So what do you do when Murphy's Law hits all in one day? You know, Murphy's Law: "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong"? Well, we've all had plenty of those at our house. I remember one right now that hit my family. We were trying to get ready to go on vacation; we were leaving the next morning. The first thing that happened was that the freezer had gone on the blink and all of our food had spoiled. Oh, that was nice. And then we developed a little car trouble. Well, that was two hits; we could handle that. We had a mountain of laundry that had to be done before we left on vacation. Oh, of course, the dryer then broke that day. And then I was standing in the basement just trying to figure out what to do, and suddenly I noticed it was unusually moist around my feet. Sure enough, some of the sewer system in our house had backed up into a sink, overflowed, and there I was standing in the middle of it. At which point my wife came down the stairs and took a look at this entire falling-apart situation. Mr. Murphy had won! Now, you know what I needed while I was standing in my own personal swamp? Well, my wife said, "Welcome to Haiti." See, we had just been to Haiti where there's sewage in the street, and it's not funny there. But for some reason it just cracked me up, and that's exactly what I needed to get through it. What I needed in my own personal swamp might be the same thing you need right now. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Power of Joy." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 17:22 - "A cheerful heart is good medicine." That's what I needed in the middle of my swamp. In a tense situation, you need God's perspective pill - a merry heart, a good laugh. A sense of humor enables you to not take yourself so seriously. When you get all wrapped up tightly in a problem (or a swamp in the basement) well, you lose your sense of perspective; the ability to laugh at yourself in your situation takes you out of the mess for a moment and sort of takes you up on a hill where you can look down on it a little bit. You get perspective. You'll probably make better choices. Now, maybe you're a perfectionist; you're just driven to get everything right. You need to be able to joke about your weaknesses and your imperfections once in a while rather than just be choked on them. Nowhere is a sense of humor needed more than in parenting. Parents often come to me with deep concerns about their kids - great fears. And we, of course, try to work on a practical strategy to work with them. But one point of the strategy is usually just two words. Often I'll just say at the end, "By the way, lighten up." See, we want so badly to be effective parents, to get this problem solved. We worry so deeply that our children are going to be seduced by this godless world, and those are serious concerns. But if we think about our performance and their problems all the time, we're going to be paralyzed. We'll over-react. We'll talk a lot and listen little. We'll fear something so much we may actually make it happen. You know, could it be that your family could use a few laughs, some crazy, impulsive experiences, a parent who can kid himself about his own weaknesses. Laughing gets people to laugh, and relaxed kids communicate more, and relaxed parents make better decisions. "A merry heart is good medicine." Is that the medicine for the tension in you and maybe in your family? Don't be afraid to ask the Lord, "Lord, help me lighten up a little."

I think there was a time when people thought workers were demonstrating loyalty and nobility if they showed up for their job even if they felt sicker than a dog. More and more, people think you're not very smart if you do that! You may be one of those who drags yourself into work no matter how sick you are. You're there, all right, but so are your coughs, your sneezes, and your "cooties." Strangely, over the next few days, one co-worker after another comes down with symptoms that look suspiciously like what you brought to work with you. The poet was right, "no man is an island!" You're contagious! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Effect You Have." The truth is we're all contagious even when we're healthy. It's not just physical germs we spread; we spread an attitude wherever we are! And while the process of people around you catching your attitude may be as invisible as the transmission of germs, the results are just as real. They can get "sick" from being around you, or they can actually feel better because they've been around you. General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in World War II, revealed an important understanding of the leadership that we all exercise when he said this: "Optimism and pessimism are infectious and they spread more rapidly from the head downward than in any other direction." A husband infects his wife with whatever attitude he brings home - positive or negative. If you're wondering why she's acting in a way you don't like, maybe you should look in the mirror for the answer. A parent spreads their attitude to their children, a boss to his employees, a worker to his or her co-workers, a Christian leader to those who serve with him. A friend infects other friends with the health or the sickness of their attitude. In 1 Samuel 30, beginning with verse 6, our word for today from the Word of God, we can see a vivid picture - both positive and negative - of how the attitude contagion works. In this case, the sick attitude almost destroyed David's little band of soldiers. But one healthy attitude saved the day and it turned the tide of the battle. While David and his men have been gone, their bitter enemies, the Amalekites, have invaded their camp, captured their families, and plundered their camp. Verse 6 tells us that "David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters." You've got bitterness here, blaming, despair - those deadly viruses were spreading from one soldier to another because of the way they responded to this tragedy, to this defeat. "But," the Bible says, "David found strength in the Lord his God." He spread that strength to his men and he led them in a surprise attack that routed the Amalekites and took back everything the enemy had stolen. When you get your perspective on the situation from God rather than your feelings or the circumstances, you can turn the tide with a winning attitude. Which leads to the question of the day: "What kind of attitude are you spreading where you are?" Are you spreading joy or discouragement? Are you spreading confidence or fear? Is it encouragement or negativity? Are you leaving a trail of tenderness, or is it harshness? Stress or peace? Do you spread faith or do you spread unbelief? Do you spread prayer or do you spread worry? You are affecting the people you live with, the people you work with, the people you serve with. You are contagious, whether you realize it or not. Make their hearts lighter, not heavier. Give them reason to hope, reason to believe, not reason to despair. Those in whom the living Christ dwells have no excuse for spreading germs that make people feel sick in their heart and their soul!

I always knew that if my teenage son ever did with stocks what he did with baseball cards, he'd be a millionaire someday. And then maybe I could go on a cruise...you know, who knows? Well, a lot of young guys, when they go looking for baseball cards, just look for the card of people who are already famous. But, of course, those cards have already done a lot of their appreciating while he was becoming famous. Now, oldest son looked for players who very few people had ever heard of. He would go back into college and see who looked promising while they were in college. Then he'd monitor their minor league statistics, and he seemed to know a couple of specific statistics to look for as clues to future greatness. Then, when that man issued a rookie card (of course the rookie card is the only one you want to have; that's the really valuable one), then my son bought the rookie card. Then he just watched it appreciate, and then he would go and sell it and reinvest in some other surprising prospects. Now a lot of people were surprised by that players' greatness and they said, "Hey, who's he?" My son wasn't. He knew what to look for. Now, when it comes to picking God's future stars, there's one clue to future greatness that God looks for. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How To Be The One God Can Trust." Simon Peter - not a likely prospect to be a future star. Hey, if you were looking in the minor league to see who would become a major league leader for Jesus Christ, I'm not sure you would have picked Simon Peter. Why would God use him? What did He see in him? I mean, he sleeps when you need him to be awake - he talks big, he doesn't deliver on his promises - he takes matters in his own hands and does ear surgery. He denied Jesus to a 12-year-old girl. That's all true, but he had the one trait that Jesus looks for, and that's what makes a disciple's heart. Luke 5:4-6, our word for today from the Word of God - here's what it says: "When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch.' Simon said, 'Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.' And when they had done so they caught such a large number of fish their nets began to break." Okay, yes Peter's inconsistent, he's proud, he's unpredictable, impulsive, but he had the one trait out of which Jesus can build a disciple. When He can think of no other reason to do what Jesus said, he replies, "Just because You say so, I'll do it." Unquestioning obedience - that's the core of a disciple's heart. Now, he already failed to bring in any harvest. That was a reason not to go out as Jesus told him to. It was going to be inconvenient; he'd have to clean his nets again. Everything in his experience was against it; he knew it shouldn't work. You're not going to catch them in the middle of the day if you didn't catch them in the middle of the night. But he does it because Jesus said so, and that's the thing God looks for in His future stars. So, everything around you might say, "uh... Have sex now." But you're going to keep it pure just because Jesus says so. Everything that seems to make sense says, "Oh, let your marriage go. Get out of it while you can." You might even have people advising you that way. But you're going to fight to keep it together because Jesus says so. You're going to be honest. When it looks like fudging a little bit, a little deceit, a little playing games with the truth might get you where you want to go, but you're going to tell the truth no matter what the cost. You're going to give generously even if the money isn't there. You're going to forgive and restore that relationship you don't feel like restoring because Jesus says so. Are you someone that Jesus can build into one of His trusted disciples? Oh, maybe you've got a lot of weaknesses, I do. But once you know what Jesus says, you just do it. See, then in the major leagues of God's usefulness, you may be destined for greatness.

I've been in three hurricanes, but always on land. I can't imagine what it would be like to face it out on the water. The crew of the container ship El Faro were on pace to be well ahead of Hurricane Joaquin, until they suddenly found themselves with no propulsion system directly in the path of a Category 4 Hurricane: 50-foot waves, 140-mile-an-hour winds, zero visibility. The crew's families asked for people to pray for them and for their missing loved ones. A Coast Guard officer said, "No matter how big the ship is, when you're disabled and you're at sea, and you're in the middle of a storm, the size and strength of that storm is just enough to overcome just about anything." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Storm Your Ship Can't Handle." I've never been on a ship in a storm. But in a more personal way, I kind of get what he's saying. Because storms - the physical and emotional kind - are part of everyone's story. I've felt the blows of medical crises that threatened the lives of people I cherish. I've experienced the pain of someone I love being here one day, and then suddenly gone. I've had trust betrayed. And there are the consequences of choices that I made and I wish I could have back. And, like most people, I want to think I'm smart enough and strong enough to navigate the brutal winds and the surging waves. But, truth be told, it's like the Coast Guard captain said, "Sometimes the size and strength of that storm is just enough to overcome just about anything." And that's when people go under. Marriages break apart. Panic drives us to choices that will even sink us more. Fear, despair, and desperation take us down. I'd like to think I'm pretty strong emotionally, but not strong enough to hold things together when I'm blindsided by a really brutal storm. But, thank God, I belong to Someone who is. When Jesus was here, the team He built included some seasoned fishermen who had weathered many a storm, until the night that all their experience and strength wasn't enough to keep their boat from starting to go under. That's when Captain Jesus stepped to the stern, raised His hand and shouted a command, "Peace! Be still!" The Bible says, "The wind died down and it was completely calm." Because whatever storm is bigger than we are, Jesus is bigger than it is. After all, He had the power to walk out of His grave three days after He died on a cross to pay for our sin. Jesus hasn't always stopped the storm around me. But He's calmed the storm inside me, beginning with the turbulence in my soul from battling with God for the control of my life. But, thanks to Jesus' life-giving love, I have, as it says in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 5:1, "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." That peace is my unshakeable anchor and that anchor has always held. The storm we can't handle finally confronts us with a truth we've never wanted to face. We were never meant to be at the helm in the first place. This may be the day when you finally surrender your heart and life and the control of your life to the One who gave it to you in the first place. The Bible says, "You were created by Him and for Him." Jesus had to die on a cross to pay for our rebellion against God. But today He's ready to bring you home into that relationship you were made for. And that peace with God that comes through Jesus; you can go to sleep with that in your heart tonight and every night for the rest of your life. There's some wonderful information I'd love to give you at our website so you can be sure you've begun this relationship with the only One who can rescue you from your sin. It's ANewStory.com. Maybe the storm that you've been in has been for an ultimately eternal purpose. Because for many of us, the storm that almost sank us was the storm that finally blew us Home.

Man, our garage was one busy place! I mean, you know, being in Youth Ministry, having meetings at our house. It was the fastest way to get to the basement. So, I mean teenagers were coming and going through the garage, and my wife and I were going in and out daily through the garage, and I usually had an armload of something. And in bad weather, the garage was the best way to get to the driveway, to the back yard. Well, listen, I'll tell you what. I got a great Christmas present that year - an automatic garage door opener. Never had one of those before and someone gave it to me. Oh, that changed my life. Wow! It just meant so much with all I had to do and all I had to carry and how fast I was trying to move. Why, that door would open before I got there! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Security in Uncertainty." Okay, our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 10:3-4. Some years ago we felt the Lord's leading to move from a ministry in Chicago. That was a place and it was people that we really knew well, and we knew we should move to the New York area - a place where we knew virtually no one. We were literally jumping from the very known to the very unknown. And God gave us a word from the Bible that was my anchor then and has been my anchor since then in a lot of uncertain moments. Jesus says in John 10, speaking of the shepherd, "He calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. And when he has brought out all of his own, he goes on ahead of them." Oh, man, I love that! I told you about that garage door opener. It makes sure that the way is open before I get there. I've got a Shepherd who does that, and so do you if you belong to Him. See, the Shepherd gets there ahead of the sheep. And no matter how new, or how dark, or how scary, or how uncertain the path seems to be, the Shepherd has gone ahead of you there. I'm sure they did that back in Jesus' day. The shepherd would go wherever the sheep were being led - first - and he'd check it out and make sure there was pasture to feed them, see if there were any wolves there, and see where the edge of the cliff was so they wouldn't walk over it. Your Shepherd is doing that for you right now. Maybe you're facing a situation that's got a lot of question marks. Maybe more than question marks - maybe even some frightening possibilities. You can be sure that Jesus is already there. He's way ahead of you, clearing the way, making sure that your needs will be met. He's dealing effectively with the dangers that are going to be there, and He is securing your future for you because you're a lamb in His flock. Yeah, He leads His sheep out, but then He goes before them. Boy, I'm glad that's John 10:4 - it's kind of like the radio people saying, "Ten-four, good buddy. That's all you need to know; that the Shepherd goes on ahead of you." You know in the Old Testament King David said "The Lord is my Shepherd." I wonder if you can say that. I wonder if you've ever actually begun a relationship with this Jesus who loved you enough to die for your sin on the cross and who is powerful enough to walk out of His grave. He wants to walk right into your life and be your Shepherd. Yeah, He is The Shepherd, but is He yours? You could ask Him into your life this very day and I pray that you'll do that. Say "Jesus, I'm Yours. I want to belong to You." And if you're not sure you do, go to our website and I think we can help with that. When you're in Christ's care and you're headed toward what seems to be a closed door or maybe even what's ahead in eternity, remember your Lord's going ahead of you first making sure that the door is open before you get there.

When I was with my grandchildren when they were younger, I didn't want them to watch the news. It's too gruesome: another brutal execution, the slaughter of captured soldiers, an act of terrorism, more bloody battles in more places than the news can possibly cover. It used to be that there were intelligence reports of an increased terror chatter, for example, when any major holiday or when the September 11th anniversary approaches. Now we get those reports, it seems like, every day. I remember the Secretary of Defense said, "The world is exploding all over." I guess we could run around like Chicken Little, clucking that "the sky is falling." Or we can play the proverbial ostrich with our head in the sand. I don't think either one of those is a good idea. Yes, I do need to know that the world is getting more dangerous and the future less secure. No, I don't need to live in fear. When I see ominous clouds in the sky, I know I can't stop the storm, but I can get ready in case it turns nasty. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Safe In a Dangerous World." There are three questions about the world that I have some control over; my personal world. Number one, does my family feel safe in my love? Years ago, I realized that I needed to give each member of my family all of me at least once a day. We're talking focused love here. Sometimes it just takes two minutes of laser focus attention. Other times it takes two hours. But knowing I'm the family thermostat, I know they need daily evidence that they are secure in my love. And these days we live in are a great time to do whatever it takes to make each one feel safe and valued, heard, and understood. So everybody knows that once they come in this house, they are safe - this is not just another battlefield. Number two, am I living to make a difference? I saw it a lot after the wake-up call of 9/11. And again in '08 when the economy collapsed, seemingly overnight. Suddenly, lots of folks were asking questions they didn't usually ask about what really matters and what really doesn't. Many concluded that it's not making money or making a nest or making an impression that matters - it's making a difference. Investing in what will last, like people. Finding a need we can do something about and doing it, from the homeless to the hungry, to that hurting person at work or school, children without dads, wounded warriors, lonely seniors, exploited women, kids in need of mentors. I can't change the world. But I might be able to change a life. Number three, am I safe, no matter what happens? See, we live with regular reminders of how quickly things can change, how suddenly it can all be gone. But it's not a time for fear or anxiety. It's time for hope. Time to be sure I'm anchored to a hope that is disaster-proof, terror-proof, tragedy-proof, and death-proof. Three days after the 9/11 attacks shook the country, the President of the United States spoke at a national prayer service, and he concluded by quoting a statement from the Bible. It's our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 8:38-39, "Neither death nor life...neither anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Listen, that's my anchor. That's my unloseable - a love that would not turn His back on me even when He was dying on a cross to pay for all the garbage of my life, of my sin. I found what for me is the one safe place in a world that is "falling apart." It's Jesus. The only One who ever walked out of His grave under His own power. I've found Him to be what the Bible says He will be - "an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19). Don't you need that anchor? In a world of so much uncertainty, this is your day to grab His outstretched hand with nail prints in them because He died for you and say, "Jesus, I'm yours." If you'll go to our website I think we can help you be sure that you belong to Him by the information you'll find there. It's ANewStory.com. Belonging to Jesus - that's the safe harbor, whatever the storm.

It started out as an unimpressive ripple in the weather off the coast of Africa. By the time it was over, it had become Hurricane Katrina, pummeling Florida as a category one storm, then surprising most observers by becoming a category five monster over the Gulf of Mexico. Katrina's last minute shift to the east nearly destroyed the city of New Orleans. Yes, we saw some of the darkest side of human nature as people looted things that they didn't really need, and some even tried to shoot some of the very people who were coming to help. But on a much greater scale, the aftermath to Hurricane Katrina was a massive outpouring of heroism in many flavors. As Americans learned of the desperation of the victims of the storm, thousands of us mobilized to give them a chance to live. We won't soon forget the military helicopters, launching and re-launching every 15 minutes to look for more people stranded in the toxic floodwaters that buried parts of the city. There were those memorable scenes of the rescuers coming down the rope from those choppers to save people trapped on their roofs. Doctors and nurses came from all over the country. So many came and did what they knew how to do - from cooking, to counseling, to contributing, to caring enough to take in whole families because lives were at stake. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Rescuer Spot For You." Thousands of lives were saved, many of whom would have died otherwise because of this massive rescue operation where everyone did what they knew how to do; each one realizing that a rescue effort means all hands on deck. It's a picture of the largest scale rescue operation on the planet. It is the rescue mission for which Jesus Christ gave His life, launched at a cross. In His personal mission statement in Luke 19:10 He said He came "to seek and to save what was lost." His final command: "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:15). Because it really is a life-or-death situation, where the eternal destiny of millions of people depends on the rescue efforts of God's people - all of God's people. The orders are summarized in Proverbs 24:11-12, our word for today from the Word of God. "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter." Those stark words describe every person we know, every person on this planet who has not grabbed the only one God provided to rescue us from the eternal punishment that our sin deserves. That Rescuer is Jesus! The next verse says, "If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this, does not He who weighs the heart perceive it?'" God is not going to excuse us for being AWOL in His all out mobilization to rescue the dying, whatever it takes. He's expecting you to do what His Son did - to do all you can to rescue the lost. If you cook, cook to rescue the dying. If you're musical, if you're mechanical, if you're a techie, if you're in the media, if you're a prayer warrior, if you contribute to God's work, do what you do to help people go to heaven instead of hell. And if you have influence in anyone's life (and we all do) don't just use that influence to be a nice person for them. Use the relationship you have to tell them about the Rescuer from heaven who rescued you and who is their only hope. In the wake of a hurricane, we saw thousands of people on the verge of dying without hope and an army of us who said, "We can't just let them die." If you'll ask Jesus to help you see the world through His eyes, you're going to see millions on the verge of dying with no hope of heaven, headed for an unspeakable eternity. And some of them are right within your reach. Can you see them? Are you going to do something about it? Will you do more than you've ever done before? We're losing so many because no rescuer has come.

"Active shooter in Colorado Springs." It was years ago but I got that news alert, and I turned to a news channel right away. I've got friends in that city. After a violent five-hour siege, the gunman surrendered. And the tragic count of dead and wounded began to become clear, but so did the heroism in the middle of that fear and violence. Like Garrett Swasey, one of the first officers on the scene rushing to save lives. He lost his. His courage and sacrifice were a bright light in the dark sky of that tragic afternoon. Selfless love when evil seemed so strong. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope is a Rescuer." Garrett Swasey was a real three-dimensional guy, a former ice dancing champion, a great husband and dad, a pastor, a dedicated police officer; a man who lived his last day like he lived every day. As a friend said, "always putting other people's lives before his own." That friend explained why. He said, "He believed in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. That's what he lived for." Apparently, it's also what made him willing to die to save others. His friend said, "Here's a man who loves Christ, and he'd be willing to go in and lay down his life, because that's what Christ has done for us." You know, we've got a lot to learn from a true hero like this. First, ultimately, there are two categories that really matter. Don't we deal with most people as if they're a category: young, old, black, white, brown, rich, poor, Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, gay, straight, Christian, homeless, cop or whatever? Except God didn't make any categories. He only made people created in His image. That day during the shooting, Garrett Swasey saw only two categories: safe and endangered. That's what God sees, too. Spiritually safe described this way, "He who has the Son (Jesus) has life." And then spiritually endangered. The Bible says in that same verse, "He who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:12). Those who have trusted the One who died for their sins as the Rescuer from their sins and those who have not. As one of those who chose to be rescued, I know what I must do. I have to see the spiritually endangered people around me and go in for the rescue so they can have the chance I had - to live forever. Secondly, I think we learn from the heroes of that day, forgiven people have no choice but to forgive. "Forgive as the Lord forgave you," the Bible says in Colossians 3:13. Garrett Swasey's friend said, "There's forgiveness in the cross of Christ. And that's what Garrett would want for us, to forgive this man." That's the man who shot him. That's what the loved ones of those Charleston church shooting victims did, amazing the nation. That's what Jesus did for the ones who crucified Him, "Father, forgive them." Third lesson here, our only hope is a rescuer. Actually, the Rescuer. In our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 1:4, God's book reveals that "Jesus gave His life for our sins...to rescue us from this evil world we live in." I want to tell you, that's the sacrifice that blew my mind and captured my heart. I hope you will open up to that love today, because He went to that cross for you as much as He did for me; paying for the sins that have separated you from God, and will forever unless He forgives them. And He can do that based on what He did on the cross. I'd love to have you know for sure you belong to Him. So I'm going to invite you to our website because I think we can help you make sure you've begun your relationship with Him and are forgiven of your sins. It's ANewStory.com. Remember that. Please check it out. None of us has to die. The Rescuer has come.

When our kids were growing up, we had an interesting system of government at our house. I had one big vote, and theoretically my one vote could count more than the other four sometimes. Nice system. That was the theory. In reality it didn't happen very often. There's one dynamic that takes place before a family decision that really can change the outcome, and that's what I would call skillful lobbying; especially by my three children, and they got really good at it. Let's say one of them didn't want to go for dinner where we were planning to go. He wanted pizza. He'd come in and say, "Dad, I don't want to go there, I want pizza." Okay, he's going to get overruled. Then two of them would come in together; (he managed somehow to get somebody else to come with him) and they would say "We want pizza, Dad." Well, that was a little stronger, but then all three of them came together. "We want pizza!" Well, to tell you the truth, we usually ended up changing where we were going, even though I wanted to go somewhere else. You know what, there's power in kids asking together. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Power of Praying Together." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 18. I'm going to read verses 19 and 20. "Again, Jesus says, I tell you if two of you on earth agree..." (Oh, wait a minute, this sounds like my kids doesn't it?) "If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in My name, there am I with them." Now, okay, God is not some earthly father who is pressured by "pizza lobbyists" like I was as an earthly father. But there is a principle here, an important secret of spiritual power, that somehow praying together has a special effect in heaven; asking God, our Father, together for the same thing. I don't understand why it's extra powerful, but I do know that Jesus says something special happens in heaven when God's kids go to Him together for something. Frankly, I think Christians do very little praying together. We're so private about our faith sometimes. We're self-conscious about maybe saying something wrong. I don't really know how to, you know, pray the big words or whatever. But God puts a premium on united prayer. He says, "What you ask together, it will be done in heaven." That's pretty exciting! Do you ever wonder what to do when somebody else is praying and you're with them? Do you doze off? They're praying out loud, do you just plan ahead what you're going to say? No. Agreeing with them, you enter into their requests in your heart. You're saying either aloud or quietly, "Me, too, Lord. I'm asking You for that too. I'm trusting You for that too." You're not a passive listener, or asleep while someone else prays. I've often encouraged young people I'm working with to get into praying triplets where there are three people who pray together for two people who are not Christians that they each pray for. For example, they each pray for two people who are not christians. And that's spreading in a lot of places...this idea of prayer triplets. I've asked young people before, "How many people are in your prayer triplet? The answer - four. Because Jesus said, "You can see three, but I'm right there." So don't just pray for people. Pray with people. Don't say, "I'll pray for you." Put an arm around them and pray right there. Get a regular team of partners together who agree on some things and be prepared to see mountains moved, and hearts changed, and answers discovered. Go to your Father together, because something special happens in a Father's heart when the kids all agree.

Let's say the day is about to end. I would invite my wife to go for a romantic walk with me as we look toward the west at the beautiful colors of the sunset. Well, that's what you'd call it, right? And so would I. But we would be scientifically incorrect. Since when does the sun set? The sun doesn't go anywhere; it's the earth that's moving! Right? So, "Honey, let's go for a romantic walk and watch the beautiful earth set?" Uh, that doesn't work! The National Science Foundation conducted a poll and discovered that one in four Americans believed at that time that the sun orbits around the earth! They're confused about what's revolving around what! I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why We're In Trouble With God." What's far more significant - and far more deadly - is God's survey about what orbit you and I are in. In the words of the Bible, we were "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). Like the earth is created to revolve around the sun, so you and I are created to revolve our life around our Creator. But here are the disturbing results of God's survey of the human race. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Isaiah 53:6. "We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way." God says that 100% of us have left the orbit we were made for, and we've gone to an orbit simply called "My Way." Just in case some of us religious folks would like to think we're not included, God says in Romans 3 that "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...there is no one righteous" (by God's standard, that is) "not even one." It's like the earth leaving its orbit around the sun and saying, "I think I'll go off on this orbit of my own. I'm free now." No, the earth away from the sun will die. You or me away from God - we'll die. And that's why life just isn't working. That's why the loneliness, the emptiness, the confusion about living, the fear about dying. We are out of the orbit we were created for. We are all in trouble with God - big trouble. The Bible says in Isaiah 59:2, "Your iniquities (that's your sins) have separated you from your God" So, picture it - a huge wall between you and God. No wonder you're empty. The only One who can fill the hole in your heart is on the other side of a wall. No wonder you're lonely. The One whose love you were made for is on the other side of that wall. No wonder you're nervous about eternity. You should be. The God you'll meet the moment you die is on the other side of the wall. Maybe you're tired of that wall between you and God. It can finally come down before this day is over. But you can't take it down. No religion can take it down. Only Jesus can do that. Why? Well, in that verse that says we've all turned away from God, He says, speaking of Jesus, "The Lord has laid on Him the wrongdoing of us all." The same sins that keep you from God, Jesus had transferred to Him when He died on the cross for you. See, He loves you that much. He really doesn't want to lose you. The wall between you and God comes down from the moment you put your trust in Jesus to forgive you for a lifetime of sin. Please, don't let procrastination or religious pride cost you this relationship or cost you heaven. I invite you this very day to say to Jesus, "Jesus, I believe that what You did on that cross was for me. I believe You walked out of your grave so you could walk into my life. And beginning here and beginning now I'm yours." Our website is really for you at a moment just like this to help you secure your personal relationship with Jesus. I ask you to go there today as soon as you can, ANewStory.com. Haven't you spent enough days, enough years away from the One who loves you most in that death orbit of running your own life? Hey, it's time to come home.

Every once in a while a woman decides to try something daring. She has what they call a makeover! She'll look in the mirror and say, "I'm tired of looking like this. I think I'll try something different." So she puts herself really into someone else's hands. Not just anyone. Oh, no, no! Someone who can skillfully change your eye makeup, your facial color, maybe your lip stick, maybe your hair style, your wardrobe. And "voila"! You look different. Hopefully you look better. But you had a makeover. Now, when's the last time you ever heard of a man having a makeover? Well, actually some men could really use one. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Give a Man a Makeover." Hey look! Men are pretty stubborn about changing. It's hard for me to say that, but it's a fact. If you're a woman who is married to one, you say, "I know...I know. I didn't have to tune in to find this out today." Well, if you're a woman, my guess is there's a man in your life who could use a little work. Can you think of someone? Not so much physically; but maybe like more in his personality, his spiritual leadership, his communication, his attitudes, his bad habits. Now I've got you going, right? Are we together now? Okay, good. Now, our word for today from the Word of God, Titus 2:4-5. It talks about some skills that hopefully older women have mastered so they can pass them on to the next generation of women. Then it says, "They can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands so that no one will malign the Word of God." Now, it's kind of a neat dynamic here. You've got the veterans teaching the rookies what they're supposed to do. And the single phrase that begins it is this: "Love their husbands." Notice it doesn't say, "The older women should teach the younger women how to change their husbands." It says "how to love them." Ruth Graham, Billy Graham's wife, said very wisely, "It is my job to love Billy - it is God's job to change him." That principle applies to sons, to fathers, and certainly to husbands. A woman is a powerful force in changing a man if she makes him feel safe. A man often isn't going to risk changing unless he feels like there's a woman who will love him whether he changes or not. Unfortunately, a lot of women want to give God a little help in reconstructing this big, old lummox, so that woman brings out the hammer and chisel, and starts nagging, and pushing, and criticizing, and attacking. "I'll change him!" All the push tactics make him feel cornered, attacked, and less secure. Therefore, he's less likely to change. Remember, a man has to feel safe in order to take the risk to try to change. If nagging doesn't do it, well what will, you might ask. We're back to what the older women are supposed to teach the younger women, "love your husband." Praise his strengths often. If he makes a little progress, compliment that. As my wife had on a little plaque over the kitchen sink, "Water what you want to grow." Hold your tongue if it's going to be negative and tearing down. Share gently your feelings when you're hurting, he needs to hear that. But not his failings, your feelings. Let him know how much you need him, and then pray for him to change. I know it feels risky just to love him, but it's how God says it works. Does the man you want to be different feel safe in your love? In other programs we'll talk to him about his part. But I hope, on your end, he feels safe. Unconditional love? Well, that's God's way for a woman to give her man a makeover.

I haven't bought a baseball bat for a while, but I know you can buy one that's cheap and may not last long or one that costs a little more and lasts longer. But a million-dollar baseball bat? That's a little out of my price range. And lest you think I've lost it, not long ago a massive 46-ounce Louisville Slugger bat sold at auction for $1.26 million dollars! What in the world could possibly make a simple baseball bat worth that much to anyone? Who used it? It was the bat used by Babe Ruth in the first baseball game in the new Yankee Stadium in 1923. In the third inning, The Babe blasted a home run right into the right field bleachers, and somebody just laid down over a million bucks for the bat he used. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Have a Million-Dollar Life." It was just a piece of wood until someone important used it to do something important. That's what gave that bat such great value. And that's what gives ordinary humans like you and me a whole new value - being used by the most important person in the universe to do something He considers important. An ordinary life is never quite ordinary again once that life has been used by Almighty God. And His choice of the person He will use is not based on the things most people look for. God doesn't care about charisma, or credentials, or connections, or cash. He's looking for character. He's a holy God, and He can only use holy instruments; people who keep themselves clean for His service. Paul paints a picture of two kinds of believers - one useful to the Lord and one of little use to Him - in 2 Timothy 2, beginning with verse 15, our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved." (By the way, Missionary martyr Jim Elliot said the only degree he really wanted was his A.U.G. degree - Approved Unto God.) The verse goes on to say, "a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth... In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble." Even our house has some things we use for throwing away trash and others that we use to serve special people for special occasions. So what do I have to do to have the honor; the incredible value of being someone the High King of Heaven can use? "If a man cleanses himself," the Bible says, "he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work." Man, those are beautiful words, "useful to the Master." Just like you or me going to the kitchen to find a glass to drink from, God is looking for someone who's clean to use. And He doesn't find very many. What a powerful reason for you to keep your heart and your mind pure, to repent of the junk you've been hanging onto, to meet with Jesus daily for that day's tune-up, to aspire to be, as Robert Murray McCheyne said, "as holy as a saved sinner can be." You'll be God's man, you'll be God's woman, through whom God's work will be done in people's lives. That temptation, that compromise can't possibly be worth losing out on a destiny like this! The beautiful thing is that anybody can qualify to be used by God. It's your passionate purity, your total surrender to be used totally for His purposes that qualifies you. You've abandoned your dreams for your life for His dreams for your life. They're so much bigger and so much better than yours. And the greatest legacy of your life will be to join Him in the rescue mission that changes people's eternities from hell to heaven. He's inviting you to join Him in that rescue mission for which He died. Make yourself available to the Lord of the universe and keep yourself clean for Him. When He picks up a life to use it, it takes on a meaning and a significance that nothing on earth can even get close to. And in God's hands, your life can be a holy home run!

My teenage son was learning to drive. He had completed the classroom portion of Driver Ed. and he was very interested in getting some "behind-the-wheel" experience. One afternoon he wanted to shoot baskets in the driveway behind our house, and he said, "Dad, would you move the car?" I said, "No, why don't you move it?" He stammered, and said, "Yeah, why don't you move it?" So I got in the car with him and I said, "Okay, what do you do first?" He said, "Put on your seat belt." I said, "Great! Okay." Well, we're only going 12 feet, but "Good. And then what?" He said, "Put it into gear." I said, "What do you do first?" He said, "Put it into gear." "What do you do first?" "Oh, put your foot on the brake. That's right." Well, we had a very interesting little maneuver going on there in the driveway. He did manage to back it up and kind of pull it up the driveway without taking out too many trees. Afterwards he said, "Well, Dad, classroom's one thing, but, you know, doing what they taught us? That's a little different. I mean, I know how to drive, but there's going to be a big difference between classroom and behind-the-wheel isn't there?" Yeah. Uh-huh. Of course, classroom has no purpose unless you do put it to work behind the wheel. I mean, it's easy to learn a theory; the challenge is to use it on the road. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It Isn't Real Until It's Behind the Wheel." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Joshua 1:8. God's instructions go like this, "Do not let this book of the law" (which is the Bible you have right there in your hand or on your shelf). "Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night..." Okay, that sounds like a classroom doesn't it - learning to drive? "...so that you may be careful to do everything written in it." Okay, so what's the purpose of meditating on it? What's the purpose of not letting it depart from your mouth? Using it on the road! "So you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." See, knowing the Bible, studying the Bible - that's good, it's just not an end in itself. It's a means to an end. You're supposed to know it so you'll do it. It's like driver education. It isn't enough to know the facts. You miss the point unless you immediately put it into practice. Be careful to do what you just were thinking about and reading about. The tendency, of course, is to do what's easy; learn the verses, study the Bible, debate the theology. You could be in seminary debating all the great theological issues, heavy into the Bible, biblical truths, theology, and be spiritually dried up because you're not doing anything with it. You're not driving. You see your mission when you're reading the Bible isn't just to eat spiritually. It's to digest it, to get it into your system, to draw strength from it. So, whenever you're reading a verse about temptation, let's say, you should say, "Well, now what temptation am I facing today?" And you immediately apply that verse to that temptation. When you're reading about trials in your life, you say, "What trial am I facing right now?" And you apply it to that trial that day. When the Bible says, "Don't let sin control your body," you ask, "What sin has been controlling me too much lately?" And you fight that sin that day with that scripture. There's no risk in learning what God wants. Just like there's no risk in learning how to drive. It's a little scary to go out on a limb and live that day risking that day on that truth, but see, that's how you build spiritual muscle. On any given day we ought to be able to stop each other and say, "Hey, what are you doing today because of what you read this morning? What are you doing differently because of what God told you today?" You know, there's a false sense of spiritual well-being in going to Bible studies, and mastering theology, and getting biblically smart, because you could be dying inside. The question is, "What are you doing?" See, if you're not doing it, you're dying. That's why Jesus said, "Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?" You notice God didn't say to Joshua, "Meditate therein so you'll be careful to know." He said, "be careful to do." So, connect your intake to specific obedient action that day. Don't be fooled into thinking that knowing is growing. Don't just hear it in the classroom. Risk it on the road, because it isn't real until it's behind-the-wheel.

I think there's like an art to shopping for produce. You can't just grab the first apple or tomato you see. You have to learn to squeeze the lettuce. My wife taught me how to do that. You have to learn how to check for holes and dents in apples and peaches; you don't just take the first one off the pile. You have to check to see how yellow those bananas are, or how green, or how black. There are ways to tell whether a vegetable is one you should buy. Now it's much tougher to shop for a spiritual leader you can trust. But there is a way to tell. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Test Spiritual Leadership." It's getting tougher and tougher to know which spiritual leaders you can trust. Look, we're living in a time when, sadly, a lot of Christian heroes have let us down, right? People who say spiritual things, lead spiritual causes, give spiritual counsel, and then all of a sudden something happens that exposes their hypocrisy. In a way, it kind of makes a lot of us hold back and wonder who can we trust? Well, we're not supposed to have our eyes on man. The Bible makes that clear. And yet, God does give His people leadership; He does raise up teachers. There are authentic spiritual leaders. He does want us to be able to get His teachings and see His love coming through people, but so many have let us down. How can you tell whether a pastor is a leader from God or a person who's doing his own thing in God's name? Well, there's one person that Jesus really held up as a model leader. It was John the Baptist. He said, "There has been no greater man born among women." Now I cannot think of a stronger endorsement than that. Jesus said John the Baptist was the real deal; a real spiritual leader. And out of the life of John, we get one test for a pastor, a Christian musician, a TV or radio personality, a youth leader, an influencer on the internet. John 3:30 - here's John's statement. Speaking of Jesus, he said, "He must become greater; I must become less." The King James Version says, "He must increase; I must decrease." You know how to test a spiritual leader? Well, one of the tests is this: Does he leave you thinking more about him or more about Jesus? Where is the spotlight? More about his organization, his goals, his ministry, his programs, or more about Jesus? An authentic man or woman of God, like John the Baptist, puts himself or herself in the background. The leader doing his own thing is heavy on sentences that have "I," "me," or "mine" in them. Is this the only test? No, but it's a pretty good start. If you're in leadership, measure yourself that way. Who is getting the spotlight, you the leader or the Savior? The real spiritual leaders, the ones you can trust, are the ones who put Jesus in the spotlight and make you think about Him and forget about them. Years ago I read about a man who maybe 100 years ago had lived in the countryside in England. He traveled to London and wrote to his wife and said, "Honey, today I went to two of the great churches of London. This morning I heard Dr. Cartwright and he is a great preacher. Tonight I went to Metropolitan Tabernacle and I heard Mr. Charles Spurgeon." He said, "Mr. Spurgeon has a great Savior." Do you want them to remember a great you or do you leave them thinking about a great Savior? Maybe you've been burned by Christians, by a Christian leader. Please, don't let them cause you to miss Jesus in the midst of it all. Jesus said, "Follow Me." If you've never begun a relationship with Him, please don't let Christians or Christian leaders, or Christianity keep you from Christ. I hope you'll say today, "Jesus, you loved me enough to die for me. You walked out of your grave. I'm yours." You can go to our website to get the rest of the story. It's ANewStory.com. If you see a leader who leaves you thinking about Jesus, in the crowded spiritual supermarket that you and I shop in, you'll know that's one you can buy.

The area around New York City is dotted with some scenic, protected bodies of water. They are reservoirs that supply the water for the millions of people that are in that area. Now, having lived in the New York City area for a number of years, we often took a weekend drive as a family and, well, we enjoyed looking at them. They're very, very scenic. You know? But maybe I've seen too many articles and news reports on terrorism, but I got to thinking one day what a target those reservoirs might be. I mean, if a terrorist or some mentally deranged person wanted to destroy a lot of people, I figure all he would have to do is poison the water from which we all drink. Actually a strategy like that is already in the works. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Guarding Your Heart." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 4, and I'm going to read verse 23. It starts this way, "Above all else..." Okay, that's like God clearing His throat. I mean, this is important! When God says, "This is above everything else" pay attention! "Above all else guard your heart." That's the "above all else" - guard your heart. "For it is," the Bible says, "the wellspring (or maybe we could say reservoir) of life." See, God's saying, "I want you to protect what you let into your thoughts and into your heart, because today's thoughts produce tomorrow's actions. Now, how could the devil plant his ideas in your mind so he could gradually darken your view of love, your view of marriage, your view of the future? How could he put his ideas in there about sex, about the value of human life, and just kind of a slowly growing darkness? How could he do that? Well, obviously he's not going to walk right up to you and say, "Hi, I'm the devil and I'd like to plant a few of my ideas in your brain." He's a little more subtle than that and we're a little smarter than that. No, he's going to do it the same way that a terrorist might get his poison into your body: poison the source; poison the water from which we all drink. Well, mentally, what's the water we all drink from? Well, television, movies, what we read, our music, what we watch on the Internet, magazines. The problem is this: Many believers, who would never drink the devil's poisonous ideas directly, routinely allow those ideas to sneak in through their entertainment, music, or website, or movies, or their videos. See, the devil's cleverly disguised and attractively packaged ideas that are woven all through our media. For example, if you watch enough couples involved in premarital or extramarital sex, it starts to feel slightly more normal, a little more acceptable. You're not even aware your guard's coming down because you didn't guard your heart. You let it sneak in, "Hey, that was just entertainment, right, sown in the words of a song, or sown in something portrayed on a TV show, or a movie. But it is still the outright breaking of God's moral law. Let's go back to Proverbs 4:23, "Guard your heart." Just say those words with me, "Guard your heart." That means I shouldn't be, I can't be watching or listening to a portrayal of something God is against. Stand back and maybe you'll see how you have kind of dozed off mentally and spiritually. The guard went to sleep! The guard needs to wake up and say, "Hey, no! You can't come into this mind; you can't come into this heart." Put a guard in front of the reservoir. There's a lot of poison in the mental water around us. Why do we drink it so freely?

It's always moving when it comes to Memorial Day and you have all these families of veterans and people who were lost in a war or a battle and all these very poignant stories on television and in the news. You know, Memorial Day and days like it, they're different when you're a veteran or the loved one of someone who died for America's freedom. Because every day is Memorial Day. Because freedom's price for you has a name, a face, an empty chair at the table. During the Memorial Day observances one Memorial Day, I heard some veterans and some families asking a haunting question. It's embodied in a statement that came from one combat veteran, a former Navy Seal, and a current TV commentator. It really touched me. He said: "It's important for veterans who fought to believe the sacrifice was worth it." The question especially arises when the ground that people bled and died to take is then later lost to the enemy. "Was the sacrifice worth it?" Whatever the battle, whatever the war, that's what the warrior wants to know. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Much God Thinks You're Worth." As I sat in church recently, a sobering thought hit me. It's one I haven't been able to shake. Does Jesus look at me and ask that question, "Was the sacrifice worth it?" He didn't risk His life. He gave His life. He came here knowing that He alone could pay the price for the sin of the world - for my sin. "The righteous for the unrighteous." That's the way the Bible says it. Nothing could break His heart more than to see the ground He died to liberate in our lives being lost to the enemy. Like us continuing to hang onto the junk that He bled to deliver us from. In our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 2:24 it says, "He personally carried our sins in His own body on the cross, so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right." Does He ever say to us, "Do you know I died so you wouldn't have to do that thing that you're doing now"? Sin is so much more than breaking rules. It's really about breaking Jesus' heart. Like when His blood-bought child fills their heart with pornographic fantasies. Or uses their body - the "temple of the Holy Spirit," the Bible calls it, for the very sexual sins He died for. "You are not your own," the Bible says, "you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). It's got to wound Him again when we wound others that He died for with our runaway mouth. Or we just keep lying. Or we abandon our marriage vows. Or succumb to pride, bitterness, unforgiveness, or so many other dark impulses unworthy of His life's sacrifice. The Bible says, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ" (Philippians 1:27). I guess the most hurtful way we can dishonor the blood-sacrifice of Jesus is to think that there's some other way we can get rid of our sin or get into heaven. Like being good, or being religious. Listen, if there was any other way my spiritual death penalty could have been paid, Jesus would never have endured the agony of the cross. Why would He do that if there was another way? Our faith in anything else to make our peace with God says, "Jesus, what You did on the cross was not enough. I'm going to do something." To honor the unspeakable blood sacrifice of God's only Son is to abandon any other hope but Him. And then to drop the junk that killed Him. Have you ever done that? Have you ever had your Jesus moment when you've put the life He died for, paid for with His blood, in His hands? If you've never done that, maybe He's talking to you today about this being your day. If you want to do that, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours." And please, go to our website and let me meet you there and help you know how to begin this relationship. It's ANewStory.com. He looks at me. He looks at you, and then He looks at the nail prints in His hands and perhaps He asks: "Was the sacrifice worth it?"

It may turn out to be one of the deadliest, most damaging storms we've ever had - Hurricane Helene. You've seen it all over the news, and it really has been hitting me in the heart because I have a lot of friends along that 500-mile path of destruction. Especially in western North Carolina. I've just watched the heartbreaking news on two different levels actually. First, obviously the layers of just physical tragedy. But my heart also sees a picture that vividly clarifies the most important spiritual issues of our times. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have a word with you today about "Helene, Heroes and Heaven." Well let me tell you what my heart has seen... First, their world is suddenly very broken. Bridges are gone, roads are gone, towns are gone, rivers have been totally rerouted, they have no power, many cases they can't communicate. They can't even find out how they're doing, they can't ask for help. You know that's also a picture of our lives and our world today. I mean look at the news - a world on fire today, brutally divided politics, it's dividing relationships, churches in some cases, and families. there's an epidemic of mental health issues. It just seems like so much is broken - and hope is hard to find. And our roads are even broken, we can't get to an answer. Second, for many people, their only hope is a rescue from above. There's choppers today flying all over western North Carolina because there are people who can be only can be accessed, only rescued, only helped, with help from above. Well, the Bible would say that's a picture of our spiritual condition. we're lost, we're spiritually endangered. We got a life without lasting love or meaning, and we're facing an unthinkable eternity. Because we're away from our God. Because we've run our lives instead of Him running them. But hope has a name - His name is Jesus and He's a rescuer. Here's our Word for today from the Word of God from Galatians 1:4 - "The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us." Rescue us. You say, what about my religion? Religion is like the roads that are broken - they can't get us out of our spiritual predicament. Only the Rescuer from above can. And if He's come for you, man, grab Him while you can. Thirdly, people are dropping everything because other peoples' lives are at stake. I mean you see it all over western North Carolina and other areas that have been hit. People know that when lives are at stake, you just drop everything else you've been working on, it's not that important right now. Proverbs 24 commands us to "Rescue those are who being led away to death." That's every person we know who doesn't know our Jesus. It's all hands on deck. Nothing else really matters when people are dying. Only rescue matters. In our broken world, surrounded by broken lives, more than all our other agendas, more than all our distractions, it's rescue that matters! Finally, people who've never thought of themselves as rescuers are saving lives. I just heard today through a friend of a friend that a builder and his crew. Went down to western North Carolina to try to help people. In the process they cam across a house that had been totally buried in mud. It totally collapsed. They, with their bare hands dug through the mud and saved six lives. Pulled six people out who probably would have died otherwise. This guy's a builder, he didn't go there to rescue, but where there are dying people you know what you gotta do. You can't wait for the pros to get there. Every believer knows some lost person who needs rescuing. If you're there, you're responsible. My friend, it's time to move past our fear, and past our excuses, past our distractions. And waiting for somebody else to do it. There's a spiritual disaster happening right in front of us. And the rescue mission is for all of us.

