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© 1997 Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
Last Update: 03/09/1997
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If you live on the east coast, there is one word that is sure to get your attention. Hurricane. Now, Hurricane Hugo was one of those mega-storms that really got our attention. You could watch the news for several nights before Hugo arrived, and they would show you a cyclonic circle inching across the weather map toward an uncertain destination. Half a million people were evacuated, from Florida to the Carolinas, not knowing where that little circle on the map was going to land. Finally, it became clear that Hugo's 130 mile an hour winds would slam ashore at Charleston, South Carolina. The challenge for public officials was to convince everyone that it was time to move. The mayor at the time gave a very solemn warning to the people there. He said, "Hugo is a killer. If you stay, you may very well die." Well, that was true then, and it is true now. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I'd like to have A Word With You about dying from doing nothing.
Our word from the Word of God comes from the prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament, chapter 18, beginning at verse 30. "Repent and turn away from all your offenses, then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit." God asks a very pointed question, "Why will you die?", then He turns it around and says, "Repent and live." In the Bible, the word repent always refers to changing your mind about sin. Whatever you have been cuddling and tolerating in your life, turn your back on it, change your mind about God, and pin all your hopes on Him.
Remember the mayor of Charleston said the hurricane was a killer. Well, God is saying that sin is a killer. With a hurricane, those who don't leave might survive. When it comes to sin, there are no survivors. If you die without your sins forgiven, you will never see God's presence. You will be lost forever, separated by sin He wanted to forgive because of what Christ did on the cross. There are eternal consequences of not dealing with our sin, but sin kills even now. It blows apart marriages, damages the people you love with your temper, ruins the beauty and purity of sex, destroys your reputation, and makes your emotions dark and depressed.
The people who die in a hurricane don't have to do anything to be killed by it. Many of them die from doing nothing and just staying where they are, and that's how it is with sin. All you have to do to have this life cheapened by sin is to do nothing. All you have to do to spend forever in hell instead of heaven is to do nothing. Stay as you are, and sin will kill you. God says, "Rid yourself of your sin." Get a new heart, and you can only do that at the cross where Christ died for you, where He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He was forgiving you and me when He said that.
God has been warning you, knocking on the door, pursuing you, and He is saying, "If you stay where you are, you will die." Don't flirt with disaster. Move away from living your way. The storm is closer than it has ever been to your coast. Flee to the safety of the cross of Jesus Christ.
If you would like to know more about what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, or if you want to know for sure that you belong to Him...
Read YOURS FOR LIFE!.
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© 1997 Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
Last Update: 03/09/1997