{"id":378,"date":"2008-04-30T08:29:53","date_gmt":"2008-04-30T13:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/2008\/grace\/"},"modified":"2008-04-30T08:29:53","modified_gmt":"2008-04-30T13:29:53","slug":"grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/2008\/grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Closing &#8211; that&#8217;s what they call the day that you sign all those final papers to buy your home. I remember it well. It was a long time ago, but, I know that you&#8217;re finally allowed to start moving in &#8211; after your closing.\u00a0 You see, we sat with the previous owner in the attorney&#8217;s office and I got to write enough checks to wallpaper at least one wall!\u00a0 Now, they wouldn&#8217;t let us move anything in until closing day.\u00a0 That&#8217;s the law.\u00a0 It was still the home of the previous owner until that day.\u00a0 But as soon as we left that office the truck could roll, and it did.\u00a0 And all our stuff could get moved in.\u00a0 Of course this all has to be carefully timed &#8211; one family has to be out before another family can move in, right?\u00a0 Sure!\u00a0 What if we had rolled up with our truck and the previous owners were still there?\u00a0 We can&#8217;t both live there!\u00a0 One has to move out before the other can move in.<script>  <!-- D([\"mb\",\"u003cbru003eu003cbru003eIu0026#39;m RonnHutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about u0026quot;Somebodyu0026#39;s Got to Move!u0026quot;u003cbru003eu003cbru003eOur wordnfor today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 12:15. God is showing us, here, that there are twonthings that canu0026#39;t live in the same house at the same time; actually, in the same heart.\u00a0nThereu0026#39;s no way they can co-exist.\u00a0 Hereu0026#39;s what it says, u0026quot;See to it that no one misses the gracenof God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.u0026quot;\u00a0 Now, with thenstress you have, you sure donu0026#39;t want to miss Godu0026#39;s grace and His sustaining love.\u00a0 But thisnsays you can, you can miss Godu0026#39;s grace!\u00a0 How do you do that?\u00a0 Well, by having this othernguy living in your heart.\u00a0 It talks about having u0026quot;no bitter root.u0026quot;\u00a0 If bitterness isnliving in your heart, grace cannot move in.\u00a0 One or the other has got to go.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eCould it benthat part of your stress is a poisonous root of bitterness in your heart? Maybe youu0026#39;ve been hurt,nmaybe youu0026#39;ve been rejected, maybe youu0026#39;ve been abused, disappointed, and thereu0026#39;s a growing resentmentnin your heart.\u00a0 Notice - growing.\u00a0 It says the bitter root grows.\u00a0 Bitterness andnanger never stand still, they keep growing. They start to u0026quot;defile many,u0026quot; to spill over into othernclose relationships.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eJust last week a mother told me about how sheu0026#39;d been hurt some yearsnbefore and how her heart, she said, had grown hard. She said, u0026quot;Now my hard heart is affecting mynhusband and my children.u0026quot;\u00a0 You see, it was bitterness that turned it hard.\u00a0 The irony isnthat a grudge chains you emotionally to the person you dislike.\u00a0 u0026quot;I donu0026#39;t like so and so, sonIu0026#39;ll think about her a lot.u0026quot;\u00a0 Thatu0026#39;s what happens!\u00a0 Unforgiveness is like this emotionalncancer and it eats you up inside.\u00a0 It costs you Godu0026#39;s sustaining grace, and they canu0026#39;t live innthe same house at the same time!u003cbru003eu003cbru003eIsnu0026#39;t it time you released that bitterness? Hasnu0026#39;t it donenenough damage? It isnu0026#39;t hurting the person youu0026#39;re bitter toward, but itu0026#39;s hurting you, and probablynothers you love.\u00a0 Bitterness can only be moved out by something called forgiveness.\u00a0 Goingnto the Great Forgiver, the One who said of those who had just nailed Him to a cross, u0026quot;Father,nforgive them,u0026quot; and you say, u0026quot;Lord, give me the grace to release this person, to forgive them, tonrelease them to You.u0026quot;\u00a0 Not to excuse them, but choosing to treat them not as they treated me,nbut as Jesus treated me.\",1] );  \/\/--><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>I&#8217;m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about &#8220;Somebody&#8217;s Got to Move!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 12:15. God is showing us, here, that there are two things that can&#8217;t live in the same house at the same time; actually, in the same heart.\u00a0 There&#8217;s no way they can co-exist.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s what it says, &#8220;See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.&#8221;\u00a0 Now, with the stress you have, you sure don&#8217;t want to miss God&#8217;s grace and His sustaining love.\u00a0 But this says you can, you can miss God&#8217;s grace!\u00a0 How do you do that?\u00a0 Well, by having this other guy living in your heart.\u00a0 It talks about having &#8220;no bitter root.&#8221;\u00a0 If bitterness is living in your heart, grace cannot move in.\u00a0 One or the other has got to go.<\/p>\n<p>Could it be that part of your stress is a poisonous root of bitterness in your heart? Maybe you&#8217;ve been hurt, maybe you&#8217;ve been rejected, maybe you&#8217;ve been abused, disappointed, and there&#8217;s a growing resentment in your heart.\u00a0 Notice &#8211; growing.\u00a0 It says the bitter root grows.\u00a0 Bitterness and anger never stand still, they keep growing. They start to &#8220;defile many,&#8221; to spill over into other close relationships.<\/p>\n<p>Just last week a mother told me about how she&#8217;d been hurt some years before and how her heart, she said, had grown hard. She said, &#8220;Now my hard heart is affecting my husband and my children.&#8221;\u00a0 You see, it was bitterness that turned it hard.\u00a0 The irony is that a grudge chains you emotionally to the person you dislike.\u00a0 &#8220;I don&#8217;t like so and so, so I&#8217;ll think about her a lot.&#8221;\u00a0 That&#8217;s what happens!\u00a0 Unforgiveness is like this emotional cancer and it eats you up inside.\u00a0 It costs you God&#8217;s sustaining grace, and they can&#8217;t live in the same house at the same time!<\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t it time you released that bitterness? Hasn&#8217;t it done enough damage? It isn&#8217;t hurting the person you&#8217;re bitter toward, but it&#8217;s hurting you, and probably others you love.\u00a0 Bitterness can only be moved out by something called forgiveness.\u00a0 Going to the Great Forgiver, the One who said of those who had just nailed Him to a cross, &#8220;Father, forgive them,&#8221; and you say, &#8220;Lord, give me the grace to release this person, to forgive them, to release them to You.&#8221;\u00a0 Not to excuse them, but choosing to treat them not as they treated me, but as Jesus treated me.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hutchcraft.com\/\">www.hutchcraft.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Closing &#8211; that&#8217;s what they call the day that you sign all those final papers to buy your home. I remember it well. It was a long time ago, but, I know that you&#8217;re finally allowed to start moving in &#8211; after your closing.\u00a0 You see, we sat with the previous owner in the attorney&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bardenphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}