Honestly I dislike shopping for clothes. Looking for a suit would rank right up there with a root canal or something. As far as the pleasure factor is, I'd say. The problem is that they just don't have suits for guys who are shaped like me. Maybe there just aren't many guys who are shaped like me; maybe that's the problem. See, if the coat looks good on me, then the pants don't. If the waist is a good fit, then they're baggy in the back. If it fits well in the back, then the waist is tight enough to affect my respiration. Now, there is a way to get a perfect fit - it's called custom tailoring, I can't afford that, so I guess I'm just going to have to stick to one size that's supposed to fit all bodies about that shape. There is a perfect fit that you need right now and so do I, and it's yours for free. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Grace for Every Need." Our word for today from the Word of God, Deuteronomy 33:25 - six words full of encouragement. "Your strength will equal your days." That's just six words, but it says so much about the need, the crisis, the crunch, and the unanswered question that you may be facing right now. God promises strength that is custom tailored for what that day requires; no more strength than you'll need for that day, and no less strength than you'll need for that day. It's the same kind of promise that He gave in 2 Corinthians 12:9 where He says, "My grace is sufficient for you." Sufficient grace - always grace enough. We've sung the hymn many times about God's amazing grace, and it is amazing. It reaches down, forgives every sin, and gives me a royal place in God's family. But His grace is the gift that keeps on giving. Gary's company was on the edge of bankruptcy. I called him and I said, "How are you holding up with everything that you've built at risk?" He said, "You know what? God's peace is making it." I talked to some friends not long ago who lost a loved one in a tragic auto accident, and here was their report, "God's promises are holding us up. He is enough." Yeah, He is. The wonderful truth in scripture is this, that God gives grace customized for every experience that He sends or He allows in your life. There is dying grace - you say, "I don't know how I would ever handle dying." Well, of course, you're not doing it now; you don't need it now. But haven't you seen people with dying grace? You get it when you need it. There's suffering grace. For whatever suffering may be ahead, God will give you grace to meet that challenge. There's lonely grace for lonely times in your life. There's heartbreak grace. You don't have it now unless you need it, but at the time the heartbreak comes, the grace comes. There's waiting grace if you're having to wait for God to act in your life. You don't have it until you need it. When you need it, you've got it. Maybe you fear your ability to handle some situation right now, but just when you need it, grace will fill your heart - grace that's designed just to fit that moment. Grace may come in the form of a person, or surprising inner strength, a Bible verse, an ability to release something you've held for so long, but the grace is there if you go get it. Boldly, the Bible says, go to the throne of grace and obtain it there. God has measured the situation like a spiritual tailor, and He has fitted His grace exactly to your need - custom-tailored designer grace to cover you.

It was one of the great showdowns of my life - over a jar of peanut butter. Yeah. See, I was in love with who would become my "bride" for two and a half years before we got married, and because I loved her I began to change some things before we got married. I lost some weight; I changed my schedule to make sure there was a little time for her in there. I changed my after shave because there was one she liked. I became interested in her friends. My love was steadily changing one area after another in my life, until the day we went grocery shopping together for the first time. Yeah. See, there was tension over whether to buy the expensive name brand of various items which I wanted to do, or the less expensive store brand which she had been raised to do. Since it was going to be "our" money when we got married, it got to be pretty tense. It came to a head over uh... yeah, a jar of peanut butter. My name brand versus her store brand. Suddenly I had hit a wall in how far this love thing was going to go, and the line was what I wanted in my favorite foods. Fortunately, I ended up deciding that she was more important than peanut butter or soft drinks. Good choice huh? But every important love reaches a test point, and it's surprising what the issue often is. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Music and Your Master." Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 40, and I'll begin reading at verse 1. It's David's personal testimony, "I waited patiently for the Lord" he says. "He turned to me; He heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God." Now, David indicates here a very personal, very practical thing that the Lord changed when the Lord took over his life. David says He changed my music. "He put a new song in my mouth; a hymn of praise to our God." Interestingly enough, that area of music is for many a major test of how much they love their Lord. Will I let Jesus affect my music... what I listen to? Honestly, for many followers of Christ, that's the equivalent of the peanut butter test in my love for my, then to become, wife. Do I love Jesus enough to let Him affect this - to let Him change my music? You say, "Come on, that's a teenage issue, right, that music stuff?" Not exclusively. Music is one of the most powerful influences in our lives. It can make us feel romantic, or patriotic, or religious, sad. Music just drives in ideas. As one great composer said, "I loved music from being a young boy, because it bypasses the brain. It goes straight to the heart." That's true! Commercials use music all the time to drive messages into our head. See, if I'm going to live right, I've got to think right. And if I'm going to have to think right, I've got to get right input, which means I need to submit my music - this most powerful input - to the lordship of Christ. It doesn't matter if its country music, easy listening music, rock music, or rap music, whatever. The devil has planted his values and his messages in many styles of music. And honestly, it's often a separate compartment in many of our lives where we've put up a "No Trespassing" sign for Jesus. We say, "Well, that's just my entertainment." No! No, it's an important part of who you are. So important you won't let Jesus touch it. He's looking at that locked closet and He's asking, "May I go in there? Didn't I die for that too?" Will you open up to the Lord this huge area of the music you listen to, who your music heroes are? Don't let it be an idol that He can't touch. Jesus is saying, "Let Me into your music." Only you can answer the question that this raises: "Do I love Him this much?"

My friend Bill talked to me about his son's "microwave expectations" - "I want it quick!" Bill was in his early 50s, and his son had been married about a year at that point. And Bill said, "You know, I just can't believe it. My son and his wife want a home right now. They want to own a home immediately, they want furniture now, and they want a new car now!" Then he kind of summed it up by saying, "They want in one year what it took us 20 years to get." Well, that's fairly typical. The child expects a lot more than the father had. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When We Expect Too Much." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 9, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 57. Notice here that Jesus gives very realistic expectations to anyone who is going to follow Him, unlike the Devil, who deceives you and tells you nothing about the price tag. Jesus gives it to you all up front. "As they were walking along the road, a man said to Him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.' Jesus replied, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.'" It's interesting here that Jesus is saying, "Listen, adjust your expectations, man! You're following someone who sleeps every night on the Mount of Olives. So don't expect a lot materially." (By the way, we never hear from that man again.) I had been asked to speak at a conference, and they lodged in a very nice hotel room. And I was looking out over the city lights and I'd just gotten off the phone with my wife and sort of luxuriating in the room and the nice things that it had. And all of a sudden it hit me. I said, "You know, I'm being treated so much better than my Lord ever was. "I've got a place to live, I've got a vehicle to drive, I've got clothes, I have choices of clothes, sometimes I stay in places like this." See, our problem is that we compare what we have to what others have and then guess what? We get discontent. That's where coveting comes from. You never covet if you don't compare. You see, we're measuring by the wrong standard. How are you doing compared to what your Lord Jesus had? He said, "The servant is not better than his master." Jesus taught us to ask for daily bread. Those are biblical expectations. If He gives us more, well that's okay. Enjoy it; be very grateful for the bonuses beyond daily bread. But the problem comes when we expect more than the basics; when we demand more than the basics. Maybe you're wrestling with discontentment right now because you've been expecting too much...more than your Lord had when He was here. Oh, you've looked around at a greedy world and you've looked at other people your age, or other people in your situation, and you're thinking, "I want what they have." And social media will just accelerate that. Well, see, for people in the world, that's all they get. You're going to have your rich rewards forever. Now, there's no promise of heaven on earth. Jesus said, "Expect a few years of sacrifice and then an eternity of wealth." See, you won't seek first His kingdom if you're expecting to get a lot of earth's kingdom. You can't go after both. When our Heavenly Father gave His Son, there wasn't even an address for Him. Are you doing better than your Lord did? I think most of us are. Well, then, thank Him for that and look forward to an eternity of celebrating His riches with Him in heaven.

You want to write a best-selling book? Do something about self improvement. Man are we into self improvement! I mean, think about how the health clubs and how they boom in membership in January. A resolution is called, "A firm decision to do or not to do something." Well we find out that about 88% of our resolutions don't happen. So there's a lot of things we do to be healthier and to spend more time with the family, get out of debt, do better in school, clean out the junk in our house. So why do our great intentions so often end up in failed commitments? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Commitments Fail." My work has put me in the middle of a lot of folks' desire to change, their efforts to change. And from their experience - and then honestly from too much of my own - I've seen four reasons that we fail in commitments that we really do want to keep. Number one, we're not specific. Goals have to be more than just general intentions. "I'm going to be a better husband." "I'm going to get in shape." "I want to make more of a difference." Well, those are great ideas, but they're not likely to succeed. How about, "I'm going to give my wife all of my attention at least once a day." "I'm not going to eat after 6 o'clock and I'll spend 20 minutes on the treadmill each day." "I'm going to volunteer at the shelter." See, those are specific and measurable, you've got a decent shot at really changing. Here's the second reason I think we fail. We're not accountable. A resolution between me, myself and I is just too easy to forget. But when you announce to several key people the commitment you've made, you've put yourself on the line to do it. The Bible says, "Two are better than one ... if one falls down, his friend can help him up." Here's a third reason that our commitments fail. We give up too soon. You know, babies learn to walk by a process that I call "step... boom!" They fall down, but they don't stay down. They get up! Next time it's "step, step, step... boom!" Until one day they're rocketing across the room. Sadly, when we fall down in our effort to do better, don't we often just stay down? But one day's failure is just one day's failure. One day - keep it that way. Get up and keep walking! And the last reason - maybe the most important of all - why we don't improve like we want to improve is we've got a power shortage. Especially when it comes to the changes that really matter, like breaking the cycle that's hurting the people I love, conquering that dark part of me that's brought me down again and again, moving beyond the pain of my past, attacking that fatal flaw that keeps costing me too much. Every new year has the same last name - "A.D." Like, 2024 A.D. "Anno Domini" the year of our Lord measured by how many years it is since Jesus Christ came. Well, my whole life has been "B.C./A.D." There was the me I couldn't change before Christ took the wheel of my life. And then the changed life that He's made possible since I gave me to Him. I thought I could only trust me to drive, but I drove into too many ditches. I ran over too many people. I crashed too often. I couldn't get me to the man I want to be, I need to be, that the people I love need me to be. That's like one of the men who wrote the Bible. He said in our word for today from the Word of God taken from Romans 7, beginning in verse 18, "I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't ... Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?" I know that feeling, but I've found the power to change where that same Bible-writer found it. He says. "Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord." See, it took the Man who died for my sin to give me the power to beat my sin. For 2,000 years this Jesus has changed people in ways they could never change themselves. You might be ready for the Life-Changer right now. He says in His Word, "When anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old is gone and the new life has begun." You tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours" and the change has begun. Our website is called ANewStory.com. Check it out! I think it will help you begin that relationship with Jesus. This can be the day that you move from B.C. to A.D. and things will never be the same.

It was at a point where we were crossing this long bridge across the Arkansas River. The bridge was long because the river was wide. My wife made an interesting comment about the river. She said, "Now, we've seen how it got that way." Wide, she meant. Actually, we've seen the Arkansas at its headwaters where it's a very unimpressive little stream. And as we've driven across the western United States, we've seen many creeks and streams that feed into the Arkansas. They take that dinky little stream and make it into a wide and mighty river. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making Each Other Mighty." Tributaries: that's what creates great rivers. From all directions, those tributaries contribute to a river, feeding it, enlarging it. That's not just the way rivers grow. It's the way people grow, too, if they're open to the contribution that people in their life can make. And to the contributions they can make, as well. In a sense, you're supposed to be a river, you're enlarged and you're improved by the people in your world, and you're supposed to be a tributary, building and enlarging the lives of the folks around you. Paul models that in Romans 1:11-12, our word for today from the Word of God. He says to the believers in Rome, "I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong - that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith." Now, he doesn't use the words, but Paul seems to get this tributary thing. His purpose in wanting to be with these people is so he can give them some help, some encouragement, something that will make them stronger. But he also says he looks forward to how they're going to feed his stream, too, enlarging his spiritual life. This is a pretty exciting way to view the relationships in your life and the people in your life. You are with those people both to give and to receive. I wonder if your coworkers, your family members, your friends, the folks at church feel richer because you just keep depositing good things in their life. You're supposed to be one of God's designated tributaries to help them become the mighty river that He's designed them to be. You wouldn't be there with them if He hadn't decided they need someone like you, and that you need someone like them. Because you're also a river. What you are today; isn't that because of some human tributaries who have marked your life in the past: parents, teachers, spiritual leaders, friends, someone who listens to you, even those who've confronted you about things you didn't want to hear about? Maybe it's time to call or write or email or text some of the tributaries who've enlarged the river of your life, and just tell them what they mean to you. It's time to say "thank you" - to encourage them. Don't wait for their funeral to say all those nice things. Say it to them while they can still hear them. And then, about those tributaries God has put in your life right now. Would you listen to them, would you open yourself up to them, even to those who are critical? Even to those who don't say it with the right words or the right tone, sometimes even with the right motive? Sometimes those people are God's mirrors to help us see things that are in our blind spot, things we haven't seen and we might not see otherwise, and things that might be limiting us or tripping us up or displeasing God. A river with no tributaries is going to remain small, and it's going to remain stagnant, and so will you. Mighty rivers become mighty because they are fed and enlarged from many sources that feed into them. You and I are like that, too. So, would you be a tributary every day for other people, and let them help you become a mighty river.

It used to be pretty uncommon to see a headline about suicide. Not so much today. Athletes, celebrities, a lot of famous people, musicians. We keep hearing about people who have died by their own choice. Sometimes it's people we know and people close to us. We often wonder, "Why?" There was that prominent official in the White House some years ago who committed suicide. Remembering that made me think about why this is particularly a problem for us guys. A national news magazine turned the spotlight on a disturbing fact after that high profile suicide. And it said, "wounded men with no place to bleed." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Men on the Edge." I know from years of walking through crises with many guys, that we men often stuff it rather than share it. We live with the lie that being strong means never showing weakness, never showing a soft or hurting heart, and always being in control of course. So we bleed inside where there's nothing to stop the bleeding or treat the wound. The pressure builds like lava in a volcano. Or like a beach ball pushed farther and farther under the water. The farther down you push it, the higher it ultimately goes when it can't be held down anymore. Suddenly, often inexplicably, there's an explosion of anger or violence or depression, or self-destruction. But the strongest man who ever lived offered us guys a better way. The shortest verse in the Bible - only two words, John 11:35, "Jesus wept" at a friend's grave. The Bible says, when He saw a crowd of hurting people, "He was moved with compassion because they were...like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36). I'm pretty sure He wasn't afraid to smile or laugh either. The children loved to sit on His lap, and I know my grandchildren don't want anything to do with grouches. Jesus wasn't afraid to let His friends know He was really hurting. Just before what He knew was going to be His awful torture and crucifixion, He asked His main guys to be with Him in the garden. He told them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me" (Matthew 26:38). Though He was God in the flesh - the ultimate Man - He wasn't afraid to say He needed people. So, wounded men do have a place to bleed. With the One who bled for them. As one high-powered enemy-turned-follower of Jesus said in our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 2:20, He "loved me and gave Himself for me." We would be lost in this life and horribly lost forever if Jesus hadn't paid the price to cure our terminal spiritual cancer called sin. Guys get what sin is. It means, "I've gotta drive. You ride, God, but I'm driving." That's spiritual hijacking. Controlling a life that was made by God and for God and taking it where we want it to go instead. Sadly, we're like my four-year-old grandson standing behind the wheel of his daddy's parked car. He was never meant to drive. Neither were we. And if we do, we'll ultimately crash, taking people we love with us. That's why God lets a man run into something he can't fix, or change, or control. We never really were in control. So we see that we're created to have the One who gave us our life running our life. To be blunt, we need a Savior. We need Jesus. Not a religion. Jesus. We need Him to forgive all our junk, to open up this closed and wounded heart. To give us the power to be the man we want to be. And to fill us with the exhilaration of living our life for the one cause that's worth everything a guy's got. A man can totally trust himself to Jesus, because He loved you enough to die for you and He will never let you down. This might be the day to choose Jesus as the Savior from your sin. This could be your new beginning. That's why our website is called ANewStory.com. I wish you'd go there today guys. No longer does your heart have to be lonely and hurting. You're not alone. You have a place to bleed. Remember, with the Man who bled for you.

I know a teenage guy who's trying to make his dream come true - to have a music group of his own. And so there are four guys spending long evenings - a lot of their weekends - practicing, writing, perfecting, and recording. Their goal is to do a professional recording and see if it can open some doors for them. Of course, they found one issue that needs to be resolved right up front. I bet you can guess. They need some fairly expensive equipment, plus it's going to cost to get the recording done. So, who's going to pay for all that? Well, obviously, some of the guys have more money than others, but they know that it's only right to divide it equally. So they're all working right now to chip in on that equipment. They basically agreed on a simple principle: It's only fair if we all share the cost. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Cheap Faith - Worth What You Paid." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians 2, and I'll begin reading in verse 5. "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." Okay. Well, then he goes on to tell what that attitude is, "Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." Now, when you hear this expression, "Have the same attitude as Jesus" and you ask what attitude, the answer is very clearly spelled out. God was willing to pay a high price to save lost people like us. Here's the question, "Why should God make all the sacrifices?" See, Christians in other generations have paid for this gospel... for this faith with physical consequences, economic consequences, family persecution, and many have paid with their lives and still are. This very day people are paying with their lives for their allegiance to Jesus in a number of places around the world. Why should God's people in other generations make all the sacrifices to reach the lost? Today Christians in many parts of the world are risking everything to stand for the Gospel. Why should God's people in other places make all the sacrifices? Which brings it to you and me. Should we be getting off this comfortably; this conveniently? So many of us are figuratively speaking, throwing in our few pennies while God and so many of our brothers and sisters have thrown in everything they had to rescue a dying world. There's a world of lost people out there; we're surrounded by them, we know some of them. They're headed for the hell of a Christ-less eternity. We just can't be content with going to our Christian meetings, giving our little offerings, holding some office, singing our songs, and serving on our committees. This is a costly faith; it's an expensive faith, one for which God's Son gave His life. What are you and I giving? We all have to sacrifice some of our earthly loves to reach the people that Christ gave His entire life for. And that so many brothers and sisters have paid such a high price for. And yet it seems that, we who have more than any other Christians in history, instead of giving more time, and more talent, and more resource, only keep more. The guys in that music group got it right. It's only fair if we all share the cost.

Jennifer and Courtney were three-year-old twins. And they were excited about preschool. In fact, they were so excited they got up in the middle of the night in their Omaha, Nebraska home and walked out of the house to make the six-block walk to school. Well all this while, their parents were sound asleep. You say, "Oh, isn't that cute?" No! See, snow was everywhere that night and the temperature was nine below zero. The girls were reported missing at 4:04 a.m. after family members awoke to find this light on and the door open. Two police officers started driving the route to school, hoping that they'd find the girls before it was too late. At one point, their squad car was stopped by the ice on a steep hill which they decided to investigate. And there they found these little footprints, and finally they found barefoot Courtney wearing an open coat and kneeling beside her sister Jennifer, who was face down in the snow wearing socks but no coat. Even though Jennifer was near death when they found her, both the girls miraculously survived. If someone hadn't come looking for them though, they would have died. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What No Religion Can Do For You." Two little girls were lost and dying, and they wouldn't have made it back home themselves. Their only hope was for someone to look for them and find them. It's always that way for someone who's lost, including you and me. See, lost is actually a word in the Bible that's used to describe our spiritual condition. It's because, as the Bible says, "Each of us has wandered away from God like sheep." We're created to have our life revolve around our Creator. But we've all decided to have it revolve around ourselves instead. And that wandering has taken us away from the home we were made for - a personal love relationship with the God who made us. We're lost. We're away and ultimately dying. If you're honest with yourself right now, maybe the word lost pretty much describes how you're feeling. Our word for today from the Word of God, Luke 19:10, is awfully good news. Speaking of Jesus it says, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Jesus is God come looking for you; a lost child that He loves very much. Notice He did exactly what those police officers did for those lost little girls - seeking/saving. Those girls had nothing to do with their own rescue. Their only hope was a rescuer coming for them and saving them. That's like you and me. Here's the simple fact: you cannot find God. God has to find you, and that's pretty radical. It means that all our religious efforts to get to God, whatever your religion, all our self-improvement will not get us home to a God whose standard is perfection. A lost child doesn't find himself. He or she gets found by the rescuer. All our spirituality, all our ceremonies, all our services, all our attempts to complete ourselves by finding God through spiritual searching or exercises still leave us lost. According to the Bible, we are that little girl, hopelessly lost, face down in the snow about to die spiritually. And Jesus is that policeman coming to where we are to rescue us. But this rescue involves eternal death, the price tag for our sin. This rescue cost the Rescuer his life, as Jesus died on that cross, taking all the punishment and the hell that you and I deserve. And the Rescuer comes right now to where you are to bring you home from your "lostness." Your role is to put yourself totally in the hands of Jesus, the only one who can bring you back. You're finally home when you tell Jesus you're putting your total trust in Him to be your Rescuer from your sin. Today would be the day to do that and our website can help you make sure you belong to Him. Go there today. It's ANewStory.com. You'll never find your Creator. You're lost, but He has found you at the cost of His life. Now, let Him bring you home before it's too late.

It was a major turning point in the life of the Hutchcraft family when our firstborn went to college, and it was a major turning point for my checkbook, too! There was a lot of talk before our daughter left for college and even during orientation week about choosing a major. Of course, that's pretty heavy stuff for freshmen; they're lucky just to find their classes, let alone find their major. But they tell you during that orientation week to pick a major that will be useful later on. Now, students might tend to follow their interests or their glands and major in football, or major in social life. Some do. Or major in practical jokes. Of course, I would never do that. Now, I heard a lot during orientation week saying, "Now, what are you going to do with that major?" "What are you going to do in your future?" That's mom and dad speaking. "Think about your future. Hey, this is costing a lot. Major in something that will be valuable in your future, not just something that looks good today." You know what? That's actually pretty good advice for all of us at Kingdom University. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Majoring on What Will Last." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 24, and here is Jesus describing a time when a lot of folks' majors won't be marketable anymore. It's called "the last days" in Scripture, and He says in verse 7, "It's a time when nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there'll be famines and earthquakes in various places." Then he goes on to say, "Then there will be a great distress unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again. Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken." Man, that is a lot of upheaval, and it's happening at a time when the world will look much as it seems to look today. Many Bible scholars believe that increasingly the stage is set for this to be maybe the generation that precedes the coming of Christ. And at that time, those who have majored their lives on business, or houses, personal empires, or money, or anything earthly, are going to find it totally useless, totally unmarketable, easily destroyed. Like a naive college student, many folks today are majoring on values that look good from here but will not support them in their spiritual future. Then comes Jesus' counsel as to a major that is worth investing in. Verse 35 of Matthew 24: "Heaven and earth will pass away..." Okay, so those things are not majors, they're minors. "...but My words will never pass away." He's saying His words are the only major that will ever withstand every recession, every depression, every crisis, every illness, every emergency, any bomb a man can build. Could it be that the minors of life have left you little time for the majors? You've got to set aside some time to dig into God's Word. Maybe that's slipped into becoming a low priority in your schedule. Make it a high priority for your family if you want them to be ready for the future. We learn volumes of data from what we learn on Internet websites to remembering batting averages, but we don't learn the Bible. Whether you're a PhD, or you never made it through high school, major in the Bible. It shows up the lies; it shows you what God wants today; it shows you the big picture. Minor in what you will, but major in what will be there when nothing else is: the never lying, never dying Word of Almighty God.

Jessica's all grown up now. She almost didn't make it past eighteen months. You might even remember when, as a curious toddler, little Jessica fell down a deep shaft in her aunt's backyard in Midland, Texas. The shaft was far too narrow for any rescuer to go down, and she was wedged in a position that virtually immobilized her. If you remember that incident, it's because we all watched the drama unfold on television for three nerve-wracking days. By the time it was over, Jessica was like America's little girl! When the rescuers realized there was no easy way, no conventional way to save little Jessica, they devised a whole new way of getting it done: by digging a wider shaft parallel to the one she was trapped in, and then a tunnel connecting those two shafts. That's pretty ingenious! Finally, a rescuer was lowered into that second shaft. Minutes later, we smiled and we cheered as the rescuer emerged from that shaft with an armful of Jessica, holding onto him for dear life. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Risking to Rescue." That seemed to be the attitude of Jessica's rescuers, wouldn't you say? That has to be the mindset of anyone who hopes to rescue someone who's going to die if they don't. You've got to do whatever it takes. Like the rescue God commands in Proverbs 24:11, "Rescue those being led away to death." Or in Jude 24, "Snatch others from the fire and save them." In other words, you got rescued from the fire, now don't just leave the people you know in the fire. God put you where you work, where you live, where you recreate, where you go to school to take some of those people to heaven with you! How are you doing? But it probably is not going to happen if you insist on it being easy or safe, or on rescuing someone you care about by conventional means. Let's look at the guys portrayed in Mark 2, beginning with verse 2, our word for today from the Word of God. These guys are some of my heroes. I love this story. They have a paralyzed friend, they know Jesus is his only hope, and they are his only hope of getting to Jesus. He'll never get to Him on his own. That could well be you and some folks you know. The house Jesus is teaching in is so crowded they can't possibly carry their friend in through the door or even through a window. Those would be the conventional ways, right, of getting into a house - a door, or at least a window. So they give up, right? "I guess my friend will never get to Jesus. It's too hard. That's so sad." Wrong! No! Here's what the Bible says: "Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on." Minutes later, Jesus had forgiven their friend's sins and enabled him to walk for the first time in his life. The point? The lost and dying people you know will probably never go through the front door to Jesus. They may never come to a meeting you invite them to. They may never go to hear a speaker you want them to hear. But guess what? You're already with them. It's up to you to tell them about Jesus who has changed your life and changed your eternal destination. And all of us, from individual believers to churches to ministries, will have to realize if we keep on doing what we've always done, we'll keep on reaching who we've always reached. And dying people all around us will just go on dying! Like Jessica's rescuers, we've all got to be willing to try new methods, to get out of our comfort zone to rescue the dying, to go beyond what's easy, what would be convenient for us, to explain Jesus without all those religious words that only we understand. We've got to go to the places where the dying people really are instead of waiting for them to walk into the rescue station. Whatever it takes, that's what it's got to be when the situation is life-or-death. Would you say it to Jesus today, "Jesus, I'll help some of the people I know be in heaven with me; whatever it takes, whatever it costs! Because that's what you did."

I spent my seventh through tenth grade in a small town in Illinois. So I went to junior high there and my first two years of high school. And I hadn't seen my friends from there for 28 years! I was speaking in a city not too far from that town, and one of those old friends called and said, "Do you have time to get together with us before you go speak?" Well, we did. And after we figured out who everybody was, because, you know things have changed: hair, teeth, figures, we had a great time! There was a lot of the old "remember when" stuff, and "Hey, where's good old..." You know? Well, they all remembered when I weighed quite a few more pounds, for example. After we've gone through all those memories, we all want to do it again. But one thing, well, I've got to tell you; it became very clear by the end of the afternoon. If you want a real ongoing relationship, you've got to have some new experiences together. You can only go so far on memories. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Spiritual Memories Are Not Enough." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from perhaps the ultimate Christian life of all time, that of the Apostle Paul. And yet he says after 30 years of following Jesus, Philippians 3:13 - "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." I like the spirit of that, don't you? I mean, it's like an Olympic runner who says, "I don't care about the ground I've already covered. What matters is the ground ahead of me; what I haven't covered yet. The best is not behind me; the best is yet to come." And look! Paul had some great memories of some wonderful miracles, great sermons preached, and churches founded. But all he's focusing on is the new ground that he has yet to take for Jesus. See, the key to a living relationship with Christ can be summarized in four words that Paul uses here. "Forgetting what is behind." So many believers are like me and my old high school friends, trying to have a relationship today based on things that happened in the past. "Oh, remember the time I committed my life to Christ? I remember that meeting so well." "Remember, Lord, when I did that job for You?" "Remember when I was really out on a limb; I didn't know where it was going to come from, and I prayed and all kinds of miracles happened?" "Remember those answers to prayer?" "Remember those people I influenced?" "Remember when we used to have those intimate times together?" Come on! You can't base a relationship with Christ on a scrapbook, no matter how impressive the past is. Sure, we can draw encouragement for the new things in front of us from looking back. You just can't let the old missions satisfy you. You need some new experiences with Jesus. You need to be part of some new exploits for the King, places where you experience Christ's lordship in things that matter to you now. You need a daily rendezvous with Him where you have new encounters, new discoveries all the time from His Word; something new that you just talked to Him about today. You need a new mission, a new vision for what you could be doing for Him; a new reviving work better than all the others you've had in the past, a new intimacy, closer to Jesus than you've ever been before. Isn't it time to say, "Lord, I've been living too much on memories. I've been living on old victories, old experiences. Let's do some new things together! Today, Lord, let's start making some new memories."

Every New York television station you turned to had the same bold graphic that just said Blizzard of '96. I still remember it. It was barely 1996; we were only six days into the new year when anywhere between 20 to 30 inches of snow unloaded on the Metropolitan New York area. It was like a mega-ton snow bomb. Everything was shut down...bridges, the city. City workers were told not to come in. Some of the busiest streets in the world were shut down. Trains couldn't make it. Major sporting events were impossible. I had never seen New York like that. The city that never stops had been stopped. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stopped by a Storm." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 9. It's really from the life of a very goal-oriented high-achiever on his way to a major conquest. His name is Saul. This is a man, sort of like New York, who couldn't be stopped. The brightest young religious leader of his time, but deeply angered by the heresy of the new followers of a man named Jesus. Well, Saul's on his way to eliminate the problem. The man who never stopped was stopped by a sudden storm you might say. Verse 3 begins by saying this, "As Saul neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?' 'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' he replied." Well suddenly this hard driver could drive no farther. He was knocked from his horse, he's down on the ground, and he was unable to see. Perhaps you're kind of a Saul or a Saulina (whatever the female version is). You've been running full speed. You've gotten a lot done. You're competent, you're gifted, you're doing pretty well, and you're moving too fast to think about getting right with your Creator. Oh, you've got some religious credentials maybe but there's no doubt who's really God in your life. Your god's the one who's running your life? That would be you. And suddenly there's been this heavy storm. Maybe you've been hit with something medical or financial, or your family is in a crisis or someone you love is gone or you found yourself out of work, out of money, out of hope. Sometimes a struggling son or daughter knocks us off our horse. Whatever the storm, would you allow me to suggest a reason it might be happening? For the same reason it happened to Saul, so you would finally be able to hear the voice of Jesus - Jesus who created you. Jesus, against whom we've rebelled as we've run our life our way, not His way. Jesus, who is the only one who loved you enough to die for you; to pay the death penalty for sin that you deserved to pay. Jesus, the one who has been knocking gently on the door of your heart for a long time, but you've always been on your way somewhere else until now. And the storm has stopped you so you could finally meet your Savior. He's calling your name today just like He did Saul's that day. And He says, "I am Jesus." That day Saul surrendered his life to the Son of God. Maybe this day you will. Maybe it's time to say, "Lord, I've run it long enough. I need a Savior from my sin. I'm yours Jesus." This storm that seemed to be blowing you off course is really bringing you home. So, I want to invite you to go to our website, and I'll walk you through there the way you can be sure you have begun your personal relationship with the One who loves you the most. That website is ANewStory.com. Let Jesus step into your storm and say what He did to a storm with His disciples so many years ago, "Peace be still."

Not long ago there were pictures all over the news of these spectacular colors painting a breathtaking scene in the night sky. It was the "northern lights," also known to scientists as the aurora borealis. Now, I'll tell you what! It's worth checking out that view any time you can or at least those pictures. I guess the approach of solar flares from the sun's turbulence sometimes just adds a whole new richness to these lights. Of course, they have amazed people for centuries. Those pictures actually triggered my brain and brought back a special family memory. Actually, well, it seemed anything but special at the time. See, my wife and three children accompanied me on a ministry trip to Alaska, and I was excited when they first invited me to come to Alaska to speak. I pictured those scenic summer cruises they do up there. Then I found out they were asking me for February. Oh, well. At least it's a trip to Alaska. Well, we had a fantastic time up there even in February. So I was a little bummed when my wife and kids had to go back for school while I stayed a few more days to speak. There was a seasoned missionary pilot who was going to fly them out, and that gave me confidence. My first "uh-oh" was when he asked me to help him push his airplane out of the hangar (I never did that before!) and then onto this ice-rutted runway. Okay, I'd never pushed a plane before. Second "uh-oh," that my loved ones would be on a plane on a solid sheet of ice. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Rugged Road to a Beautiful View." After radioing that he had "five souls on board," the pilot started down the runway, playing one engine against the other to navigate the ice underneath. Now, all the while my family is feeling every bump and worse yet they're closing in on this large stand of Alaska-size trees at the end of the runway. To say the least, it was like, well, totally nerve-wracking. And what seemed to be this last possible moment, the pilot lifted off, barely cleared the trees. And then came the rodeo in the clouds, as their plane was shaken by air currents and merciless winds. In the back seat you could see these three speechless children, six saucer-sized eyes. And then it happened. They cleared the clouds and they gasped at what they saw. There was the unforgettable sight of the northern lights, almost where you could reach out and touch them. It was a moment of indelible beauty that few ever get to see. And suddenly, the bumps were forgotten; the beauty on the other side was just overwhelming. We've had a lot of flights like that in our life; a rugged journey that led to a beautiful destination. The financial struggles that brought us closer to God and closer to each other and showed us how creatively and faithfully He can provide. The ministry battles that set the stage for us to see a God of miracles. The medical crisis that caused us to re-treasure the person that we almost lost and to reset life's priorities. In the inscrutable ways of a loving God, it is the bumpy road that often leads to the most beautiful views. He takes you on a scary flight so ultimately you can see His glory in ways that many never get to see. Yes, "In all things God works for the good of those who love Him" (Romans 8:28). The much-hammered Apostle Paul put the troubles and the payoff on the scale and he weighed it this way: "Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed" (Romans 8:18). I guess we should learn something from the way we all come into the world. Labor - baby. Painful process - beautiful result. Now, our word today from the Word of God tells us in John 16:21, "A woman giving birth to a child has pain...but when the baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy." Well, I've never been in labor and I never will be. My wife and daughter will testify to the fact that the pain lasts a short time, but the beauty lasts a lifetime. So today it's the rough ride, tomorrow - the lights.

A Pope's visit to Cuba is not an everyday thing by any means. Pope Francis more recently visited. When Pope John Paul II made the very first visit in 1998, he saw a very different Cuba than Pope Francis saw. All visits captured the attention of the entire world. The 1998 visit was unprecedented. Here was one of the world's last totally Communist countries - an officially atheist state - welcoming the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. I hate to use the word in this context, but the visit appeared to be revolutionary. In a front page story, USA Today told about a man bicycling into Revolution Square in Havana the week before the Pope's arrival. He was quoted as saying, "I'm amazed! Look at Jesus!" The reason? There was a giant picture of Jesus that had suddenly appeared on a wall in Revolution Square, the heart of Cuban Communism. And over the picture of Jesus were inscribed these incredible words, "Jesus Christ, I trust You." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Savior You Can Trust." "I trust you." Those might be hard words for you to say to anybody because your trust has been betrayed too many times. The list of people you can really trust may be a very short one. Maybe there's not even a list. I mean, trust takes a beating when someone who's supposed to love you betrays you or hurts you or lets you down. Maybe that's happened to you. But your heart needs an anchor, a relationship where you really are safe. Well, our word for today from the Word of God, Romans 8:31-32 gives you that hope. "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" God is simply saying here, "I gave the most precious thing I have for you - my own Son. Jesus died on that brutal cross to pay for all the sinning you have ever done. If I have given my Son for you, is there anything I wouldn't do for you?" See, the issue is not trusting Christians or trusting Christianity. It's trusting Christ. It's all about Jesus. Your search for someone that you can totally trust ends at the foot of Jesus' cross. Stand there, look at Him hanging there for you and then answer the question, "Can I trust Jesus?" Years ago there was a day when I made my choice. I put Jesus in the center of activity in my heart and I said, "After loving me this much, Jesus Christ, I trust You." And trust is the key to beginning a personal love relationship with Jesus. It's taking down whatever other things have dominated your heart and putting Jesus there, as they did that day in Revolution Square in Havana. They may not have put that Jesus there to stay. But opening your heart to Him means you are now under new management. You've trusted your life, your pain and your eternity into the hands of Jesus - hands that, by the way, still carry the marks of the nails, scars that remove all doubt of whether He will ever let you down. He can't. He paid too much for you. Jesus had been missing in the heart of an island nation for too long. He's been missing in your heart for too long. But that could change today. Right now, if you will finally commit yourself to the One who loves you most. Tell Him you want to belong to Him. Tell Him you are trusting Him and what He did on the cross for you. Turning from the sin He died for. Right now you could pray, "Jesus, I am Yours because You died for me." I want to invite you to our website to anchor your relationship with Jesus there, to know you now belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. See, the real revolution in your life begins the day you make Jesus #1 in your heart. You are on the edge of having a peace and a calm inside, and a deep sense of being really loved and really safe; something you've never known before. Jesus is there. Will you tell Him, "Jesus Christ, I trust You."

At first, they were frightened, even bruised faces appearing on Iraqi TV. Early in the Iraq War, there were seven American soldiers and pilots who had been captured by Saddam Hussein's forces and then they were paraded on television for all the world to see. After that, none of us could be sure whether they were hurt or healthy, or dead or alive. Since then, in many wars, there have been too many scenes like that. In this case, retreating enemy soldiers informed American troops of the place where these particular POWs were being held. As the heavily armed soldiers burst into the room, they first shouted for everyone to lie down on the floor. And then, they yelled out an unmistakable command: "If you're an American, stand up!" Seven prisoners stood up, and they were free. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It's Time to Stand." I believe Jesus is issuing a command to you and me that sounds very much like what those POWs heard. Except it's not about being an American - oh no, it's something much higher, much more eternal. Jesus is saying to all those who claim that they belong to Him, "If you're a Christian, stand up!" Why? Because so few really are. I mean some surveys show that 90% of those who know Christ never tell anyone else about Him. Something is really wrong in this picture. Listen to Paul's challenge in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Timothy 1:7-8. "God did not give us a spirit of timidity (or it says fear in other translations), but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord..." Thank God, our Lord wasn't ashamed of us when He died publicly on a cross for us. He expects us to stand up. Why are so many of us lying low instead? This willingness to identify ourselves openly with Jesus is so important to Him that He actually says in Mark 8:38, "If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father's glory..." For your relationship with Jesus to remain a secret is just not acceptable in light of the price He paid for you. To have information that can save a life and then keep that information to yourself, that's criminal negligence. To know that Jesus' death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead is a person's only eternal hope, and then fail to tell that to the people you know, that's quietly issuing them a spiritual death sentence. You could have rescued them. You left them to die without knowing how they could have lived. Standing up for Jesus means more than just telling about Him. You've got to live for Him. Like they say in first grade, you've got to show and tell. And there may be compromises you're making or sins you won't relinquish that are discrediting Jesus, confusing some lost person who's watching you. We've all been to enough funerals to know that the people around us aren't going to be there forever. And they can be gone so quickly - gone into an eternity that they're either ready for or fatally unready for. If you know Jesus, you know how to help them get ready. But just because you're a nice person doesn't mean they're ever going to figure out that Jesus died on the cross to pay for their sin. You have to tell them that. Ask God to open up some natural opportunities to bring up your relationship with Jesus. He'll give them to you. Ask Him to open the heart of the one you're talking to. Ask Him to open your mouth; to give you the approach to use, and the words, and the courage to speak. This is life-or-death stuff, and God has placed you in the life of someone who desperately needs His Son. He's placed you there so you could show them Jesus so you can tell them about Jesus. So, if you're a Christian, if you belong to Jesus, stand up!

Most of the courtrooms I've been exposed to are on TV. But there was a moment in a courtroom I will never forget. It began when we learned the whereabouts of a young Native American friend we had been trying to locate for a while. Let's call her Cathy. We learned, almost miraculously, that after a dark time away from God, Cathy was in jail in Nebraska. We got that word on Friday as I was leaving Michigan to meet our Native American summer team in South Dakota on a Monday night. We ate up the Interstate trying to get to Nebraska before Cathy went before the Judge. She had no idea we were coming - until we saw her during her Sunday afternoon visiting hours. The next day we watched as she was marched down those courthouse stairs in her orange prisoner uniform, her hands shackled. It was hard to see. I had a hard time not crying. We knew what this girl could be. We'd spoken with her attorney who was the public defender, and we explained that we would be willing to pay the fines that she owed. Neither she nor her family had anything to pay those with. Cathy sat with her attorney before the Judge's bar, and my wife and I sat behind them. The Judge reviewed the charges against Cathy and the penalties. Then he looked at me and said, "I understand someone here is willing to pay these penalties." I managed to get out, "I will, your honor." The Judge proceeded to declare her case closed. And then Cathy turned and looked at us - and she said those wonderful words, "I'm free! I'm free!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Guilty and No Way to Pay." There was only one way Cathy was going to go free. Someone had to come a long way to pay the price for what she had done. As I sat emotionally melted in that courtroom, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that's what Jesus did for me and for you. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 10:45. "The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." Ransom: think of a kidnapping situation. The ransom is the price you pay to set someone free. Jesus tells us what our freedom costs. He would have to "give His life." That price was paid as He suffered the unspeakable agony of dying on a cross, absorbing all the guilt and all the hell of your sin and mine. What we owe in the court of God is hopelessly beyond our ability to pay. God said, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). That's eternal death, separation from Him. We offer the Judge a little religion or decency to pay for a lifetime of running our life instead of Him running it. And it's nowhere near enough. We can't pay it. Picture it. You're in the courtroom of Almighty God, clearly guilty of doing your life your way, not His way. The sentence is death. There's no hope of forgiveness, no hope of heaven. Then the Judge says, "I understand someone here is willing to pay this." Jesus stands, and as He extends His nail-pierced hands, He says, "I will, Your Honor. I'll pay it." He came an awful long way for you - all the way from the Throne Room of the universe to a blood-stained cross. And there He paid it all. The question is, have you ever told God you were putting your total trust in Jesus and what He did on the cross? If not, God's death penalty is still on you. It's still your future. But this could be the day you reach out to Jesus to accept Him as the only One who can rescue you. Right where you are you can say, "Jesus, I turn from running my own life to the One who died and gave His life to pay for every wrong thing I have ever done. And today, Jesus, because you are alive, I put all my hope in You. I'm Yours." If you want to begin with Him today, our website is for you. It's ANewStory.com. Someone else has paid the price for what you have done - the Son of God himself. So let this be the day you walk out of the courtroom of God, saying those wonderful, wonderful words, "I'm free! I'm free!"

We were sitting on the runway at O'Hare Airport for a long time, in an airplane that is. I thought we were on our way when we left the gate. I said to myself "Okay, in a couple of minutes we'll be in the air and on our way." And then they routed us across the backside of O'Hare, and I saw some lovely storage facilities. We finally ended up in a long, long line of aircraft. I've got a little problem with impatience, but I sure don't want the pilot to have that problem. See, he knows that you do not take off until you get clearance from the tower...no matter how long that means you have to wait. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Taking Off Before God Says 'Go.'" Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 27. It's a pretty powerful lesson in faith and patience from the life of Rebecca, Isaac's wife. Maybe you remember that God had promised that the younger son, Jacob, would actually end up with the blessing rather than the usual thing, which would be that his older brother, Esau, would get it. Unfortunately, it looked like Isaac was dying and he hadn't given the blessing to Jacob. So Rebecca kind of panics and says, "Oh boy, I'd better do something about this to make sure that my favorite son gets the blessing. God said he would." Now, she has no clearance from the tower to do this. God didn't tell her to do it, she doesn't even talk to Him about it. She just takes off. And she has this scheme where he will wear various hairy things on his arms and try to smell like the outdoors so he'll feel like his brother and smell like his brother, who's a hunter, and he'll just lie about who he is. And you know what? Isaac can't see very well. He does deceive his father and he gets the blessing. So, do they win? They lose. Listen to the expensive result beginning in Genesis 27:41. "Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, 'The days of mourning for my father are near, and then I will kill my brother Jacob.'" Then it goes on to say as Rebecca now counsels Jacob, "Now, then, my son, do what I say. Flee to my brother Laban. Stay with him for a while until your brother's fury subsides. When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him" - you think that's going to happen? - "I'll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?" And in a sense that's exactly what happened. She didn't see Jacob for 14 years - her relationship was broken with Esau. Oh, by the way, Isaac didn't die - he lived 20 more years! All of this agony happened in this family because Rebecca couldn't wait for God to do it His way. Oh, she knew Jacob should have the blessing, but it just wasn't happening fast enough. Does that sound familiar at all? You thought God was going to act by now, but you're still waiting. The temptation is to panic and say, "Oh, man! It's now or never!" Now, you don't have a "go" from the Lord, but you're still starting to take off. You know, if a pilot does that without the person who can see all the other aircraft, who can see all the implications of taking off right now, he's going to be flying into disaster. If the child of God does that, he's flying into disaster. Ask God for the patience to wait on the runway. And remember that old wisdom, "Don't doubt in the darkness, or shall I say in the waiting room, what God has told you in the light." Avoid the heartache that comes from taking off without clearance from the flight controller of your life.

