resistance, all the spiritual pride that just drops to the ground at the foot of His cross and you finally belong to the One you were made for.
If you've been doing it without Jesus all these years, for whatever reason, and you want this to be the day you finally experience Him for yourself, would you tell Him that right where you are, "Lord, I turn from the running of my own life. I am pinning all my hopes on You because You died for me, and You walked out of your grave so you could walk into my life and I want you to today."
If that's what you want, I think our website is a good place for you to go right now. Because that's where I've laid out in a very simple and non-religious way exactly what the Bible says about how to be sure you belong to Jesus, and how you can know that every sin of your life's been forgiven; how you can know for sure you're going to heaven. I hope you'll check it out. It's ANewStory.com.
Look, maybe it's night right now, not because God doesn't love you, but because He does. He doesn't want to lose you. His cross shines very brightly in your night.
Once you meet Him there, it will never be night in your soul again.