[CS-FSLUG] "One Velcro Friend"

[Fred A. Miller]

A WORD WITH YOU
By Ron Hutchcraft
#4722 - "One Velcro Friend"
John 15:15 

Listen to the audio broadcast!
http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/ramhurl?p=pnm&f=/rhm/sounds/awwy/awwy4722.rm

        It was one of those nights that flashes back in our memory for years, 
like treasured pictures in a mental scrapbook. It was the early 1990s and the 
Soviet Union was beginning to break up. Estonia and Latvia had been under 
Soviet domination for years, with Christians often being persecuted and 
marginalized, even imprisoned and beaten. Our daughter was one of a team of 
college students, privileged to be one of the first Christian teams to be 
able to freely present Christ in Estonia and Latvia. They had just held some 
unforgettable meetings with believers in Riga, the capital of Latvia. They 
had heard some of the stories of the price some of those dear saints had paid 
for their loyalty to Jesus Christ. They had been through so much. 

        The team members bade their new friends an emotional farewell at 
church and they headed for the train station, where they eventually boarded 
the midnight train. But as they boarded, the railway platform was suddenly 
alive with the faces and the voices of the Latvian Christians they had left 
behind. They showed up en masse at the station for one last goodbye and a 
special sendoff. As our daughter settled into her seat on the train, she 
could hear the voices of those people joining together in a melody that 
echoed through the station. She didn't recognize the words - they were in 
Latvian, of course - but she surely recognized the song. As the train slowly 
began to pull out of the station, these who had endured so much were singing 
an old song that, at least for one college student, would never be the same 
again - "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear." 
These people would know that, wouldn't they? 

        I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One 
Velcro Friend." 

        That's what those people had learned through years of injustice and 
uncertainty and hardship - that Jesus is the "velcro friend" who sticks with 
you through it all. He wants to be that friend for you. People can fire you, 
abuse you, criticize you, divorce you, disappoint you, abandon you - but 
millions of us have found what those Latvian followers of Christ found - that 
Jesus is life's one and only "through it all" person. In fact, intimacy is 
born from difficulty. When the Apostle Paul said his passionate life goal was 
to "know Christ," he went on to say that involved knowing "the power of His 
resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings" (Philippians 
3:10). You never really know Jesus until you really, really need Jesus. And 
when you really, really need Him, He's really, really there. 

        The Son of God, the King of all kings, laid out the amazing 
relationship He wants to have with us as He was talking to His disciples just 
before His long, dark night of the cross - and the long, dark stretch that 
would follow for His disciples. In John 15, beginning with verse 15, our word 
for today from the Word of God, Jesus says, "Greater love has no one than 
this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do 
what I command. I no longer call you servants ... I have called you friends." 
If you have that love relationship with Him, there is nothing the two of you 
can't handle - because as the Bible says, "if God is for us, who can be 
against us?" (Romans 8:31). 

        And if you don't have that love relationship with Him, it can begin 
today. If you'll give your life to this One who loves you so deeply that He 
paid for your sins with His life. Our sins are very serious business, and 
they carry a death penalty - which Jesus paid for you. You've had a lot of 
relationships, and you hoped each one would be the ultimate harbor for your 
heart. It wasn't. Jesus is life's only safe harbor, and you need to be in the 
safety of His love. You don't need one more day without Him. Tell Him, 
"Jesus, I'm Yours," and let His forgiveness and His love into your lonely 
heart. I wrote a booklet about this moment when you begin with Him called 
Yours For Life. Just let me know you want it, and I'll send it to you. 

        "What a friend we have in Jesus." It's more than a song. It's a life 
you can have. Then no matter what the future holds, that will be your 
personal anchor - "what a friend I have in Jesus."

If you're not sure you belong to Jesus, and you would like to make sure today, 
Ron would like to send to you a free copy of the booklet, "Yours for Life: 
How to Have Life's Most Important Relationship."  To read it online, click 
here:
http://www.yoursforlife.net/

OR, to request your free copy of "Yours for Life," click here:
http://www.gospelcom.net/rhm/yours/yflorder.html

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"A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft is a daily radio challenge, with 
slice-of-life illustrations and insights - providing practical help on the 
issues that matter most. If your local Christian radio station does not air 
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Copyright (c) 2005, Ron Hutchcraft. Permission to distribute this material via 
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Copyright (c) 2005, Ron Hutchcraft. Reprinted with permission. "A Word With 
You" is a radio outreach of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.

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