Now there are happy video tape recordings. You know, audio recordings of our kids when they were little before their voices changed, Karen and I giving our vows to each other at our wedding. And then, there are not so happy tapes. Like the ones of former President Richard Nixon years ago, after the Watergate scandal. The accusations flew back and forth without any fatal damage until an aid testified that the President had recordings of his oval office conversations. There was a big legal battle over releasing those tapes, but eventually the world heard the not very pretty things that were said behind closed doors. I wonder if President Nixon just forgot, sometimes, that the recorder was running, or if he thought no one would ever hear what he was saying. Wow, was he wrong! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Your Words Come Back to You." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 12:34. Jesus said, "For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you." Pretty sobering, huh? You show what your heart is full of by your words and then He says the divine tape recorder is always running. When you're on the phone, when you're angry, when you're whispering, when you're talking behind someone's back, when you think no one heard it, the recorder is running. And one day all of it will be played back in the presence of the living God. You talk about being without defense, wow, there it is, listening to yourself say it. See, words really do matter. By your words you show what's in your heart. By your words you will be acquitted. By your words you will be condemned. Our words will be there to meet us when we stand before God: encouraging words, God-praising words, Christ sharing words, loving words. But also our careless words, our dirty words, our hurting words, those backstabbing words, angry ones, lying ones. If our words will be the measure of our judgment there are some steps we need to take now! First, we need to realize we don't stand a chance before God's judgment without a Savior. The Savior - the only One who died for our sins. That would be Jesus. There are just too many words that have done too much damage. They are objective proof of the darkness that has been inside us called sin. The sin that God's one and only Son died to pay for. He paid the death penalty for all of it. If you've put all your trust in Him to be your personal sin-rescuer today, you will be forgiven once and for all. But beyond that we need to listen to ourselves to ask God to help us hear what He hears in our words. It's time we join David in his prayer, "Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips (Psalm 141:3). Ultimately the weight of our words should cause us to make Jesus Christ Lord of our tongue every new day, every hour. If we can win the word battle, we can win anything. But believe me, it takes the control of Jesus Christ himself to tame a runaway tongue. So, if you're judged by your words, if they are evidence of the sin and the darkness in your heart, the words that have hurt people, the angry words, the dirty words, the unforgiving words, the hurtful things, isn't it time to make the Savior who died for all of that your savior. The only way to escape God's judgment is to accept the payment that He made when He took God's judgment for you on the cross. So reach out to Him today and say, "Jesus, I'm yours. I'm pinning all my hopes on you for the forgiveness of my sins." Go to our website. It'll help you be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. Talk is not cheap. It can be very expensive. The President of the United States was ultimately judged by his own words, and we will be too.

Years ago I had some friends who lived near a heavy industrial area where the mills filled the air with a shall we say very distinctive aroma; well, actually, smell would be a better word for it. It was sort of a sulfur-like, rotten eggs type of odor. When you first went there, you would sniff and you'd go, "What is that?" And the people who lived there would say, "What's what?" See, they'd lived around the stink so long, it didn't even register any more. Well, you know, there are some smells you should never get used to. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Getting Used to the Stink of Sin." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the prophet Ezekiel. He is receiving his instructions from the Lord in the form of a vision, and here's what it says in chapter 9, verse 2. "With the six men, I saw one clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. They came in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the Lord called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side, and said to him, 'Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.'" Okay, God is saying here, "I'm looking for some people who don't gloss over the sin around them; people who grieve over sin." Well, they were hard to find then; they're hard to find now. Those kinds of people were special then, and they're special now. People who don't get so used to being in the middle of sin that they don't notice the smell any more. Chances are that you come in daily contact with a lot of sinful garbage; lying that's considered just to be smart business, an acceptance of adultery, a flippant attitude toward sexual purity. That's being casual about something God calls sacred. You can tell by the phrases and the words people use about sexual intimacy. It's a flippant "who cares" approach to a sacred act of love, created by God for a lifetime bond. Well, how does it make you feel when you hear that? See, we're around it so much sometimes it doesn't break our heart any more, but it breaks God's heart all the time, and He's looking for people whose hearts it can break. We hear people treat God's name, Jesus' name, like dirt. Jesus, the name at which every knee will bow. There are attitudes that amount to nothing less than idol worship, and we're no longer bothered by it: living for money, living for a guy or a girl, living for your music, living for the next party, living for your children. It's time we prayed, "God, give me back my sense of spiritual smell when there is something more important than You to people." Unless we get with God daily and see what He sees, feel what He feels, we will be worn down, we're going to be eroded until, honestly, sin really doesn't look that bad. Imagine telling a drunk driving joke to a man who kept saying, "Please, I don't think it's funny." You say, "What is your problem?" "Because a drunk driver killed my son." See, that's how God feels about the sin that we take so lightly. It killed His Son. You want to see what sin looks like? It's God's Son hanging by nails from a tree. Ask God to make you wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil rather than being intrigued by it. We don't sit in judgment of people. No, the Bible says to tell them about our hope with gentleness and respect. But by the same token, sin should stink to us. It's the rotting odor of death, no matter how glamorously it is perfumed. So, don't get used to the smell.

I once spoke for a large youth conference at one of the East Coast's most popular vacation spots: Ocean City, Maryland. The boardwalk, the hotels, the restaurants, the amusements seem to stretch for miles there. My friend told me he'd been coming to Ocean City since the 1970s, when most of what I was seeing wasn't there. Not that many folks used to come to Ocean City at all. I asked my friend what changed that. He said, "Oh, the bridge." The building of what is called the Bay Bridge opened up this beautiful spot to many people who literally had never experienced it before. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Someone's Bridge to Heaven." It's amazing what a difference a bridge can make - it literally brings people and places together. And for most people, there needs to be a bridge for them to get to the most important destination of all - to get to heaven. For some people you know, you are that bridge. Actually, Jesus has bridged the grand canyon between a holy God and us sinners by His death for our sins. And most people will not make it to Jesus unless a Christian they know is the bridge they can cross to Jesus. You see, your lost friends can't see Jesus. But they can see you. The question is: "Are you taking them to Him?" If you don't, they may never make it to Him. They may never make it to heaven Jesus spells out your role as His bridge in our word for today from the Word of God. First, there's God's part in bringing a lost person to Him. "God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ." It might be good to put in this verse maybe the name of someone you know who doesn't belong to Jesus as far as you know. "God was reconciling (put their name in there) to Himself in Christ, not counting that person's sins against them. And He has committed to us (put your name in there) the message of reconciliation. We are, therefore, Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us (that's through you). We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God." That's 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. Reconciling. Well, we know what that is; bringing two people together. I think sometimes we make this business we call "witnessing" way too complicated. You don't have to explain all about Christianity, all about Christians, everything the church has ever done, all about the differences between religions. Because it's all about Jesus. He said, "Follow Me." Not my followers, not my religion, not my rules. "Follow Me." I'm glad it's all about Jesus, aren't you? So His invitation is still the same, "Follow Me." So your assignment as Jesus' ambassador - as Jesus' bridge - is to bring two people together. You take Jesus in one hand, you take that lost person you care about in the other hand and you bring them together - forever. What a beautiful picture! And what a beautiful eternal tribute to the life you lived here. They'll be in heaven with you. Will you reach out to a person you know who doesn't belong to Jesus yet? There's somebody you know who doesn't know your Jesus. Listen to the Holy Spirit's voice and step up and be their bridge. Would you take them by the hand and walk with them up Skull Hill, and bring them to the bottom of that old rugged cross and let them stand there for a moment and look at what Jesus is doing for them there. Show them Jesus. Show them His cross, and tell them, "What He's doing on that cross is for you, for every wrong thing you've ever done, and nobody loves you like Jesus does." You are pointing them to the greatest love in the universe, proven at a cross, the greatest power in the universe, proven at an empty tomb. Listen, our website is there, if you've never begun a relationship with Him, to help you know how to do that. You can go to ANewStory.com. If that one you know doesn't get to Jesus, they're not going to get to heaven. And they may never get to Jesus without a bridge. That is why God put you there.

Back in my old school days, we used to do an experiment in science class. When I told my then teenage sons about this, they were very surprised to find out that there was a science class when I was in school! But there was and we used to dissect the triceratops and the tyrannosauruses. There was this little experiment we would do for real. Maybe you remember it. There's this little hand crank. You know, sort of a generator. And you'd crank it as fast as you could, and it would make a light bulb slowly light up. If you cranked fast enough, you could get a pretty bright light in that bulb. But as you started to wear out, you slowed down and the bulb started to dim and go out. That little hand crank method was okay for the limited demands of a light bulb, but, man I'd hate to run my whole house that way, huh. I mean, there's the stove and the microwave, the computers, and the TV. Fortunately all of those are not plugged into some little hand crank system when we're trying to get as much juice out of it as we can. That would make you cranky for sure. We plug into this tremendous current and voltage that flows through our house; into a much bigger source really. Now, it's amazing how many folks are trying to run everything in their life by a hand crank. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Prayer That Wins Battles." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Exodus 17; we'll begin at verse 8. "The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, 'Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.' As long as Moses held up his hands that day, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning." Now, that's interesting! The difference was made by the leader holding up the staff of God. What's the deal with the staff? Well, it represented and in a sense contained the power and the presence of the Lord. What it really means is given to us after the battle is won and in later verses where it says, "Moses built an altar and called it 'the Lord is my banner.' He said, '...for hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord." See, Moses standing on that hill holding high God's power, represents a leader interceding for his troops. And when he is, there's victory, and when he isn't, there's defeat. You're probably in a leadership role of some kind; I mean you've got influence in your family, or maybe with a group of friends, or in your church or at work. Your number one responsibility is to hold high the power; to keep the focus on prayer, on intercession as the way to win the battles. Now, our tendency? Well, it's to trust in hand-cranked power; yeah, the power of planning, committees, money, and the power of good ideas and experts, and how smart we are. But human generators cannot meet all the demands of our complex lives. We need the kind of voltage that only prayer generates. We tend to feel that we're not doing anything when we pray. It may seem like it's kind of passive. Well, Moses might have said, "Well, you know, I'm not fighting the battle. I'm not doing anything." But intercession determines whether all the other weapons will win or not. Prayer doesn't make a difference; it makes the difference. It's not just a glancing prayer. No, you keep at it relentlessly until that battle is won. You don't stop; you don't give up. Look, are you leading the people around you to make prayer their first resort; not their last resort? Are you modeling for them, asking big with great faith in a great God? Do you model that prayer is a power lifestyle for your family? Do you model to your family that prayer is your primary method of getting things done? Do you pray with people; not just for them, but with them? Stand like Moses stood above the fray; interceding, reminding your troops regularly where the voltage comes from, and hold high the power!

There was a young man we knew who was pretty distraught over a death in his family. He acted it out by deciding to just delete a bunch of Facebook friends. And think we all know someone that has been "deleted" or "canceled." It's just the world we live in today and it hurts! You can delete a relationship with a stroke of your finger. Sometimes it can be really brutal. People have been deleting other people forever. It's just a lot easier now. And, it's pretty tough. But most of us know how "deleted" feels, whether it came from someone turning on us, abandoning us, divorcing us, forgetting us. Or maybe they just died. No matter how it happens, it hurts. I'm more grateful than ever that I have a friend who absolutely will never delete me no matter what. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Never Deleted." In our word for today from the Word of God, Hebrews 13:5, Jesus has promised me - and He's promised everyone who belongs to Him - "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." And I'll tell you what; Jesus has never broken a promise. This part of the Bible goes on to say that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). Man, that sounds awesome in a world where everything from governments to gas prices to politics to relationships - they're all changing wildly. But one anchor Relationship, one unloseable person, "I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I have been the same yesterday, today, I will be forever." It's pretty amazing that I can call the Son of God my friend. But His Word says I can. "We can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God," the Bible says, "because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us" (fasten your seatbelt now) "friends of God" (Romans 5:11). And Jesus actually said to those who follow Him, "Now you are my friends" (John 15:15). And He proved how much He loved me by how much He sacrificed for me. In His words, He loved us enough to "lay down His life for His friends" (John 15:13). So I know He'll never delete me. If He was ever going to turn His back on me, it would have been when He was suffering and dying on that cross for all the things I have done against Him. And He hung there until He could say, "It is finished." He did that because He wants me - He wants you - to be with Him forever. If you're not with Him forever, it will be because you deleted Him. So, is this the day that you finally turn personally to this Jesus and say, "Jesus, beyond any religion, beyond everything Christian, all the Christian meetings, because I have been a part of a religion that's about You, none of that means I belong to You. I want to be Yours. I want to take for myself what You died on the cross for. To turn from my sin that nailed you there and put my faith in You who walked out of the grave under Your own power." You've been lonely enough. You've been hurt enough. You've been lost enough. You've been deleted enough. This is the One you can anchor your life to. Are you ready to make Him the anchor? Here you go. You say, "Jesus, I'm Yours from this day on. You died for me. I give myself to You. Nobody loves me like You do." And then that promise kicks in, "I will never leave you or forsake you." Listen, Our website is there so you can actually be sure you belong to Him. I hope you'll go there and check it out as soon as you can today. It's ANewStory.com. And know from this day forward, while you may be lonely again, you've just spent your last day alone.

Some people have wall-to-wall carpet. Me? I have a wall-to-wall schedule. Maybe you do too. It was like that even when I had to take my daughter to college years ago. She had just returned from a mission trip to Manila and so had I. We had one day to get her to Chicago for college. Not only did we have to get her to school that day, but on that particular Friday, I had to produce some of these radio programs. So I had to produce radio, deliver a daughter, I mean everything was perfectly timed. No room for anything to go wrong. And then we landed at O'Hare Airport to learn that there had been nine inches of rain overnight. It closed the airport totally, flooded it closed. O'Hare became Camp O'Hare, an island for a day. So, here were the five Hutchcrafts in a mountain of moving to college with luggage all around us. Well, my plans said I had to be at that radio studio. Uh... No, apparently I didn't! My plan said my daughter had to be at college that day. Uh... no! In fact, thousands of people, in those days before cell phones, were fighting over telephones there to change their plans. Every one of them probably had to be somewhere that day. No, they didn't! There are lots of days like that. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Two Words to Peace." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from James 4 - I'll begin at verse 13. "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this city or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, make money.'" (Or take your daughter to college, do radio programs.) "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" Now, I have a confession to make. Sometimes I have been bothered by people who would say, "Lord willing," sounding like a cliche in every other sentence. I said that was a confession; I do confess that. You know what? I'm actually beginning to understand the peace-giving power of those two words, "Lord willing." James says here, "When you make your plans say, 'If the Lord wills, we will.'" See, now, I'm a planner. I want to make every time, space, and every segment of my life count. So I schedule very well, and we should do that. Psalm 90:12 says, "Lord, teach us to number our days aright so we may apply our hearts to wisdom." But in our wall-to-wall schedules, is there any room or God in there? We rule out God's right to reschedule our day, to interrupt, to slow us down, to cancel, and He often does. I began to realize how much of my own stress I create by not saying, "Lord, here's my list, here's my goal, here's my plan, here's my schedule. Now, Lord, you have every right to change it, and I'll assume if it changes, the changes are from you." There is so much frustration when car trouble wrecks the plan, or illness, or a tragedy you have to respond to, or a flooded airport. But I can avoid so much frustration if I allow the God of heaven to be the Lord of my almighty, untouchable schedule. And I do that with two words, "Lord willing" spoken or unspoken, but consciously recognizing the sovereignty of Almighty God. You can actually relax if you'll turn over the schedules and the lists of your life to Him. "Lord willing." It is for us stress filled planners a powerful two-word tranquilizer.

So there have been several Supermen, well, you know, men who have played Superman over the years. From TV to all the movies. The first one was George Reeves, on the TV show many years ago. Some supermen have had tragic lives. George Reeves who played Superman from 1951 to 1958 actually committed suicide after his career had stalled. He was forever typecast as Superman. Then another actor, Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in five films, became paralyzed in 1995 from an equestrian accident where he was thrown from his horse. These actors played the part of a man who was invincible, but "behind the role" was the awful reality. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Supermen Are Breakable"! Actually, many men have discovered that fact in their own lives. Our half of the human race has been raised to believe that we've got to be super men. The world thinks we've got it together; we feel no pain, we've got it under control. But as a man, you know there's a "real you" behind the part - a wounded warrior; maybe bleeding a lot on the inside; maybe a scared little boy underneath a mask of macho confidence; and you don't have it all under control. Superman, in reality, is breakable or broken. Our word for today from the Word Of God introduces us to a "Superman" of another time and the dark secret that was beyond all his "Superness." 2 Kings 5:1 - "Now Naaman was commander of the army of the King of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier..." Okay, this guy was a "Superman" of his time, but he had a secret, a dark secret: he was dying of leprosy. In verse 3, one of his servants said, "If only my master would see the prophet who's in Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman goes for that cure, but it requires humility. He didn't like the cure prescribed: he had to wash in the dirty Jordan River. He says, "Couldn't I wash in one of the streams back home and be cleansed?" It says he went off in a rage! He was proud, and he was dying from it. Finally, he chose to be well rather than be in charge. In chapter 5, verse 14, it says, "He dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy." I wonder if God brought us together today because He knows you're a modern day Naaman. He knows the dark spot behind the mask and He wants to cure it. But you first have to accept His diagnosis and His cure. The diagnosis is that you've got terminal spiritual cancer. It's called sin! No matter how religious, no matter how respected you may be, you've broken God's laws and you've run the life that your Creator was supposed to run and your "my way" of living has left you fatally separated from God. The cure requires humility - the admission that you cannot save yourself - and then a trip, not to a dirty river, but to a dying Savior's cross. There you say, "Jesus, it's my sin You're dying for, isn't it? I need to be forgiven. I need a Savior. I can't be my own savior, I want You as my savior. I belong to You from this day on." The result - the same as it was for Naaman: you're restored, you're clean, you're new! Haven't you run from Jesus or put Him off long enough? Let this be the day you run to Him! Discover in the man Jesus, who walked 33 years as a man. He gets us guys. When you discover in Him all the love and all the power that has eluded you, all the peace, all the fulfillment, all the worth and the ability to change what you could never change, you discover that when you get to Jesus and say, "Jesus, I'm Yours." This could be your day to get started with Him. Will you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." It'll change everything. Go to our website. I think it'll help. It's ANewStory.com. Superman really is breakable or broken. Don't make that eternally fatal mistake of being so proud you die from it. Your Savior is waiting!

Hundreds of thousands of Kurdish people had fled Saddam Hussein's Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, and they were spread over miles of mountainside on the Turkish border. Christian agencies were flooding in with food, medical help and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But most of the Christian workers connected with the people there only from trucks and distribution points, where they handed out food and blankets. But the missionaries from one particular mission organization really broke through the barrier that others were encountering when they tried to talk about Jesus. They had a unique way of getting close to the people and winning their respect and their trust. You ready to hear their radical outreach strategy? These missionaries picked up the garbage. See, it was everywhere on those mountainsides, and it was getting pretty gross. Nobody wanted to do the garbage, but those who were willing to were the ones those people listened to. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Serving Opens Hearts." What opened doors and hearts among those needy people on that Iraqi mountainside is the same thing that will open doors and hearts where you are - a willingness to win the right to be heard by being there for people's garbage. It's what Jesus did. In Philippians 2:5-7, our word for today from the Word of God, He tells us: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross." This is the Jesus who touched the lepers that no one else would touch, who stopped for people that everyone else walked by, who washed the dirty feet of His followers, who defined His day by the needs of people who came to Him for help, and who allowed men He had made to beat Him and crucify Him. The King of heaven came to us as a servant and He stole our hearts away. You have neighbors who really need your Jesus, coworkers, friends and family members. How are you ever going to get them interested in the Jesus who is their only hope? By serving them; by being there to help them with the garbage of their lives. In Jesus' name, be there when their health levels them, when their marriage is struggling or over, when they lose a loved one. Be there when all the funeral folks have gone home. Be there when they're struggling financially, when they don't have enough help, when their business is in trouble, when their kids are in trouble, or when they've lost their reputation and nobody wants to be around them any more. Their moment of loss is your moment of loving opportunity to show them Jesus' love in action. When others walk out, you walk in. Then you will be ultimately in a position to explain to them where this love comes from. You're just loving them like you've been loved. By a Jesus who had poured everything out for you, because He died on a cross to clean up all the garbage of your life and the garbage of theirs. First, you show them Jesus by serving them in the midst of their garbage. You win the right to be heard by being there to help pick up the pieces and pick up the garbage. Initially, they may not be interested in your message, but who can be against someone who picks up their heavy burden and helps them carry it; who is there when nobody else is? You can't be against that. It's that kind of love that will open their heart to the greatest love of all!

If you've always been skinny, you can just give it up because you're not going to understand what I'm about to say. But if you're like me and you've battled over that scale your whole life, if you've ever been overweight, you'll probably understand this. Once you've battled that, you always tend to think of yourself as overweight even if you're not any more. Now, I've managed to lose some of it. Others may say you're okay, and the scale might even say you're okay. But there's this voice that keeps whispering, "Overweight!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Forgiven Means It's Gone." Our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. "Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?" Okay, that's the bad news. "Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, or idolaters, or adulterers, nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, or slanderers, or swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." Most of us are in there somewhere, right? Now the good news, "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." Now, I'll tell you one of the belittling lies of sin, "You're still dirty. You're still away from God. You're still unworthy. There's no use. It's hopeless." And God's Word screams to those who've been forgiven by Christ, "No! That is a lie! What God says you are is what you are. And God says that is what you were, it's not what you are any more." The verb tense makes all the difference in the world. Your guilt has been erased. He uses the word "washed." You've been given a spiritual shower if you've been to Jesus' cross; if you've dropped that sin, however dirty, however ugly, however many times repeated, or however willful. If you've dropped it at that cross and you've trusted Him to forgive it, you are clean. You are washed by God. Then He says, "You were sanctified." That means you've been made special again. And then He says, "You have been justified." That means you've been made right with God. Of course, the Devil is going to say, "Hey, you're still spiritually overweight, you know. You're still carrying the weight of the past around." That voice is about what you were. It's like the voice that wrongly says, "You're still overweight" even when the weight is really gone. The Devil wants you to give up. He wants you to go back to the old you. But Leviticus 26:13 is a wonderful promise I think applies to even us today. God says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves of the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high." You are new! Why don't you live new? Don't live in that old junk believing that it still has to be you. Don't buy the lie. Because of the power of the blood of Jesus, you are forgiven, He shed that blood on the cross for those very sins, you are not carrying that weight - that burden - any more. This could be your day to experience that forgiveness for yourself. Whatever you wish you hadn't done, all the sins, all the mistakes, all the hurts you've inflicted, all the pain of the past can be brought to the cross of Jesus, and He will take that burden as He did on the cross when He died for you and say, "It is now mine. You are forgiven. You are clean. You are new." It happens when you say, "Jesus, I'm yours and I'm putting all my trust in what You did on the cross when You died for me." Consider making this your day to do that. Go to our website. I think we can help you know you've begun that relationship and know you're forgiven. It's ANewStory.com. Remember, if Jesus has forgiven you, walk and talk confidently, because whatever your enemy may say to lie to you, that old weight, that old burden, that sin is gone!

If you've ever spent a lot of time in the city, you may have had the experience of waiting for a bus. You've got a couple of packages, it's cold, some weird people are starting to cruise by for the second time, and suddenly you see the dim outline of a bus on the horizon. Biblically "your heart leapeth within you" as you see the bus approaching. Finally it gets close enough for you to read the sign in the window, and there are three words "Out of Service." Oh! Three very discouraging words. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Such Thing As Retire." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy 4:6-7, a very interesting valedictory on Paul's life. Now, if you've ever tried to ride a bus, you may know how it feels to need a vehicle and find out that it's out of service. You know, not available for you to use? Well, God knows that feeling too. And that takes us to Paul here at the end of his lifetime run. He has every right to rest. I mean, he has served the Lord with all his heart. He has every right to retire; move to Florida. He has every right to leave the battles to someone else; to hang out his sign that says, "Out of Service." Well, listen to what he says. "I am being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." Wow! Paul's picture at the end of his life, after 30 years of giving all he had to give, he said, "I still am. I'm still being poured out like a drink offering." I picture here an Olympic runner with veins bulging and every sweat gland pumping, fully extended, nothing left. He says, "When I cross the finish line into Jesus' arms, I want to collapse into His arms with nothing left in my pockets, nothing left in my energy. I will give it all to the finish line." Man! Paul simply will not retire spiritually until he gets retired by his Lord to heaven. Well, that's the attitude we all should share, but we don't sometimes. Right? Oh, maybe you've worked hard for the Lord, you've done a lot of the jobs there are to do, and you're kind of tired. Now you're saying, "I think I've earned a little time out; I think I've earned a rest. Let's pass it on to others. I served my time." Whoa! We don't have enough time to serve. Maybe 70 or 80 years is all we've got to make our mark for eternity. Please! There's too much to do; there's too few to do it. Time is too short. We need seasoned leaders. Yeah, they're tired, but you've got experience. You are needed. Don't hang out an "Out of Service" sign. Not now. Not with so much to give. Maybe you're just really busy surviving. You say, "I don't have any time to serve the Lord. Maybe later, but, you know, right now someone else." Are you out of service? This life; this brief 70 years or whatever is all we have to do God's work on earth; to build something that we'll have for 100 million years - to make a difference. We're here, like Paul, to live poured out lives, holding nothing back. We might retire to a different location, we might have some physical limitations that change what we can do, but will never retire from being on call for God to use us to tell people about our Jesus. To share our hope story. We don't retire until God calls us home. The Bible says "all the days ordained for me were written in God's book before one of them came to be." That means, you know when you go home? When your work is done. If you're still here, then you've still got work to do! You retire by putting on new tires so you can keep going. You get re-tired. God is looking for human vehicles that He can use for heaven's sake. Don't pull up in front of Jesus with a sign that says "I'm out of Service."

My son was a shrewd and wise baseball card collector. There are certain ones he kept really really well in these plastic folders. He would let anybody get near them. Why? Well, he said, "Dad when they're in mint condition they're really the most valuable and then they're really rare. And rare means valuable." You know, there's a word that's becoming increasingly rare in our societies and our culture today. It's the word "virgin." A cable news network once posed this question to their viewers: "Why are we so obsessed with virginity?" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Virgin Treasure." There was a foray into virgin territory that was triggered by an HBO interview years ago with Olympian Lolo Jones. She had won gold medals at the World Indoor Championship twice and has been regarded as one of the best hurdlers in the world. But it was a Twitter mention of being a virgin that started the buzz and made this interview news. After all, she was attractive... a star athlete...she was fit - and hadn't had sex? What? She said, "It's just something, a gift that I want to give to my husband." There's a young woman who understood making sacrifices and working hard to get to a prize. Oh, and she understood the hurdles between her and that finish line. "Please understand" she said, "this journey has been hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, harder than training for the Olympics, harder than graduating from college. I've been tempted. I've had guys tell me 'if you have sex, it will help you run faster.'" Really? One gutsy woman - with a seriously tested but uncompromised conviction - again, unintentionally, put virginity back in the national conversation. Years ago, NFL quarterback Tim Tebow did too when he revealed he was saving sex for one person - his wife. The good news for Lolo and Tim and every man or woman who guards their virginity as a treasure not to be violated is this: you've got God on your side. That's God, as in the Inventor of sex; the Designer of human sexuality, of man, of woman. Cultures change. But you can't change the Creator's plan for His creation. Jesus said this about sex: "At the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate" (Mark 10:6-9). So here's God's plan: One man with one woman in a lifetime covenant before God. That's how sex was designed to be. Anything else is outside of God's plan. God really cares what we do with His incredible love gift called sex. In Hebrews 13:4 - "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure. For God will judge...all the sexually immoral." That's our Word for today from the Word of God. See, God's put a fence around sex. It's called marriage and He says there's judgment for those who violate the fence. I didn't say that. God did. My friend Mel has the most amazing vegetable garden and he's got a fence around it. "He doesn't want people to enjoy it, I know." That's not why. He wants to keep it a garden so that everyone can enjoy it. The fence is there to keep out the things that would ruin it. That's why God put a fence around sex called marriage. To protect us from ruining something beautiful. A garden is where beautiful things grow if it's kept safe. So virginity is a treasure but it's one that you can look back and go, "You know what, I wish I'd made that choice." There are less virgins than ever but they're more valuable than ever. But do you know one of the most powerful words in God's vocabulary is the word "forgive" because it carries with it the promise that we can be clean and have a whole new start. In the Bible's words you are a "new creation in Christ." You say, "Ron, I didn't get this right." Well right now Jesus stands there with open arms to say, "I died on a cross to forgive every sin, including that." And if you're thinking about what you wish you hadn't done, that can be erased from God's Book forever if you'll embrace the new beginning Jesus gives at His cross. Our website will tell you how to begin that relationship - ANewStory.com. The good news for you is that today is a new beginning.

When you have three children, of course only one can be the first, and that one becomes to the others the measuring stick for all privileges, all fairness, and all comparisons. Now, in our family, our daughter is the oldest. The three kids would be getting along perfectly one day, and then suddenly the boys would learn about something their big sister got. Then I would hear the march of determined feet to my desk, and then those words, "How come she gets to...?" Then the rest would be whatever they were comparing. They would discuss whatever blessing she had gotten that they had not. Actually knowing that kind of question was coming helped me make better decisions. It could help you too. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fatal Favoritism." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 27:45. We're reading about Rebekah, the mother of two boys - Jacob and Esau. Those two boys are very much against each other at this point. The older, Esau, has a tremendous grudge and even an urge to kill his younger brother, Jacob. And now Rebekah says to her younger son, "When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I'll send word for you to come back." He's going to have to be sent many miles away. "Why should I lose both of you in one day?" Man! She says, "I'm losing both of my sons." She's sending Jacob away for his own safety; Esau wants to kill him. How did they get in this mess? Well, Jacob's Mom and he have tricked Father, Isaac, into giving Jacob Esau's blessing. How did this family end up with all this hatred and conflict, deceit between a husband and wife, and a mother who's physically losing one son and emotionally losing the other? The answer: the great splitter-upper. In Genesis 25 it says at the boys' early ages, "The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob." Did you get it? Here are two godly people who fell into the trap that divides parents from children, children from parents, employees and employers, spiritual leaders and the people they're trying to lead. It's the word partiality. It's the great splitter-upper. When my sons were asking, "How come she gets to...?" they were forcing me to take a partiality check. "Am I showing favoritism here?" It inevitably leads to conflict, bitterness, getting even, and loss of respect for the person who's been partial. If you're a parent, you just can't afford to choose between your children. If you're a son or a daughter, you can't afford to pick one parent to be close to and the other one to kind of freeze out or ignore. In spiritual leadership you can't afford to get close to one person over another. If people work for you, you've got to treat them the same. There's a natural attraction - a natural compatibility - sometimes between one or the other, but it can never be the basis for relationships. Rebekah lost both the insider and the outsider in her love game. You'll lose too if you fall into the favoritism trap. It's just way too expensive! Partiality? It's the great splitter-upper.

Throughout military history, the Army Rangers have been there in some of the most dramatic, most heroic combat events, like scaling the cliffs at Normandy Beach on D-Day. They were climbing right into the face of enemy fire. It's no surprise that the Rangers played a part, along with other Special Forces, in the rescue of that Iraqi prisoner of war years ago, Jessica Lynch, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. When you're fighting in the heat of battle, it's important to know that your comrades are going to go looking for you, no matter what. That's what happened then. That POW rescue was one example of a commitment that is expressed in the Army Ranger Creed; a commitment that's echoed in other branches of the military as well. Here's what the creed says: "I shall never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy." That's good stuff! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Wounded Comrade." Fighting for the fallen ones - going after the captured ones. I wonder if that's how we operate as God's army? His army is His Church, and if you belong to Jesus, you're part of it. And on any given day, there's a fellow soldier around us who's been wounded or maybe has even been captured by the enemy. Are we ready to say, "I shall never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy"? There's a powerful picture of this kind of loyal commitment to one another in our word for today from the Word of God. Abram's nephew, Lot, is living in the city of Sodom where a multinational alliance is attacking the city. Genesis 14, beginning with verse 12, tells us "...they also carried off Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions. When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit." Abram and company engage the enemy, and the Bible tells us, "He brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people." By the way, the odds against those 318 were overwhelming. Abram dropped everything, he risked everything to rescue a loved one who had fallen into the hands of the enemy. That's an example for all of us. Maybe right now you know someone who's been spiritually wounded or is going through a deep valley right now. That's where Proverbs 17:17 kicks in: "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." In other words, when everyone else is walking out, we should be walking in. You may know someone who's really messed up, who's blown it, who's wandered away spiritually, maybe someone other believers are ignoring, marginalizing, condemning. Don't be one of them. They've never needed you more. You've got to go to them, however awkward, however difficult it may be. Show them the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. Let them feel it through you. As God gives opportunity, remind them of how good it felt when they were close to Jesus. Right now they know how lousy it feels to be away from Him. Remind them that the issue is never Christians, it's Jesus. It's not the church. It's Jesus! It's all about Jesus. And He is all about bringing them back, forgiving them and restoring them. God's instruction to His "Rangers" is, "If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently." Look around the battlefield and you'll probably see a comrade, maybe even a family member, whom most people think of as the "problem child" or the "problem person" or the "prodigal." But Jesus sees, and I pray you will see a fallen comrade. And we shall never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of our enemy!

When my grandson was playing Upward basketball as a boy I told him about Jeremy Lin who at that time was lighting up the scoreboard for the New York Knicks. Now, he was not your typical professional basketball star, that's for sure. He was a Harvard grad. He was Asian-American. He was refreshingly humble. Oh, and you could tell that he unashamedly loved Jesus. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Playing for Jesus" Now, he actually wore a bracelet that revealed where his heart was. It said, "For Jesus' name I play." Yeah, he played on the New York Knicks, but he played for Jesus. Which suggested a pretty good self-exam question to be asking, even for a sports klutz like me, "Who do I play for?" Now, that probing question demands that I stop and take stock on two fronts: whose glory am I playing for and whose approval am I playing for? Well, our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 10:31 lays it down straight on the glory issue. It says, "whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." And in Isaiah 42:8 it says, "I am the Lord; that is My name! I will not give My glory to another..." Boy, you don't want to mess with that! So how much of what I do is to get people to notice me; to give me strokes? That's not a question any of us can answer once and for all. We've got to answer it before every "game." Can I honestly say it's "for Jesus' name I play", that I want Him to get all the attention, all the credit? At the moment I catch myself thinking, "Hey, ain't I somethin'!" I've got to aim that spotlight toward heaven and say, "No! Isn't He somethin'!" The alternative is to hijack God's glory. And He just isn't going to let that happen. But it's not just "whose glory?" that is the issue. There's the whole "whose approval?" thing. See, I'm a firstborn child, but I'm otherwise normal. And they say we oldest kids grow up wanting to please mom and dad, and we get real good at it. And soon, well we can intuitively figure out what it will take to please a teacher, or a boss, or friends, or people in general. We're not alone, of course, in being people-pleasers, but we're pretty good at it. Now, it's easy to become an approval junkie, playing to get people to like you, to validate you. But ultimately, it's a life of slavery. It's a life of fear. You become, to a large extent, shaped and defined by other people's expectations - a slave. Oh, and then there's the fear thing: fear of rejection, fear of not being liked, which will, at some point, keep you from doing the right thing. People-pleasing becomes the gateway drug to sinful compromise of the truth, your integrity, your purity, your convictions, your Savior's name. It's a price that's too high to pay. The Bible nails it again, "Fear of man will prove to be a snare" (Proverbs 29:25). The Bible writer, Paul, asks disturbingly: "Am I trying to win the approval of men or of God? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10). Ouch! And then, listen to Jeremiah, "Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not" (Jeremiah 45:5). Now, if Jeremy Lin, that former NBA player, was playing for Jesus, then he was a free man. Free from the dead-end street of stealing God's glory; free from the bondage and insecurity of trying to make everybody happy. Life is honestly a whole lot less confusing and conflicted when you've got only one person to please - the Person who loves you unconditionally, unendingly, unsparingly. Jesus, who abandoned His glory in heaven and the acclaim of angels to rescue you and me. I'll never forget the lesson I learned the day that my young son was helping me with yard work. I was mowing, and he was doing the clipping after me. And at one point, I kind of flashed a smile his way. And a few minutes later, he came over and he shouted above all the mower noise, "Daddy, could you please do that again?" I turned down the mower and I said, "Do what again, son?" "Could you just smile at me again, Daddy? It's your smile that keeps me going." That's what I want. I want to live for one thing - my Father's smile.

There was a miracle in the wildfire that night on an Indian reservation where we have many dear friends. We watched the news with growing concern that summer - and with intensifying prayer - as the path of that fire's destruction grew steadily. We learned that some of our kind of unofficial "family" there had their church and some loved ones in a town that was surrounded by the flames. And they told us about the miracle. The flames were sweeping straight toward their sister's home, along with her in-laws' house next door. But the fire stopped. It burned through the narrow yard between the two homes and right up to the homes. But the cell phone pictures told the story - two houses, standing untouched in a circle of charred ground and trees. And the fire won't come back there because the fire can't go where the fire has already been. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Judgment Canceled." That's something Native Americans counted on for centuries as wildfires would sweep across the prairie. And this is a technique familiar to modern firefighters. They would intentionally burn the area around their village so the approaching flames didn't have any fuel; they couldn't reach them. Praying on the phone with our reservation friends made me think about that life-saving strategy. And the hill - Skull Hill. That's what they called it back then. A garbage dump where they nailed people to a cross. Where they nailed Jesus to a cross. Actually, where He let them nail Him to a cross, because He said, "The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep...No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down..." (John 10:11, 18). He made the tree He died on. He made the men who nailed Him there. It was on that hill that the fire of divine judgment fell on the only Son of God so it would never come to me or you, or a whole world of sinners like us. Our final destiny is pretty clear when you read the Bible. "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). I have to admit it, it is a judgment I deserve. I have, along with all of my fellow humans, essentially said to my Creator, "You run the universe, God, and I'll run me, thank You." In essence, attempting to dethrone God and enthrone me. How dare I? But Jesus' unspeakable sacrifice on Skull Hill is the game-changer. Romans 5:8-10, our Word for today from the Word of God, says, "God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners... And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God's condemnation." I have chosen to place all my hopes for now and forever in what Jesus did on that cross; to stand at the one place where the judgment of God will never come. By that cross where Jesus took my hell and your hell so we would never have to. Romans 8:1, "There is no condemnation to those who belong to Christ Jesus." The question is, "Have you ever taken your stand by that cross and stepped into that circle where the fire - the judgment of God - has already fallen? Have you ever said, "Jesus, I now see that what was on that cross was for me." You can know all about Him. You could have been around a religion that's all about Jesus your whole life and still have never actually gone to that cross and said, "Jesus, for me. You're doing it for me, and it's my sin You died for and it's my sin that needs forgiving. Jesus, I want you to be my Savior, my Rescuer from my sin - my personal Savior." If you've never done that, let this be the day that you trade a death sentence for eternal life, and God's condemnation for God's forgiveness. If you want to begin a relationship with Him and experience His love for yourself, Our website is there to walk you through how to get there. It's ANewStory.com. His cross is the only safe place from the fire, because the fire will not come where the fire has already been.

When my son was a teenager he used to read the Sunday cartoons, and I heard him laughing out loud one day. He called out to me, "Hey, Dad, come here. They got this one right!" He could really relate to this particular cartoon, and knowing that this was something that would help my intellectual development, he let me read it. There's a young man standing at his locker in school and he says, "Could it be? I'm almost certain that she did! I'm sure that new girl, Angie, smiled at me when I passed her in the hall just now!" See, my guys could relate to this. Then this guy says, "Then again, maybe she's just friendly and smiles at everyone like that." Then he says, "Or maybe she was smiling at someone else and not at me at all." And then in the final panel he says, "(Sigh) - I wish girls came with instructions." They do. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Girls Come With Instructions." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Timothy 5:2. It's part of a passage that gives us instructions on how a Christian man should treat various groups. And then, we get to how he should treat the women; especially the younger women. Here's what it says, "Treat the younger women as sisters with absolute purity." Well, what do you know? Girls do come with instructions. And the instructions are, "Treat them as sisters with absolute purity." I'll tell you, that's a pretty revolutionary concept for modern male/female relationships. We men are raised to treat women as conquests, not sisters; as someone to know mostly on a physical level, it's just programmed by our culture. Not as a person in a family kind of relationship. Interesting! Sometimes you'll hear someone describing something that's relatively unexciting in this way, "Oh, it's sort of like kissing your sister." You know, a relationship with your sister is not primarily physical - it's a family deal. The point of what Paul is saying is, "That's what we ought to be seeking as men in our relationships with women." The bonds between a brother and sister aren't based on a physical relationship; it's a friendship - a bonding based on something much deeper, shared experiences, laughing together, crying together, shopping, eating, arguing, and celebrating. Relationships between men and women become much more complicated, much more tense, much more unnatural, when they're dominated by a romantic agenda or a sexual agenda. If only we could turn in our hunting license and quit looking for girlfriends, and start looking for girls who are friends. One characteristic of a brother's love is protection. Man, I'll tell you, a brother won't let anything happen to his sister. Well, you know, it's time we men start to protect every woman around us from being used, from being cheapened by physical involvement, to begin to give them the royal treatment and the loyal treatment that a sister deserves. And it's time women begin to tell men that they want real relationships that are centered in Christ and committed to purity; to tell them that by the way they dress, and the way they move, and the way they talk. Men and women? Well, they're always going to be a mystery to each other, but we've made it much more confusing than it needs to be. Start looking for sisters to build up, not lovers to conquer; people to minister to and encourage. That's how we were created to be with each other. I know that, because I've read God's manufacturer's book, and girls do come with instructions.

It's interesting when your kids become parents they start to tell you how you parented. You get a review whether you solicited it or not. Sometimes Karen and I found it hilarious. Sometimes convicting. Sometimes affirming. Sometimes even touching. An observation from our oldest son really got to me. He said, "There's something you guys did that made a difference in the way we turned out." Well, I wanted to know what that was. You're not always sure at the time. He said, "You gave us a lot of trust even when it must have been scary to do it." Well frankly it was and we couldn't be sure how it would turn out. But he was telling us something very revealing. He responds to trust. He's not alone. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Trust - The Way to God's Heart." Now we all like for someone to trust us. In fact, trust often brings out our best. In a way we're like our Creator, He'll do His best work in our lives in response to our trust. For example, in our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 8:48, a woman with a 12-year incurable medical problem is finally healed by Jesus, and He says, "Daughter, your faith has healed you." Later in chapter 18, verse 42 of Luke a blind man comes to Him and He says, "Receive your sight, your faith has healed you." That's a pretty common phrase in Jesus' healings. Like the people who came to Jesus in the New Testament, we often come with a great need. Maybe you're thinking of a need that you've been bringing Him recently, or you need to - financial, relationship, family, medical? It's a need for some help, some answers, some company maybe. The Bible is clear in portraying Jesus as a savior who has walked in our shoes, who feels what we feel, who cares about those needs. But ultimately, it isn't need that Jesus responds to. A lot of people needed Him; but He said it was faith that triggered the answer to the need. Jesus responds primarily to faith more than need. Everyone needs rescue from the death penalty of sin; every one of us. But faith in what Jesus did is the difference between those who are saved – rescued – and those who are not. And Jesus said it was faith that triggered the supernatural for those people that He healed. It wasn't just the need. You can see this from the flipside of that in Mark 6:5-6, in His hometown of Nazareth. It says, "And because of their unbelief, He could not do any miracles among them." They didn't have faith. The resources of God are accessed by active faith in Him. A lot of time Jesus doesn't do miracles where people are not believing and expecting Him to. Are you moving ahead with the confidence of someone who really believes your Savior's in charge? He's in control, not you. That He's working on a comprehensive answer, not just an instant partial one. Are you someone who believes that His promises are totally true and you can plant both your feet on them? There's a lightness, a steadiness in a believer who has total trust in their Lord to do what is best for His glory and His child's good. Maybe today is the day you bring it to Jesus one more time, only this time in an attitude of total surrender; totally resting on His promises with this childlike trust. He'd trade your trust for His peace and ultimately for His sovereign, loving intervention. My son said, "You trusted me" and that made the difference. When your Heavenly Father touches your need with His power, will He be able to say to you, "You trusted me and that made the difference"? By the way, maybe you don't have a relationship with Jesus. Nobody does automatically. Nobody can go to heaven without first of all exercising total trust in what Jesus did on the cross for them and His resurrection from the dead. Trust is the difference between heaven and hell. Not agreement with Jesus. Total trust in Him. If you've never done that, make this your day. Go to our website and find out more - ANewStory.com. Trust in Jesus changes everything.

It was a 2004 American League Championship Series. I remember it because my Yankees were in it. One big reason the Boston Red Sox triumphed over my New York Yankees (Boo!) was a veteran pitcher named Curt Schilling. He was selected to pitch the opening game in the New York series, and although he had torn an ankle tendon in his previous start, he thought he could gut it out. He was wrong. Losing that game actually started the Red Sox into a 3-0 deficit in the best of seven series. They started to come back, and amazingly, Curt Schilling had a chance to try again. Later he would tell the press that the first game showed what he could do. He said the second outing showed what God can do. Although Curt had been named "Good Guy of the Year" by Sporting News, he had never talked publicly about the commitment to Jesus Christ that he'd made several years before. This time, while he was praying with his pastor before the game, he expressed his willingness to speak up about his Lord if he was given the opportunity. Well, he pitched an incredible four-hit victory that gave him that chance. He clearly glorified God in that post game interview. Later, when he pitched a winning game in Game 2 of the World Series, Curt Schilling told reporters, "If you haven't checked it out, read Philippians 4:13. That's 'I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.' I can't do anything these days without having that reverberate in my head." Those public declarations of his dependence on Christ - that might have been his greatest victories. He said later, "I've learned that you should never hide your faith. I had wasted seven years. People didn't know." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Silent About Your Savior." And what is that takes us beyond remaining silent about your Savior First, we remember Jesus died publicly on a cross for us. He was not ashamed of us. How can we be ashamed of Him? Secondly, because the eternity of the people you care about depends on them understanding what Jesus did on that cross for them. You know what He did. They probably don't. That makes you responsible. "Never hide." That was Curt Schilling's conclusion looking back on what he called the "wasted years" of his spiritual silence. Sure, everyone knew he was a "good guy." But people "didn't know it was all about his Jesus." If you belong to Jesus, He laid out very plainly your role in the world in Matthew 5:14-16, our word for today from the Word of God. "You are the light of the world...People do not light a lamp and put it under a bowl! Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." So Jesus says, "Show them the difference I make by the way you live, and then tell them I'm the One who's making the difference." Helping people you care about be in heaven with you begins with repenting of the silence that has left them in the dark spiritually. Then you start praying daily for natural opportunities to bring up your personal relationship with Jesus. "Lord, open a door." And tell them about the difference He's making when you're winning, when you're struggling, when you're there for them, when they're in a crisis or when you are in a crisis. Open doors to talk about Jesus, because He's the great Difference-Maker. Out of all the Christians on this planet, God has placed you in their life as His chosen messenger to introduce them to His Son. How are you doing? You're the Jesus-light where you work, where you play, where you go to school, and where you live. In olden days, if the lighthouse went out, ships were lost - lives were lost. If your light isn't shining where you are, lives will be lost – forever -people you care about, people who need a rescuer, people who desperately need for you to tell them about your Jesus.

Oh sure, Mom and Dad thought it was just another excuse to stay awake longer. Adults don't believe what kids know to be the awful truth - that there are monsters in your closet at night. And they expect you to close your eyes and just start having sweet dreams? Come on! Actually, I really had nothing to fear from those monsters that lived in my overactive imagination. But then there are real monsters that a lot of us have locked in a closet somewhere in our heart: the secret pain, the secret sin, the secret darkness of that unforgiving heart. They're like vampires. They live in the darkness. But they start to lose their power when you drag them into the light. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Monster You've Been Hiding." I see that happen every summer in the lives of some of the amazing, young Native Americans that I travel with to Indian reservations. I say "amazing" because they bring visible hope to some of the most violent, most suicide-wracked reservations in America. I've been an eye-witness to that. They are fearless and relentless in telling their Hope Stories to anybody who will listen; stories of how a brown-skinned Savior named Jesus rescued them from a hopelessness that nearly destroyed them. I always feel like I'm seeing the love and power of God Almighty unleashed on those dusty reservation basketball courts – holy ground all of a sudden. But I know the story behind the story. I know where all that power comes from. See, many of those youth that I've traveled with have faced the monster in their closet. They've dragged it into the light and they've turned it over to Jesus. Like Cindy for example. Often abandoned, often physically abused by a drunken mother, never knowing her father. Then horribly betrayed by her mother's boyfriend. She trusted him so much, and he sexually violated her. The final chapter in a story that told her a cruel lie, "Cindy, you're worthless." A story line that brought her to the brink of suicide. She had a gun to her head literally. Thank God, Cindy was rescued by Jesus. But there was a monster in her closet; bitterness, anger, maybe even hatred that she harbored in her heart. Understandably. But unforgiveness never hurts the person we refuse to forgive. But it eats us alive and, strangely, it ties us to the very person we can't stand. The Native young people I've been with have been sinned against, and often they've responded with sin at levels most of us could not imagine. And, like so many of us, they stuff it in the closet. There it grows into a monster that morphs into all kinds of anger, rage, depression and self-loathing. I remember one night when I talked with our team about the Bible's revelation in our Word for today from the Word of God, 1 John 1:5-7. It says, "God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and we do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another (in other words it heals our broken relationships with each other) and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin." That's healing our broken relationship with God. That night many of those young warriors made a profound choice. They verbally declared, "Jesus, I forgive (and there was a name) _____________." A decision to treat a person who's sinned against you, not as they treated you, but as Jesus treated you; forgiving someone who does not deserve it. One of those "forgivers" was Cindy. It was for her - and for many others - the night they went free. And I've seen them then explode into an amazing spiritual rescuer, leaving a trail of changed lives. It did that with Eric when he chose to burn those photos, the music, and even the clothes that kept pulling him back to his "old me." The pain of your past - the sin of your past - loses its power when you drag it into the light. It all begins when you understand how very much Jesus loves and forgives you. And you go to the Cross and there you are forgiven and free. If you've never done that, tell Him today, "I'm putting my trust in You." Go to our website and find out more - ANewStory.com. Jesus doesn't hang out in the dark. He's in the light, waiting to stand by your side and to shatter your chains.

The passenger across the aisle from me wasn't very happy. He was complaining to his seatmate on the plane about everything and complaining with a lot of profanity inserted, oh I'd say maybe like every third word. The man next to him was mostly listening as this, shall we say, colorfully spoken speaker cussed out his favorite baseball team, then the service on the plane and the clients he was working with. In fact, I thought he might be religious from the number of times he mentioned the Lord, but well it wasn't really in the right context. He stopped to ask - more like demand I guess - a coffee refill from the flight attendant. And then as the attendant left, he said to his fellow passenger, "By the way, what do you do?" He was going to finally give him a chance to speak. What do you know? And his fellow passenger said, "Oh, I'm a minister." Well, the expression on that man's face was a priceless combination of surprise and embarrassment, but he bounced back pretty quickly. The flight attendant returned right at that moment with his coffee, and this man said with an angelic smile, "God bless you!" Well, it was pretty put on, but it illustrated how quickly we change when we think we're in holy company. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Garbage In God's Throne Room." Our word for today from the Word of God, well, it gives us familiar words from Matthew 6:9, reading out of the NIV. "This then is how you should pray, 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.'" Now, you notice here that Jesus, in teaching us to pray, says that the point of entry into prayer is to say to God, "hallowed is Your Name." Hallowed is not an everyday idea to us; probably you've not heard anybody talk about hallowed things today. I looked it up in the Greek language that the Bible was written in, and the word hallowed is hagiaso in the Greek. It's used for objects that were reserved for sacred purposes. For example, let's say there was a lamp that they designated just to be used in the temple, just for sacred ceremonies, only for holy purposes. That was hagiaso. Whatever is hagiasoed (is that a word?) is elevated; it's treated with reverence. It's treated as if it's highly special. So, basically, we're supposed to begin praying by recognizing the specialness of God like this, "Father, there's no one in your category. There's no one like you, and I really am in the presence of absolute purity." Prayer begins by recognizing who you're talking to, not what you're asking for. And people clean up their act just because there's a minister around, like the guy on the plane. Well, what about when you're in God's presence? You can't realize who God is without cleaning up your act. The first order of business is to go back over the last 24 hours in your prayer and expose those places where you've disappointed God; where you've disobeyed Him and confess it. Express your sadness over that sin. All through the Bible we see this. In Nehemiah 1, his great prayer, he says, "Oh, great and awesome God, I confess our sins." Daniel 9, another great prayer, says, "Oh, great and awesome God, we have sinned." This prayer says, "hallowed be Your Name." And then very shortly after that it says, "Forgive us." Maybe your prayers have become a little flat and powerless. Maybe there's a request without repentance, and there's praise without purity. See, we need to be saying to God, "Father, I know I'm in holy company. I can't be around You and hang on to this garbage." You have an open invitation to God's Throne Room to call the King, your Father. But before you rush to petition the King, please leave your garbage at the door.

I was about halfway through my hamburger at a cookout when a friend of our son asked me a provocative question. She worked with a group of junior high kids and she asked them what they thought the purpose of life was. They said, "To die." She continued to probe and then she started to talk to them about hope. But she said, "Ron, they have no concept of hope. They're like concrete people. Hope is too abstract. How can I explain hope to them?" Well, by the last bite of that burger I was telling her about this big blizzard I had been in a few years before. We ended up with three feet of snow in our yard. By the time the snow plow had finished in our driveway we had these towering mountains of snow around us. My wife and I both said, "We will never see our yard again!" For many weeks it was inconceivable that those towering mountains would ever go away. That is if you based your judgment solely on what you could see at the time. But we knew that when we saw that yard again, there would be blooming flowers there. We had hope. It wasn't always going to be like this. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Springtime Called Hope." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:13. It talks about those who have already died and it says, "We do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men," listen to this, "who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." Verse 17, "And we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with those people in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." Notice it says, "We do not grieve as others who have no hope." I'm glad it doesn't say, "We do not grieve" because we do. But the difference is there's something on the other side of the scale from the grief. It's called hope. Now, hope is hard to come by during the "winters" of your life – like the loss of someone you love. Like the sudden loss of my wife several years ago. Like Matt and Kelly, our friends whose little daughter died in a tragic accident. Or Tony, whose mother died recently. It's cold right now. The grief is almost unbearable. Almost. But all of us are talking about the hope factor because our life is anchored to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We know death can't ultimately win. Death is reduced to being a painful interruption. Very painful, but only an interruption. The winter will not last forever. The reunion in the spring is coming and it will last forever. Why? Because Jesus died to remove the great separator – sin; the sin that separates us from God, that separates us from each other. Because Jesus conquered death the moment He walked out of His grave He assures those who belong to Him that they will share His victory over death. He's a living Savior who gives Eternal Life to those who belong to Him. So what is hope? It is the confident expectation that there is something better than this. It won't always be this way. It's what got me through and it's what's gotten so many other people through their depressing winter. There will be a spring. What you see isn't what you get! Maybe it's winter for you right now. Pain, struggle, wounds. If what you can see is all there is, the outlook is bleak, but it's not all there is if you belong to Jesus. The Bible describes it this way, "Christ in you, the hope of Glory." I hope that describes you. Christ in you. That relationship begins the day you do what the Bible says. To put all your hope in Jesus. To receive Him into your life. Then, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" If you don't have that anchor, why go any further in this uncertain life with Him? Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." Please, go to our website. It's all set there to help you be sure you belong to Him. That's ANewStory.com. With Jesus you can live in real and lasting hope. The confident expectation that there will be something better than this - guaranteed by the Son of God Himself. He brings the spring.

Wow! For once, the United States Congress was totally united. No partisan torpedoes. No verbal dueling. Even tears of compassion from some usually tough opponents. Gabby did it. It had been just over a year since Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was gunned down in a Tucson, Arizona mall. The head wound she received threatened to end her life (you remember) or, at best, to leave her severely handicapped. And a little over a year after the shooting, she made her way to the floor of the House of Representatives to announce her resignation, for now, so she could concentrate on her continuing recovery. She really is a profile in courage. For a few bright, shining moments, there was peace on that usually fierce political battlefield. Like most Americans, I'm getting pretty tired of the mean-spirited, mutually destructive crossfire that's politics today. But that day the tumult turned to tears. And a heartfelt, united tribute to a woman whose courage everyone could agree on. One Congresswoman, the outspoken head of her party's committee, struggled to get through her emotional remarks. She said, "No matter what we argue about here on this floor or in this country, there is nothing more important than family and friendship that should be held high above everything else." She was supported by speeches from both sides of the aisle. Once again, we saw the amazing power of suffering to clarify what matters; to soften hearts. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Amazing Power of Suffering." That's important to remember if you're the one who's wounded and hurting and struggling right now. Oh, of course, you'd rather be healthy, or running full speed, or living without the pain or the limitation. But somehow it's our suffering that puts us in our most powerful position to touch hearts and touch lives. Just look at Jesus. We love His miracles, we live His teachings. But it's His Cross that is, in Charles Spurgeon's words, "that magnificent magnet." In our word for today from the Word of God, John 12:32, Jesus, speaking of His death, says, "When I am lifted up...I will draw all men to Myself." It's true. You know, it doesn't matter where in this world I've spoken, His Cross crosses every culture: Rich or poor, old or young, educated or unschooled, powerful or powerless. It's just hard to resist this God who hung on a cross for us. It is the cross that has conquered hearts around the world for 2,000 years. And it is your cross that can open hearts that have been closed to your Jesus. That can pull people together who are otherwise at odds. That can help you and those you love revalue your life around the things that really matter, and to marginalize the things that really don't. If God has sent you a cross to bear; if He's allowed you a cross to bear, He trusts you. At a time of life-threatening persecution, the apostles took joy in the fact that "they had been counted worthy of suffering...for the Name" (Acts 5:41). Did you hear that? Counted worthy. Trusted. And He's promised that He will give you grace equal to the burden (2 Corinthians 12:9). "Sufficient grace..." it says, so you can show the world how really amazing His amazing grace is. Walls go down, hearts open up when you speak from the unarguable platform of your pain. Showing folks a Savior who makes you a conqueror in your crisis does something that, well, your words could never do. Because hard times are His times.

He was this intriguing guy. He was a recently retired Marine who had the great privilege of working security for George W. Bush when he was President of the United States. He even worked as President Bush's spotter when he was in the weight room working out! On a couple of occasions, my friend had the opportunity to tell the President something that was very much on his heart. He said, "Mr. President, the folks from my church wanted me to tell you that we're praying for you all the time." At that point, the President turned to my friend, looked him straight in the eye, and said, "Then, would you please give them a message for me? Tell them the President is deeply grateful. There's nothing greater they could do for me." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Prayer - The Greatest Gift You Can Give." The most powerful man in the world at that time realized the most powerful thing you can do for a person - even for him - especially for him...pray for him. At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Bush talked about working the rope lines at events and being stopped often by people who told him they were praying for him. He said, "I tell them this is the greatest gift you can give a person." He's right. It's a gift I hope you're giving to people every day, with all your heart. Our word for today from the Word of God gives us a revealing picture of what really happens when you pray for someone. It's found in Exodus 17, beginning with verse 10. The Jewish General, Joshua, has led his troops into battle against the brutal Amalekites. And old Moses goes to fight the real battle. The Bible says, "Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning... Aaron and Hur held his hands up - one on one side, one on the other - so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So, Joshua overcame the Amalekite army." Just in case someone wondered what this "holding up his hands" business was all about, Moses explained it. He said, "Hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord." Moses made it very clear he was praying up on that hill. And notice how the battle was decided. Not by what the warriors on the battlefield were doing, but by what the prayer warrior on the hill was doing! That's always where the battles are decided - in the Throne Room of the Most High God as someone intercedes there for someone or something they care about. God must get tired of us saying, "Well, I guess all we can do is pray." What? All I can do is go to the One who rules 100 billion galaxies and focus on His love and power and aim it at some person or situation or need? There's nothing else you can do that is even remotely as powerful as that! So who are the people that you pray for on a regular basis? Commit yourself to be the Moses for some folks you know, and for some servants of God who are fighting on the front lines. There's no greater gift people can ever give to me, to the people on our ministry team than to say, "I pray for you every day." I just praise God for those people. And I hope there's some lost people for whom maybe no one else may have ever prayed that you're praying for. Let me tell you, as one person who's trying to serve the Most High God, there is nothing more decisive you can do than to be a regular prayer warrior as we fight for some of those lost people. Let people know you're fighting for them in the Throne Room of God. Find out what they need you to be praying for. You'll be their Moses, praying down victory for their battle. You'll be their Aaron or Hur, holding up their arms when they can't go another step. When you pray fervently for someone, you are playing a vital part in guarding their life, in meeting their need, in changing their heart, in winning their battle. You are praying for them, you are going to the Throne Room of God for them. You are indeed giving them the greatest gift anyone can give!  

Over the years, when our kids were growing up and at home, they didn't carry a wallet full of money. And they did need some money along the way. They had to buy their lunch at school. They had to buy clothes when they outgrew them or wore them out; which happened frequently. They had to pay admission prices when they went to special attractions. They needed spending money for trips and vacations, and for cards and gifts. But you know, they didn't worry much about having the money even though they didn't carry much with them or really have much. See, experience taught them that when they needed it, they had it from their Father. Now, of course, as they got older they went and earned it, and they could come up with their own. But in the days when they couldn't come up with it themselves, Dad was there. Maybe they didn't have the money in their pocket for next month's lunches, but they always had money for that days' lunch. Not only is that the way their Father operated, it's the way your Father operates too. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Always Enough Grace." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 12, and I'll begin at verse 7. Let me say that I believe these are very special words for people who are going through a storm right now. And maybe you are; maybe everything is just, like, up for grabs. Or maybe you are going through a desert right now where there just doesn't seem to be anything there for you. Well, listen to these words from the Word of God. Paul says, "There was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me." You know, in these verses are the Christian answer to suffering and hardship in two words. Now, I can't buy a theology that says there won't be suffering and hardship in the life of a committed believer, because there was no one more committed than Paul, and look at his suffering that wouldn't leave him. But here is God's two-word answer to the storm, the desert, the pain you're in right now. Listen to these words, "Grace sufficient." Man, that lifts the load so much! If you've got twenty pounds of grief, He's going to give you twenty pounds of grace. If you've got 100 pounds of grief, He's going to give you 100 pounds of grace. I've experienced it. You will never have more grief than grace. Do you get a year's supply of grace; a month's supply; some for next week? No. Just like my kids, you get what you need for today. Deuteronomy 33:25 says, "Your strength will equal your days." Not your weeks, not your months, not your years - your days. That's why the child of God has nothing to fear. Your Father will always see that you have what you need. Maybe you're trying to run ahead of Him. You say, "Well, how am I going to handle it if my situation gets worse, or if I lose my job? Or maybe the business will go under, or my health will get worse. What if I lose this person I love?" There's something you're afraid of right now, and God's answer is, "Grace sufficient." You don't have it now because you don't need it now. You have enough for today's grief, for today's challenge, for today's need. No more, no less. So, take your assignment from God in 24-hour chunks. Count on enough grace for each day. My kids knew that their Father would see that they had what they needed that day. God's kids know their Father is much better than that. Listen to your Lord's loving answer today to the cry of your hurting, anxious heart. Grace sufficient!

There's nothing in nature I love to see more than an eagle soaring majestically through the sky. That's why I enjoy the story of the farmer who once found a little eaglet all alone in the woods. And since the little bird was struggling to survive, the farmer decided to take the eaglet back to his farm to raise him. The problem was the only birds he had on his farm were chickens, and that's who the eaglet was raised with. So, as the chickens walked around looking down and pecking on the ground for chicken feed, the eaglet learned to live the same way. Now poking around for chicken feed looks okay on a chicken – no way for an eagle to live. So when the farmer felt the eagle was big and strong enough to survive on his own, he took him out to the back forty to help him learn to fly. Twice he tried to launch that great bird by throwing him skyward, and twice the eagle flopped to the ground and, you guessed it, started poking around for more chicken feed. The farmer had one last idea. He set the eagle on the highest fence post he had. And that's when it happened. The eagle looked up for the first time and he saw the sky. He saw the sun. And suddenly, this great cry came from his mouth, he spread those broad wings, and he took off from that fence post. At first, he just flew in small circles over the farmer's head, but then he took off for the sky, soaring toward the sun. He's an eagle! He's not born to poke around in the chicken feed. He's born to fly. So are you. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Your Life is Too Small." Maybe these words would basically describe how you would size up your life these days: "It's not bad; it's just not enough." Things are going okay. Nothing's melting down. But you're inexplicably, incurably restless. There's never enough love. There's never enough fulfillment, never enough peace. Something's missing. It could be that you're surviving, but not really living like you were designed to live. You might say you're poking around in the chicken feed like everyone else around you. But you were created for something much bigger, much higher, and your soul knows that. It's like this voice inside of you that goes, "You're made for more." And you'll never be complete; you'll never have peace until you live where you were created to live. Your real worth, your real identity is spelled out in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 2:10 where it says, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." God says you were made by Him, you were made for Him and for a purpose and plan that is bigger than anything you could ever find with you running your life. And that's why our lives are too small to satisfy us. Because we are running our own lives. The Bible calls that sin. The Bible also says, "God has placed eternity in the hearts of men." You were born to fly, but without Jesus in your heart, you're looking down, living on chicken feed. Sin has grounded us. And that's why you need to be, as the Bible says, "in Christ Jesus." God's Son went all the way to a cross to die for the sinning that you and I have done. He wanted you to be forgiven. He wanted you to be in the arms of the God who made you, so you don't have to waste one more day outside the awesome plan you were made for. God's wanting to enlarge your life beyond anything you could have ever dreamed. But maybe you've never really asked this Jesus, who loves you more than anyone, to come in and begin, in your life, this life-changing relationship. Let this be the day you turn it around. You want to begin this relationship? Tell Jesus you're putting your total trust in Him right now to remove the sin that's keeping you from Him. Our website's all about beginning that relationship, this would be a great time for you to check it out - ANewStory.com. You're destined for the sky; you're meant for heaven, for bigger things. It's time to look toward the Son - S-O-N - the Son of God who loved you enough to die for you.

I've ridden with a lot of people on a lot of elevators, but none quite as unusual as the young man that I met on an elevator a while back. Actually, he wasn't unusual; but what he carried was. He had his arms full of a wadded up tuxedo and a wadded up wedding gown. So here's this fellow, marching down the hall with a wedding gown and a tuxedo in his arms. Now, you can put two and two together. He must have noticed the bemused look on my face though, because as the elevator door closed in front of us he smiled at me and said, "Last night was a life-changing experience!" That's a pretty perceptive insight from a newly married man. And then he added, "Probably more than I know." Oh, he's got that right. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Man and His Marriage." Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ephesians 5, and we'll begin reading at verse 25. It's about husbands and wives. It says, "Husbands love your wives..." I wish it stopped there; that would make it easier. But listen, it doesn't stop there. "...just as Christ loved the church (Ah!) and gave Himself up for her." Okay, it's getting tougher! It says, "...to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word and to present her to Himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish; but holy and blameless." Now, when a man says, "I do" to a woman, here's what God hears him say, "I will on a daily basis lay down my life for this woman as Christ laid down His life for us." Whew! Man, that's radical! As the newlywed carrying yesterday's tuxedo and bridal gown said, "Yeah, it's a life-changing experience." From the time we're born, we're like "me" people: change me, feed me, take care of me, hold me. We grow up and we get more sophisticated, but we're still expecting to be the sun and for everyone else to be the planets who revolve around us. Marriage radically changes that me-ness. Jesus said marriage is the moving of someone else to the center position - my wife. So I will revolve around her needs, not her around mine. This isn't just radical, it's practical. Like listening to your wife's heart poured out even when you're dead tired, or ready to watch your favorite sporting event. That's how you lay down your life. It's putting her fulfillment ahead of yours in sexual love; that's laying down your life for her. It means unloading your day's burdens that you want to carry around with you and you want everybody to cater to you because of those. But you unload those on the way home so you can focus on her and her burdens when you get there. So, laying down your life? It can mean changing diapers, or taking out garbage, or doing the dishes, or caring about the sacrifice of time; the sacrifice that involves listening when you don't feel like it or you don't want to listen that long. She needs your attention; you promised it to her. You promised she would be first. When you do this you get a wife that's radiant like the church that Christ loves. You know, you can tell the women who have been loved like this. They're radiant; they kind of glow! Beautiful women grow in the garden of a man's selfless love. It's a life-changing experience for both of you; that's the radical side of "I do."

Our former office was, literally, for the birds! I mean it was like they lived in the attic above our top floor offices. And you know what, they would sometimes show up flying down the hall. Every once in a while we could hear them when we were recording radio programs, it was a little "chirp" in with their singing. But there was a problem with this apparently safe place, they thought. The birds began wandering around up there in that large dark attic, especially at night. And evidently, they lost their way and they became disorientated. In the morning – you've got to take my word for this, I was an ear witness to it – I heard their little footsteps walking back and forth and their unhappy chirps. There was no food or water in that attic. When birds get in tiny little spaces like that, it's difficult to rescue them, and they often die. That attic that looked so inviting, so comfortable, so secure. It turned out to be a dangerously hostile place! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Safe Place." Our word for today from the Word of God is in Psalm 84. And by the way, birds aren't the only creatures looking for a place to feel safe and secure. We all have a need to find a person, or a place, or a position, where we're safe, where we can have a comfortable nest. The only problem is, as many of us have found out, some of what looks like a place where you can find security turns out to be a place where you get lost, you get starved, you get hurt! Psalm 84: "'How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord,' my heart and my flesh cry out for the Living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, "A place near your altar O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your presence, they are ever praising you." Here's a picture of a vulnerable little sparrow who finds a truly safe home. She nests right at the place where you meet God, the altar. The Psalmist says that that's where he has finally found security as well, in the Presence of the Living God. But so many people have nested in the wrong place. See, we can't see Jesus, so instead we settle down where there is comfort and safety we can see. In doing so we often end up in a place that ends up hurting us. Maybe you're there right now? A wrong relationship that looks like a secure place to land, but it costs too much. Maybe you ran to a wrong job, a wrong career, maybe you ignored or abandoned what the Lord was telling you to do for something a little more secure. The nesting place has let you down, hasn't it – pulled you down? Or maybe you're tempted right now to make a choice based on security largely. "I'll do what looks comfortable and safe." That's how I'll decide. Well, that could turn out to be a bird brain choice. Choices based on security are very often God's will mistakes, and comfort becomes a trap. Can I invite you to the altar of God? In fact, in your heart you may need to come to an altar and surrender your life anew to the Savior who died for you. He's the only One who can anchor your needs and you'll know that you'll never end up lost or wounded – not in His care. You've tried other nests that advertise security. They've been disappointing substitutes for the real thing, which is the love and the leadership of Jesus Christ. Anyone who loved you enough to die for you will never do you wrong. He's your safe place. You can know that because He loved you enough to die on the cross for you. You want to reach out to Him today; make Him the leader of your life? Maybe you've never done that. I'd love to help you do that and that's why our website is there - ANewStory.com. And believe me, when you give your heart to Him it will be the beginning of a new story. The search for security led those birds above my head to some fatal choices. Don't make the same mistake. Run to the strong arms of Jesus, for as the Bible says, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalm 91:1).

I was in a meeting in a hotel. It was in the 90s outside, but I was ready to put gloves on so I could write my notes without shaking. Maybe you've been in those rooms. It was hot outside but the air conditioner was on one notch past high - I think the setting was like on "arctic'? And all of us in the room became concerned about that setting, and one by one we wandered over to the box on the wall. You know we're all "fix it" guys - we'll make it better. Well, when we got over to the box we discovered that the controls were all locked up; we couldn't get to them. So we called the front desk, and finally the maintenance man came and turned down the ice machine. No longer a meat locker. Summer or winter that guy's the person; he's the one who decides what the temperature is. By the way, so are you. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Leadership - Setting the Temperature." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of Nehemiah. Now, here's one of the greatest models of leadership in all the Bible; that's this man named Nehemiah. You may remember he led a monumental effort to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem in 52 days. Not bad for a couple of month's work, huh? Well, now as we reach this point in the book of Nehemiah, he is the Governor of the province. The wall is done, but these people are a poor group of people trying to establish life in their re-built city. What is needed in order to establish a community there is a climate of unselfishness, sharing, and cooperation. Well, listen to what the leader does. Nehemiah says, "For twelve years neither I nor my brothers ate the food that was allotted to the governor. Now the earlier governors - those preceding me - placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to the food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people." But out of reverence for God, I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work. We did not acquire any land." Later he says, "I never demanded the food allotted to the governor because the demands were heavy on these people." Friends, this is leadership! Nehemiah was the man who set the pace; he led the way. He set a temperature in Jerusalem. A temperature of sharing and giving, putting other people first, and the people followed. See, the greatest responsibility of a leader is never written in their job description. It's establishing a climate. Parents do it in their home, teachers do it in a classroom, leaders do it in a church, and supervisors do it in an office or a factory. In a sense, we are all leaders to the extent that we are setting a climate wherever we are. Now, if you are in a position of influencing others, have you considered how the temperature feels where you are? What kind of climate is there around you? It's not even something you're doing consciously - it's your persona, your style, your values, your priorities, your pace. Those are the things that do it. You establish it not so much by what you say, but with how you live. Is it tense around you? Is that the temperature you set? Or are people around you seeing a model of caring, unselfishness, or like Nehemiah - pitching in on the job that needs to be done instead of just giving orders? I wonder if in your world you set a climate of respect for other people by the way you talk about them and the way you talk to them? Or do they know there's a climate of prayer around you and they catch that? Is there a climate of worry, or is there a climate of trusting God? You're a leader. You control the climate whether you realize it or not. So, make your room, so to speak, feel like it would if Jesus were there, because if you're a Christian, He is - in you.

Now I don't see a lot of movies but that old groundhog one with Bill Murray, I can tell you, it's really funny. You probably know the plot if you've seen it. He's this not very nice TV weatherman who goes to Punxsutawney, PA to broadcast that American tradition that comes from there. We're supposed to be able to predict whether or not there will be six more weeks of winter weather based on whether or not the groundhog sees his shadow on February 2nd. Anyway, the weatherman, who has a serious attitude problem, wakes up at 6:00 a.m. the next day, only to experience exactly the same events he did the day before. And every new morning, the clock radio goes off at 6:00 a.m. and awakens him to the same old song, "I Got You, Babe" by Sonny and Cher. And day after day, he sees the same people; he experiences the same relationships, the same places, the same rhythm - even down to the guy in the diner dropping a plate the same time each day. It becomes very frustrating - experiencing the same day over and over again. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Every Day's the Same." The plot of the movie obviously is fantasy. The plight of having the same day over and over again is reality for a lot of people. In some ways, it might describe how your life feels right now. Life has taken on this monotonous sameness - a predictability. It seems like no matter what happens, or who happens, you have the feeling of "been there, done that." Maybe your life seems to be suffering from a meaning deficit. Actually, life was never meant to be monotonous. After all, your life was given to you by a God who creates blazing sunsets and fall colors, people with fingerprints that are like no one else who has ever been born, galaxies, comets and supernovas. Now would a Creator with that kind of creativity create us to have days that all seem the same? The only reason life would be like that is if we are, in reality, trying to live without our Creator. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, steps into our hunger for something more meaningful and more colorful when He gives us our word for today from the Word of God in John 10:10. Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Now obviously, Jesus isn't talking about life in the sense of eating, breathing, and existing. We already have that kind of life. He's talking about life that's fulfilling, challenging, and satisfying - life to the full. We don't have life like that because we don't have the Life-Giver. According to God's Book, the Bible, you and I have, in fact, taken our life out of our Creator's hands and put it in our own. In the Bible that's called sin. In God's words we are, "without hope and without God" (Ephesians 2:12). It all seems so empty. Everyone seems as trapped in meaninglessness as you do. There seems to be no hope. Until you let Jesus Christ reconnect you to the God you have sinned against. Jesus died on that cross to pay for the sin that separates you from God. And when you put your trust in Him to take down the wall between you and God, He starts to infuse your days with a sense of meaning and destiny which you were created for. Each day you're discovering a little more of who you were born to be. While your environment may be pretty much the same every day, your INvironment - what's in you - is experiencing ever new experiences of God's love, God's joy, God making a difference in your life, God making a difference through your life. Maybe you've never begun this relationship that is what you were made for. In the Bible's words, you were "created by Him and for Him" but you've not really had Him in the leadership of your life. He loved you enough to die for you. You can trust Him. He'll change things you can't change because He was powerful enough to walk out of His grave and He's ready to walk into your life on your invitation. You say, 'Jesus, beginning today I am Yours. I trade the life I've been running for the life You died to give me right now." If you want to do that, we would love to be there for you. If you go to our website I can help you know you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. Your life was never meant to be this small. There is something so much bigger - days where you are finally experiencing the One you were created by, and the One you were created for.

I saw my friend Rich at a busy committee session. We had a lot to do and there were some very important choices to make. In fact, we didn't even get through everything we needed to! But Rich, well, he didn't forget what really mattered. He announced out of the blue, "Hey everybody! I brought baby pictures!" Oh, yes, you could guess! He's the father of a newborn son. So, forget everything else, man! Who cares about all this business stuff we've got to do? He wanted to share his greatest joy with us - his child. You know what? That man had his priorities straight. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nothing More Important Than the Kids." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of 3rd John. The funny thing about 3rd John is you don't ever have to give the chapter, you just give the verse because there's like only one chapter. So we're reading from 3 John 1:4. Here's John's priority agenda: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." You know, in a sense, John is saying, "Hey, you want to see the picture of my children? That's what I'm proud of. That's what really matters to me. Look at my children." You know, we live in a world that just jumbles our priorities. Our life fills up with work, deadlines, home improvements, financial issues, and recreational things we want to do, and the Internet, and church work. And our children often end up getting our leftovers; whatever we can kind of scramble together of what's left of our energy, what's left of our input, what's left of our listening. We usually realize that they've gotten our leftovers when it's too late. I've talked to a lot of guys after they've ended their business career, and I have never ever heard a man say, "You know, my only regret is I wish I'd spent more time with my business." I've had a number of people say, "I only wish I'd spent more time with my children while they had time." If God has trusted you with a young life - a child - make meaningful time with that child a non-negotiable of your schedule. I mean, even if you have to change jobs, if it takes that to be a father, to be a mother, that's eternity's priority. They'll change the name on the door of your office, because someone else could do your job. But you are the only mother or father that child has. This applies to spiritual children too; those that you may have led to Christ or to a closer relationship with Him. That was who John was speaking of literally. Don't just bring them to the Lord and walk away. They need you now more than ever. When our children were small, they cried out when they needed us, and for sure kids have a way of letting you know that they need you. But as they grow, well, they don't cry so much, but they need us just as much, and maybe they cry in different ways. I know that you want the monument for your life to read, "His child/her child is walking in the truth." Well, you know, that takes time. That takes committed prayer for that child. It takes the right priorities. It might take changing things around. The man with his baby pictures at that important meeting has the right idea. That precious child of yours; well, that's the agenda that really matters. I still remember a grandmother's prayer that was up on a plaque in her house. You can't argue with grandma. Here's what it said: "On that great resurrection day, may I stand before my Savior and say, 'Here am I, Lord, and the children you gave me.'"

It's just a humble little house in the country, but it had been a dream of a friend of ours for years. Actually, it was her grandparents' house most of her life. She lived just down the road from them as a child and she spent many hours and made many memories in that little place. After Grandma and Grandad died, her dad owned the house. But by then he lived four hours away, so he just rented it out for years. It never was a great house but it really fell apart over the last few years; holes in the roof, fleas in the carpet, critters invading the house through its many holes, rotting wood and deterioration. Our friend's dream had been that someday she might be able to get her hands on that house she loved and make it into something. She got her chance. Her dad deeded the house to our friend and her sister and this past summer they teamed up to make it a neat little place in the country. She put on a full court press to get all those holes fixed, to replace things that were rotting or infested or worn out and she started to put her wonderful creative and beautifying touches to work to make it a special little spot. Another friend who used to go by once in a while when it was still rented confided to her how he felt about the house, "This place was a dump. I thought it should be bulldozed." He doesn't think that now. He was very impressed with what that dump had become. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Power to Change." All those years our friend had been seeing that house deteriorate and she just kept waiting for a day when it might be hers and she could take what had become a mess and make it into something beautiful. What she did for a house, Jesus does for people's lives. Maybe yours. Our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" A new creation. There was an amazing change that took place in that house that was going straight downhill when someone who loved it finally was allowed to have it. And I've seen that same miracle take place so dramatically in human lives, when a life that was getting more and more damaged was finally turned over to Jesus Christ. And He has lovingly gone to work to repair what looked "unrepairable" and to fix what looked unfixable to forgive what seemed unforgivable and to make a person into a new creation. It could be that you're in the market now for a re-creation miracle of your own. Things have been under your management for a long time. And maybe from the outside things look pretty good. But inside, there's a lot you're tired of. You're tired of ending up lonely, you're tired of your dark side winning, maybe the anger has done enough damage, the selfishness, the habit you have never been able to shake. It could be that over the years you've accumulated more stress and more pain than you can handle anymore. Or more guilt than you can deal with anymore. Whatever the damage that's accumulated during the years when you've been running things, there is Someone who has loved you all along who's been saying all these years, "If only you would let Me have your life. I could do with it what you've never been able to do." Think about it. The Son of God promises to make you a new creation, the old you behind you, a new beginning. All these years there's been a dark, destructive force inside, keeping you from becoming the person you really want to be. It's called sin. Sin Jesus took on Himself when He died on the cross for you. You can't be your own Savior. Only Jesus can be that. But He won't force His way in. He starts the forgiving, the healing, the re-creating the day you open the door and say, "Jesus, this place isn't mine anymore. It's Yours." That wonderful new beginning could be this very day for you if you're ready for the Savior to become your Savior and you tell Him that right now Our website is there to help you get this done. I hope you'll go there - ANewStory.com. There's so much Jesus has been wanting to do in your life but your life has never belonged to Him. Until today. You're going to be amazed at the change.

Years ago I was flying like a gazillion miles a year it seemed like. And they gave me this coupon along the way. It entitled me to an upgrade to a first class seat on a future flight. Now that was a privilege that was really appreciated, especially when you've got major work to get done. They even let me board before any other passengers. I got a lot of dirty looks, but it was nice. And that meant I could get right to work on the plane instead of standing in line. Now you could be saying, "Well, aren't you special?" Well listen, there's nothing special about me that gets me these special privileges, except that when you're a frequent flier on this airline, they give this kind of reward to anyone who flies a lot and does it consistently with them. See, the airlines want to train us to think one simple thought, customer loyalty pays off! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Through the Darkness With Jesus." The benefits belong to those who keep traveling with the same people. And long before there were airlines, some Jewish women discovered that as they followed Jesus. Our word for today from the Word of God is from Matthew 27 - we're beginning with verse 55. The scene: the crucifixion of Jesus, where most of those who had been with Jesus had taken off. But the Bible says, "Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for His needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Jesus." They'd followed Jesus loyally through all those journeys, all those miracles, all those life-changing lessons, and the glory of Palm Sunday only five days earlier. And now, when it looks as if all is lost and there is no reason to hang on, there they are at the cross. Jesus has died now; it is over. Even though Jesus is buried in a borrowed tomb, the Bible says, "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb." Still loyal, when all hope seems to be gone. Then, of course, on that incredible Resurrection Day, "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb." Because of their tenacious loyalty to Jesus, these women (not any of Jesus' 12 disciples) are the first to see the empty tomb. And then the greatest joy of all, "The women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell His disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them." What may be the greatest thrill, the greatest privilege in all of human history, to be the first ones to ever see Jesus alive again! Those who have been His loyal followers through it all - they get that honor, they get the privilege! Like a passenger loyal to one airline, they enjoy benefits that only the loyal experience. Because they've stuck with Jesus when there seemed to be no reason to, they get to see Him as no others have seen Him, and they experience the unspeakable joy that is reserved for those who were faithful when it was totally dark. And you know, that is still the experience of those who will stay with Jesus through the valley, the victories, the pain, the unanswered questions, the as yet unanswered prayers. When you do, you get to see Jesus in all His power and all of His glory. But maybe for you, the resurrection day hasn't come yet. You're still in the time of the cross right now, or the time of the tomb, the time where there seems to be no hope, no reason. Maybe you're suffering from faithfulness fatigue. You've hung on, but it's getting harder to keep hanging on. And the Lord knows how hard it is right now. So He has sent you this reminder that the greatest benefits go to those who stay with Jesus, no matter what. He has some wonderful blessings, some unspeakable joy, and some tremendous rewards for you if you'll stay faithful for a few more miles. In the words of Galatians 6:9, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." The best rewards Jesus has to give are for those who fly faithfully with Him through it all.

I admire my friends who are marathon runners. I don't want to be one of them, but I admire them. I actually did have a bit of a running program going when my kids were little. Every morning, I used to run around the block twenty times, until my son moved the block! Sorry. I've never run a marathon. I've watched some, and I've talked to my friends who have done the whole 26-mile distance. If you've ever watched or run a marathon, you've probably seen those volunteers that are stationed all along the way - the ones with the orange slices and water. As the miles become more and more grueling, the body can actually begin to shut down. Water is desperately needed to avoid dehydration. The potassium in those orange slices replenishes an important deficit in your body. I think it's probably questionable if many runners could make it if it weren't for those little, like, refreshment stands. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Being the Refresher They Need." In a way, I guess all of us are marathon runners. Just look at the course you have to run every day, every week, every month, and so on. And all of us reach those points where we feel like we can't go on, where a vital system seems to be shutting down. And that's where the refreshment folks are desperately needed. I hope the folks around you consider you one of those. Every one of us needs people who will be our refreshers. We all know people who need for us to be their refresher. In fact, here's a great example of one of those unsung heroes, as recorded in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in 2 Timothy 1:16-18, and Paul is writing about this lonely season of his life. He's isolated in Caesar's prison, awaiting what will ultimately be his execution. Now this man who has helped so many run their race needs someone to help him finish his. And along comes a man with a name that's a mouthful and a ministry that is wonderful. Paul says, "May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day!" Onesiphorus: the name literally means "profit-bringer." That's something all of us can be - someone who makes a person richer because they have been with you. To be one of God's refreshment stands, you're there for someone when it's awkward and you don't know what to do or you don't know what to say. You're there when it's hard, when it's inconvenient, when they're un-loveable, or when you have to "search hard" to find a way to get to them. You go out of your way to bring some love and some support to a person who needs it. You walk in when everyone else is walking out. Your ministry of refreshment can take many forms. Sometimes it's just a hug. Other times it's a compliment, or a word of encouragement, a letter or email, a text, a visit, noticing something good, or praying with them. It's usually just a matter of obeying the prompting of the Holy Spirit instead of quenching that prompting. My guess is He's prompting you all the time to make a move in someone's direction, because He knows who needs what you could give. Learn to listen to those promptings from God. I'll tell you what, it's one of the ways you lead a supernatural life. You get in the middle of things God wants to do all the time. Don't blow off the Holy Spirit's promptings. God's promise to you is this: "He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." He'll give back to you with the measure you give. So what effect are you having on the people around you? Are you making it harder for them to run the race? Or are you one of those holy heroes who offer them the refreshing care that they need? You actually may be the difference in someone running the distance!

There's bad plaque and there's good plaque. The bad kind is that substance that builds up on your teeth that you see in all the toothpaste commercials. They're going to help you get rid of that. Oh, and then there's good plaque; that's the kind we have hanging on walls all over our house. They're good plaques because they have different promises on them from God's Word. Right as you come into our house there's been a plaque on the wall that says, "All your children will be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children." That's Isaiah 54:13. And most homes have God's promises on plaques on the wall, or churches do. But plaques like that are meant to do more than hang on walls; they're actually meant to float. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When God's Promises Turn Into Life Preservers." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 119. I'm going to read verse 50. David says, "My comfort in my suffering is this: 'Your promise preserves my life.'" I love that. "Your promise preserves my life." Not long ago I was talking to some friends of ours who had lost a relative in a tragic auto accident. I said to them, "Was His grace enough?" You know, one of the great promises of God in 2 Corinthians 12:9 is, "His grace is sufficient." There'll always be enough grace. And they said, "Oh yeah, it sure was." And then together we began to remember some of those promises that make good wall plaques, like "Underneath are the everlasting arms." And then it dawned on me, those promises of God are nice words, but when a storm hits and you're sinking - like when a loved one dies for example - the promise of God becomes a lot more than a plaque. It becomes your life preserver, like someone drowning in the ocean, hanging on for dear life, and the promise is all you've got to hang onto. David said, "My comfort in suffering is this, 'Your promise preserves my life.'" All you've got to hang on to. And the more you hold on to that promise, the more you live as if the promise is true and the more you can handle. We've got to have those promises in our heart so we can rip them off the wall and hang onto them when that sudden storm hits. I talked not long ago to a burned out Christian leader. He's hanging on to a promise from the 23rd Psalm, "He restores my soul." I talked to a family who was recently hit by five medical blows within as many weeks. They're hanging on to Deuteronomy 33:25, "Your strength will equal your days." When my wife got ill and was sick with hepatitis, in bed for nine months, I wondered, "How in the world am I going to do it without my partner?" I hung on to that verse. Every day I said, "Your strength will equal your days, Ron. Your strength will equal your days." It did! It got me through. So, learn those promises. They're your source of strength. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." That means you'll have everything you need. Maybe you need Philippians 4:19, "My God will supply all your needs." Or maybe that plaque that becomes a life preserver is 1 Corinthians 10:13, "God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able." Or are you hanging onto Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." How many times have I hung onto Jeremiah 33:3, "Call to Me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things you do not know." Learn those promises, and then learn to lean on those promises. When your feelings are lying to you, when your world is upside down, grab a promise off the wall of your heart and rest all your weight on it. The promises of God are life preservers.

So look, there's a football game on but you don't have time to watch the whole game. Listen, turn it on near the end of the game. Some of the most amazing things happen when the game is almost over, especially after they sound that two-minute warning. Suddenly, everybody knows it's time to throw caution to the wind and go for broke, "Let's get some points on the board!" It's time for those bold series of plays that are designed for those urgent moments when you realize time is running out. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Not Much Time Left." Could it be that you and I are living at a time when our world is hearing God's two-minute warning? Many of the devoted believers of the world's three great religions; Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are expecting the coming of the Messiah soon. There is a sense all over the world that we could be living in the countdown to God's wrap-up of human history. For those studying the only book in history that has a perfect record on fulfilled prophecies, the Bible, that wrap-up is the personal return of Jesus Christ. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:2 and following, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." No one can predict the time the Lord will come. But because of signs the Bible says will precede His coming, those alive at the time should be able to feel its approach. Verse 4: "But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled." I'm not a prophecy specialist and I know dedicated believers disagree on some of the details leading up to Jesus' return. But I have to tell you, as I understand Scripture, the world has never looked so much like the world Jesus has said He is going to return to as it does now. Since Jesus was here, there has never been an Israel until now. There's never been the prophesied return of the Jews to their land from all over the world until now. There's never been the technology for an antichrist to identify and regulate the commerce of every person on earth with the mark of the beast until now. There's never been in modern times the possibility of the prophesied temple to be rebuilt until now. Whatever your prophetic slant, it's hard not to feel that Jesus could come soon and time might be short. The game clock may very well be ticking down from God's two-minute warning. I think Satan has got his eye on the clock. Revelations 12:12 says, "Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short." Maybe you need to check the game clock and change your game plan. Maybe it's time for the urgent living of a two-minute drill. Here are some questions that might apply to you in light of what time it's getting to be. 1. Why are you spending so much of your life building a bigger and bigger stack of earth-stuff? 2. Why aren't you spending a lot more time with Jesus, so you'll know Him better when you see Him? 3. Why aren't you doing more to get the people you care about ready to meet Jesus? 4. And most important, are you sure you belong to Jesus? How much longer are you going to wait to open your heart to Him? It's pretty late in the game. Someday will be your last opportunity to open your heart to the man who died for every sin you've ever committed. We don't know when Jesus is coming back to earth or when our last heartbeat is going to come. That's why the Bible says, "Today is the time. Today is the day of salvation." Maybe that's talking to you. Maybe the two-minute warning is ticking down on your life and my life and we don't even know it. So, while you still have opportunity, be ready to live and ready to die, and ready for eternity. The only way you can is by making Jesus your Savior from your sin. If you're ready for that, our website is a great landing place for you. Would you go to ANewStory.com? When you realize time is short, your priorities change. In sports, you go for broke. Well, take a look at God's game clock today. Why don't you play the rest of your game in light of what time it is!

I've actually tried to explain American football to people from another country. It's not easy. Sometimes it's not easy to explain it to someone from this country, especially to some women who don't really care much about how it's played. But I want you to imagine a man trying to explain football to an acquaintance who has never seen it. And his friend says to him, "You know, I'd like to learn to play football. Will you teach me how?" So, the man who knows how says, "Oh sure! It's this little pointy leather ball and there's this long field. There's 100 yards, it's got some white marks on it. All you have to do is pick up the ball and run from one end of the field to the other. If you do that enough, you win." "Hey, okie dokie!" So the man takes off; returns a month later. The problem is he's all bandaged up, he's limping, his arm is in a cast, and the man who taught him football says, "What happened!?" His acquaintance says, "Well, you told me about the ball, and you told me about the field, and you told me about running. There's one thing you forgot to tell me: you didn't tell me there would be 11 gorillas trying to stop me." Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Open Door and Your Open War." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Corinthians 16:9. The Apostle Paul says, "There is a great and effective door open to me, and there are many adversaries." That's actually a law of the kingdom. Spiritual opportunity is always accompanied by opposition: Open door - many adversaries. It just happens like that. They're like Siamese twins, they can't be separated. Now, it's important for you to realize that, because it would explain some of the storm you're going through right now. See, if God is starting to use you, the devil is starting to fight you. And you're saying, "What's wrong?" Well, nothing may be wrong. It may very well be that you're just about to enter a great open door where you can really make a greater difference than you've ever made before, and the devil knows this is the time he's got to stop you. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon said, "The greatest sign of God's will and power is the devil's growl." Maybe you're hearing the growl right now. That's a compliment. You're saying, "Why is this all happening now when there's such an open door?" Because there is an open door! Open door - many adversaries. Opportunity - opposition. Satan knows it's going to be hard to stop you once God's plans really start to unfold. He's got to get you at the door. And it's not always the obvious connection to the open door. He may go after your health, your family, your car, your money. The devil doesn't give up ground easily, but you know what? He's already defeated. If God starts to open doors and give opportunities, you begin to pray more intensely for the protection for you and your family that's available in the Name of Jesus Christ. The Bible says that "He made a public spectacle of them (Satan's army), triumphing over them by His cross." Under the blood of Jesus Christ you cannot be touched. And you come under that protection. You pray against discouragement, and depression, and giving up just because there's some push back from the other side. It actually means something very important is about to happen. Serving the Lord is much like football. As soon as you start gaining ground spiritually, the other side starts to come after you. When you charge, they charge. That's something to be aware of, but it's not something to be afraid of. Just keep running toward that open door, because you have the Son of God blocking for you.

Some years ago, I read in a news magazine about one man's very interesting response during a Papal visit to Latin America. This man owned a produce stand and it was just a couple of blocks from where the Pope was making this historic personal appearance. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Pontiff. It seemed like everybody was going, except for "Mr. Produce Stand." And this article said that a reporter asked him, "Don't you believe in the Pope?" The dealer gave a very honest answer. He said, "Oh, yes, I believe in the Pope, but I trust in rice and beans!" I guess there's a difference! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When It All Comes Down To Trust." Now that produce dealer's statement about believing wasn't double talk. There really is a difference between what you believe in and what you really have your trust in. It can make a big difference in your life choices. In fact, it can make a forever difference in where you spend eternity. God explains how a person secures their spot in heaven. And that's important information, huh? It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 10:9-10 - "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified," that means made right with God, "and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." Saved is the key word here, but what does it mean? It implies someone's in trouble and in need of rescuing; in need of being saved. The Bible says we are literally dying spiritually because of a killer called sin. Sin isn't ultimately about breaking some religion's rules. It's about who runs your life. The answer? We run our lives. But we were designed by God to ride in a life that our Creator is driving. And instead, we've all decided we'll drive instead and make Him a passenger. That leads us away from God, facing an eternal death penalty. We need someone to save us, a rescuer, a Savior, and that's why God's only Son went to that awful cross for us. Our eternity comes down to what God calls believing in your heart, notice "heart." Many people believe in their head. They agree with the facts about Jesus and they officially recognize Him as the Savior. And if you ask some if they believe in Jesus, they'll say, "Well, sure." But like the man with his produce stand, their life trust is really somewhere else. You see that's your heart. Now, that leads to a life or death challenge from God's Word. It's in 2 Corinthians 13:5, listen to these words: "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" Do what God says, test yourself. It's eternally important to ensure that you don't miss heaven by 18 inches! That's the distance from your head to your heart. It isn't agreeing with Jesus that gets you to heaven. It's commitment to Him. Has there ever been a time when you personally told Jesus Christ, "Jesus, I'm placing all my trust in You to rescue me from my sin; to give me a relationship with God, to guarantee me heaven." If you're not sure there's been a time, there may not have been - probably not. But that could change right now. You bow your head, imagine yourself standing at the foot of Jesus' cross and say, "Lord, I believe what you're doing on that cross is for me. With all my heart I'm putting all my trust in You." If you haven't had that Jesus day, please don't risk another day without Him. Will you take care of it right now? We'd love to help you. Our website is really to help you get started with Him. It's ANewStory.com. See, trust in your religion is not enough, or your goodness, in anything, or anyone but Jesus. He took your hell so He could give you His heaven. And right now He's just waiting for you to trust Him with your heart.

When that terrorist bomb ripped apart the Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City on that infamous April 19th years ago, Mark was on the scene within ten minutes. Today that scene of horrendous carnage and violence is a tranquil Memorial Site in downtown Oklahoma City. One night when I was speaking in that city, Mark (who was a police officer) took me there for a personal tour that was pretty moving. Gesturing toward that quiet memorial area that stands where the building once stood, he showed me where the nursery had been, from which he had carried the youngest victims of the bombing. And he pointed to the area where he had assisted in the dramatic rescue of a woman who thought she was going to die but was brought out alive by some valiant rescuers. Mark remembers making a quick call to his wife that day, telling her and his daughters, "I love you. I'll see you later" not knowing how much later that would be. As he and the men around him looked at the sagging wreckage over their heads, Mark just said to his supervisor, "I think we're going to die here." They must have all thought that. But they refused to leave because lives were at stake. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "To Rescue a Soul." Standing next to a man who had risked his life on this very ground to save other lives, it hit me full force: a rescuer forgets about himself or he'll never take the risks to go in to save a life; someone who will die if he doesn't. And I thought about what it is that keeps most people who have been rescued by Jesus from trying to rescue other spiritually dying people. We're so focused on ourselves that either we don't care about those lives at stake or more likely we're paralyzed by our fears of how they might react if we told them about our Jesus, who is heaven's Rescuer. In either case, we do nothing because we're all wrapped up in ourselves; the exact opposite of a rescuer, who abandons all his self-interest because someone's going to die if he doesn't go in. In a sense, all of us who know Christ are actually "Esthers." She's the Jewish girl who became the queen of Persia without anyone ever discovering her real roots. Then came the day when a shrewd conspiracy caused the king to approve a decree for the slaughter of all Jews. Mordecai, the man who had raised Esther, sent her a message, urging her to go to the king and plead for the life of her people. She was afraid because the law of the land dictated that anyone who entered the king's presence unbidden would be executed unless he extended his gold scepter to them. In Esther 4:14-16 our word for today from the Word of God, Mordecai appeals to her with this plea: "Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Esther does go to the king, uttering this courageous declaration: "If I perish, I perish." That's the heart of a rescuer. It doesn't matter what happens to me. It matters what happens to the people who will die if I don't do something. And her people were saved. Like Esther, you have been assigned where you are - where you work, where you live, or where you go to school. Why? To help save the lives of the people there; people who, without a relationship with the Man who died for their sins, face an eternity in hell and no hope of heaven. And you have the life-saving information about Jesus that can rescue them. It's not about changing their religion. It's not about you winning an argument or getting them to come to your church or your religion. It's about whether they have a chance to know the only Person who can save them - Jesus. You're afraid of what might happen if you went in for the rescue. I know that feeling. It might damage your relationship, and you might mess it up. Would you think like a rescuer - fearing more what will happen if you don't attempt the rescue than what will happen if you do? You've been brought into their lives for such a time as this. Jesus abandoned Himself completely to rescue you. There is no rescue unless the rescuer forgets about himself or herself. Someone's eternity may depend on you doing just that. God put you where you are so they could have a chance at heaven. Don't fail them. Don't fail the Rescuer who died so they and so you could live.

She was only one woman - an inmate on Death Row. And she became the center of a public opinion hurricane. Karla Faye Tucker was her name. She was convicted of a brutal pickaxe murder in Texas, sentenced to die, on Death Row for almost 14 years. Reporters from across the country and around the world descended on Huntsville, Texas in the days and weeks before her scheduled execution. And millions of us actually heard Karla Faye speak for herself as she explained the dramatic change that had taken place in her life. Karla Faye explained that she had trusted Jesus Christ to be her Savior, believing that the sin He died to forgive covered even the heinous things she had done. The way she lived in prison, the way she seemed to speak from deep in her heart lent credibility to the story of the rebirth that she told about. Oh, and the way she died. All her appeals were denied - and that seemed to be okay with her. She was ready to live to make a difference or she was ready to die and see her Savior. While the hurricane of debate over her execution raged around her, she seemed to be the only person who had the most peace of all. Even to the moment of her death. In her final words, she told the family of her victims, "I am so sorry. I hope God will give you peace with this." And as for her? She said, "I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. I love all of you very much. I will see you all when you get there." The reporter who witnessed her execution described her as "calm and composed" right to the end. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Peace When There's No Reason." Certainly the death penalty for that crime had probably been rightly adjudicated. But because of what she said Jesus had done for her, she lived and died with a deep sense of personal peace. A peace that many people wish they had. Peace about the mistakes and the sins of the past. Peace about what will happen on the other side of our last heartbeat, about what will happen to us forever. That peace is available. Our word for today from the Word of God John 5:24, "I tell you the truth," (Jesus is talking) "whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." Jesus is talking here about condemned people, destined to death, and He's talking about you and me. Because the disturbing verdict of the Bible is that we're all on Death Row as far as God is concerned. Eternal death - unending separation from God and His love. That's the penalty for what God calls sin. And He says in the Bible, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Which means every one of us is under sin's death sentence. Sin means much more than a brutal murder or a life of crime. Sin is our choice to run our own lives instead of letting God run it. To do what we want to do, no matter what the Creator says. Every one of us, in our own way, is a rebel against God, a sinner and sentenced to death forever. That's why our word for today is so amazing. God says condemned people can go free. People sentenced to die can, in a moment, have that death penalty canceled and receive the gift of eternal life. By putting your total trust in Jesus, who went to the cross as your substitute, bearing every sin of your life, dying your death penalty. And in the moment you say, "Jesus, I'm Yours," you have in the Bible's words, "crossed over from death to life." And you may have never done that. You want that peace of being ready to live and ready to die, tell Jesus you're trusting Him to be your Savior from your sin beginning right now. And your sins will be forgiven at that moment and your name will be entered in God's reservation book for heaven! You want to get this settled? Our website is there to help you cross over from death to life. Go there today - ANewStory.com. When you make that step of asking Jesus to come in as your Savior, your days on Death Row are over forever. You've been pardoned by Jesus himself. And when it's your time to die, you'll be able to say with absolute peace, "I am going to be face to face with Jesus right now."

"Dad, you're on E!" Yeah, I heard that a lot from my kids for years as we drove along, as if I didn't know the fuel gauge was nearing the empty mark. Of course, I knew. But why stop any sooner than you have to, right? I did create too much stress in the process for me, and my wife, and for my kids who were leaning over the back seat, and sometimes I actually did flirt with an empty tank. And I guess they all still remembered and reminded me of the time that we sputtered to a stop along the New York throughway out of gas. Yeah, I pushed it a little too far. Actually, don't tell my family that I admitted this, but it really isn't very smart to run on empty. In fact, it usually saves time to stop. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why You're Running On Spiritual Empty." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 10, and begins at verse 38. There are few passages in the Bible that have had more of a recurring, convicting effect on my life than this one. Every time I come around to it, it hits me between the eyes, and it happened again recently. Here we go, "As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me.' 'Martha, Martha' the Lord answered." Sometimes I think He's saying, "Ron, Ron." "Jesus answered, 'You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.'" Well, here's Martha, miserable. And she's got Jesus in her house! How can you be miserable? Well, she's "distracted by all the preparation." In the original Greek that word distracted means pulled or dragged away. She's pulled or dragged away by all the work she had to do. And the Master shows us which one is more important. It's "Mary, sitting at My feet listening." He said that's what's needed; that's what's better. He basically says, "Martha, more important to Me than the tasks you're doing for me is our time together." There's a sobering warning in this story. Work for Jesus can actually pull you away from your time with Jesus. Now, if all your discretionary time is used in His work, oh you feel pretty spiritual, but Christian busyness can actually cover up a growing distance between you and the Lord and your empty soul - an empty tank. I'm supposed to be busy building His Kingdom, but that's second. First is time listening to Him - letting Him fill my tank with love for Him. Then my list of Jesus' tasks comes from a heart full of Jesus' love. Comes from listening to Him and being with Him. When you're listening, you're making sure that you're busy doing what He wants to do through you, not what you want to do for Him. Jesus says, "Sit at My feet before you start running around on yours." When I'm rushing to get places, I don't want to stop for a fill-up. But the result is stress and sometimes eventually going nowhere. Could it be you've gotten so caught up in running for Jesus that you're running on empty? Stop for a fill-up every morning. You'll enjoy the drive a lot more. Oh, and the people who ride with you - they'll enjoy you a lot more.

I was speaking at some youth conferences in South Africa and my South African friend, Ted, was driving me through this massive game reserve during a break at the conference. It was winter and the grass was tall. He said, "You'll see the big animals - but not the cats. Oh they'll be there, but they're in the grass." I've got to tell you, it was amazing to drive behind two slow-moving giraffes and ostriches. We didn't try to pass. We got behind some zebras too. I'll never forget the once-in-a-lifetime sight of 30 elephants all ages and sizes. They were having a family meeting right next to the road. For the first time since we entered the park, I started to get out of the car to take pictures. My friend made one comment: "I'll watch your back." When I asked him what he meant, he said, "Well, there have been four tourists mauled to death by lions in the past few months. So I'll watch your back." You know, it's surprising what great pictures you can get through the window of a car. I nearly lost my head ducking back into the car! Sadly, the young woman who had been mauled to death a couple months before, hadn't even gotten out of the car. She just had her window rolled down. But a lioness, with her cubs nearby, leaped through the window to attack. I thought about Ted's "watch your back" and how that lion killed that woman and only needed an open window. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Lion That Stalks Us All." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 5:8. Here's a sobering picture from the Bible; a picture of the clear and present danger all of us humans face from the lion from hell. It says, "Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour." And then there's this "watch your back" warning from God in Ephesians 4:27, "Do not give the devil a foothold." The devil doesn't mind if people don't take him seriously. In fact, he prefers it so he can do deadly damage before we ever realize what's happening. And it only takes one open window for your spiritual enemy to get in, and he pounces on your carelessness. That one click to check out that website. The one night with friends who bring you down. The extended time alone with that person you have feelings for. That first thought of leaving your marriage. It doesn't take much. One dark secret. One "white lie." Bitterness that you bury. A small compromise. A little gossip. An innocent "flirtation." Those angry, wounding words. Devilish opportunities, that's what they are; open windows to tragedy. The lion from hell only needs an opening to ultimately destroy a life, a reputation, a marriage, a future. He never tells you where this little detour will take you. If you knew, you would keep the window closed. The Bible says, "Desire, when it has conceived, "gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:15). The lion is strong but I am not defenseless. My Savior is stronger. The Bible says Jesus is "the someone stronger who attacks and overpowers" the enemy of our soul (Luke 11:22). He did, in fact in the Bible's words, "triumph" over all the forces of darkness "by His cross" (Colossians 2:15). When Jesus is invited into a life, He brings all the power that raised Him from the dead. He is the death-beater - the "lion tamer" - because He offered up His life to pay for human sin and break its hold. I don't know if you've ever taken for yourself what He died to give you, and to finally give you power over all the forces of darkness around you and in you. You can do that today. Say, "Jesus, I'm yours." You want to know more about how that happens, our website is there for you right now. Please go there. It's ANewStory.com. See, when the devil comes knocking, you send Jesus to the door and you keep your windows closed.

If you've ever been to a professional football game, you've probably had the same experience. You're surrounded by experts at the game. You know, those fans that are on a first-name basis with every player. You know them. Actually, the players don't know them, probably wouldn't admit it if they did, but these fans feel free to call every player by his first name. And, of course, all the people around me seem to know how every play should be made. Occasionally they'll cheer, but more often they criticize. Seems like they always know a better play to call, or a better defense, or a better everything. Now, there's one place in the stadium where you don't hear too much of that critical chatter...on the field, because they're just too busy playing the game. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Cancer of Criticism." Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from the familiar story of David and Goliath. 1 Samuel 17:11 tells us what happened as the Philistine challenger, the giant named Goliath, came out every day and said, "Will someone come and fight me?" And every day, I guess you might say, "The Israeli Army headed for cover." It goes like this, "On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified." It goes on to tell us that "Early in the morning, one morning, David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out as Jesse had directed." He was to take provisions to his brothers. "He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions..." Okay, now I love this, "shouting the war cry." Can't you hear him? "Hey, let's go get 'em! We will, we will stomp you!" And then, of course, nobody goes out to fight anybody. Oh, but they're making a lot of war noises. Sometimes that sounds like the church a little bit, huh? Yeah we sound good with our words and our services but what about when the battles are going on? Then in verse 24 it says, "When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. David asked the men standing near him, 'What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?'" And then, finally, David starts to sound like he wants to go out and do the job. He's going to get out of the stands and get in the game. But no cheering. No, his oldest brother starts burning with anger at him and says, "'Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is. You came down only to watch the battle.'" Do you get the picture? Here's a battle, there's all these guys watching like fans, and there's one guy willing to get out of the stands and he doesn't get cheered, he gets criticized! Not much has changed. Oh, there's a battle raging right now; enemy forces are taking lives all around us. And finally someone says, "You know, maybe someone better do something about this. We can't accept the unacceptable. I'm going to try to do something. I'm going to try to make a difference." Maybe he's a pastor, a teacher, a youth leader, an elder, a deacon, a missionary, or just an everyday Christian who's trying to step up and make a difference. Is he getting cheers or is he getting jeers? Is he getting support or criticism? Maybe you're mostly watching God's work right now. Maybe you've never really gotten involved, or maybe you were and you just got tired. Remember, it's easy to criticize when you're not in the battle yourself, and it's terribly wrong. Players just don't have much time to criticize. Let me suggest to you that there might be two legitimate responses here. One is to take a position. Maybe there is someone better, but at least you're willing to go. Get in there and get involved in this holy battle. Or keep quiet unless it's to cheer. See, criticism destroys the morale of the one who is in the game. It discourages others from getting in the game themselves. Oh, and it destroys the person who's doing the criticizing. The warriors out there are tired, they're undermanned. Why don't you have the critics just stay in the stands? Why don't you join the heroes who are in the game? They're the ones who don't criticize much, because they are playing the game. Out of the stands, into the game.

He was one of the outstanding kickers in the National Football League at the time, and he actually helped his team win some memorable games with his field goal accuracy. But he had a spiritual hole in his heart. As he tells his story - which he did before tens of thousands of people at a Billy Graham Crusade - it was a sudden, debilitating disease that got his attention. He began to be aware how desperately he needed the God who could do what he could never do. He points to the man who was his ball-holder as the one who really showed him Jesus. Of course, when that football is snapped to the holder for that field goal attempt, it's the sure hands of the ball holder that the kicker depends on completely. But this former star, now a highly visible ambassador for Christ in his community, tells insightfully how much his Christian teammate really meant in his life. He puts it this way: "He wasn't just holding the football in his hands, he was holding my eternal future in his hands!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Holding Someone's Eternity In Your Hands." If you're on Jesus' team, that's the position you're playing for people around you whether you realize it or not. You are, in a sense, holding their eternity in your hands, because you know Jesus and they don't. And if you don't tell them, they probably never will. Which means they have no hope of this life ever making sense, and no hope of heaven when they die. Many of us just don't realize the amazing position God has given us; a position that gives you the possibility of your life mattering forever. That position is spelled out in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, which is our word for today from the Word of God. It says, "God...reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." That's bringing together someone Jesus died for with the Man who died for them. It says that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are, therefore, Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God." So that's why you are where you are. That's why you're doing what you do. That's why you know who you know. You are there to take those folks in one hand and Jesus in the other hand and bring them together! How are you doing? It's as if we're saying, "Jesus couldn't be here in person, but He put me here to tell you about Him." Your message isn't about your religion compared to their religion. No, it's about life's most important relationship! It's a message of reconciliation! A relationship we were created to have, but a relationship we don't have because we've run our own life. A relationship, though, that we can have because of what Jesus did, and it's a relationship you must choose. It's that simple: a relationship you were created for that you don't have, that you can have, and that you must choose. That's life-or-death information...eternal life-or-death. It isn't so much that Jesus is asking you to go out on some witnessing raid of people you don't know. He wants you to do what you already do every day for eternity, by trying to take some of the people you're with all the time to heaven with you. You go to where you go every day on an eternity mission. You may think there's someone more qualified, but you're the one who's there, and you are there by God's divine assignment. He picked you for them. Don't miss the mission He put you there for! Jesus has placed you in the middle of some people whose eternity depends on them knowing Him, and you - in a sense - are holding eternity in your hands!

They break in and say it's breaking news. More often than not, it's heartbreaking news. We just get numbers that just quantify a lot of hurt in a lot of lives. I mean, there's jobs lost, and homes lost, and loved ones lost, record numbers living in poverty, and struggling families, and devastating disasters, and always, always, people dying. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope Where There's So Much Hurt." I had been calling a bunch of friends about an upcoming event, I kept running into that hurt in people I know. Kathy's husband died from a massive brain tumor only days after they returned from their family vacation. She was trying to figure out life without him. One friend poured out a heart broken by what's happening to their family. Travis talked about the collapse of the construction business and their battle to save their own home and their son's. Rob - who's like Mr. Healthy - is suddenly in this pain-wracked battle to beat the cancer that just seemed to come out of nowhere. More calls, more pain. And that's just one day's phone conversations. It's a reminder that behind all those statistics and news stories are very real, very hurting people. These conversations elevated three strong reactions and realities that sometimes slip off my radar. One, I don't pray enough for my friends. Two, my problems really aren't that big. Three, well, this one takes me back to an unforgettable moment in a funeral home. Bob was the young assistant pastor at our church, and he died very suddenly. And by human reckoning, way too soon. I struggled for what to say as I walked up to his casket, and here's his widow, Judy, standing there with their three young, unfinished children. Before I could try to comfort Judy, she comforted me. She held her kids close and just said three words, "Jesus is enough." Wow! And that was the recurring bottom line in my phone conversations. Because my friends weren't just talking about hurt. They were talking about hope. They were talking about their Jesus who continues to be "enough." Our word for today from the Word of God is in Psalm 34:18. It says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted." You know what? They are feeling Him unusually close. They have His promise that "your strength will equal your days" (Deuteronomy 33:25). And they're telling me about uncommon strength they cannot explain. I have lived this, when my Karen was suddenly gone. My friends who I was talking to on that single heartbreaking day, they were believing what the Bible says, "All things work together for good to those who love God" (Romans 8:28). Yes, a chapter may be over, but their life isn't. Because there is a Plan! My friend in construction can see some of the Plan in the pain. He said, "Because of it, we're closer to God and each other than ever before." There is a Savior who provides for you, whether or not there's a paycheck, who sustains you when you can barely move, who holds you when no one on earth can help. I don't know how folks do life's deepest valleys without Jesus. The Bible says, "And though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." I know He'll never leave me. Because if He was ever going to, it would have been when He was pouring out His life for me on the cross to pay for everything I've ever done against Him. He didn't leave me then. He won't leave me now. Our suddenly-widowed friend, Kathy, said there are some days that she pulls in the driveway from the grocery store and says, "I don't even know how I got there and back." I think I know how. When our son was three years old, we were at the U.S. Capitol. He looked at those Capitol steps and said there's no way he could climb them. Well, he made it because I carried him. That's what Jesus will do for you when you begin your relationship with Him. I hope you'll do that today. Just say, "Jesus I'm Yours." I know that you can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and not be afraid with Jesus by your side. He's all the difference. Because you can't walk, but He'll carry you!

It pays to book your airline reservations in advance. You've got to get that two week or three week in advance fare. I missed booking one of those fares 14 days in advance before! I booked 13 days in advance. Well that cost me a chunk more money. I put off booking my flight waiting for all my plans to come together, and it cost me. The longer you wait, the more it costs. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Compounding Cost of Sin." Which leads us to our word for today from the Word of God from Psalm 32. I'll begin reading at verse 1. It comes out of the experience of King David. "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit." Now David goes on to tell us that he knows what he's talking about. "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand (he's talking about God) was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." Then there's this great turning point. "Then I acknowledged my sin to You and I did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.'" You can almost hear the sigh of relief when he says, "and you forgave all the guilt of my sin." The biggest thing here is that he had business to do with God, and it was business that was fairly unpleasant; acknowledging his sin, uncovering what he had covered, confessing it. He said, "I was wasted...I was groaning. Things were heavy on me. My strength was sapped." He wasn't feeling good. There's a lot of unnecessary frustration and pain when you put God off. That might be what's happening to you right now. Because maybe like those airline reservations, the longer you wait the more it costs. It will never be easier to deal with what the Holy Spirit is convicting you of than it is right now. It's only going to get tougher from here, because your heart is getting harder as you quench the Holy Spirit. God's warning and God's consequences are going to get harder and tougher as you ignore what He's trying to move you to do and to face. As you escalate your resistance, God will have to escalate His working in your life. And God loves you too much to let you go on in your sin. Because sin will ultimately destroy everything you care about. He's not going to let you go further on this detour, because peace and happiness and fulfillment and the meaning of your life depends on you being in the center of His will, not pursuing your own. He makes it expensive to run from Him. The cost is going up every minute. Doesn't it make sense to get out of the fire and say, "That's it, God, I'm done with this thing. I confess. I acknowledge my sin. Let's deal with this garbage." Maybe God in His love for you has had you running into one wall after another so you would finally stop and turn to Him and go to the cross where His Son paid for every sin, every wrong and dirty and proud and hurtful thing you've ever done. And He wants you to experience that forgiveness where as David said, "You forgave the guilt of my sin." Don't you want that? To be clean today. This is the day you could be forgiven. The day you're clean. This could be the day that the war turns to peace and you say, "Jesus, I'm finally stopping. I'm coming to Your cross to deal with my sin and find my Savior." Are you ready for that? Then would you go to our website because it's all about it. It's ANewStory.com. It's not going to get any easier. So if the Holy Spirit is talking to your heart even right now about making this decision, then why don't you act before the price goes up?

Ken really felt he got a promotion when he left the business world to enter full-time Christian ministry, and I think he did. But it wasn't so much because of the salary. Oh, I'm sure you thought it was because of the great money that he would make in Christian ministry. No, it wasn't because of the great benefits, but his job before had been handling consumer complaints. Now, he was definitely a candidate for a lot of antacids. Can you imagine getting calls all day long from people whose whole thing is to tell you what they didn't like? He's in ministry now, so Ken deals with a lot of people's burdens, but it's a whole lot better stress than that old job was. How would you be able to listen to people dump on you for eight hours a day? It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it, and somebody wants to. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where to Take Your Complaints." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 142. David says, "I cry aloud to the Lord." Sure sounds like he's hurting. "I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before Him. Before Him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who knows my way." That's a very interesting portrayal of where our complaints ought to go. God's Throne Room - that's where you ought to take your complaints. David said, "I pour out my complaint to Him. It's before the Lord I tell my trouble." "He's the One where I, in a sense, dump all of this hurt, anger, and frustration." Of course, we have a tendency to take our complaints to other places, don't we? We complain to our friends, we complain about the other guy to everybody else except the guy, we complain to our family, we complain to our co-workers, and the only thing we accomplish is we get to drag them down with us. They were feeling great until we came along. And then, all of a sudden, this big, dark cloud came in with us. We start them thinking negatively about it too. And we sound like squeaky chalk. Well, the Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3:15, as believers, to "be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us." A lot of folks can't hear our hope because they hear more about our hassles. Listen to yourself. Step outside of yourself and just try to listen. Are you becoming a complainer? God doesn't say, "Don't complain." That would be denying the pain - denying your real feelings. He invites us to complain all over Him. He's the One who can do something about it. David said, "It is You who knows my way." You know, that's why people bypass the complaint department sometimes and go right to the president. They say, "Hey, I want action! So forget the complaint guy; I'm going straight to the top!" Well, that's actually the place to go. Sometimes it's appropriate to go to an offending person and confront them in order to seek healing. And, of course, it's appropriate to share our burden with other people and ask them to pray for us. But first, dump all your garbage at your Lord's feet. Go to the top! Get the emotions out before Him. Get some objectivity, some perspective that comes from being in God's presence with all that stuff. Hebrews 4 tells us that we can go to the throne of God's Grace and there we can "obtain mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." How about trading your gripes for grace? The Throne Room of God is the complaint department of the universe. So, let God deal with your complaints. You won't get action by complaining to all the employees. Skip them and go straight to the top.

It was Fall, and my wife and I were making our annual pilgrimage to go "Falling" in northwest New Jersey. We had our cider, we had our donuts and we saw the great autumn art show. We had kinda strolled along looking at everything and now we were in a hurry to get home. I wasn't happy when I came over the hill and saw bumper-to-bumper. I was forced to do something I can't ever remember doing on that little country highway. Drive slow! But it turned out that I did not drum my fingers on the steering wheel once or even wish I could go faster. For the first time, I noticed this beautiful little lake I had never seen before with the colorful trees all reflected in it. I saw animals and panoramas that I had missed all these years of traveling this road. Oh, they'd always been there, but I was always moving too fast. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why God Slows You Down." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God." Well, those things really go together. "Be still," and then while you're still you'll "know that I am God." It could be that God has been trying to get you to realize that He is God - for most of your life. And once you do, your life takes on a peace and a beauty and a purpose you've probably never thought possible. You might finally be ready for some of that. I had missed so much all those years on that country road because I'd always been in such a hurry. You know, people miss a relationship with their Creator the same way. The sad thing is that this is the relationship you've been looking for all your life; the one you've hoped every other person in your life would be for you and they couldn't. The Bible says, speaking of Jesus in Colossians 1:16, "All things were made by Him and for Him." Well, that includes you and me. He's the one you were made by; He's the one you were made for, and it could be you've missed Him all these years. That's why the hole in your heart never goes away. We're traveling at high speed, high stress, high impact, and low fulfillment. Maybe God's suddenly slowed you down, just like I was slowed down that day in the country, so I could see what I'd never seen before. Maybe He slowed you down with a change in your health, or your job, or your finances, or your marriage, or one of your children. Somehow God's forced you to hit the brakes, and He's saying, "Would you be still and know that I am God." Don't miss this incredible opportunity to finally find what you've been looking for your whole life. The first step to experiencing God for yourself is realizing that you're not God in a sense of being boss of your own life. Most of us approach life like this, "God, I've got this idea. Why don't you run the universe and I'll run me, thank you." The Bible has a word for that - sin. And it makes it clear, "The soul that sins, it will die." We will never know God until we have faced the seriousness of us trying to be our own God. And then you've got to get rid of the sin that has separated you from your Creator. And it will separate you for all eternity if it's not removed somehow. That can only be done by One person; the One of whom the Bible says, "God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The view God has slowed you down to see is the cross where His Son, Jesus Christ, died to make your peace with God possible. Maybe you've sped by it your whole life. This is your day to stop and see that it was for you. Haven't you lived long enough without the relationship you were made for? Let this be the day you begin your personal relationship with the man who loved you enough to die for you and was powerful enough to walk out of His grave and is ready to walk into your life today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours." Listen, if you are at that point and you want to get started with Jesus, that's why our website is there. I would invite you to meet us at ANewStory.com. I think you'll find, there, what you need to know to be sure you belong to Him. After years of running so fast, He's slowed you down so you can know His love and know His peace. Please, don't drive by Him again.

Our friend Betty had an unusual little personal business: she put on birthday parties for kids. She brought a pony for the children to ride, and a petting zoo of baby animals, including some little yellow chicks...which you don't ride. Actually she would rescue those chicks from a company whose business is chicken. They've told her that they have to remove any chicks that are speckled or spotted, and she was willing to take some of those and raise them on her farm. The reason that company has to remove those chicks is because of what the other chickens will do to any chick who has an imperfection. They literally will peck them to death. Pity the one who is not like all the others! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Outsiders." I wish this business of rejecting the ones who are different was just a chicken thing. Unfortunately, it's very much a people thing, too. In fact, in your personal world - where you work, where you go to school, or in your community - I'm sure there's someone who is feeling rejected because they're perceived to be "different." Most of the time, they feel like "the outsider." We all know what that feeling is. If you belong to Jesus Christ, your mission is to do what our friend does with those spotted chicks - to give life to someone who's being rejected because they're different. Why? Because that's how your Master lived His life, and you're supposed to be following Him. Listen, for example, to our word for today from the Word of God beginning in Luke 18:39. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is passing his way, and he begins to yell loudly for Jesus to show him mercy, which is more than anyone else did for this man, because he lived on the margins. They saw the nuisance. Not Jesus; he saw the need. It says, "Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!' Jesus stopped and ordered the man brought to Him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' 'Lord, I want to see,' he replied." And with a touch from Jesus, He did. This is so typical of the way Jesus operated wherever He went. He walked past the cheering crowd to find the one person who needed Him most - usually someone that everyone else was treating like an outsider. Whether it was blind Bartimaeus, the hated tax collector Zacchaeus, or the sinful woman nobody else wanted to be seen with, Jesus was always there for the outsider. Are you? To Jesus, and hopefully to those of us who follow Him, the outsiders are actually the VIPs! There's someone in your world who's feeling like the outsider right now. You might work with them. You might go to school with them. They might be in your town. They might be in your church. They might be in your own family. I'm just praying that the Lord will literally bring that person, or those persons, to your mind right now because He wants you to be His arms to go and bring that person in from the lonely margins that people have sentenced them to. Remember, the One you serve looks on the heart, not on the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). And if you've been the outsider, you of all people should want to dedicate yourself to making sure no one else has that awful feeling. You can begin to heal some of your own pain by finding some people who need your attention because they are all around you. Slowly but surely, a cruel, selfish world is emotionally pecking to death some people who are within your reach, and it's breaking your Savior's heart. Will you open your arms to them so they can taste the love of the Savior who doesn't consider anyone an outsider? After all, when Jesus was here, He was the outsider.

I was a pretty little guy, and my dad thought I should meet Paul Bunyan. You know, the legendary giant lumberjack. We were vacationing in Minnesota and there was this tourist attraction there, in Brainerd. Inside was this huge animated figure of Paul Bunyan. I mean, he's massive! He's sitting down with his giant ax and his giant ox next to him and a little log cabin at his feet. My dad paid for our tickets and I walked in unsuspectingly, and suddenly Paul's voice boomed out across the park, "Hellooo, Ronnie!" Man, you talk about unsettling! This guy knew my name. It took me a lot more birthdays to figure out that the man at the ticket booth had gotten my name from my Dad and then relayed it to the Paul guy in the cabin. Yeah, he was hiding in the little log cabin to frighten little Ronnies. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Discovering Your Worth." Our word for today from the Word of God, Luke 19, beginning in verse 1: "Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zaccheus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Him once Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to him, 'Zaccheus, come down immediately! I must stay at your house today.'" So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly. This turned out to be the most life-changing day Zaccheus ever had. He not only invited Jesus into his house, but ultimately into his life that day! A man who had felt small his whole life, and as a greedy tax collector treated other people as if they were small, suddenly became a really "big" man. In verse 8, he says, "Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I've cheated anybody out of anything I will pay back four times the amount." That's a changed life! But it all began when Jesus called Zaccheus by name. They'd never met (like a certain lumberjack and me), but although Zaccheus didn't know Jesus, Jesus knew Zaccheus. And He knows you! Jesus has been lovingly pursuing a relationship with you for a long time. 1 John 4:19 in the Bible says, "We love Him because He first loved us." He knows a lot more than your name. He knows your pain, your dreams, your past, all the details of your life. He knows your failures and your sins. He has seen them. He has felt them all. You say, "Well, He wouldn't be interested in a relationship with me then." Don't you underestimate His love! Romans 5:8 says "God demonstrated His love for us in this way: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Because of His deep, deep love for you, God's Son gave His life as the payment for the death penalty that you and I deserve, and for quite awhile now He's been trying to get your attention. Today, even as you're listening to my voice, you may be hearing His voice in your heart, and He's calling you by name. He's inviting you to respond to His love, to put all your trust in Him, to have your sins erased from God's Book forever and to receive eternal life in heaven. Look, it's been one-way love long enough? In your heart, the tug you feel, that might be Jesus calling you by name, as He did "Zaccheus." He's saying, "I want you to belong to Me!" The Savior's coming one on one to you, in your heart today. The day when He calls your name can be your "God" day; the one when you open your life to the greatest love a man or woman can ever experience. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And please go to our website and let me help you be sure you've begun that relationship. It's ANewStory.com. The bible says this, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." If Jesus is calling, answer Him. You can't afford to miss His call!

As kind of a life-long, off-and-on dieter, oh, how well I know the things we do to maintain or lose weight. And sometimes, I mean, you can't just have water, fruit, and lettuce all the time. Maybe throw in a little celery for dessert. You can lose weight that way, but you know what? You can't keep that going. What you have to do, I've learned, is you have to make friends with your metabolism. And if you're going to take some foods out of your diet, you better put something good in its place if you want the change to last. Actually, that's not just a dieting principle. That applies to spiritual change. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No to Temptation, Yes to the Good Stuff." In our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Timothy 2:22, Paul is writing to young men and he's talking about a subject that would have to do with young men. He talks about the "evil desires of youth." He says, "Look, I know especially when you're young that one of the challenges spiritually is controlling your glands, and your sexuality, and your feelings toward the opposite sex." And he talks about something you should lose. You could almost call it losing spiritual weight. Except here it's losing a bad habit. He says, "Flee the evil desires of youth." Okay, that's the diet plan; that's the spiritually fattening things you've got to lose. But I'm glad he doesn't leave it there. He doesn't just say, "Get away from that bad stuff" because he gives you something new to put in its place. He says, "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue..." Oh, it's not just running from things. There's something you need to chase. "...and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace." I'm afraid that a lot of Christians would just stop with the negative - with the prohibition. "Thou shalt not." "Flee youthful lusts, my son." And he's right when he says that, and we're right to have those negatives. Don't cheapen sex, don't fill yourself up with destructive music, or websites, or worldly amusements. Don't go out with unbelievers, don't read magazines that have garbage values, and don't watch junk TV. Don't watch anything that is going to feed your dark side. But notice that Paul doesn't stop with a "don't." He says, "Go chasing..." And then he says, "...pursue some good stuff to do. Go after faith." Well, that means adventures that can stretch you and your faith in God. Take some risks, do something new for Him. He says, "Go after love." In other words, be pursuing bridges to other people; more ways to put them first. He says, "Be a peacemaker between other people." He gives one don't and four do's. That's a spiritual diet that can actually have lasting effects. Lasting results because you've got many more things you are doing than things you stopped doing. Jesus talked about a man who swept the house and got rid of an evil spirit, but he didn't have anything in the house after the spirit was gone. And seven spirits, worse, came back because there was a vacuum. See, I don't think we can just be against things; we've got to be for a lot more things. We've got to invest in alternatives to the wrong thing. We should major in healthy friendships, invest in those, encourage those, spend money for our kids to have good input and fun family times without regrets, and healthy recreation to develop their abilities. Go on spiritual missions together in your neighborhood or somewhere else in the world. I think as Christians we should be known for being too busy doing good things to miss the things we're not doing. Let's be known not for what we're against, but for the great things we're for.

At Disneyland or Disney World there's this little boat ride that goes through this long canal where you're surrounded by animated dolls from all over the world. French children, Eskimo children, Arab children, Indian children. You get the idea. And they are all singing to you It's a Small World After All. Don't you want to sing it with me? Probably not. You say, "monotonous lyrics." You hear it about 50 times! It's really cute when they first start singing. And the songs okay for a little while. But by the time you hear it over and over, you're sick and tired of a small, small world. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Small World of Self-Focus." You may have never been on the Small World ride, but you still might be sick of a small, small world. You might be living in one and not even realize it. We do realize it's a world of frustration, negative thinking, sameness, and monotony. That's the small world. It's called the world of "me." It's a world of self-focus. God addresses this inwardly focused kind of living in our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 5:15. In a selfie world, it's a great scripture to read. "Christ's love compels us. He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves." That's supposed to be the radical effect of Christ coming into your life. Radical because it reverses the way we've been thinking since we were babies. At that time, we expected the whole world to revolve around our needs. "Time for me to eat, burp, wake up." No thought for how it's affecting everybody around you. We were just totally focused on ourselves. We're older now, but the baby still wants attention to be on me; wanting my needs to be taken care of, wanting my agenda to be carried out, wanting my issues to be dealt with, wanting my way. In fact, most researchers agree that a lot of us in several generations are really into ourselves. There are two factors that can make you a pretty self-focused person. One is busyness. The other one is pain. Now look at Jesus' example. No one had more to do in a lifetime than He did. You talk about being busy! But He was constantly stopping for others, constantly forgetting himself to meet the needs of others. No one has ever carried more pain than Jesus did. All the grief of all the sins of all the world, of you and of me, yet even during the agony of His crucifixion Jesus is caring about the needs of His Mother, of his friend, John. He's caring for the eternity of the thief next to Him. He's even caring about the people who crucified Him. When you invite Jesus into your life, it's this Jesus you get. And He wants you to be like Him. Not self-focused. A world that's only as big as you are is a world that's too small to live in. Jesus invites you to break out, to start finding the needs around you and doing something about them, to focus on others instead of yourself, to find your life, as He said, by giving it away. Not to lose your life by hanging onto it. This selfless Jesus, who poured out His life for you, the Bible says that when you make Him the center of your life, you open the door for Him to come in and change you and become a new creation in Christ. And that old selfish "me" starts to die. You start to become part of the answer. You start to become someone who is making other people feel important instead of being about how important you are. It begins at His cross - a transformation you could never effect in yourself. I invite you to consider beginning that relationship with Jesus today if you never have. He loved you enough to die for you. He's powerful enough to change you. Isn't it time you began that relationship with Him that can change everything? Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." Go to our website to be sure you belong to Him - ANewStory.com. Jesus died so we no longer live for ourselves. Have you been in a small, small world long enough? Then follow Jesus into the big life you were made for.

Now don't accuse frogs of being dumb. Not that you ever would. I mean, I've been told that if you take a frog and you put him in a pot of boiling water (which, why would you do that?) he'll be smart enough to jump out. He knows he's going to die there. On the other hand, if you put that frog in some lukewarm water, he's going to start swimming around in there. He's going to go, "Oh, it's cool in the pool!" And if you turn it up ever so gradually, the water is going to start to bubble, and steam, and he'll just keep swimming, and diving, and looking up at you with those big old eyes. Until finally the water is boiling and he'll never know what hit him. He'll slowly become comfortable in something that will ultimately kill him. Maybe just like us. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Deadly Cost of Compromise." It's amazing what erosion can do. It can create whole geological masterpieces, and it can destroy a life a little bit at a time. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 13, and I'm reading verses 12 and 13. It's about Abram, his nephew Lot, and they're choosing where they're going to live in Canaan. And, of course, at that time the city that more than any other symbolized man's rebellion against God was the city of Sodom. Here's what it says, "Abram lived in the land of Canaan while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord." It's interesting how Lot's disintegration began. It only began by pitching his tent in the direction of Sodom. If you would have said to him, "You know, one day you're going to live there, Lot. One day you're going to be a part of those people." He would have said, "No! All I'm doing is camping in the neighborhood." But you see, while Lot started to be in Sodom, pretty soon Sodom was in Lot. And by the time God brought fire and brimstone, Lot had so lost all of his credibility no one in that city would listen to him, even some of his own family members. He tried to get them to follow God and follow Him out of that city and, literally, Genesis says, "they laughed at him." Why would they believe this man who had become so much like the environment around him? See, the Devil destroys Christians. But not in the way you might think! Not by explosion, but by erosion. James 1:15 tells us a lot about how a spiritual disaster takes place. It says, "Desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death." Notice, it starts just as a desire. You've got to fight sin when it's on the beach, not when it's in your backyard. And the desire is the place to stop it because it will inevitably always kill. Sin always fascinates, but then it assassinates. It kills your reputation, your self-respect, your self-worth, your closeness to God. There are awful consequences. You say, "Well, look, I'm only pitching my tent in the direction of Sodom. I'm only with friends who do wrong. I don't do what they do. I'm a little friendly with someone outside of my marriage; but we're just friends, it's not serious." But those flirtations are eroding you. Maybe you're walking along the sexual cliff saying, "Well, I don't plan to go all the way." Oh yeah, but you're being eroded. There are more lies in your life maybe than there used to be; recurring thoughts of sinful activity. Do you see what's happening? Slowly but surely your resistance is going down and you're going down. Listen! Run! Don't walk from Sodom; run from it. Run the other direction today. Don't wait for the fire and brimstone. Don't wait until the water's boiling. Don't be eroded. There is nothing ahead in Sodom but death.

Voicemail I guess is better than nothing. It doesn't respond, it records. One friend captured how I feel in what he recorded tongue-in-cheek. You call, then you know, you get the little click and you hear the friend's voice saying, "In a world of cold and uncaring humans, isn't it refreshing to be greeted by a warm and friendly voicemail?" No! You just can't automate a personal response! I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stopping for the Wounded" Actually, when it comes to the needs around you, you're probably one or the other: you're an answering person or an unresponsive person, like an answering machine. Jesus was trying to point that out in Luke 10:30-34. It's our word for today from the Word of God. You know the story. He says, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, they beat him, they went away, leaving him half dead." "A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So, too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine..." It's a great story, huh? Yeah, but it's a troubling story. It's the professional God-lovers - the priest and the Levite - who don't stop for this obvious human need. And it's a Samaritan, one who's considered a spiritual reject by the Jews, who responds as Jesus would with above and beyond love. Like me, I mean, you may be pretty busy in Christian activities and programs, and that can become a trap. I believe the priest and the Levite knew about meeting needs. I believe they knew about helping wounded people. But they may have confined their response to programs for helping people, to meetings to plan programs, to theological concepts about love and mercy and compassion. Tragically, the longer you've been around Christian things, the more you can replace personal acts of love with programs and structures to do it. You know, it goes like this: "We have a program that ministers to the poor, the homeless, the brokenhearted, and the hurting. We have meetings that present Christ to the lost. We're having a seminar on reaching people for the Lord." Answering machines - machines to answer the calls of men and women in need. Now I'm very much in favor of organized, large-scale efforts to respond to the needs of desperate people around us. But they're just no substitute for you being the Good Samaritan yourself, for the natural flow of love and mercy that stops for someone who needs money, or a listening ear, a word of encouragement, a chance to hear about Christ's love or to see it in action. Like the Good Samaritan, I hope you don't lose that beautiful characteristic of your Master. A breakable heart. You got one? Sometime this week, you'll almost surely encounter someone who is wounded or someone who is without Christ. Will you excuse yourself because you're busy in a lot of Christian activity - your answering machines? Or will you stop and be the answer with your loving, personal, above-and-beyond response? That's what Jesus commands. When the people around you call, they don't need an answering machine, they need an answering person!

When I was little, my bicycle and I spent a lot of time together. You would see this little fat guy chugging all over town; that was my way to get around. There was only one thing that compromised my total enjoyment of biking - the dog on the corner. Yeah, since our street ended right after our house and our house was just beyond the corner, there was just no other way to approach our house. So, often that little dog would sense me coming; I'm sure he had lookouts posted. He would appear out of nowhere, charge my direction with teeth bared, his bark would send chills up my spine. I picked up my speed; boy, I got really fast! I could feel him nipping at my heels. I didn't even know I could pedal that fast! I think I could have qualified for the Olympics. I very quickly learned any evasive action I could think of: getting my speed up before I got there, coming down the other street where he seemed less likely to be. I followed his pattern, ignoring him; pretending I didn't see him so I didn't look scared. Somebody told me that was a good idea. I learned quickly that a vicious dog is nothing to mess with and should be avoided at all costs. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Temptation Defense." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 39, beginning at verse 7. Joseph is about to be a Jewish transplant; picked up and sold as a slave into Egypt. He's working for Potiphar, a military leader. He's been trusted with total responsibility of the household. Now, Potiphar's wife gets an eye on this good looking young man, and it says, "After a while, his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, 'Come to bed with me.' But he refused." Verse 10 of Genesis 39: "And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her." And notice this, "...or even be with her." Now, this has got to be for Joseph a pretty tempting temptation. He's lonely; he's away from home. I would guess that a powerful man's wife is probably pretty attractive, and he is totally trusted. He may very well get away with this and no one ever know what he's done. But he says, "How could I sin against God." He knows God will know. He knows that he and his conscience will know. And had he said yes to this temptation, it would have been a spiritually fatal mistake - probably disqualifying him from being God's hero as we know him today. Now, temptation is always out to bite you, to discredit you, to scar you. But unlike our dog at the corner when I was a kid, it doesn't warn you with a bark. Do you know what your Potiphar's wife is right now? Oh, it could be a sexual opportunity. It could be the apparent advantages of compromising your integrity a little bit, being a little dishonest right now; maybe it's the urge to retaliate or a compromise that seems better than losing this person, or that old habit, or going back to the old friends. The advantages of sinning are always short lived, and the price always lasts a long time. Now, notice that Joseph can recognize that vicious dog of temptation under all that mascara and perfume. He's smart enough to take evasive action to not ride close to the dog's house. That may be why the pull of temptation is so strong on you. You haven't burned your bridges to it. You want to beat it? Then you have to avoid the places where it is, the people who draw you into it, the props that get you into it. You can't flirt with sin; it's a vicious dog! Pedal fast! The Bible says, "Flee from it." Take a route that's nowhere near the opportunity to do that sin. Don't get anywhere near that attractive but deadly, vicious dog of sin.

Have you ever been to the mall and seen one of those mall walkers? They're going at a steady clip, getting their mile or their three miles for the day. One of those mall walkers actually made the national news a few years back. He was power walking, which means "Don't get in my way! I am coming fast." He must have looked away for a moment, because he walked full-speed into a metal pole in the middle of the mall. Now, why would a collision with a pole be news? The man has not had any sight in his left eye for years. Suddenly, after running into that pole, he sees light in that eye. That collision turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to him! It suddenly helped him see. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Suffering Improves Your Vision." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of Job, whose name is associated with human suffering. He symbolizes suffering probably more than anybody else in all the literature in the world. He really had some painful collisions in his life. He lost his wealth, he lost his health, and he lost his children. Job 42:5 - his final conclusion on the really hard things he had run into. He says this to God, "My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You." Job says, "I can now see God as I never saw him before because of the pain I've been through." Before he ran into those awful losses he knew a lot about God. Because of running into those ordeals, he says now he really knows God. Actually, that's been the experience of so many hurting people over the years. They ran into something hard, but the collision was what helped them to be able to see things they had missed before like that man at the mall. Our son would tell you that his personal idol in junior high and early high school was football. Then came the day his knee got seriously injured. I was in the doctor's office when he was told he would never play football again. That day he cried as I had never seen him cry before. And he'll tell you now he understands that not just as the day his dream died. It was the day that his god died - the god of sports. Not long after that he surrendered his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Running into that injury and that depressing news was the hardest thing he had ever run into at that point. But because of it, he saw what he'd never seen before - how losable our idols are, how worth it it is to live for Jesus and he became a missionary to Native America. Maybe you've run into some hard things and it hurts. It's confusing, maybe even depressing. But consider what God might be trying to do in this collision. Could it be He's helping you be able to see? Maybe He wants to use the collision to expose the presence of an idol in your life or to let that other god die on you. Or He may want to open your eyes to your neglect of your family, or your neglect of Him. Or to show you that your schemes are not the answer. Or that the eternal things are the only things that really matter. You know, for so many people it's when we hit a wall, when you run into something we can't fix or we can't control, or we can't change that we begin to consider "Who can I turn to? I am not enough." And at that moment God uses that to open our eyes to a man named Jesus, whose love was proven by His death for you on the cross. Taking your place, your death penalty for your sin. Whose power was proven by walking out of His grave. And He's ready to walk into your life today. The purpose of the pain may have been a wakeup call from God to bring you into a relationship with Him so you could be with Him forever. And if you've never said, "Jesus, I'm yours," let this be the day. I'd love to help you with that. Just go to our website ANewStory.com. For a child of God, the good news is there's never a collision without meaning. Open your eyes and let your Heavenly Father help you see what you might never have seen without the collision.

When I used to go places with my two sons, people would often say, "And who are these young men?" And I'd say, "Oh, these are my bodyguards." We'd all get a good laugh at that! Of course, you know, these guys of ours grew up pretty fast, and it was believable that they could be my bodyguards. Actually, if I really felt that I needed one, well I would look to, you know, a professional wrestler or good old Mr. T from TV days of yore. Now, there was a bodyguard. In fact, before he became a TV personality and a movie star, he was actually a bodyguard for people like Muhammad Ali. So he got noticed first and got into the movies and into that old A-Team series. Now, it's interesting to think of bodyguards. There are people who need them, and you picture those big beefy guys who stand between the celebrity or whoever they're protecting and whoever might want to cause them any trouble. It's almost as if they're saying, "Nothing's going to happen to you my friend as long as I'm looking out for you. I'm going to stand between you and anyone who tries to hurt you." That's bodyguards. Hey, did you know you're a bodyguard? Well, I mean, at least you're supposed to be. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love Protects." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is from that great love chapter of the Bible - 1 Corinthians 13. I'm going to read just a portion of it beginning with verse 4. As you listen to this ultimate description of love, perhaps you might compare your own love right now for your family, the people you live with, the people you spend a lot of time with. Compare your love to this description, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:7 - I want to pick up these three little words from that wonderful description, "...love always protects." In other words, if we love as Christ loves, we are meant to be looking out for each other. I guess I'm supposed to be your bodyguard and you're supposed to be mine if we're brothers and sisters in Christ. That means that if someone comes to me and starts to attack a brother or sister's reputation, then I'm the one who intervenes and says, "Hey, wait a minute! Let's not talk about him. Have you thought about the other side of the story?" You become, as a spiritual body guard, the one who stops the gossip when it comes to you and then it says, "Excuse me, but that will be enough of that. It stops here." When someone comes to you and starts criticizing another person, you've got to be the one who says, "Hey wait a minute! Go to them. I don't think I need to hear this. Have you talked to them about it? Go tell them." You're the one who makes sure that you never say anything bad about a family member or lets anyone else get away with it. You're the one who reminds people of the good points of a person that maybe they're having a hard time remembering. You say, "Yeah, but have you thought about this?" You're the one who encourages understanding and communication, because ultimately it is not your body that you're protecting. It is the body of Christ. We are all part of that, those of us who are in Christ. And His body has been broken enough. He said, "This is My body which was broken for you." Don't allow it to be broken any more by a Christian attacking another Christian. Don't throw any punches at someone that Jesus loves very much. Instead say, "Nothing's going to happen to you because I'm looking out for you."

Dino and Nanette are dear Navajo friends of ours and they became Mr. and Mrs.! Oh, we wanted to be at their wedding because they are two very special friends, very special Native American Christian leaders. Now this was years ago but we couldn't be there, but our son attended, and that afternoon he described the wedding to us, as well as any man can describe a wedding. I choked up when I heard about their wedding vows. Dino made his vows to Nanette on bended knee. Nanette made her vows to Dino and then handed him a beautiful Navajo blanket. But this wasn't just any blanket. It had belonged to her father who died several years ago and it represented a relationship and memories that she really treasures. That blanket was Nanette's father's love gift to her. And in this moment of commitment, she was handing her new husband this most precious treasure from her most precious person. I guess in a sense, she was handing him her heart. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Trusting Jesus With What You Treasure." In a tangible, deeply moving way, a young bride was saying with that gift, "I totally trust you, my husband. I'm giving you my heart. I'm giving you my life." She understood the deepest meaning of commitment. And commitment is the key to life's most important relationship; your personal relationship with the Man who died for you - Jesus Christ. Now, our word for today from the Word of God beginning in Luke 7:37 - "A woman in that town who had lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them." Like that Navajo bride, this woman understood the commitment of a heart to Jesus. She brought what may have been the most valuable possession she had and lavished it on Jesus. She worshiped Him with abandonment, not caring what anyone thought. She was pouring out more than expensive perfume; just like that bride was handing over more than a blanket. This lady was pouring out her life to Jesus. Later, when the religious leader Jesus was dining with objected to what she had done, Jesus said, "You did not put oil even on my head, but she has poured perfume on My feet Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven as her great love has shown. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.' Then Jesus said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.'" Jesus seems to be saying, "This lady just came to me with all her heart because she knows her need. You don't know your need and you come to Me with all your head." Could it be that total commitment is "the" issue between you and Jesus right now? I mean, we're talking about the kind that releases to Him the things that matter most to you. Maybe you're clutching whatever is your "blanket," your security blanket. It's a relationship that really matters to you, or a dream you insist on hanging onto, or a possession, a position, your business, your ministry, something from your past. And you're at a crossroads now. You can't go any deeper, can't go any further in Christ until you release that precious treasure to Him. And the nagging, unspoken question really is, "Can I trust Jesus with this?" Marty struggled with that question at a youth conference where I spoke some years ago. He told me he just couldn't give everything to Jesus because he couldn't surrender basketball, the most important thing in his life. Put your own treasure in there. But at the conclusion of the conference he said, "Ron, I've surrendered everything to Jesus, even basketball." I asked him why. He told me about his walk on the beach the night before where he finally settled the deciding issue. He said, "Anyone who loved me enough to die for me would never do me wrong." You know, that's why you can trust Jesus with your life, your treasure, your eternity, your soul. He loved you enough to die for you. Isn't it time you gave Him your life. Do you want to begin that relationship with Him finally? Tell Him that. Go to our website to be sure you have - it's ANewStory.com. Jesus can be trusted. Let this be the day you cross over into a relationship with Him, the day you put the treasure you've clutched in your hands into His hands. "Jesus, here. I trust You. I'm handing You my heart."

It had been a frozen and freezing winter in New England and Canada. They got walloped with a mega ice-storm that left two inches of ice on everything. In Montreal, for example, power lines and poles and trees just collapsed under the weight of the ice, and thousands of people were without power for days; which means many were without heat in the middle of a Montreal winter. In one neighborhood, one man got pretty resourceful after shivering for five days. He marched across the street with a lot of orange extension cord and asked his neighbor if he could plug into their outdoor outlet. The people on one side curiously were without power and very cold. The people on the other side of the street had power and were pretty cozy. That power from across the street was enough to start that man's furnace. And within a few hours, from one end of the block to the other, you could see long orange extension cords crisscrossing the street from the cold side to the warm side. Those who had no power were supplied by those who did and everybody was warm! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Joy of 'Others First.'" They didn't have the extension cords back in New Testament times, but the first Christians sure understood the idea of sharing power with people who don't have any. It was part of what made them so magnetic to the unbelievers around them. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 2 beginning with verse 44. "All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need." Just like those folks in Canada on the warm side of the street, "We've got it, they need it, and I'm going to share it." Listen to how this worked out (back to the Bible), "They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." This selfless sharing drew a lot of people to Jesus! The basic principle is still supposed to be at the heart of how a Christian views everything he or she has. "I don't have this just for me. God gave it to me so others can have it, too." Those original believers basically erased the words "my" and "mine" from their vocabularies. How about you and me? If God has given you transportation power (like a car, for example), He's expecting you to let that car help someone who is without power when it comes to transportation. If you own a place to go and rest, it could be an answer to prayer for someone who can't afford a place to get away. Some of that closet full of clothes could really encourage someone whose closet isn't very full at all. Your home isn't just meant to be your castle; it should be a refuge for someone who needs a place to stay. Someone without power needs some of the power you have. You may be able to share your encouragement with someone who doesn't have much encouragement in their life; your knowledge in an area where they could use some help. The point is that you look around at what you can give, and you keep your eyes open for people who need it. It's great to wake up in the morning and say, "Who needs me today, Lord?" Maybe you have some of something they need, they have a little, and if you share what you have, you could both have enough. That is New Testament living! That is Jesus-living! And in a world that's pretty cold for some people near you, you have the power to make it warm again!

Missy hated suitcases. Our Shih Tzu puppy - she had great radar. I should explain that Missy had multiple masters. There was our youngest son, who was her first master. He lived in Arizona and Missy only got to see him occasionally. But he was still an important person in her life. Then there was my sister-in-law who often picked up Missy's care where my son left off. And then our daughter also really bonded with the dog. Oh, about the radar. It went off whenever Missy started to see suitcases in the hall. She learned what that meant; that someone who loved her was going away. So, poor Missy just disappeared. She would literally run and hide under this cabinet in the kitchen whenever it looked like someone she counted on was leaving her. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Too Many Goodbyes - and One Unloseable Love." Chances are you've never tried to hide under a cabinet in the kitchen. You probably wouldn't fit! But it could be that you know that awful feeling of having someone that you've counted on leave. And maybe you have felt like going and hiding. I don't know what the "leavings" may have been in your life - someone you needed who died, or a marriage partner you pledged your life to who's gone, maybe friends who let you down or just moved away. But for somebody who's listening right now, the pain of being left has been one of the great hurts of your life. Out of it can come some deep feelings of insecurity and distrust, and even worthlessness. And ultimately that hurt can become a deep-down fear of abandonment, the fear that loving again will just mean losing again. Every one of us needs some stable, count-on-able relationship where there will never be a goodbye, and there is one. You might be ready for it. Here's our word for today from the Word of God from Isaiah 49:15-16. God says, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Well, though she may forget, I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." If you're tired of goodbyes, this promise from your Creator is loaded with hope for a "never say goodbye" relationship. He says, "I will not forget you." Jesus made this promise to those who belong to Him. "I am with you always, even to the very end of the age." And He said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." Can you actually depend on His commitment to never abandon you? Yes, because you're engraved on the palms of His hands in nail prints. Without Christ we have no hope of a love relationship with God. Our sin is an eternal wall that separates us from God. And the Bible says, "Sin carries a death penalty which Jesus loved you enough to take for you when He died on that cross. And today He's reminded of you every time He looks at His hands. You're engraved there in the marks left by the price He paid to bring you to Him. No, Jesus will never leave you. He already had his chance in a garden called Gethsemane where the night before He died He agonized over the cross He knew was coming. But He didn't turn His back on you. If He was ever going to, it would have been then or it would have been on that cross. But He did not. He's sure not going to turn His back on you now if you belong to Him. And that's up to you. Your relationship with Jesus Christ begins the moment you open your heart to Him and say, "Lord, I'm sorry for the sin of my life. I want to change. I'm putting my total trust in You to forgive me and bring me into God's family. Aren't you ready for this unloseable love, for this totally secure relationship? If you are, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." Go to our website and check out there a very clear path to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. Haven't there been too many goodbyes? Well, you have within your reach right now the ultimate relationship with the One person who will never say, "Goodbye."

Our family was driving down the Interstate and I saw this familiar bumper sticker. I said, "Oh, that's nice." And then I began to pass the car. I could tell from behind, that it was obviously a mother and a child in the front seat. But the significance of the message on the bumper didn't hit me until I pulled alongside. I glanced over and it was obvious that the child had an evident disability, and that the mother had a very heavy burden. And I thought, "Boy, how does she cope with that responsibility?" And then I remembered her bumper sticker and I had my answer. It just might be an answer for you too. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Handle a Heavy Load." Our word for today from the Word of God is going to come from Deuteronomy 33:25, and it relates very directly to that bumper sticker, which we'll get to in a minute. The words were familiar, but it may be a reminder that you need to hear to make it through this very heavy load you've got. The words on the bumper sticker - you've probably seen it - simply said, "One day at a time." Now, Jesus told us how to bear the cross of following Him. He said in Luke 9:23, "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him take up his cross..." You remember the next word? "...daily and follow Me." Now Deuteronomy 33:25 has this simple, profound, and enlightening statement, "Your strength will equal your years." It does not say that. It says, "Your strength will equal your days." God distributes strength to us in 24-hour allotments. You have no strength for tomorrow-today, or certainly for next week or next month or next year. So, you're facing what appears to be, let's say, a mountain right now and you're saying, "I don't know how I'll get all this done!" Or, "I don't know how I'll make it through this crisis? I don't know how I'll cope." And the Lord says to you, "One day at a time. You don't have to take the mountain all at once. Don't try to handle that entire load at one time. Take it as I give it to you in 24-hour chunks." My wife was very ill with hepatitis. She was in bed for nine months and it was like I lost my right arm - my partner, my strength, my great supporter. And I was Mr. Mom for our three kids as well as running a ministry. It had been about five weeks of trying to be Mom on top of everything else, and I remember my pastor's wife caught me at church and said, "How are you doing five weeks without your wife?" I said, "I didn't do five weeks, I did 35 days. That's the only way I knew to do it." You know, you'll never have a day where you won't have enough strength. God promised that. You have His word on it. If the Lord sends you a 20-pound day, you'll get 20 pounds of strength. He sends you a 100-pound day, you'll get 100 pounds of strength - 100 pounds of His supernatural resources. But don't try to borrow tomorrow's trouble. You don't have the strength yet. You go thinking about that and worrying about that, and you'll run ahead of your supply lines. You'll have everything you need that day. So live as God designed you to live. Cope as He's equipped you to cope - in 24-hour slices of life. If you do it one day at a time, you'll make it through this because God's mercies are new every morning.

If you've flown commercially a lot. Well you've got to get used to the little presentation by the flight attendant and it can kind of get boring. Your attention might drift a little bit. There was this one flight - we had a flight attendant who kept throwing in humorous surprises and fresh ways of saying things, everyone was listening to him. For example he said, "Now, we're preparing for landing and you need to put your seats in the upright, most uncomfortable position." See, they never say that! I thought that was good! We all laughed. And then I liked the part where he said, "The captain has turned on the seat belt sign, which is an indication he has finally found the airport." I love it! It sounds unpredictable. This man knew something about communication. If you have important information to communicate, don't be so predictable. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Parent's Best Classroom." God has given moms and dads some really important announcements for them to make to their children. He actually talks about them in Deuteronomy 6, and I'll begin reading at verse 5: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Then impress them on your children." Well, we try to do that. If you're a Christian parent, I'm sure you try to impress the ways of God, the teachings of God, the boundaries of God on your children. But sometimes our children respond with the same kind of, well, disinterest that I did to those predictable airline announcements. "Yeah, here we go again!" They know what you're going to say before you say it. So maybe it isn't enough that we teach our children about the Lord. We need to do it in ways and in places where it's not so predictable, so maybe we'll have their full attention. In the rest of Deuteronomy 6:7, Moses tells how to do that. "Talk about them (that's God's commandments) when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up." See, sometimes we get immune to hearing Biblical truths the way they've always been presented, in places we always hear them. We've got like practiced responses to a sermon, or to family devotions, or to Christian meetings. We know what to expect. We know how we're supposed to act. It's predictable. But there's something disarming about God-talk in the middle of everyday activity - the classroom of everyday life: when we're walking, riding, getting ready for bed at night. See, the best place for your son, or daughter, or grandchild to see God at work might be on the baseball field. Or on the way to the store with you, suddenly some question comes up that gives you a teachable moment. Grab that! Maybe it's debriefing their day over a Big Mac, or maybe it's in those more mellow bedtime moments, riding along with you all the places you chauffeur them. That's the classroom of everyday life, the best place to learn about the God that I hope, as the Bible says, "you love with all your heart." Don't just depend on formal settings to get the job done, not when you want to introduce God to your child. They may shut down for the formal announcements. But look for God together in the ordinary, the relaxed, the casual, the everyday. As a parent, you have the blessed responsibility of passing on God's announcements to kids that He has trusted to you. Make sure those announcements aren't just true. Make sure they're interesting. I think if I had not begun a personal relationship with Jesus Christ by the time I had kids, I would have been driven into His arms. Because so much they need me to be I couldn't be for them, too much selfishness, too much anger, too much hurting, too much "me." And I've found as a Dad in Jesus, a Savior who keeps His promise, "If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old is gone. A new life has begun." All my failures, all my mistakes, all my sins forgiven, and the power to finally be the parent I want to be. If you're ready to say, "I'm not all my kids need. I need that Savior for my sin," Tell Him today, "Jesus I'm yours." Go to our website and find out there how to be sure you've begun a relationship with Him. It's ANewStory.com. You know, Jesus comes into you, He comes into your family and things will never be the same.

I should have realized I was never going to make it as a tennis player. Oh, I played the most with my son. And, I think I had a decent serve for a beginner. But I had trouble returning my son's shots. Now, I think you'll agree that is a basic skill for succeeding in tennis. You do have to get it back to the other guy. For example: volleyball - you lose the point when you can't return the shot; ping-pong - oh, you know, there are a lot of places where that's important. In fact, in most arenas returning the shot - well, that's an important skill to be cultivated. In one arena it's a skill to be eliminated. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You've Been Hurt." Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 2. I'll be reading verse 21. "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps." Now let's stop for just a minute here. Peter is saying that this world needs more of Jesus. And there are a lot of people around you who are desperate to have Jesus walk among them, and He can. He can walk into your office. He can walk into your school. He can be in your family through you, because He's in you. Now, the Bible here says that Christ is our example, and the Greek word that's used there talks about a copy head on a school child's slate. And as they were learning their alphabet - alpha, beta, gamma, delta...the Greek alphabet - they would just simply copy the letter at the top and try to make their letter as much like the letter at the top as they could - an exact copy. Now, this says that Christ is our copy head. He's the one we're trying to make an exact replica of. We're trying to be as much like Him in our life as possible so that when people come in contact with us, they come in contact with Him. Now, when is it hardest to follow that example? When is it hardest to be like Jesus? Well, when it's most important to be. Verse 23: "When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate. When He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly." The real proof that shows a person's real character is what he does when he's being shot at. Now, you notice what happened to Jesus here? He was insulted, but there was no retaliation. They hurt Him and yet there were no threats coming back. Our Master was abusively, horribly treated. He was deeply hurt. And boy did He have the power to hurt back like you and I never will, and He chose not to! Now, when are you most likely to sin? Well, probably when someone is really attacking you, criticizing you, coming after you, when they're firing something at you. Maybe you've been betrayed recently, or you've been deeply wounded verbally, or maybe you've even been hurt physically. Everything in you cries out, "I'll fix him!" "I'll fix her!" Your mind starts racing through ways that you can retaliate, ways you can even the score. And now here comes the Jesus test. Does knowing Christ make any difference when it really counts? In Romans 12 the Apostle Paul says, "Do not repay anyone evil for evil; do not take revenge, but leave room for God's wrath." Let God even the score - He's much better at it than you are. Jesus turned to His Father for justice. An eye for an eye is not the way of Jesus. Even from His cross He says of those who have nailed Him to that cross, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." That's the example for us. When you refuse to return the shot, you refuse to shrink to the level of your attackers, you refuse to let them control you. And more importantly, you rise to the level of your Lord, who gives you the grace not to hurt back. Life isn't tennis. In Christ you win if you don't return the shot. So, hold your fire!

When you eat in a hurry you sometimes leave some traces of the meal on your face, and you sort of wear your food. There are some crumbs maybe, or some tomato sauce, or this little spot of chocolate. Of course, you don't know it. Now I have to eat on the run a lot of times, and that means sometimes you might be able to tell. Of course, I don't mean to carry it around with me. I mean, you know, my wife or my son in the past have told me, "You know, you've got food on your face!" Well, I want to tell you it's embarrassing to hear, but I need to hear it. Of course I don't always say "thank you" to them. Sometimes this smart alec just says, "Oh, yeah, you know, I'm saving it for later when I need a snack." Well that doesn't seem to please them, but I have to say that I do clean it up after someone points it out to me. Of course, if I'm not looking my best, I'd rather hear it from someone who cares about me, right? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Hard to Hear News - You Really Should Listen." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 27:6 and here is what it says, "Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses." Now I don't like that word "wounds." It's not a pleasurable word. But it says, "The wounds from a friend can be trusted." What makes these wounds bearable, this bad news that they're giving us, is that it's from someone who cares about us. You know, it's like when someone in my family says, "Ron you've got food on your face," or someone you care about says, "Excuse me, but um, do you know you're unbuttoned?" or, "you're unzipped," or, "you've got a spot there." Now, look, do you like hearing that? No, it's not fun to hear it. It's embarrassing. But wouldn't you rather know than not know? Would you like those who love you to tell you even if it's not fun to hear? Well, of course you would! See, what's more important, is when we have emotional or spiritual (shall we say) food on our face. Our personality is unzipped, our personality is unbuttoned. If you care about someone, you will lovingly tell that person even the unpleasant, inconvenient truth, and if you're smart you'll respond appreciatively to bad news that comes from a good friend. Now we're talking about constructive criticism here, not tearing someone down, but constructive criticism. The responsibility of a Christian friend is to hold up a mirror and say, "Man, look at your strengths. Do you know what you've got going for you? I love it when you do that." Then at other times it's our responsibility to say, "You know, here's something that might slow you down, that might keep good things from happening." It's okay to point out weaknesses if you've pointed out strengths. First, you tell them about what they're doing right. But then there are gentle ways to tell them about the other part. "I'm not sure you know how this comes across. I'm afraid it might sound this way to other people. Can I just let you know how that is?" Or, "I'm concerned about what this could do if it keeps happening. That's why I want to tell you about it." "Look, this is going to be hard for me to say and it's going to be hard for you to hear, but you know what? I love you enough to tell you what I'm about to tell you." Don't let your friends self-destruct because you're afraid to tell them the truth. The Bible talks about speaking the truth in love. And it says to let your speech always be seasoned with grace. Now, when you're the one receiving the criticism, will you listen? Will you find the grace to thank them for telling you? Then weigh what they've said even if maybe they're only ten percent right. Maybe you should look at the ten percent. Ask for their prayer to ask God to help you change in that area. Someone just loved you enough to tell you what someone should have told you maybe a long time ago. Don't jump on your friend. Don't jump on your family member for holding up a mirror. Don't stone the messenger. Deal with what is in the mirror that they held up. Don't attack them. See, if you're not looking your best, it's good to know that, and to hear it from someone who loves you enough to tell you.

Forgetting can get you into a lot of trouble. Like forgetting someone's name, or maybe forgetting an appointment, or maybe you forgot your homework. Or, "The dog ate it." Yeah, uh-huh, or you wouldn't want to forget your wedding anniversary. Oh, no... No, that can cause trouble. But forgetting is a basic skill for people who want to be emotionally free and spiritually alive. Oh, some kinds of forgetting really help. No, not the accidental kind. We're talking about the deliberate kind. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Forgetting Is Freedom." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is about deliberate forgetting and it's in Philippians 3:13. Paul is actually using an Olympic runners' example when he says, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Did you notice that word forget? He says, "Like a good runner, I'm not looking back." I know when you look back you lose the race. So you keep your eyes on the track, you keep your eyes on the tape, you keep your eyes on the goal. Don't waste any energy looking at the ground you've already covered. "Forget what is behind..." See, that is actually a fundamental characteristic of a Christian who's going to make daily progress in his relationship with Christ - the ability to forget. Forget what? Well, three things about the past that we tend to keep remembering. First of all, if you're going to grow spiritually you have to forget your past achievements. Earlier in Philippians 3, Paul listed all of his great spiritual achievements, which are greater than anything I think you or I could list. And he said, "None of them really matter. They're like garbage." There was an airline that said, "We've got to earn our wings every day." Well, that's kind of how it is spiritually. You can't run on spiritual memories. You know, "I'm okay today because of some great yesterdays I had spiritually." You've got to be restless for more progress, so forget the past achievements. Secondly, you've got to forget the past failures. You might have said, "Well, I really, really was going real well out there. I was humming for the Lord, and all of a sudden things caved in and I goofed. And I don't know if I can ever get back on track. I think I can't." It's like Peter when he'd fished all night and caught nothing, Jesus said, "Go out there and fish again. You'll catch more than you ever have or ever dreamed." Forget the past failures. Get up! None of those failures have to matter today. And the other thing then that you're going to have to forget if you're going to make spiritual progress is past damages. You've been hurt, you've been wounded. You know what? Bitterness is a terrible bondage. It's like emotional cancer, and maybe right now it's hard for you to get out from under that person, those incidents that have hurt you. But if you're going to get on with your life spiritually and go for His gold, you've got to forget the past damages. You know, the Bible says, "Forgive as the Lord forgave you." So get God's divine eraser and say, "God, help me to erase this and move on and set both of us free." See, the enemy loves to have you dwell on the past. Do you know why? Because it can't be changed. He wants you to think about those past failures because you can't do anything about them. He wants you to think about those past damages because you can't change those, instead of what you can affect, which is this 24-hour period of time and a future that has yet to be written. Turn the page on the previous chapters. Forget! Press for the gold and don't look back.

I had a busy schedule of speaking in the Chicago area that week. But I had one night free. It happened to be during what they call Founder's Week at Moody Bible Institute. That's the annual conference that commemorates the birthday of the founder, D.L. Moody. When I heard that one of my favorite speakers was there that night, I told my wife I wanted to attend. And we did, along with some of our ministry team members. Since we would be arriving a little late, I called and asked that some seats be reserved and they were kind enough to accommodate us. But something very unexpected happened that night at Founders Week. The president of the Moody Alumni Association began reading a brief biography of the person who was to be honored as that year's Alumnus of the Year. The more he read, the more familiar this life story sounded. To my total shock, he was describing me! My wife says I slowly sank in my chair and I fought a losing battle with the tears in my eyes over God's amazing grace in my life. Afterwards, I had 1,000 questions about how I actually ended up at that session that night. My family and my team members had been involved in an eight-month conspiracy to maneuver me to Chicago for that week and to a schedule that led me right to the right place at the right time. I was pretty sure it had been my choice. Well, I had been skillfully directed to that choice through the imperceptible workings of someone else. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Big Plan to Get You to Heaven." After that surprising night, I saw one of the most amazing, most debated mysteries of God's Word in a brighter light, our Word for today from the Word of God - Ephesians 1:4-5. It's an incredible behind-the-scenes look at what it took to give you a place in God's family. God says, "The Father chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ." In other words, God has had His eye on you since before there was a you, since before there was a world! In verses like these, God takes us behind the scenes of that day when you put your trust in Jesus to be your Savior, that simple choice. And there was, in fact, an eternal rescue plan at work that finally brought you to Christ that day. See what I mean about understanding this through my surprise the night of that award? I thought I was there as a result of my decision, which in a way was true. No one ever mentioned that meeting to me, and I did make a choice to go there. But behind that, there was a master plan at work that began long before I made "my choice" - a choice to which I had been skillfully and carefully guided. In a way, I did make the choice. But then in another way, it was predestined. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting I have resolved the centuries-old struggle to understand the tension between predestination and free will and between us choosing Christ and God choosing us. But these verses and the illustration that I lived do make some very encouraging facts very clear. 1. You really matter to God! Maybe you've been mistreated by folks here on earth, passed over, unappreciated, undervalued. But the God of the universe values you so much He's been working on you being in His family from creation to Calvary to your conversion. 2. You're safe with God. After all He's done for all these millennia to bring you into His family, He's not about to let you go now. 3. He is working on an awesome master plan to rescue the people you're concerned about. And you are part of His eternal plan to reach them. It is really amazing, isn't it? And it answers so many of our self-doubts, our fears, and our feelings of inadequacy. And it should drive us to our knees in amazed praise. The night I received that award, there was a lot more to it than I could ever understand at the time. And for you to come to Jesus that day you did, there was a lot more to it than you may ever be able to understand. And maybe this is your day of choosing as a part of God's plan. If you want to know how to begin with Him, would you go to our website - ANewStory.com? The plan of God has brought you to this very moment to bring you into His family and to take you to His heaven.

Whether you're in your car, or in your home, or almost anywhere you are right now, I think you probably have available to you what you're going to need for our next few minutes. Yeah, because you're either near one or you might even carry one. Now, some people use this object too much, other people could afford to use it a little more. Maybe you've guessed what it is by now. Yep, it's a mirror, and you'll need it today, because that's where we're going to end up. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's 'Welcome Home' Arms." Now, our word for today from the Word of God will take us ultimately to the mirror. In fact, it's found in Luke 15:17. If you're real conversant with your New Testament, you might recognize Luke 15 as being the home of that familiar story we call the Prodigal Son. And you know in that story he had gone to his apparently well-to-do father and said, "Dad, I'm restless. I don't know if I want to stay home anymore. I wonder if you could give me my share of the inheritance, and then I'm going to get this out of my system. I want to get out of here. I know you haven't died yet, but could I have my inheritance?" Now, I don't really know what was on his mind, and we don't know why he wanted to leave. Maybe he was tired of the rules his dad had, and then he had an older brother. Maybe he didn't get along with him. But he went away, and the Bible says, "He went to a far country." So he wanted to get far away. It didn't take him long to blow all his money. He had a lot of friends as long as he had that money. Then he lost his friends when he lost his "bucks." And he ended up working for a pig farmer - the worst possible thing a Jewish boy could end up doing would be feeding the pigs. But he was so desperate, he had to do an unkosher job. And here he said, "Boy, I wonder if my dad would even take me back as one of his servants?" And there he is sorting it out, trying to figure out, "How did I ever get in this mess? How did I end up in a pig pen?" Maybe for you, you're looking at your life and you're not in the pig pen right now, but things aren't going right. You're restless, you're feeling disoriented, confused, disappointed, there's a lot of frustration that's built up over the last few months, maybe some anger. You're really looking for some answers, and you're saying, "Whose fault is it I'm in this mess?" Luke 15:17 tells us the end of the Prodigal Son's search for the answer. And in these simple words recorded in the King James Version of the New Testament it says this: "And he came to himself." Now, I know that means he came to his senses. But I think it also implies to us that after he went down the list and he said, "Okay, it's not my Father's fault. Okay, well let's see, if I didn't have that brother. No, no, it's not my brother's fault. If my friends weren't so fickle. No, I guess I can't blame my friends. If only I hadn't run out of money, if I hadn't invested in the wrong thing, or if it weren't for this boss who is giving me this crummy job." Finally, after scratching off all the other causes, he ends up looking in the mirror. I told you we'd come back there. It says, "He came finally to himself." Maybe that's the first place you're going to begin to find deliverance from your restlessness, your frustration. You've got to look in the mirror and say, "Lord, I think I'm the one who needs to be changed. I'm not going to blame it on my circumstances, or the problem people in my life, or my wife, or my husband, or my kids, or my parents, or the economy, a lack of resources. It's not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer." Every counselor's first job is to get a person to take the responsibility for their own situation. Whether you're a parent, or a son, or a daughter, or a worker, or a boss, I trust that you will begin to say, "Lord, begin with me." And if you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, the life-giver, well He's what you've been missing. Right now you could change that by pinning all your hopes on Him and saying "Jesus, You died on the cross for me, rose again from the dead, now would you walk into my life today?" Look in the mirror. Offer what you see to the Father, and just like the father of the Prodigal Son, He's going to clean you up and make you look like royalty.

Now, I've had a chance to see gridlock a lot in New York City. Vehicles choking at every intersection and literally nothing can move. I even saw gridlock in a grocery store. The weatherman had forecast a huge snowstorm for our area which was supposed to begin during the night. Well I stopped by the store late that evening (dumb!) and I ended up trying to find the end of the line for the cash register. They only had two lanes open and there was a line of carts all the way to the produce section all jammed together so no one could come in, no one could go out, and no one could go through. What brought this sudden urge to shop late at night? Word of an approaching storm. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Peace In Your Storm." See, storms are a fact of everybody's life. If it's calm right now, you can be sure somewhere up ahead there's a storm. That's life. The question is are you ready for that time when things start spinning out of control around you and maybe inside of you? Since we know we're going to head into heavy weather sometimes, we need to know we have what it takes to make it through the crises that sink a lot of other people. Well here's the testimony of a man who lived through imprisonment, disability, injustice, assassination attempts - the Apostle Paul. The man was unsinkable because he was prepared for any storm. We've got a lot to learn from him. Here's our word today from the Word of God, which he wrote. It's from 2 Timothy 1:12. He says, "I am not ashamed, because I know Whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." Paul is talking about a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the only man in history who was powerful enough to beat death and blow the doors off His grave. Paul says, "I'm convinced He's able to guard what's important to me." The ultimate security in life is knowing that you belong to this Jesus. I was talking to my friend John recently - ten cancer operations in eight years. He's been at death's door three times. When you talk to him, you come away almost disbelieving that he's carrying all this pain. He's positive and generous, he's joyful, he's encouraging. The surgeon is even sending John to some other patients who just aren't handling the storm of cancer. John made a simple but heart-rending statement to me. He said, "Ron, you don't handle it well when you try to handle it without a Savior." That's the difference - the Savior difference, the Jesus difference. See, all approaches to life work when things are going well. But the test of what you're living for is the storm. Things like cancer, bankruptcy, getting fired, divorce, terminal illness. Even smaller storms can drive us to the edge and sometimes over the edge unless we've committed ourselves completely to this awesome Savior named Jesus. See, He loves you unconditionally. You say, "How do I know?" He died on the cross for the very sins you've done against Him. He's willing to put your life in His eternal keeping and then give you eternal life beginning the day you entrust yourself totally to Him. This could be that day. You could do that right where you are. Maybe you could pray to Him like this: "Lord Jesus, I've been trying to do it without a Savior. I've lived my last day without you. I believe you died to pay the death penalty for the sinning I've done, and today I'm putting my total trust in you. I need a Savior. I need You." If you've never done that. If you want this to be that turning point day, your new beginning, then you could go to our website which we've set up right there where I can help you know exactly how to begin this relationship and be sure you have. That website is ANewStory.com. See, Jesus - the one who during a life-threatening storm in His lifetime, stepped to the bow of the boat He was in and said, "Peace, be still" and it was. That Jesus wants to do that for you in your storm.

Remember the good old days when we used to have that phone that rang a lot of times in the house and somebody had to get to it first? Telephone etiquette has changed a lot with cell phones but I wonder sometimes if people ever learned telephone etiquette. You know you kind of cringe when a child answers the phone. You never know if they're going to hang up, or if they're going to yell into the phone, "Hey, Mom!" or if they're just going to put down the phone and forget to tell anyone that you're waiting. Ah, but the daughter of a friend of ours...oh, a pleasant exception. The family visited our office and when they got home, I called and the little girl answered. Very polite, very coherent, very competent. I said, "Hey, girl, how would you like to be my secretary?" She must have seen how crazy that job was when they were in the office, because she answered immediately...oh, not with a yes - not with a no. She just said, "Uh, how about my brother?" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "That's God Calling Your Name." Our word for today from the Word of God is in Isaiah 6:8. And it's God's question 27 centuries ago. It's His question still today. He says, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And Isaiah said, "Here am I. Send me!" God has a lot of people who need to be loved out there - need to be listened to, who need to be told about the love that His Son showed by dying their death penalty right on the cross. There's too many people looking for love in all the wrong places, right? Too many people giving up, living self-destructively, hurting themselves, hurting other people. Worst of all, there are too many people going into eternity without any hope because they don't have a Savior. Isaiah's answer ought to be ours: "Here am I. Send me!" Instead we say, "Here am I. Send him. I support him. Uh, how about my brother?" See, Moses was told that God was coming down to rescue his suffering nation, and I imagine Moses was going "Great!" And then God says, "I am sending you." And Moses said, "Oh, please send someone else!" You are not going to have any peace until you say what Isaiah said - you'll have no fulfillment. You can't delegate spiritual responsibility for the people in your world. God is asking you to step in. Your family needs a spiritual leader, Dad. You say, "Well, how about my wife?" No, the buck stops with you, man. That ministry needs leadership. God's saying, "I want you to do it." Someone's son or daughter needs to spend their life reaching the lost, and maybe you're saying, "Lord, how about somebody else's son or daughter?" Someone needs to tell the people in your neighborhood about Jesus, the people where you work or where you go to school. You could argue with the Lord, "Well, I'm inadequate, I'm not trained, I'm not ready, there's someone better." But the Lord of the Universe has put you in the position to make the difference for them. He's calling your name. He said to Moses, "Who made mouths?" This isn't something you will do for Jesus. This is something Jesus will do through you. When God is asking you to step up to spiritual responsibility, guess who He means? He means you!" Thousands of years ago He called Moses' name in a burning bush. You may not have a burning bush. I doubt that you will. But in the life of almost every believer, there is a day when you hear your name called. Don't let God's call go into voicemail. My young friend who answered the phone didn't want the responsibility I offered her, but she didn't say no. She just tried to pass the buck. Maybe that's what God's been hearing from you. Not a no to his work, but not a yes either. It's sort of a "Well, I think somebody else Lord." He doesn't want someone else. It's your heart He's knocking on. It's your opportunity to serve the King of all Kings. It's your assignment to carry out, and this is your day to say, "Dear Lord, here am I. Send me!"

Gal! That's the name of the dog that belongs to our missionary friend. She, and they, have lived on a Native American reservation. Most reservation dogs - they call them rez dogs - are pretty aggressive to say the least. They'll meet you whether you want to meet them or not. Not Gal. As soon as she sees anyone approaching, she runs for cover. You try to befriend her, she just cowers in a corner and trembles. It's pitiful! We asked our friends why Gal was so withdrawn, and it's a sad story. She'd been abused as a puppy by her former owner, and any time anyone got close, she was afraid. Yeah, that they would hurt her like those other people had. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Someone You Can Finally Trust." Too hurt to trust anyone. That's not just something that happens to a pet. It happens to people a lot. Maybe it's happened to you. Somewhere along the way you've been hurt, you've been abandoned, betrayed, abused, mistreated. And like that little dog, you're afraid to let anyone get close. In fact, you may have built up some pretty elaborate defenses to make sure no one does. But really, you're just afraid they're going to hurt you like somebody else did. I saw one of our team on that reservation get very close to Gal - that dog. In fact, Gal would seek her out and give and receive a lot of affection. But it was because that person took time to win that dog's trust. She proved that she only wanted to love her and help her, and that love actually broke through the fear and the hurt. That's what I pray will happen for you. See, there's someone who is leaning your direction this very day, someone with outstretched arms, not to hurt you but to hold you and to heal you. It's Jesus! He knows a lot about being hurt. Listen to these words that describe Him. They are our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah 61:1-2. "The Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners." See, Jesus is the healer of broken hearts and broken lives. He's the liberator from the darkness. But can He be trusted? God's answer - Romans 8:32 - "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will He not also graciously give us all things." And then later in that chapter it says, "Nothing can ever separate us from His love." Can Jesus be trusted? Just walk up to that garbage dump hill called Skull Hill. Stand there in the pouring rain at the foot of Jesus' cross and see the agony Jesus is suffering there, the nails in His hands and feet, the thorns pressed on His brow, the spear wound in His side. Most of all, the total separation from God. And realize that's for you. That's your sin He's dying to pay for. Oh you can trust Him. He loves you enough to die for you. And He's been waiting for you to turn your life over to Him so He can start the healing process that only He can bring. But first you have to tell Him that you're putting your total trust in Him to be your Savior. I know that word trust is a hard one after what you've been through. But you can't just go on hurting, and hiding and alone. And this One who loved you so much that He gave everything for you, He's the one person you can finally totally trust. You've been looking for Him. You've been longing for this person for a long time. I hope you'll reach out to Him today and say, "Jesus, you loved me enough to die for me. I'm yours." And if you want to know how to get that relationship started, please go to our website. It'll take only a few minutes but it could make a lifetime of difference for you. It's ANewStory.com. I don't know what you've been through, but Jesus does. And as He approaches you today, don't run from His open arms. As He reaches to you, you will see in His hands nail prints from the suffering He went through for you. Jesus is the Healer that your heart has always wanted.

I was speaking at a youth conference, and we all had breakfast in the cafeteria together. And then when we got together for our morning session I said, "Now, I want you guys to imagine that somebody who was at breakfast with us comes in the room and his cheeks are all puffy and you ask him what's wrong, and he just goes, "uh...uh... uh..." And you go, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Here's a piece of paper to write down what's going on here." And he writes down, "I'm starved." Now I ask him, "Did you eat breakfast?" "Uh-huh." "And you're still hungry?" "Uh-huh." And then I would ask him, "Did you swallow it?" "Huh-uh." "Oh, maybe that's why you're still hungry." See, it isn't enough just to ingest your food; you've got to swallow it for it to do anything for you. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Make the Bible About You." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is in Joshua 1:8. And you might say it's about spiritual eating and spiritual digestion, because ingestion is not enough to satisfy your appetite. Ingesting food is not enough to nourish you. Joshua 1:8 puts it this way in the biblical formula for personal success. It says this, "Do not let this book of the law (the Bible) depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night." In other words, be saturated with God's Word. Take a Bible bath. You should be in it day and night, really knowing what it's saying. But listen, it says, "So that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." Did you catch those words "careful to do"? It doesn't say, "I want you to read the Bible to just know what it says." I want you to read the Bible to do what it says. The purpose of being in God's Word is to memorize it, meditate on it, but then to do what you read. In other words, until the Bible gets into your real life, until you've found a change you're going to make because of what you've read, all you've done is sort of take it in, kind of hold it in your mouth spiritually, but it's not in your system. So when you study the Bible, if you're going to read it to do something, that means before you close the Bible each morning when you're with the Lord, you say, "Lord, help me make a connection to something I'm going to face today." Always make that connection between what you're reading and what your life is doing right now. So, if you're reading about loving your brother, you say, "Okay, which brother am I having a hard time loving?" Okay, "Love your Ralph." Or whoever's the hard guy to love. If it's talking about patience, you say, "Let's see, who do I need to be more patient with right now? Okay, Lord, help me be more patient with my Mom, or my wife." If it's talking about temptation, then you say, "Which temptation am I facing right now?" And you put that temptation into the verse. So if it says, "Do not let sin control your body." Then which sin? Okay, so you put in there, "Do not let gossip control your body" (the one you struggle with, whatever it is). For example in James 1. Let's try this. You're reading the book of James, and it says, "Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds." Now if you're just ingesting, you'd kind of go, "Today I read about trials." Now, wait a minute. No, no! Which trial are you facing right now?" You go, "Oh, man, my boss!" Or you might say if you're married, "My in-laws." Okay, then make it in the verse, "Whenever you face trials of many kinds (with your boss, with your in-laws) because you know that the testing of your faith (by your boss), (your in-laws) develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." Now, that verse could just be about trials in general, or it could be about someone or something you're facing today. When you make that connection, you begin to swallow what you're eating. Every day ask yourself the question, "What am I going to do because of what I read?" And once you do that and start to make those changes, you are well on your way to an exciting new you - one day, one change at a time. Hey, don't be content to just ingest the Bible, digest it. That's the only way you can grow.

It took me a while to get up the courage to clean our garage. It might have taken you time to do it too, if you had seen what shape it was in! I mean, there was the general accumulated "mess" that hadn't been touched for awhile. And then there was the mess left from youth ministry stored there. On top of that, different members of our family and staff had been going, and borrowing and returning, and borrowing and returning, and oh my goodness! The mess was there. Oh, and then there was the mess from various friends who use our garage to store some of their things. All in all, we had discovered a new peak to be climbed. We called it Mount Mess! And there it was right in front of me. So, get on my work clothes, go downstairs, take a deep breath and I almost turned around and gave up. My first thought, "How about we torch it." No, we need to clean it. I thought maybe that would be the simplest answer. No, it's not good. But the question that depressed me was one that you've probably asked while facing a Mount Mess of your own, "Where do I start?" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where Do I Start Cleaning?" Our word for today from the Word of God, John 2, and I'm going to begin reading verses 13-16. "When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts, He found men selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So He made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple area; both sheep and cattle. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves, He said, 'Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father's house into a market.'" I'll tell you what's incredible about this. This is Jesus' first appearance in Jerusalem. Want to make a good impression? He's going to the big city. You'd think He'd want to make a nice, positive impact there when He arrives. But notice what His first act is. It's not a miracle, it's not a healing, and it's not a sermon. It's an indignity - an attack - against sin in God's house. Now, you and I are living in a world that morally resembles my un-cleaned garage; it is a spiritual mess. Sex has been divorced from love and commitment. Speaking of divorce, it's the most common "answer" for marital problems. Lying is so common you pretty much expect people not to be telling the truth. There's garbage permeating our media input, and it just goes on and on. Where are we going to start cleaning? Well, Jesus will say, "Start by cleaning up My house." That's where He started. 1 Peter 4:17 says, "Judgment must begin at the house of God." A.W. Tozer said, "The Bible will not die in the hands of Communists, or humanists, or atheists, or abortionists. It will die in the hands of its friends because they don't use it themselves." See, we've become amazingly casual about sin. Oh, we're against it, but we flirt with it and we see how close we can get to it. We read about it, we watch it being portrayed, we laugh about it, and we allow creeping compromise to erode what was once a much higher standard in our lives just a short time ago. Jesus takes a whip to sin when it's tolerated in His house, and you're His house now. See, the Bible says we're the temple of the Holy Spirit; He lives in you. Now, you may look righteous compared to the rest of the people around you, but your standard isn't them. It's the personal holiness of Jesus himself. Oh, sure, we should fight the decay in our lost world, but we should turn most of our guns on our own sin - our own compromise. Many people are not considering Christ because they've never seen an alternative in someone their own age who is really living for Christ, demonstrating the difference. The history of revival throughout the church tells us that whenever God's people start hating the sin in their own lives, tens of thousands of people start finding Christ. So, where do I start cleaning with the mess inside my own heart?

Easter night, millions of Americans tuned in to Jesus, this was actually several years ago when "The Bible" miniseries was on cable TV. Except this time, "A.D. - The Bible Continues" was on a major network. I was one of those millions who was watching on Easter, plunged into the world-changing events of that first Good Friday and Easter. I couldn't help but connect it to a touching Facebook post I saw on Good Friday about a bookstore visit that a dear Native American friend had with her young grandson - who she calls "Handsome." Handsome spotted a painting that really got his attention. It was Jesus nailed to the cross. He went straight to it and he said "with passion" in his voice, his grandma said, "Gramma look! Can we buy it? It's the last one. If we don't buy it, someone else will get it!" Here's what our friend wrote: "Today is Good Friday, the day Jesus died on the cross for me. How could I not buy the picture for Handsome?" Well, I'll tell you, that picture of that little boy hugging that painting is tattooed in my mind. It occurred to me that the little guy was onto something. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Personal A.D." You know what I think that little boy had? I think he had the idea that you need to make Jesus yours while you can. Not because there's a limited supply, but because that ultimate spiritual opportunity won't always be there. Jesus described that opportunity this way in Revelation 3:20, "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear My voice and open the door, I will come in." If I hadn't already "opened the door" to Jesus, I think watching that TV reminder of His awful death might just have done it. Looking there and realizing that the price He paid to rescue me from the death penalty for what I've done against Him; for my sins. In the Bible's words, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). I suspect a lot of us have felt that knock on the door, that tugging in our heart maybe many times. But just like that little Native boy realized, it's important to grab Jesus while you can, because we never know when our heart is going to beat for the last time. And we'll suddenly be on the brink of eternity. Or because we have reached the spiritual point of no return. There is one the Bible calls the "Hardening of your heart." Ignoring Jesus' knock so many times you just don't hear Him anymore. The Bible has this warning and it is our word for today from the Word of God. It is from Hebrews 4:7. And who knows, it might have your name on it today. "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" (Hebrews 4:7). You know, there seems to be one other especially disturbing way that we can miss Jesus; one that can make postponing Jesus life's biggest mistake. "Call on Him while He is near," the Bible says (Isaiah 55:6). Which suggests He won't always be near. Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father...draws them to Me" (John 6:44). I've got to come to Jesus, not when I'm ready, but when He's ready. When I "hear His voice." If you feel that tugging, if you hear His voice inside, He's ready. It's time! You say, "Ron, I've never gotten this settled. Let's get this done today. Would you reach out with all the faith you can and say, "Jesus, I'm yours." Would you tell Him that in your heart? Tell Him that out loud if you choose. I would urge you to come to our website. It is all about securing your personal relationship with Jesus and thus securing your eternity. It's ANewStory.com. Please check it out. I remember the day I heard that voice and I opened the door. It changed my life forever and my eternal destination; moving from the emptiness of life without Jesus to the amazingness of life with Him. And moving from B.C. - before Christ, without Christ - to my personal "A.D."

I get to spend my summers with some of the most courageous young people I've ever known. They're the Native American young people who go to reservations each summer to bring the hope they have found in Christ to young people who are where they once were. Stepping out on that court with a microphone to tell about your Jesus is pretty intimidating. This night it was Tricia's turn - and, yes, she was scared. This reservation was especially hard. She came for prayer, and she got it. Minutes later she was at center court with the mic. I listened from the bus as she went out there and literally took charge! She commanded the attention of everyone there. And God used her that night to really open hearts and prepare the way for a harvest of those young people choosing Jesus. Later, I asked her, "Tricia! What happened to that fear you told me about? That was so powerful!" She had prayed a prayer that I taught her, "Lord help me see what You see when You see these young people. And break my heart for what breaks Yours." She went out on that court and saw "lost" in their eyes, she said. Her mission was bigger than her fear. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Fatal Fear and How to Beat It." We know the people around us need our Jesus. That He's their only hope of an eternity in heaven. We try to live our faith before them. But no matter how good we are, they're not going to guess Jesus died on the cross to pay for their sins. We have to tell them. But so often, we don't. There's often one thing that stops us. Fear. Fear of what they'll think of us, fear of failing, fear of rejection, fear of messing it up - and so on. Notice what those fears have in common - they're all about me. We're at that Moses moment where God said He was calling Moses to join Him in rescuing his people. Moses' reaction? "Who am I?" Parts of that conversation are our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 3 and 4, beginning with chapter 3, verse 4. Moses asks "who am I?" "And God said, 'I will be with you." God says, "Who am I, Moses?" That's the right question. This isn't about who Moses is, it's about who God is. In chapter 4, verse 12, God promises: "Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." So how do we move past the fear that's keeping us from sharing Jesus' Good News? First, realize that you are the glove, not the hand. My glove can't do anything - it's powerless. But when I put my hand in that glove, it can do all kinds of things gloves can't do! So when you open your mouth to share your Jesus, you are God's glove! He will give you the courage, the opening, the words, the tone. You don't rescue people - He does! Second, pray the 3-open prayer. Lord, open a door - a natural opportunity to tell the difference Jesus is making. Then, Lord open their heart. And then the big one - Lord, open my mouth! He'll do it! And finally, let a bigger fear win! You've been hesitant to go in for the rescue because of what might happen to you if you do. But shouldn't we be more afraid of what will happen to them if we don't? We just can't leave them lost. See, courage is not the absence of fear. It's the disregard of it. Yes, I'm afraid. But I will not let my fear decide what I do any more! Pray the prayer Tricia prayed on that reservation - "Help me see what You see, Jesus, when you see this person I need to tell. And go ahead, Lord, break my heart for them." As God said to Moses, "I have come down to rescue them. Now, go. I am sending you."

We had three kids. They were all in the junior high band at different times over a seven year period of time. So I got to go to seven straight years of junior high band concerts. I enjoyed watching our kids develop musically, but I cannot say it was a memorable music experience. Fortunately, they stuck to pieces that were at their level. But what if they had attempted, say Beethoven, the musical genius. Just imagine you didn't know much about Beethoven and I invited you to come to one of these band concerts with me? "Hey, they're performing a Beethoven symphony. I know you're going to be impressed with Beethoven's ability!" Now, it's after the concert and I say, "Well, what did you think of Beethoven?" Your response? "Uh, not impressed." "Well, I know there were a lot of squeaks and squawks and instruments missing. But please, please don't judge Beethoven based on the way they played his music. He's a genius. They just don't play his music real well." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It's Not About Christians." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 1:16-17 - two words here that instantly eliminate a lot of confusion and most of the reasons for not giving yourself to Jesus Christ. Here's what it says, "Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee, and He saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 'Come, follow Me' Jesus said. At once they left their nets and followed Him." Not long after that it records in Mark 2:14, that He came up to Levi, who was a tax collector, and He came to his tax collector's booth and said, "Follow Me." He just kept saying that to people, "Follow Me." In other words Jesus is saying, "I am the issue." That's why one of Christianity's most brilliant minds, the Apostle Paul, said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "I was determined when I was among you to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." He's saying, "This is all about Jesus and Him dying on the cross for you." See, so many people's objections to Jesus are because, well, honestly Christians you might say don't play His music very well. "People are hypocrites! I've seen those Christians." Really? Was Jesus a hypocrite? "Well, the church is only after money!" Was Jesus only after money? See, the only reason for not being a follower of Jesus is because of a problem you have with Jesus. It's never been about Christianity. It's never been about Christians. It's all about Jesus. "Follow Me" He said. So if you don't like the inconsistencies in Christianity, neither do I. Neither does Jesus. But that's no reason to put off the Son of God. Maybe you've been burned by Christianity or Christians somewhere along the way. But it wasn't Jesus who did that. Like the junior high band playing the music of Beethoven. We don't always play His music very well, but we're practicing and trying to sound more like Him. But don't reject the Savior who died in your place for your sin because of something that His imperfect followers have done. When you take your last breath, it's going to be Jesus you're face to face with. And all that's going to matter is how you responded to His life-changing, life-giving invitation, "Follow Me." Don't you want to be sure you belong to Him? No one else can get you to heaven, because no one else paid for the sin that will keep you out of heaven. No one else has the power to give you eternal life, because no one else walked out of His grave under His own power except the Savior, Jesus. He's ready to walk into your life. If you want that to happen for you today and experience this Jesus for yourself, tell Him that. "Jesus, I'm Yours." Go to our website. That's what it's there for, to help you get this settled - ANewStory.com. He's been waiting a long time for you. I know the band isn't perfect, but the Master, Jesus? You can totally trust Him. You've been enough days without Him. Let this be your first day with Him.

Some years ago, we learned a great way to make our vacation dollars stretch, and that's important these days! We ordered ice water with our meals instead of Coke or something. Now you say, "Well, that's no big deal." Yeah, it is. We finally talked our kids into it because the five of us, we figured, could save three or four dollars every time we ate out. And pretty soon you add those up and you've got enough to eat another meal out. We also learned it was a good idea to do that throughout the year. Hey, listen, drinking water is good for you. Now, frankly I drink a lot. I mean, I'm a heavy drinker of ice water that is. Got a bottle of water right in front of me right now. And I often try to persuade the waitress to leave a pitcher for us, but she usually doesn't. I'm just trying to save her some steps, because we're going to clean up a lot of water. So when I see her coming, I check my glass. And if it's partly full I glug the rest as fast as I can. And I've seen people who do the same with their coffee when the coffee pot is approaching. It's called "empty it so it can be filled again." It's a good idea. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You're Empty, You Can Be Filled." All right, here's our word for today from the Word of God. It's from 2 Corinthians 12. I'll begin reading at verse 7. Now, we know that generally empty is bad�like an empty gas tank, or an empty wallet. But empty is not bad when it comes to the workings of God. In fact, we're going to read the testimony of an empty glass guy. Paul says, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Hutchcraft translation: "When I am empty, then I can be filled." You see, Paul was a man with great talent, great stamina, great knowledge, great influence, but some very severe physical problem has him in its grip - his thorn he called it. And he's saying here, "It hurts. It's tough to function with it. I've got work to do, and here I am coming up empty!" We say, "Oh, that's bad." He says, "No, that's good. Because when I'm empty, Christ can fill me. And in those weak times there's just a little of me and a lot of Him." I can totally relate to what Paul is saying here because I've been there. Oh, not with a severe thorn in the flesh, but totally depleted, frustrated, hurt, disappointed, too tired to do what I had to do. There have been so many times when my radar is down, my emotions are spent, my physical energy is totally gone. I can't even feel it seems like. And wouldn't you know it, I have people who need me then; work to get done. I'm empty, and every time my Lord moves in gently and He says, "It's okay. There's not much of you left right now. Many times when there's a lot of you, Ron, there's too little of Me in what you do. But this time it's going to have to be all Me isn't it? So, relax and I'll fill you, I'll strengthen you, I'll take you outside your limitations into My unlimited resources." And those have been some of the sweetest, greatest victories of my life and probably of yours. Look, if you've had it, don't give up; open up to be filled with Christ's strength. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. Now, there's just a little of you, but that means there can be a lot of Him. If your glass is empty that's good news, because you're about to be filled with Jesus Christ.

In our treasury of family videos we have a few moments that are considered classics. Most folks outside the family wouldn't think so, but you had to be there. The classics are usually either very touching or give us a chance to laugh very loudly at one of the five Hutchcrafts; such as the one from our Alaska trip. Our oldest son (we will call him son number one for the purpose of this illustration), was about 14, the youngest son, (we'll call him son number two) was about 12; at the age where a boy's voice isn't quite sure where it will go on the next word. You know what I mean? Now, we're filming some dog team races, and we trusted the camera to our least-technical family member - son number one. Like Father, like son. Now, son number two, being more technically oriented, was providing unsolicited coaching on video filming. Well, the race ended. And son number one was no longer aiming the camera. And we all assumed that since the show was over the camera was off. Oh, no! So today here is our video memory: We get seasick watching this video that careened from the pavement to a dirty snow drift to the sky. I mean, it's all over the place! And there in the background you just hear son number two with his frustrated 12-year-old voice squeaking, "You're still filming!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Still Filming." The camera was running, even though we thought it wasn't. God's camera is like that. Our word for today from the Word of God, Proverbs 5:21. It happens to be in the context of someone sinning sexually and thinking no one knows. Here's what it says, "A man's ways are in full view of the Lord, and He examines all his paths." So it is in the midst of "nobody knows." That's why God says in Numbers 32:23, "Be sure your sins will find you out." See, there are those times in our lives when it feels as if we're getting away with our sin. Nobody knows. When you're relaxing or you're in a place where nobody knows you, your guard is down. The wrong stuff just sort of slides into your mind or into your actions. Or when you're drinking or on drugs it seems as if you're not accountable for what you're doing. "Hey, I don't even remember what I did!" God does. He's still filming. When you rationalize, "Oh, I'm not hurting anyone" you're very wrong. Jesus is seeing and hearing it all, and you are deeply wounding the One who died to pay for the very junk you're doing. If Jesus was there watching it all would you do it? Would you still say that? He is, and someday you're going to meet what God has been recording unless you repent of it and leave it at Jesus' cross and make a clean start. Look, you're already meeting the consequences of that sin; maybe emotional consequences, family consequences, physical, distance from God, damage to your reputation, no peace, prayers that aren't answered. Right now your Savior's calling you to make a new beginning, to drop the junk He died for. Listen to 1 Peter 2:24 - "He himself bore our sins (your sins) in His own body on the tree that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed." For many, the great shock of God's judgment seat will be in essence what God has recorded on His video. "God, you mean You were still filming?" Yes. Remember, "A man's ways are in full view of the Lord" (Proverbs 5:21). You're not ready for eternity. You're not ready for that last breath; that last heart beat until you know you have had every sin forgiven and there's not one that God has missed. But there's not one that Jesus didn't pay for when he died on the cross. Today could be your day to be forgiven. Today could be your day for the wall to come down between you and God. If you're ready for that, you say, "Jesus, I'm yours." Check out our website and there you can be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. Because this could be for you, today, page one, chapter one of your new story.

It was a beautiful and busy day on an Ocean City, NJ beach that day. Until an official suddenly started clearing the beach. I was thinking "Jaws." There's a big shark out there somewhere. I could see a bunch of lifeguards sprinting from other beaches. Turns out, it wasn't a big shark. It was little kids. In big trouble out by the jetty. Those lifeguards plunged hard into the water and started swimming like Olympians toward those kids and others started maneuvering a rescue boat that direction. It was a pretty dramatic rescue. It doesn't always happen that way. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Stretch of Beach." Nineteen-year-old Emily and her 22-year-old boyfriend Kory had been swimming off one of the state's beautiful beaches when Emily's mom got the call she'd never forget. Dad was screaming and crying on the phone. All Mom could understand was, "There's been an accident. She didn't make it." Emily and Kory had both drowned that day. Mom had to drive from four hours away, knowing her daughter was dead. She said, "It's the most horrific pain I've ever felt." It turns out a month before a 33-year-old man and a seven-year-old boy had drowned off that same beach. Reason: no lifeguard on that stretch of beach. Now, our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 24. "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those who are staggering toward slaughter." Certainly God's warning to the prophet Ezekiel can be applied to our responsibility for the lost ones around us: "I have made you a watchman...if you do not warn them...that wicked person will die for their sins; and I will hold you accountable for their blood" (Ezekiel 33:18). It's no accident you work where you work. Live where you live. Go to school where you go to school. Recreate where you recreate. You have been divinely positioned there. As "Christ's ambassador" to your "tribe." And as His rescuer on your stretch of beach. They'll listen to you because of your shared life experiences. People listen to people from their tribe. A mom is best reached by a mom. A student by a student. A teacher by a teacher. A salesman listens to a salesman. A cancer patient listens to a cancer patient. A veteran listens to a veteran. The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). Which means He wants everyone in your personal world to have a chance to hear what His Son did for them on the cross. You have Jesus. They don't have Jesus. So who is God counting on to tell them? That would be you. When my father-in-law was a boy, he saw two girls drown - and he didn't know how to help them. He made up his mind then that he was going to learn how to save someone. In his lifetime, he literally saved four different people from drowning. One of them was his own pastor. Isn't it time you prayed and prepared yourself to give the lost ones you know a chance at heaven? What a tragedy it would be if people you know were lost because the lifeguard on your stretch of beach didn't try to rescue them? Go in for the rescue. Jesus will be right there with you, opening an opportunity, opening their heart, opening your mouth. It's why you are where you are.

When a little child gets home later than they're supposed to, you know there's going to be something on the other end. There's going to be a worried and not very happy parent waiting for them. I heard recently about a little girl who got home unusually late from school only to find a daddy who was, of course, not happy at all. He asked the little girl why she was late. She said, "Because my friend broke her dolly." Her dad said, "Oh, okay, so you stayed with her to fix it?" He didn't expect her gentle little reply, "No, Daddy. I stayed with her to help her cry." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Shoulder to Cry On." You may know someone right now who needs a friend like that; someone to help them cry. It's part of being a follower of Jesus actually to be that kind of friend, that kind of coworker, that kind of person in your family. Paul talks about this caring, sensitive, unselfish lifestyle in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 12:15. Here's what He says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice: mourn with those who mourn." When you're rejoicing, you need someone to share your joy. When you're hurting, you need someone to share your burden. If you're a Jesus-follower, that's supposed to be you for the people you know. Because that's how your Master lived His life. He was actually attracted to people who were hurting. He followed the need. We don't always do this too well, do we? Look, you're probably like me. You've got a really busy life, you've got a full schedule. Someone who needs comfort and encouragement and who needs time...well, let's be honest. They can feel like an interruption, an intrusion, maybe even a nuisance. Those feelings in themselves are not a problem unless you allow those feelings to give you a hard heart and to make you unresponsive to a need that God has dropped into your life. Yeah, God has dropped into your life. And that's what it is: God is hearing someone's cry, God is feeling someone's pain, and God is sending to them one of His children to show them His love; one of His children like you. Which means that we can't be all rigid about our sacred schedules and plans and our "to-do" lists. We need this Spirit-led flexibility to stop for someone who needs a friend to "help them cry." People are a lot more important than tasks. One reason we don't move in next to someone who's hurting honestly is because sometimes we don't know what to say. You know, that really doesn't matter. Your job is to let them talk, to let them cry, to listen in a way that you can identify what that person needs right now, and then to see if you or someone you know can help with some of those needs. I've heard of a tribe in Africa where they have a wonderful custom. When someone dies, one of the elders of the village comes to the grieving family's hut and just sits there quietly for a couple of days. He doesn't say anything; he doesn't do anything, unless he is asked to. He's just there, and his presence alone is comfort. That's not a bad model. And strangely, what often qualifies you to be a comforter turns out to be the hardest things you ever faced in your life. Because you've been the one who cried, you can help someone else who's crying. You are God's wounded healer. Or as Paul says, "God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (2 Corinthians 1:4). So would you like to be like your Savior, Jesus? Well, one way you can do that is to stop for people who need you, and be there to help them cry.

I really like football. I just don't have a lot of time to watch it. But you know, I watched a whole game that wasn't even my team! It was the Denver Broncos when they won that astonishing victory over the heavily favored Pittsburgh Steelers in a wild-card playoff game. But I was watching more than a football game; I was watching Tim Tebow and the drama that unfolded every time he took the field. That game was no exception. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Tim Tebow in All of Us." Now, Tim Tebow went from being America's top college football player to a much-critiqued rookie quarterback for the Broncos. When he replaced Denver's starter after a string of Denver losses, he led his team to seven wins, including six in a row. Several of those wins were "come from behind," last-second (well, they said) "miracle" victories, and then three consecutive losses in which Tebow performed pretty poorly. And then that playoff game where the Broncos were basically written off as having no chance. Somebody forgot to tell Tim Tebow. He exploded for 316 yards passing, 50 yards on the ground; he led his team to a stunning overtime victory. But the drama swirls around this unconventionally impressive quarterback has less to do with football than with faith. He's often in the news for his unashamed praise of Jesus Christ; especially his trademark response to good things that happen on the field. He knelt on one knee, his head bowed, a hand to his forehead. And after completing a game-winning 80-plus yard pass on the first play of that playoff game, he (well, you guessed it) took a knee. His God-praising, bent-knee posture had become part of our national vocabulary, "Tebowing." There's even a website dedicated to showing pictures of people "tebowing" all over the world; an expression of respect from most and mockery from others. In a sports world known for scandalous headlines about its heroes, it seemed no one quite knew what to do with a strong, consistent Jesus-guy like Tim Tebow. Until he got married, he was still a virgin. He was known for constantly encouraging and building up his teammates. He served the poor and the lost on missions trips and still does. He genuinely cared about others. And yet, he's a fierce competitor, a physical powerhouse and a passionate player. Is there any example here we should be following? You bet there is. Because this indomitable quarterback was, in many ways, a living, breathing model of what it means to be "Christ's ambassador" no matter what field we play on. Now we're ready for our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 5:20, "We are Christ's ambassadors." First, Tim Tebow understood that the responsibility we have is divine positioning. We work where we work, we live where we live, we go to school where we go to school, we recreate where we recreate for a life-saving purpose, to, as the Bible says, "shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life" (Philippians 2:15-16). This "star" in the football universe says, "I'm going to take the platform that football has given me and try to give back with it and make a difference." Every person who belongs to Jesus has been given a "platform" to point people to their Jesus; your job, your medical or financial battles, your successes, your losses. Your situation is your assignment; your divinely conceived position to show the difference that Jesus makes. And Tim Tebow also modeled for us what it meant to have a radar for open doors. His eyes were wide open for circumstances that opened a door to talk about his Jesus. Our gridiron brother also shows us the power of show and tell. His life backs it up; he's known for his encouragement. He's known for his purity. This is a Jesus-follower who understands that you win the right to be heard by showing the difference Jesus makes. It's a brand of faith that shows, more than anything, the magnet of having an identity that is anchored to Jesus Christ. You live in such a way that even those who despise what you believe, cannot despise the way you live. Because you make them think of Jesus.

"Frozen"! Yeah, that's a blockbuster Disney movie, but it was something else too. It was the headline for the record-busting winter of 2015 in a whole lot of the United States. Any time I heard myself starting to whimper over the long freeze, I just made myself think one thing - "Boston." We're talking a little over 100 inches of snow in just a few weeks! But out of those snowdrifts comes a really cool story with a big shot of hope to anybody who's listening who's gotten slammed in their life. Crystal Evans lives near what was snow-buried Boston, and a winter like the one that she was enduring could really have put her life on hold. But she didn't get that memo. She needs her wheelchair to get around because of the neuro-muscular disease that she has. And she needed to get to the post office. Wheelchair. Lots of snow. Ain't gonna happen. Really? Crystal put a snow shovel between her footrest, rolled her chair and cleared a path as she went! Then she looked back and realized what she, her wheelchair and her shovel had just accomplished. And then she said, "Well, I could clear sidewalks for everybody!" And she did - for over 100 hours! One place where her work was evident was at a bus stop that was treacherous for moms carrying small children and for elderly people. She cleared it so folks could get to a grocery store and a pharmacy. She wasn't the only snow angel in her town though. Her efforts actually inspired others to join her - some who came with their snowblowers. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Turning Your Hurt Into Hope." Crystal Evans did not let a paralyzing winter stop her. She didn't let a "disability" stop her. Instead, she found a way for her limitations to be used to bless other lives. Her wheelchair - with a little help from her shovel - became a snowplow, making a way for others. I believe that she has modeled hope for anyone who feels "disabled" by what's happened to them: disabled by a medical condition, by grief, by financial disaster. Turn your hurt into hope for other people. The Bible says that something transforming happens when we open up our pain to God's healing touch. He'll give us, in the words of Isaiah 61, "a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair" (Isaiah 61:3). And the "crud" of our lives becomes "crudentials" to bring hope to other hurting people. Which leads us to our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, "God is the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us." Pity party canceled. No more "all about me." From now on, it's about how I can use the compassion that's come from my battles to lighten someone else's load. Walking the path Jesus did. The One the Bible calls "the Savior of the world" left this earth with something He did not come with: scars and nail prints in His hands and feet. He is not a distant God, watching us bleed. He bled. For us. For me. I can trust this suffering Savior. I can take all the hurt, all the sadness, all the sin of a lifetime and place it in those nail-scarred hands. If you've never had that transaction with Jesus where you give Him the life that He paid for on the cross, let this be the day that you let Him into all the sin and all the hurt. And let Him make you what the Bible calls "a new creation in Christ" - a new beginning this very day. You say, "How do I do that?" Would you go to our website and let me help you get that settled? It's ANewStory.com. And then hanging onto Jesus, we can start using our hurts to help clear a way for someone else. Then, as God says, I become "more than a conqueror" (Romans 8:37)!

Each of our kids has gone through a baking stage as they were growing up, and my wife and I got to sample some very interesting cookies, and cakes, or whatever they were. You know, new cooks have a hard time waiting for their first masterpiece to get done. They keep peeking, opening the door, checking on it, and even taking it out too soon. That just fouls up the temperature in the oven and you get results like a cake that's burned on the edges but gooey in the center. Or like our daughter baked...a cake that's flat. The young cook, at least one without a microwave, soon learns that impatience can ruin the final result. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "If You Rush It, You Ruin It." Our word for today from the Word of God, Genesis 16:1-2. And here we're going to find out the greatest obstacle to you getting God's best in your life. "Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar." Now, time out here long enough for me to remind you that God had promised them a son that would come miraculously in their old age. Well, he hadn't come yet. So she said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant.'" What? "Perhaps I can build a family through her. And Abram agreed to what Sarai said." You know what happened here? God's will was taking too long, like that cake or those cookies taking too long. So Sarai and Abram rushed it and they ruined it, and there has been lasting fallout that has lasted to today's newspaper. For the son of Hagar is Ishmael, the father of the Arabic people today. The son of Sarah, God's promised one is Isaac, the father of the Jews. And the war continues. See, they could have had God's best, but they tripped over the greatest obstacle to God's best - impatience, you just can't wait. See, God's plans are not microwavable. You might be waiting out God's will right now for someone to marry, for some breakthrough, for a prodigal or unsaved family member, for the money to come through, for a promotion, a raise, a job. And you're tempted to give God a hand right now. Remember, if you rush it, you may ruin it, because God is weaving a tapestry right now. He's working all things together for good. Ephesians says that "He will work out everything in accordance with His will." He is carefully, deliberately, skillfully putting your future together so you will be just the right person, at just the right place, at just the right time. But guess what? Just like Abraham and Sarah, you can blow the whole thing if impatience causes you to meddle in it. Make it a goal to not find any of your own fingerprints on your future. Only one set of prints - God's. See, your involvement could well become interference. Would you let God finish His masterpiece in His time? For He promises in Ecclesiastes, "He makes everything beautiful in its time." Impatience can, as young cooks often learn, ruin the final result. Oh, you'll love what God is cooking up. But please, don't try to rush it.

It was like 11 o'clock at night when I suddenly got this cryptic text from my son - "Please turn off your porch lights." Excuse me? Next weird thing - there are a dozen people in my front yard, all looking up at the sky. I can't really see them. I'm out in the country where dark is dark. But I can hear them. Then I get it. They've come from town to see the show in the sky. The northern lights. The aurora borealis. That spectacular display of colored lights, that's seldom seen in the lower 48. So I joined the party. Just like I did when we were all looking at that total solar eclipse. Remember? So I'm watching the news last night, which concluded with amazing northern lights photos from all over the world. But it was the anchorman's signoff that has had me thinking ever since, he said: "We've had a lot of reasons to be looking up recently." Whoa. And not just at the sky. "The world's on fire." You know I've heard that phrase again today on the morning news. I've been hearing it a lot. Gaza, Ukraine, Israel, Ivy League schools, tinder box politics, almost nuclear Iran, China, Russia on the move, doomsday warnings. World on fire. And it seems like our fire extinguishers are spraying kerosene. Is it any wonder that depression, anxiety, mental health issues, and even suicide are soaring? Conflict is dividing families... churches... communities. There's not much peace to be found just looking around. With so much chaos and loneliness and fear, it seems like we do have "a lot of reasons to be looking up." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Eclipse, Colored Lights and Looking Up." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 11:3-4, where it asks this: "When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Listen to God's answer: "The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on His heavenly throne." Well I'll tell ya, one thing is not shaking - nor can it be shaken. God is still in charge. He always has been, He always will be. Oh, yea I know we like to think we're in charge. Until things start spinning out of our control. One doctor's visit. One test result. One funeral. One financial hit. One storm. One child in trouble. One of those moments when all our "go-to's" just aren't there or just aren't enough. Like this week eight years ago for me. Sunday night, our oldest grandchild's honor student graduation from high school. Monday afternoon, my Karen, the love of my life was suddenly gone. I only knew life with her. I had no map for life without her. The waves of grief, I'll tell ya, they were overwhelming. Oh I had a family who loved me - but they were grieving, too. I had wonderful friends reaching out to me but, none of them could go to the places in my heart that were bullet-riddled and ripped wide open. But "the Lord was still on His heavenly throne." Far away? Oh no. Closer than anyone on earth could possibly be. For His Book told me: "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, He saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18). I looked up, and He moved close. My Jesus. Who promised, "I will never leave you. I will never forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). When fear is winning, He is there with His unexplainable peace. When loneliness comes knocking, His love answers the door. When everything's crashing, He is my one safe place. I met Him at a cross where He loved me enough to die for my sin. I invited Him in and He came - because He's alive. His cross was followed by His empty tomb. And the Bible says of Him, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19). If you don't have that anchor, if you've never begun a relationship with Him, would you go to our website and we'll show you how to begin with Him today. It's ANewStory.com. You know, we do have a lot of reasons to look up recently don't we? Because "up" that's where hope is.

He's a real American hero! He received America's highest military honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, and He earned it, believe me. It was November 14, 1965, Major Bruce Crandall flew a Huey helicopter assigned to lift troops into Ia Drang, which was to become known, in Vietnam, as the "Valley of Death." His mission to deliver the troops was done. But pretty soon he realized the plight of those troops. There were 450 American soldiers hugely outnumbered by 2,000 enemy troops. Major Crandall began flying into that Valley of Death to bring out the wounded and to bring in ammunition. Before that day was over, he had flown for 14 hours straight - 22 flights barraged with enemy fire. It took three different choppers to do it all; two were too damaged to continue. One officer said, "Without Major Crandall, our battalion would almost surely have been overrun." Crandall simply said, "They knew we would come if they needed it no matter what." That's heroism. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Passion of a Powerful Life." Another officer in the Valley of Death that day bottom lined their heroic rescuer's work this way: "If he hadn't come, every man there would have died." But then, that's always the way it is with rescue, right? If the rescuer doesn't come, people die. When you hear sermons about "witnessing" or "evangelism" or "sharing your faith," you probably don't think, "I may be the difference between someone living or dying." You are. Here's God's clear command in Proverbs 24:11-12. It's our word for today from the Word of God. "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, �But we knew nothing about this,' does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will not He repay each person according to what He has done?" God gave His Son so we could be rescued from an eternal Valley of Death. He's really not interested in our excuses for not telling the people we know about the Christ that their eternity depends on. We're so scared of what might happen to us if we dared to tell them about Jesus. How about being a whole lot more afraid of what will happen to them if we don't tell them. God uses some sobering words to describe the lost people around us. In His own words, they are "staggering toward slaughter." According to Luke 19:10, they are "lost." These are people you know. They're "condemned" according to John 3:18. According to Ephesians 2:12, they're "Without hope and without God." And in 2 Thessalonians 1, they are those who "will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord." That's people we know, and it won't happen because that's what God wants. He sent His Son to take their hell. But they can't reach for Him as their Rescuer unless they know about him, unless someone explains what He did for them. Someone they know. Someone in their world; someone like you. We may think we're not responsible, but if you know a lost person, God holds you responsible and will, in God's own words, in Ezekiel 3, "hold you accountable for his blood." Maybe we think we're not capable. That's what Moses thought. And God says to you what He said to him, "I will be with you...Now go; I will help you speak and teach you what to say" (Exodus 3:10, 4:12). Look, you're not the hand. You're just a glove. You're just God's glove. He'll put His hand into your life and your influence and your story and your personality, and He'll do through you what you thought you could never do. You're just God's glove. Friends of ours, family members, coworkers, fellow students; they are, whether they know it or not, in the spiritual Valley of Death. God has put you in their world to help rescue them. Would you tell your Commander, "Lord, I will rescue the dying, whatever it takes, because You did!"

I have no official statistics on what I'm about to say, just a personal impression. But I believe the State of Pennsylvania might be the road kill capitol of the Northeast, especially for deer population. I have seen many more dead deer by the side of the road there than any state in that region. Of course, there's a lot more of Pennsylvania, too. But I read an article about the outraged mayor of a small town in Pennsylvania. The Interstate runs through his community. This is a true story! The reason for his outrage? A paving crew was working on that road one summer, and they came upon a dead deer with much of its carcass lying on the road. Want to try to guess what they did next? They went right ahead and paved right over the deer! "Honey, I just hit a bump in the road. I think it's a deer!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Paving Over Your Sin." It's hard to believe you can have this major obstacle - this major bump in the road - and your solution would be to just pave over it. It seems obvious. But a lot of us have opted for the "pave over it" approach when it comes to the biggest problem in our way. The diaries of King David - that's where we find our word for today from the Word of God. David is an intensely passionate, intensely honest man, and it shows up in a part of his diary we call Psalm 32. He starts by announcing something he has learned from personal experience. "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin the Lord does not count against him." That sounds like a liberating possibility, right? But first David tried paving over the carcass. Here's how he puts it, "When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me." He's talking to God. "My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." See, David's life story is the life story of many of us. We don't deal with the sins of our life. We "keep silent." We're experts at ignoring the biggest problem we have; the sin that is breaking our relationship with our Creator and probably damaging our other relationships. We rationalize, we blame others, and we do our best to cover it up. It feels as if we're getting away with living outside the walls of God. I assure you we're not. We keep hitting the bumps of what we paved over, and God's hand is heavy upon us. We feel drained, or dirty, or incomplete, and guilty, and the thought of God's inevitable judgment haunts us. Well, David finally found peace in the only way he could; the only way you can. He says, "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover up my iniquities." No more paving over, no more running from God. You know what happens when you do that? Listen to what David said, "And You forgave the guilt of my sin." Finally guilt free, clean, and ready to meet God. If you don't face your sin now, you'll face it on Judgment Day and receive its eternal death sentence. But there's a way to have every sin you've ever done removed from God's book forever. You face the facts of a life that you have run instead of God running it. And you bring all that sin to the cross of Jesus Christ where He took the penalty for your sin so you don't have to. You can walk up that crucifixion hill in your heart today. You come with a lifetime of sin and with the death penalty of hell, and you leave with every sin forgiven and a guaranteed eternity in heaven. Are you ready for that? Well, tell God that right now, "Jesus, I want to belong to you. I put all my hope in you." If you go to our website, ANewStory.com, I think I can help you be sure you belong to Him. Our biggest problem of all is the sin that haunts our past, poisons our present and threatens our future. Covering it? That's not going to work. Removing it will, and only Jesus can do that, and He's waiting right now for you to ask Him.

If my son wants to be sure he has his sons' attention, all he has to do is start telling a story about when he was a kid or a teenager. They are suddenly all ears - and probably taking notes. Our son has some doozies to tell, believe me - from his days as, shall we say, a "challenging" child. They love to hear stories from his life - and mine, for that matter. We may not always be great listeners - but when someone starts telling their story, we're in. Which may tell us something about how to communicate the only Story on the planet that can change an eternity. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Glory of Your Story." In many ways, it's getting tougher to have conversations about Jesus with people, isn't it. Their guard is up when there's a hint of you trying to lobby them for your faith... change them... convert them. But there's a way to talk about your Jesus naturally, compellingly, non threateningly. Wrap His story in your story. Our word for today from the Word of God, in Psalm 107:2, says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their stories." In a Gospel hardened culture, that directive has never been more important or strategic. When Jesus went into Samaria, He was in hostile territory for a Jew. He didn't go charging into the Samaritan village and start preaching. No, He reached a Samaritan - that woman at the well that came thirsting for water and left with a "spring of eternal life" deep in her soul. And she went back to that village telling her story of the most amazing conversation of her life. And John tells us that "many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman's testimony" (John 4:39). Mark tells us about a demon-possessed man that Jesus delivered. Jesus told him to "go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you...So the man began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed" (Mark 5:19, 20). That's the glory of your Jesus-story! People can argue with your beliefs, but they can't argue with your story. When the blind man told the hostile religious leaders, "Once I was blind, now I can see," no one could argue. Peter tells us to be ready to tell about "the hope that you have" (1 Peter 3:15). If you know Jesus, you have a Hope Story. About the difference Jesus has made and is making in your life. You are living proof that a husband or wife can change... a mom or dad... an angry person... a control freak. You are proof that an addicted person can change...a self-centered person...a depressed person. Because of Jesus. Think about it. If it weren't for Jesus, what would your lonely times be like? Your depressed times? Your times when everything's out of control? How about when you get bad news from the doctor? Or you're standing by the casket? Your Hope Story is the most natural way for you to bring up your Jesus. And how do you get to the Gospel? You just weave into your story the message, the discoveries that changed your life. The fact that you were trying to do life away from God. That Jesus came to bridge the canyon your sin created between you and God. But what He did on that cross and that empty tomb opened the way to a life-changing relationship with God and could do the same for them. In short, you tell how HIS story changed YOUR story - and could change THEIR story forever! That, my friend, is the glory of your story!

Over the years, one of my areas of giftedness has been in the area of sleeping. Well, I mean, the Bible says you do whatever you do with all your heart, right? And that should apply to sleeping. Right? Now, I'd give our kids a time to be in, but I didn't always remain conscious that long. And they could ring the doorbell because they forgot their key, they could stomp upstairs, they could stomp over our bed, for that matter, and I would probably barely stir. Oh, but not my wife. Oh, no, no! I think there's something about the way many mothers are wired. They sleep real light - if at all - until everybody's home safe. It's a mother thing. They just can't rest until all the kids are in. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Are the Children All In?" Even though you're all grown up now, your mother might still be like that today. Or you had a mother who was like that. You see, you may have been blessed with a mom who was a praying mother, who wanted or who wants more than anything else for her kids to be in - in God's family...including you. Our word for today from the Word of God is from an encounter Jesus had with a hurting mother. It's about the miracle He did for her. It's in Luke 7:12-15. "As Jesus approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out - the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, His heart went out to her and He said, 'Don't cry.' Then He went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!' The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his Mother." Oh, man! What great words! Well, He's still doing that today. Jesus is doing something supernatural to give a son or a daughter back to a mother, not with a physical resurrection, but with a spiritual rescue. In fact, it may be that the prayers of your mother for you have kept God in pursuit of you all these years. More than anything else on earth, she has wanted for you to know the Savior whose love changed her life. My wife's grandfather, Bill Hadley, was a great guy with a deadly weakness - he was an alcoholic. Alcohol cost him his job, his family, his freedom, and his hope. One night he was making his way down State Street in Chicago to end his life in Lake Michigan. We never knew until recently the prayers that saved him that night. We found this old photograph of the man his mother called Will. And on the back is this inscription in her handwriting: "This new year 1908. Oh, God, bring him back into the fold. Oh, Will, every night when I read my Bible, I look at your picture and ask God to give you grace to keep you from falling and to fill your heart with His love. You may see this after I am gone from this world and know that I never ceased to pray for you, Mother." Will never did see that inscription until after his mother was gone. But the power of her prayers reached beyond her grave. That night he was going to end his life, he walked by an old rescue mission and heard a song his mother used to sing. He wandered in and he ended up giving his broken life to Jesus Christ. He never touched alcohol again, and he spent the rest of his life living for that Savior that had meant so much to his mother. There may be - or there may have been - a dear mother who never gave up praying for you to know Jesus as your Savior. He died for every sin you've ever committed. He waits to forgive you and give you eternal life in heaven. Isn't it finally time for you to open your heart to Jesus? Let the battle be over right now. As John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace prayed, "My Mother's God saved me." I've put some great information at our website so you can be sure you belong to Him. Go to ANewStory.com. This is all about a mother who prayed for you. But it's more importantly about a Savior who died for you. It will be your mother's question in heaven some day, "Are the children all in?" I hope you will be.

They call it the shark tunnel. Yeah, that has to make you think twice about going in. It's an attraction, if you want to call it an attraction, at some of the aquariums and theme parks in America. The tourists walk through this tunnel that's surrounded by glass above them and on both sides there's water all around them. And on the other side in that water are huge sharks swimming menacingly in their tank, and occasionally bumping into the glass. I think just about everyone has this primeval fear of sharks. Now I can't speak for everyone, but I do. And suddenly there they were all around me, and I was paying to see them - one wall between me and those monsters! But that wall made all the difference. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How the Bible Builds a Wall Between You and the Sharks." When David writes his seventeenth Psalm, he is under attack; or so it feels as you begin to read it. He's asking for safety, for protection for his reputation, and you can tell as you read this psalm that he's feeling the urge to strike back. In a sense, the sharks are circling around him. Now we go to our word for today from the word of God in Psalm 17, and I'll begin reading at verse 3. He says to the Lord, "Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me you'll find nothing. I have resolved that my mouth will not sin. As for the deeds of men, by the word of Your lips, I have kept myself from the ways of the violent." Now, David's saying here, "I feel like responding in the same way I've been treated, lashing out, striking back. And all that's keeping me from responding sinfully is," what he calls, "the word from your lips, Lord." Well, I can relate to that. We don't just have sharks around us; we've got sharks inside us. You know what yours is. Maybe it's that temper that seldom if ever does anything that's really right. Maybe it's wrong thoughts about the opposite sex that keep trying to take over your mind, or the capacity you have for put downs, for criticism, negativity, for cutting sarcasm. Maybe it's that dark feeling of depression that you know very easily could win in your life. Oh, we've got different sharks, but we all have them. And there's one wall that holds them back, that keeps the evil from winning, and it's the words that come from God. When a sinful response wells up inside, you've got to have something supernatural to suppress it with like that glass wall that holds back the sharks. That's the gut-level, practical reason why we must not start a day without taking a bath in God's Word. During the day I know that my wall between the sharks that swim around inside me - that sin that wants to take over - and the guy that I want to be and that God wants me to be, that wall starts to crack. So as each new day begins, you open God's Word and you apply it to your struggles, your weaknesses, your failures. I need to rebuild my biblical wall every new day. It's also vital that key verses become a part of you; part of your personality. That means committing to memory verses that directly address your shark. For example, if you struggle with your temper winning, then you memorize Ephesians 4:26 and 27 about not letting the sun go down on your anger. And James 1:20, "The wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God." So many days my time in the Word, and the Word that I've put in me, have literally been the margin of difference. You read it to get it "from His lips" as if God is sitting in the chair across from you, saying it to you directly. That's what David said. So, when you feel the sharks inside you starting to attack, you use the wall of God's words to hold them back.

Many of my friends in law enforcement don't really know what they're doing. On any given day, that is. Because no two days are the same. Their days are made up of responding to situations they can't predict. There's this voice that goes with them in their patrol car. It's the dispatcher. They will tell them where a crime or emergency is unfolding and dispatch them to go there. Suddenly, a situation becomes their assignment. Sounds a lot like following Jesus. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Situation...Your Assignment." You might call God's Holy Spirit "heaven's Dispatcher." There's something God wants done and He uses your situation to position you to do it. One of Jesus' disciples, Philip, found himself hearing from heaven's Dispatcher - with an unusual assignment. Philip had been dispatched to a city in Samaria to introduce the people there to Jesus. The results were amazing. Demons cast out, the lame and paralyzed healed and many turning to Jesus. And that's when the Dispatcher suddenly - and curiously - changed Philip's situation. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Acts 8, beginning with verse 26. "Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, �Go south to the road - the desert road." Leave the revival to go to the desert? Really? He went! "So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official." The man was sitting in a chariot reading from the Book of Isaiah." Now the Dispatcher says, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." Philip does it. "Philip heard the man reading Isaiah." Eventually the man invited Philip to come up in his chariot to explain what he's reading. Ultimately, it says, Philip told him the good news about Jesus." The Ethiopian official comes to Jesus. And Philip, following the urgings of heaven's Dispatcher, is part of sending the Gospel to Africa through this influential man. This is the kind of supernatural availability God wants you to look for and live for. I was on a trip with my son and family a couple weeks ago. Our situation: stopping at a truck stop for gas. Well my son went in the store and met a very frustrated truck driver who could not get his truck started. He had asked around to find some jumper cables - finally he found some. But he had struck out getting anyone who would help him use them to start his truck. I think my son was listening to the Dispatcher when he said he'd give it a try. Well, they tried for 15 or 20 minutes. Nothing. The driver said, "You've done all you could. Thank you." At which point, Doug said, "Do you mind if I pray with you?" And Doug prayed for this young driver, in a prayer that expressed how much Jesus loved him. Then one more try. Nope. As we got ready to pull away, suddenly that engine leaped to life with one deliriously happy driver shouting, "It started! It started!" That day, that truck driver had an encounter with Jesus. Because a believer realized a dead truck and a hurting driver were a divinely ordained situation. And his situation was his assignment. It is for you, too. We just finished a video series that includes so many examples of this. It's called Your Hope Story. Believers positioned by their business... their cancer... their piano teaching... their tennis... their loss of a loved one - believers who realize that they are always Christ's ambassador. Wherever He assigns them. So are you. Your days take on a new, eternal meaning... a new excitement - when you realize your situation is your assignment. That places you right in the middle of a life God wants to touch. Through you.

One of the more lovable guys on TV, I think, is the weatherman named Al Roker. He's even got a book about his battle with losing weight. At one point Al was quoted as saying that he weighed in at 340 pounds at 5'8". Notice I said weighed in. That was past tense. After carrying around all those pounds for a while, one day he suddenly goes out to a gym and asked them to put him on a diet and an exercise program that will radically reduce his size. He lost 140 pounds. And what was it that suddenly got him wanting to do something about weight that he'd carried around for a long time? His young daughter came up to him one day when he had his shirt off and she made the kind of blunt, off-the-cuff observation about how he looked that only a child can make in all innocence and get away with it. Well that was it! Hello gymnasium! Goodbye fat. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "My Child, My Mirror - When a Parent Looks Up." Our word for today from the Word of God takes us way back to nearly the beginning of the human race to a man named Enoch. Now, God has some especially complimentary things to say about Enoch. In Genesis 5:21-24, he reveals a change that took place in this man's life that could change the course of your life too. The Bible says, "When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah." Then it says, "After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God." Now, did you notice the math here? Not just the longer life they enjoyed back then. Enoch lived the first 65 years of his life with no mention of a relationship with God. Then suddenly he starts walking with God, and continues to have this intimate relationship with his Creator through the rest of his life. What was the catalyst that changed Enoch? The same thing that changed an overweight TV personality - his child. After he became a father, it says, is when Enoch walked with God. There's something about having a child that makes you start thinking about yourself in ways you've never thought of yourself before. They're mirrors to us. As a dad or a mom, trying to shape this life that we've been entrusted with, we begin to see things we may have never seen fully before. Like our own incompleteness, our inadequacies, our weaknesses that can now do serious damage to this vulnerable life in our hands. Suddenly we consider looking up as we maybe have never have done before and saying, "Help!" Well, the good news is that God stands ready to answer our cry for help big time. In fact, He may have been waiting a long time for you to finally recognize that you are incomplete. You are inadequate and you've always been in need of what only He can do for you - a Savior. Ultimately, our children show us the real weight we've been carrying all these years. They help us see the weight of our own self-centeredness, our unresolved issues, our dark side, our sin. We can never walk with a perfect God as long as we're carrying all this. And being a mom or dad shows us like nothing else how deep our need is for this personal relationship we were made for and how much we need a rescue. In spite of our sin, God loves us and He wants to walk with you for the rest of your life. But that walk can only begin one place - at the cross where God's one and only Son died to pay the death penalty for what you and I deserve. We did the sinning, but Jesus did the dying. The Bible says, "You who were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." Your walk with God begins when you say, "Jesus, I'm putting all my trust in You to be my Savior from my sin." If you've never done that, let this be the day you say, "Jesus, I'm yours." I'd love to help you begin that relationship and that's why our website is there. It's ANewStory.com. If you're a mom or dad, there are feet now following you wherever you walk. For their sake and for yours, be sure you're walking with God.

My wife and I had a very long honeymoon; I mean for lots of years. Our honeymoon was in its early years when we got some very scary news. The doctor said that my wife might have a very serious disease. She had a routine physical for her job, and the chest x-rays revealed some suspicious dark spots on her lung. We got that report on a Friday, and we had to wait until Monday to get the final results. It might have been one of the longest weekends of our lives! When the doctor met with my wife on Monday, he wanted to talk about chickens and farms and growing up in the Midwest. He asked her if any of these things had been a part of her childhood. Well, actually they had, and that explained the spots; a childhood disease they call histoplasmosis. It tends to occur in kids who grow up on Midwestern farms where they breathe the bacteria left by chickens. And what they were looking at on her lungs was the scars left over from that illness. I knew how serious those dark spots could be. When my father was a young man, he had similar x-rays and they revealed what really was tuberculosis. And from my Dad, that meant two long years in a hospital to save his life and beat that disease. An x-ray can reveal some very bad news, but facing those dark spots can start the healing and it could even save your life. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Deadly Dark Spots in Your Soul." God does x-rays. Actually, heart x-rays; pictures of what's going on inside the deepest parts of you. One of those x-rays is in our word for today from the Word of God beginning in Mark 7:20. He says, "What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. So from within, out of men's hearts, come (now there's a list here, and we're all in here somewhere) evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly." Those are dark spots in the human heart where none of our family or friends or coworkers can see, but God sees. If God illuminated your x-ray or mine to show us what He's found, we might very well see some dark spots on our souls. Of course, the darkness inside doesn't stay inside. It keeps spilling out on the people we love doesn't it? And according to the Bible, those dark spots inside us are the symptoms of a disease that will ultimately kill us. It's called sin; spiritual cancer. That's ignoring God. It's you running your life instead of God running your life. It's hijacking your life from your Creator. The Bible says, "Sin, when it is finished gives birth to death." It's the death of an eternal separation from our God. The x-rays from God would say "hopeless" except for one incredible hope-giving word - Savior. There's only one name that goes with that title - Jesus. Here's the amazing cure for our deadly eternal soul disease. It's in 1 John 1:7 of the Bible, "The blood of Jesus, God's Son, purifies us from all sin." That's the possibility of having those dark spots on your soul removed, of having your sin washed away. It's all wrapped up in Jesus shedding His blood on the cross to remove this awful curse. The cure is expensive. Not for you, but for Jesus. It cost Him everything and that cure becomes yours the moment you put all your trust in Jesus to be your personal Rescuer from your personal sin. You tired of the dark spots and what they're doing to you and doing to others? If you believe your Creator's diagnosis and if you want to escape the death penalty for that diagnosis, then it's time to open your heart to Jesus to become not just the Savior of the world, but the Savior of you. There's wonderful information I'd love to give you at our website so you can be sure you have begun your relationship with the only One who can save you from your sin. That website is ANewStory.com. There's no reason to carry the death sentence of that disease of sin one more day, because Jesus is waiting right now to trade that for eternal life.

One of the amazing frustrations about families is that you just can't get everybody to agree on a comfortable temperature. Sometimes you can't even get a husband and wife to agree on it. One likes the room cozy and warm; the other likes it cool and refreshing, shall we say. It's hard to even be in agreement on what is hot and what is cold. Now, actually, when we were driving along with our family on a freezing winter day, and we'd gotten it nice and warm, we could get four out of five members of our family to agree that we were at a comfortable temperature. But then, suddenly we were all aware of this cold air blowing through the car because there was one member of our family, who shall remain nameless, who always wanted some fresh air; who said, "It's hot and stifling!" And you could hear almost in unison four voices turn to this one person and say, "Who opened the window!" Well, one person does have the ability to send a chill through any group. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Bad News Bearers." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Numbers 13. I'll begin reading at verse 26. The spies have just scouted out the Promised Land and they've come back. The Bible says, "There they reported to them unto the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account, �We went into the land to which you sent us and it does flow with milk and honey. Here is its' fruit.'" By the way, it took two men to carry one bunch of grapes back on a pole! That's some fruit! "But the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there (who was a giant)." Then it says in verse 31, "The men who had gone up with them said, �We can't attack those people. They are stronger than we are." So, they are disagreeing with the report that Caleb and Joshua had given. They said, "Hey, we could go for it under God's leadership." And it says, "These people spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they'd explored." They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." Some years ago there was a movie entitled The Bad News Bears. Well, these guys were the bad news bear-ers and they're still busy today. Oh yeah, the people who bring the bad report! You've always got the people who bring a bad report into every situation. Now, you know what? It's hard to see it in yourself if it's you. But I wonder how would you evaluate yourself if you played back a recording of this past week? Were there many complaints? Was there a lot of talking about the bad news about people? Maybe a lot about the problems? See, we drift into becoming a negative influence and we don't even know it. But when you're around, do people feel lighter or do they feel heavier? Do they feel motivated or inundated? Do they feel like the sun came out, or that the clouds moved in? The bad news bearers, oh they see the problems, and there were real giants and there were real walls back then. But the believers see the promises and they choose to focus on the promises of God instead. The negative voice can turn a whole group cold. It did then! In fact it caused a nation's faith to fail and they wandered for years because of people who brought back negative news. So as a family member, a friend, a church member, a coworker, are you often the bad news bearer too often? Ask the Lord to help you sense the negative before it ever comes out of your mouth - and to talk about the positives. After all, who wants to be the person who's the chill that freezes everyone in the room?

When our oldest son was little he started a hobby that really helped him pay his way through college eventually - collecting baseball cards. He was doing pretty well collecting, when he asked me to start taking him to these shows on the baseball circuit. One summer I was scheduled to speak at Ocean City, New Jersey, and he wanted to go down a day early so we could catch the last day of this huge card show. He walked into a large hall with all the money the little guy could have saved from recent chores and allowances. As we strolled along together, something caught my eye. It was the baseball card I had tried so hard to get as a little boy and I never could. See, growing up in Chicago, my hero was the second baseman of the Chicago White Sox, Nellie Fox. He was the hero of a lot of kids. I bought tons of baseball cards. I had the whole Chicago White Sox team, but I could never get Nellie Fox. We found a table with one of those very rare Fox cards that I could never find as a kid, and I said, "This guy had it!" My son said, "Are you going to buy it, Dad?" I said, "No, it's too much. I'm just going to keep looking around." So we went our separate ways for a few minutes, until I felt a tug on my pants. It was my son, looking up at me with eyes I'll never forget. "Here, Dad. I love you." I looked down and he handed me that Nellie Fox baseball card. My son had basically spent everything he had on that gift for me. That card is on my desk in a plastic protector. There have been few times in my life when I felt so loved as I did that moment. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Valuable You Really Are." Our word for today from the Word of God is in 1 Corinthians 6:20, "You were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body." The Bible says Jesus paid a very high price for you. Actually the book of Revelation pulls the curtain on heaven and lets us see Jesus there surrounded by billions of angels and people who have died and gone there. And part of what they sing about is what never ceases to amaze everyone in heaven. It says in Revelation 5:9, "With your blood you purchased men for God." So this price you are bought with is the life blood of Jesus Christ, God's one and only Son. Now, I knew my son loved me. He proved it by what he gave me that day. You can tell how much God loves you because He spent everything He had on you. No one has ever loved you like that; this is the price tag of the blood of God's Son spent for you. The Bible says, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." Forgiveness means erasing our sin from God's book, because the penalty for our sin is clear. It's death. My sins are only going to be paid for by dying. If you want to know that God really loves you, here is His overwhelming best. He sacrificed His Son to die your eternal death penalty on a cross. He spent it all on you. Maybe there's never been that time when you have experienced that love for yourself; taken the gift He paid for with His life. I don't know who's been there for you in your life. I don't know who's betrayed you, who's abandoned you, made it hard for you to trust. But I know that the One who made you, who holds your eternity in His hands loves you desperately. He loves you so very much. Look at the price He paid for you. This is the love you've spent a lifetime looking for, and it's yours for the taking when you tell Jesus Christ that you're putting all your hopes in Him. All your trust in what He did on the cross for you. If you've never done that, if you're ready to open up to that love and experience it for yourself, tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." Go to our website ANewStory.com. Let me help you, there, be sure you belong to this Jesus. I knew my son loved me, because he sacrificed everything he had to give to me. You know what? That's just a small picture of how much Jesus loves you. The Son of God has come to you, knocking on the door of your heart saying, "I loved you enough to spend everything on you." This is your day to start belonging to Him.

Mr. T. Murdoch. "Face." And the man with the plan, Hannibal Smith. If you're a child of the '80s, you'll recognize those names - as "The A Team." I can tell you the Hutchcraft boys never missed a show. These guys came to the rescue of people who couldn't find anybody to help, assignments that seemed virtually impossible. But their leader, Hannibal Smith, always had a plan that seemed almost unbelievable. He didn't always explain his plan - he just gave his men their assignments. And, of course, it was always mission accomplished! And Hannibal would celebrate that unlikely victory with his trademark expression - "I love it when a plan comes together." So do I. Especially when it's from the MASTER Planner! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Rescue in Seat 9B." Apparently, the word "random" does not appear in heaven's dictionary. Ephesians 1:11, our word for today from the Word of God, says, we have been "predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will." And Peter makes clear that "He is not wanting anyone to perish" (2 Peter 3:9). His plan often comes together around the rescue of one lost soul. And that plan can be astonishing at times. My son was supposed to go with me on a recent ministry trip. The day before, he had to cancel because of illness. I was in seat 9A. He was to be in 9B. At the last minute a young mother named Cindy ended up being assigned there. We had a few laughs about the window seat guy usually coming last and pretzels for dinner. As we flew, she asked about what I do. I mentioned radio and writing and our work with Native Americans. When I asked about her trip, she told me she and her three sisters do a special fun trip together each year. Her tone changed when she said, "This year will be just two of my sisters." The other sister had died tragically a few months before, and Cindy was still struggling with grief. That was my first hint that a divine plan might be coming together here. I told her about suddenly losing the love of my life since I was 19 - the day my precious Karen died of a heart attack. Cindy and I were in that club no one wants to join - those grieving over the loss of a loved one. But God was answering the 3-open prayer I've learned to pray, based on Colossians 4:3-4 - "Pray that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ...Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should." Three "opens" - "Lord, open a door," then "Lord open their heart." Then, "open my mouth." I shared my Hope Story about the anchor that the unlosable love of Jesus gave me when my world was falling apart. How I knew He loved me because He actually died to forgive the sinning I've done against Him. And how I found hope in His victory over death. Her eyes were moist. She said, "I used to believe things like that when I was a teenager. Until the most important person in my life died - my dad. And I walked away from God." Then she blew me away. "My dad was Native American - and here I am sitting next to you." And then, looking at my turquoise watch, she said, "He had a watch just like that!" Our verse for today says, "He works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will." Down to my watch! I said, "Cindy, you know Who assigned our seats today? It wasn't American Airlines. God wanted to tell you how much He loves you." Before we landed, surrounded by a plane packed with passengers, we had prayed together to the God she had left. Who pursued her to Seat 9B. My friend, if you know Jesus, start praying that amazing 3- open prayer - open a door, open their heart, open my mouth. And be amazed with how you become part of God-moments to help someone go to heaven. This is our mission. This is our calling. And you will love it when you see His plan coming together. To bring someone lost to the Cross through you.

Well, all of us airline passengers have just squeezed down that narrow aisle to our seats, and everyone is just getting settled in. The ground agent comes on board and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a destination check. This is Flight 305 to Atlanta." The next part is what I love. It's so diplomatic it's almost ridiculous. "If Atlanta is not in your travel plans for today, this would be a good time for you to exit the aircraft." In other words, "Hey, pal, make sure this flight is going where you want to end up!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making Sure You'll be in Heaven." It doesn't matter how nice the plane is, how nice the people are, how sure you are that this is the right one, if it isn't going where you want to go, you can't afford to be on it. That's obvious when it comes to our travel destination. It should be obvious when it comes to our eternal destination. There was a survey that found that a majority of Americans thought their destination when they die will be heaven. Since this is the one thing you can't afford to be wrong about, there's an important question that those folks need to consider. All of us do. "I think I'm going to heaven." Really? Based on what? How nice you are? How nice your religion is? How much you think this ought to be the way to get to God? It's not true for airplane flights, and it's not true for getting to God and to His heaven. Only God can tell us how to get to Him. What He said and only what He said is the final word. Everybody else is guessing. Here it is in the words of Jesus Christ himself. Our word for today from the Word of God in John 3:3 - "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Now, those two words have been overused, they've been misused, they've been abused, "born again." But the words "born again" - it was the Son of God himself who told us that that's the way to give ourselves a destination check; to see if in fact I'm going to heaven. The Bible explains just two chapters earlier how you can be born again. Speaking of Jesus it says, "To all who received Him, to those who believed in Him, He gave them the right to become children of God." You have to be born into His family to be His child just like you were born into your earth family. And you are born again at the moment you "receive Jesus." What does that mean? That means opening up to Him, welcoming Him into your life. And then it says, "when you believe in Him." That's totally putting your trust in Him as your only ticket to God's heaven. No trust in my religion. No trust in my goodness. No trust in all the things that I have done in my life. No, I am placing all my hopes on the man who died for my sin. I have no hope placed in anything else. It's like a drowning person grabbing a lifeguard, "You, Jesus, are my only hope." Why is that? Well, it's because your sin will keep you out of heaven. Sin carries a death penalty according to the Bible. The Bible calls it hell. And only Jesus could, and only Jesus did die to pay that death penalty so you don't have to. That's how much He loves you. So only He can remove your sin from God's records. And only people with their sin forgiven can enter God's sinless heaven. Jesus left no room for any questions. He said in John 3:5, "You must be born again." You have no more important thing in your life to do than to make sure you have boarded the flight that's going to heaven, to be sure you have told Jesus, "I'm putting all my faith in You alone to forgive my sin and get me to heaven." Only He died to make it possible. Only He walked out of his grave to prove He can give eternal life. Have you ever grabbed Him in total trust and said, "Jesus, I'm yours." If not, let this be your day. I'd love to help you get that settled. Just go to our website - it's ANewStory.com. If you're trusting anyone or anything other than Jesus to get you where you want to go, don't stay on that flight to disaster. That's the deadliest mistake you can make. Today there's still time to change and get on the only flight where God says the destination is His heaven.

When I was in high school, I was a part of Youth For Christ's very active Bible Quiz program. Now, it was a long time ago, but I still remember a lot that I learned in studying books of the Bible in this highly competitive atmosphere. There was a lot of intense excitement when we would get together. Sometimes, believe it or not, thousands of people would be there for the competition as the championship quiz teams would be pitted against each other, seated on chairs that used, well what was then sophisticated equipment, and it registered who got off the chair first. A light would go on and then they had the first opportunity to answer the question. If they jumped during the question, which I often did, that was the best way to make sure you got the opportunity, you had to finish the question correctly and then give the answer. So here is the Quiz Master asking, jump as soon as you think you can finish this question. Many times we were so high-strung that we'd jump too soon...ridiculously soon. For example we'd be quizzing on the whole Gospel of John, and the Quiz Master would say, "Wh..." And suddenly you'd see three people on their feet, and he'd call, "Number one." Oh, you almost always lost that question, "Wh..." Who could figure that out? Of course, you always lose when you jump too soon. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Jumping Before You've Heard It All." Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 18:13 - the great wisdom of Solomon. He says, "He who answers before listening..." Okay, sounds like that old Bible quiz doesn't it? "He who answers before listening, that is his folly; that is his shame." Well, the New Testament version of that might be James 1:19, which says this: "Everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak." Now we have just slightly re-written that one. We're quick to speak and slow to listen. And notice the listening comes before the speaking. Solomon tells us that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. It's our folly! It's foolish! It's shameful if we speak before we listen. See, we hear the beginning of what someone is trying to tell us and we assume we know the rest. And like the old Bible quizzers, we jump with our reply. It happens in our marriage conversations. It happens between parents and children. We anticipate the rest and we don't understand each other as a result. Biblically-wise people don't just listen to the sentence, they listen to the whole paragraph. They don't respond to the opening line. Oh, they may listen to the whole page. When you jump too soon, you usually end up misunderstanding. You react to the symptom, not the problem. See, the person doesn't pay attention to what you're saying because you didn't pay attention to them. Conflict erupts, walls go up. If you played back the recording of you today, would we often hear you being quick to speak? If so, you might be inflicting hurt, frustration, misunderstanding and causing people to just shut down and not even want to tell you anymore. How are you perceived by your mate, your children, your parents, your friends when it comes to listening? Maybe someone has basically stopped trying. But tell them you want another chance. It takes patience; it takes self-control to listen; not just to a person's words, but to their heart. It is, according to the Word of God, foolish not to listen before you speak. Now, we're told that part of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is patience and self-control. You know, that's what it takes to listen before you speak. So, "Dear Lord, give me patience. Give me self-control. Teach me, Lord, to listen." Take it from an old Bible quizzer who sometimes couldn't wait, "When you jump too soon, you usually get it wrong."

One of the exciting episodes of my life was working on the Billy Graham Crusade at the Meadowlands in northern New Jersey. It was incredibly organized. One thing that was especially well organized was security. There were thousands of people coming and going, so of course, security had to be very well thought through. Now, it was my privilege to be the Chairman of that crusade. And I'll tell you, if I was stopped I still had to have my badge on. It didn't matter what your title was, because if you didn't wear your badge, you weren't going anywhere. One night we were entering the arena, and one of Billy Graham's staff was with me. But he had forgotten his badge. Well, when the guard stopped us, I had my badge. He knew who I was. I said, "Now, this is really a good guy, honest. He's OK. In fact he's on Billy Graham's staff." But do you know how he finally got in? On my credentials. It worked. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "False Hope of Heaven." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 14. The second half of verse 10 says, "We will all stand before God's judgment seat." It's a sobering sentence isn't it? Then the verse says, "So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God." So when we're judged by God we will all be one-on-one with Him. Nobody's going to be standing there with you. There are some who hope to make it with God because of a connection they have, like my friend from the Billy Graham staff who got in on my badge. Well, no one else's badge will count when you stand before God. You might try to say, "Lord, my parents were great Christians; my wife, what a spiritual lady! Think about how much my son, my daughter was into this, Lord. My brother's in the ministry. My grandmothers prayed for me for years. She prays all the time. You know, she's really religious." Or maybe we could try other connections and say, "Lord, you know I was a good Presbyterian. I was a good Baptist. I was a strong Catholic." But none of our connections will matter to God. Nobody else's faith is going to impress Him. Every man will give account of himself to God. You say, "Lord, I spent years in the church." Billy Sunday said years ago, "Being in church will not make you a Christian any more than being in a garage will make you a car." In 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul says of Timothy, "I know the faith that was in your grandmother, Lois, and then in your mother, Eunice. And now lives in you also." See, God has no grandchildren. You have to have your own relationship with Him. You've got to have a badge of your own. Have you personally been to that cross where Jesus paid for your sin? Because that's what the badge says to get you into heaven. See, I've been to the cross of Jesus. I went there to have my sins forgiven, knowing there was nothing I could do; no good works, no religion, no noble life that could ever get my sins forgiven because of the death penalty of my sin. I know Jesus is my only hope. But you've got to go there for yourself. No one can go there for you. It could be He's brought us together today so you could actually feel His knocking on the door of your heart. Listen to it. Open up to the Savior. All the other people you know who belong to Jesus Christ will not get you into heaven. They just make you all the more responsible because you've had so many chances to hear it. If you don't know Jesus; if you're not sure you belong to Him, let this be the day where you say, "Jesus, you who died for my sins, who came out of that grave to come in and change my life, I surrender that life to you. I am yours." Our website is all about getting this relationship started. Would you make that the next thing you do? Would you go to ANewStory.com. If you're not sure you have a badge of your own, get to the cross of Jesus today. Don't miss heaven because you thought that someone else could get you in.

Oh, it happens every year after Thanksgiving and Christmas...leftovers. I cannot believe the infinite possibilities for preparing turkey. You know how it goes: You have turkey crispies for breakfast, and turkey, butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, etc. I mean, listen, there are so many ways to get rid of that turkey! Actually, any time of the year, it's just hard to get a lot of enthusiasm for dinner when it's leftovers. It's just not fair how many times you and I serve just that to our family. They deserve much better. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Family Leftovers, Family Regrets." I'm not talking about food here. I'm talking about leftover me; leftover you. Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Psalm 101, and I'm going to read verses 2-3, and yes, it does have something to do with something better than leftovers. Here's what it says. David is speaking. He says, "I will be careful to lead a blameless life." Now, Before we go on to the next verse, let's think about that word blameless for a minute. What does he mean? What's a blameless life? Well, it means living your life in such a way that you have nothing to regret. Isn't it nice to wake up in the morning with no extra baggage, no emotional hangover, nothing to regret, nothing to repair, nothing to hide? That's a blameless life. Okay, now listen to the next verse, "I will walk in my house with a blameless heart." Actually, these verses in this Psalm give us several arenas in life. After he says, "I'm going to be careful to be blameless" he gives us several arenas in which he wants to do that. But the number one is my family. He says, "When I'm with them, I want them to get blameless living from me. They will not get my leftovers. They are going to get my emotional and spiritual best." Is that how it is with your family and you? I'll tell you, it often is not the case, is it? Our friends get much better treatment sometimes than our family does. In fact, if we treated our friends as we treat our family, our friends wouldn't stand for it. We'd be out of friends pretty quick. But our friends shouldn't be getting our best. Our family should get that. David says, "You start in your house with blameless living." Sometimes we save our best for the kids at school, or the people at work, people at church. Oh, they see a wonderful person that the people at home so seldom see. We use up all our patience, all our listening, all our love, our helpfulness, our unselfishness some place else. And guess what we dish out to our family when we get home? Yep! Leftovers! And that's wrong! Here's the way it ought to be. Everyone should just be getting the overflow of the respect, and love, and patience that you're practicing at home. And David says, "I will be careful to lead a blameless life." See, there's a tendency to let down on living in a way we won't have regrets, and won't have anything to fix, or repair, or hide. It's easy to let down at home. That's why we have to be careful to lead a blameless life. When we get home, we let down; we're careless because we think no one's watching. But the biblical priority is put on how you live at home. Like David, let's make it a commitment; give your family your best, your very best. You've served them enough leftovers.

Professional tennis star - a nun. What? Sounds like two different stories doesn't it? In this case, it's the same life story. Andrea Jaeger first picked up a tennis racket at the age of eight. By 14, she was a tennis pro. Soon she was challenging tennis greats like Chris Evert and Tracy Austin; she was ranked number two in the world. Then came a serious shoulder injury that required seven surgeries and she was forced to retire. She took her prize money, she moved to Colorado, and started a charitable foundation that helps sick, abused, and at-risk children. So she became an Episcopal nun, and she was actually burying her life in a ministry to needy children. According to USA Today, after her injury she was told, "Your life's over. You've failed. You'll never amount to anything." Oh, were they wrong! The article on her new life concluded this way: "Her name will never be etched on Grand Slam hardware, but she can live with that. She says, 'It's like I have kids' names in my heart, that is life's trophy.'" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Do." Priorities. They keep getting jumbled, don't they? Stuff that really matters slips to the edges, and stuff that really doesn't matter much fills up our life. Until something happens that reminds us what really matters; like a tragedy, a funeral, or some kind of wakeup call. There was a little saying I heard so many times as a teenager that I think I became immune to it. But it's still packed with truth that can give you the most significant, most satisfying life possible. It simply says, "Only one life, 'twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last." A tennis pro turned angel of mercy said the trophy she wants for life is those "names in her heart." The Apostle Paul was thinking like that when he penned our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20. He's looking ahead to eternity where only things that last forever will survive. He said to the people he had introduced to Jesus Christ, "What is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy." See, Paul had names in his heart; the names of people who were going to be in heaven because he loved them enough to tell them about Jesus. I hope you have names like that. Do you? There's something so much more important than a championship, or a scholarship, or a business accomplishment. And that's the people who will be in heaven forever because you introduced them to your Jesus. We pour out so much of our life-energy into things that won't last. But the people you work with every day, go to school with every day, recreate with, live around; those are people who will live forever in heaven or hell. For some, you are God's designated rescuer, positioned in their life by Jesus to be their hope of hearing about Jesus. And it starts when you allow God to burn in your heart the names of people He wants you to reach. You carry those names in your heart all day, every day. You pray for those names in your heart every day. You ask God for open doors to tell them about Jesus. You look for those open doors, and you go through them when they open. The great legacy of your life will be the names you carry in your heart. Because when you rescue someone spiritually, that name in your heart is written by God in His Book of Life in heaven. And you can't do anything more important or more lasting than that. The prophet Daniel tells us about the two groups of people we will see on Judgment Day: "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." Then he explains the part you could play in helping to change someone's eternal address: "Those who lead many to righteousness (will shine) like the stars for ever and ever" (Daniel 12:3). Now my friend, that is a life that matters.

Now, men can handle conflict, and they can handle confrontation, they can handle challenges, but they can't handle tears. You know, most men, tears are like the toughest thing for them to take. But you know something? Tears are a powerful language; they're very powerful. They have a language of their own. Oftentimes when someone is counseling with us and they're crying, I will ask them the question, "Can you tell me what your tears are trying to say?" See, when I see your tears, I know how deeply I may have hurt you. Did you know that we can do that to God? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making God Cry." Our word for today from the Word of God is in Ephesians 4 - I'm going to start with verse 30. Here's what it says: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Now you notice here that it is actually possible to make the Holy Spirit grieve, or to cry as it were. Now, you say, "What in the world would be so bad that I would do that would actually make God the Holy Spirit cry?" Well, the answer to that is in the verse that immediately precedes it, Ephesians 4:29. Here's what it says: "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen." In other words God is saying here that when we say something that tears down another person, we make Him cry. Many years ago, my youngest son had an erector set, and occasionally he built these monumental, high-towering (not always real stable) structures in our living room. Could you imagine if his big brother had come in (and I'm glad he didn't), but if he had come in and said, "Hey, boy, that's really nice!" and gave it one swift kick and knocked down what he had been taking hours to build? Well, you would expect the guy to be in tears because someone tore down what he was building. Well, see, God knows that feeling. That's what He's talking about here. He's saying, "You know, I'm trying to build that husband of yours; I'm trying to build that wife of yours; that son or daughter, that friend, that coworker, those folks at church. I'm doing things in their life. I've paid a high price for them; I've been doing all kinds of work and craftsmanship; I've been bringing things into their life to make them strong, and more confident, and more patient, more understanding of how valuable they are. I've been bringing things into their life to make them more gentle and more caring. And now you have come along, with a thoughtless word, with a put-down, with your sarcasm, with some attempt to manipulate them with guilt or shame. You've come in now with your destructive words, you have kicked down what I was building." That's what God is saying. Your anger will do it. Gossip tears down people God is trying to build. Proverbs tells us that "Reckless words pierce like a sword, and the tongue has the power of life and death." Comparing someone to other people will do it, criticizing people will do it. And isn't it amazing that God's heart is broken with our words that hurt other people? David prayed a great prayer, and it is a great one for all of us to echo, probably on a daily basis. I probably need to echo it several times a day. He simply said, "Lord, set a watch before my mouth." Put a guard there. Be very careful to never tear down someone that God is building.

One day some years ago during the lunch hour, my Administrative Assistant decided to bring her two young nephews into the office. She wanted them to meet the people she worked with and vise-versa. Daniel was probably about five, and I'm sure he left wondering who that weird guy is that his aunt works with. See, when I met Daniel, he flashed a big smile. He revealed some missing teeth in the process and I asked him what happened. He said, "I lost those teeth." I told Daniel I was sorry he lost them and I wanted to help him find them, after which I got down on the floor and proceeded to crawl around looking for them. Mercifully he told me I didn't have to keep looking. He said he didn't mind losing those teeth. He said, "Hey, I got permanent ones!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Temporary Pain, Permanent Gain." The first time a child loses a tooth it can be pretty disconcerting. But every child quickly learns that this is no big problem. You lose the temporary, but you're going to be trading it for the permanent. Our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 4:14 and 16. This is the perspective of a man who has been severely hammered and he's got the scars to prove it physically and emotionally. He opens by saying, "We do not lose heart." Now, how can he be unsinkable like this when there's so much hardship and pain? He says, "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." Now, you might be going through a pretty low time right now and you're sinking physically, or financially, or emotionally. Wouldn't it be nice to know what Paul's secret of daily renewal is? Well, it's sort of the Daniel with the missing teeth perspective. Paul goes on to say, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes, not only on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary. But what is unseen is eternal." Paul's telling us that when you feel the weight of heavy trouble, get out your scale. Put your troubles on one side; put your eternal rewards on the other and the scale will go "boom" on the side of the blessings - the rewards - because your eternity with your Savior far outweighs any pain now. In fact, Paul says in Romans 8:18, "Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." If you focus on what's going to last forever rather than what's going to last for just a little while. That's what's so wonderful about the promise of God's heaven with no pain, no tears, no sin. It's wonderful to hear about the prospect of God's unimaginable rewards for those who remain faithful to Him even in the darkest hours. Listen to 1 Corinthians 2:9 - "No one has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." That's what you focus on. When you focus on the temporary hurt, you're vulnerable to try to do something or anything to relieve your pain, often making a permanent mistake to get through some temporary pain. But you don't have to do that when your eye is on the prize, not on the pain. This is only temporary and nothing compares to what you're going to have forever. You know the wonderful thing that Jesus did when He came? He added a word to the word life - everlasting. He added eternity to our possibilities for what our future will be. You will spend eternity either with or without this Jesus. And today, knowing your pain, knowing your hurt, knowing your sin, He stands ready to come into your life and forgive the sins that He died for and give you a fresh start and carry the burden with you from now on. If you've never begun a relationship with Him, tell Him you want to do that today. Go to our website and we'll show you how to be sure you belong to him - ANewStory.com. Because everything changes when you know that this life isn't all you have. You've got an eternity with God ahead of you.

Well, as the years go by, we get more and more perspective on the presidency of Ronald Reagan. For example, people who were in his administration began writing books like crazy, telling everything they knew. And people, you know, have started to feel free to tell us what they saw, what they heard, especially behind the scenes. It's kind of interesting to learn about the late President's style of leadership. One of his close associates told us about some of the major decisions that President Reagan had to make and how he approached them. He said, "When the decision was particularly tough, President Reagan would ask a key question." Now, don't laugh; this is serious. "What would John Wayne do?" That's right. Oh, now, we can laugh and say, "Oh, come on! What would John Wayne do?" Well, whether or not you agree with all of President Reagan's decisions, I think we have to agree he made some good ones along the way that helped part of our economy, and helped resolve some very difficult international conflicts, and changed the world. Now, I don't know how much the John Wayne question contributed to the process, but President Reagan was on the track of the right kind of question anyway. Not just for his decisions, but for the ones that you're facing right now. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Question That Settles the Questions." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 2:21, "To this you were called..." Wow! Okay, I guess here's your destiny. This is an important verse. "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps." Actually that word example in the original Greek in the New Testament? It's the word for the copy head that was on the top of a child's slate when he was learning to do the alphabet. So, like you make an A like the A you see at the top on the copy head. You make your B like the B at the top, and it will come out just right. Well, this passage was written to some slaves with harsh masters. Now how should they respond? This is an unfair, painful situation they were in. Basically, Peter says, "Do what Jesus would do; copy Him. He gave you an example, now follow in His steps," which suggests the question that settles so many of life's questions. Not what would John Wayne do, with all respects to Ronald Reagan, but "What would Jesus do?" Charles Sheldon wrote one of the great classics of Christian fiction years ago called In His Steps and it was based on this verse. It was about a community that was transformed because the people in one church made their bottom line that question, "What would Jesus do?" And the publisher of the newspaper said, "OK, what would Jesus do in a newspaper?" And a wealthy lady said, "Well, what would Jesus do about the poor in this town?" And the pastor said, "What would Jesus preach about?" And an ambitious musician said, "What would Jesus do?" And it changed everything. It literally is your destiny to live by that simple question, "What would Jesus do?" Put Jesus into the choices you're facing now. What would Jesus do in that business transaction you're in the middle of? How would He respond to that difficult person? How would He respond to that stressful situation? What would Jesus do if He knew about the wrong thing that's going on; the one that you know about? What would He do about that need that you could do something about? What would He do about the poor people in your community? What would He do about the lost people you know? What would Jesus do? Start to pray that way. I think a lot of the fog in your decisions will start to clear. It will greatly simplify what could otherwise be a confusing decision. And then risk it! Have the courage to do what Jesus would do. What would John Wayne do? Well, that's a little shaky basis for a decision. But what would Jesus do? If that's your bottom line all day every day, you won't go wrong.

It's been quite a while since the whole country was really fixated on the trial. It was 1:00 P.M., Tuesday, October 4, 1995, and America came to a sudden stop. Everyone was waiting for the O.J. Simpson verdict. Maybe you don't remember that but I can tell you, this once famous football player was accused of the murder of his wife. It was like the trial of the century. Nine months of the most watched, most analyzed trial in history up to that point. And then, the jury's got a verdict, and the judge announced that we couldn't hear the verdict yet. See, it was placed in a sealed envelope. We had to wait until the next day to find out. Everybody was guessing about it, and then as the verdict envelope arrived, America literally stopped to hear it. I mean, there was this huge power surge in New York City as thousands of TVs came on at once. And all across the country, usually busy streets were strangely un-crowded. Long distance calls dropped by 60%. Now, the verdict would no doubt be debated. But one thing is for sure. We were obsessed with knowing what the verdict was. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about the "The Verdict On Our Eternity." You and I wouldn't be any different no matter what the verdict for O.J. Simpson was. But there is a verdict that really does affect you, because it determines where you will spend eternity. It's God's verdict on you. Was I good enough? Will I get to heaven when I die? Guilty or not guilty with God? See, the verdict is not in an envelope. It's in an open book. In fact I have that verdict here. You have the right to find out God's verdict on you. So our word for today from the Word of God, Romans 3:19 says, "Every mouth will be silenced; the whole world held accountable to God. No one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law." That means doing good things. Chapter 3, verse 2: "There is no one righteous, not even one." Everyone is guilty. Verse 22 says, "There is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That's verse 23. The verdict is in on each of us - "Guilty before God." We've broken His laws over and over. We've hijacked a life that our Creator gave us and run it ourselves. We have been our own god. Not only is the verdict in, but the sentence has been pronounced. In Romans 6:23 it says, "The wages of sin is death." Some of us will plead the good we've done. It's not enough. No one righteous, not one! See, a death penalty can't be paid by somebody doing good. Somebody has to die. And our sentence - in a word - for our sin, is hell. But this reading of the verdict is followed by this amazing offer of a pardon. It says in the next verses, "We are justified freely by God's grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus through faith in His blood." In other words, someone has come to pay your death penalty - God's own Son. So our only hope of being right with God, of ever going to heaven, is placing all our hope in Jesus Christ - the One who died in our place as our substitute. See, if you think your religion or your goodness is going to satisfy God's verdict, the Bible says it won't. Why would Jesus die on a cross if there was a way you could possibly get to God on your own? Jesus died so He could forgive your sin and erase it from God's Book and trade that death penalty that you and I deserve for the eternal life we could never deserve. Have you ever put your total trust in Jesus to be your Savior from your sin? If you're not sure you have, don't risk another day without Him. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." Go to our website, and there I've laid out as simply as I can how you can be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. The bad news is we are all guilty. The sentence is death. But if you belong to Jesus Christ, if you put your trust in Him, the Son of God is your defense attorney who stands before His Father giving the verdict of "not guilty" and you will go to the heaven He has prepared for you.

Once upon a time there was a machinist who lived with his wife, his four-year-old son, and his new baby boy in this 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. I mean, his grief was inconsolable. This machinist (John was his name) took his one surviving boy to church. John didn't go in - no. But he did wait out in front, in his car, smoking his cigarette and reading his Sunday paper. Until the day that one of the men of the church looked outside and noticed the 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. The 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. And one Christmas Eve John tearfully walked the aisle, accepting Christ's forgiveness for his sins. He would grow in Christ and ultimately he'd become a deacon, 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 "Going Beyond the Walls." We were the un-churched. 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. We'll have to go out where they are if they're ever 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 if you want to reach Samaritans! If you 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 isn't it? It's no wonder they're still outside. 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're in some group with 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 already are where the spiritually dying people are! You don't have to go where they are. You're there! It's very possible 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. By the way, as you're listening to this, you might be my Dad, because you've never experienced the love and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ for yourself. And your heart's ready for that. You want that. This is what you've been looking for all your life. Maybe that's why this broadcast today; this is how He has come looking for you where you are. Don't you want to be where He is forever? Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours"? And I'd love to show you the way that my Dad and I both found Jesus. It's right there on our website and it will tell you how you can know Him for real. ANewStory.com - that's the website. Jesus goes where lost people are, and we have to do that. 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.

When our daughter was little, we displayed most of her artwork on the refrigerator door. We were usually proud of her creative efforts...usually. There was this time, though, that my wife was painting the woodwork of our daughter's room and she stopped briefly to answer the phone in another room. She gave our little girl one instruction, "Do not touch the paint!" You want to guess what happened? When my wife returned from her call, little Miss Rembrandt was working on a three-year-old masterpiece. Unfortunately, she had chosen the wall for her canvas. There on her bedroom wall were Designs by The Princess done with the paint that was intended only for the woodwork. Now, Mom didn't spank. She didn't even yell. She just went and got a bucket of soap and water and a rag and gave our daughter a new instruction, "Clean it up." Well, my little girl scrubbed and scrubbed, mostly to no avail. But she learned something important that day. We're responsible for the messes we make. By the way, I think that was the only wall painting she ever did. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fixing What Sin Has Broken." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 7:9-10. It's really about how to clean up the messes we've made. It involves that renewing, transforming process the Bible calls repentance. You might say, "Oh, you mean the feeling bad about what I did?" Not exactly. Verse 9 says, "Your sorrow led you to repentance." Feeling sorry is a good start on repentance, but it's sure not the whole story. Verse 10 says, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. See what this godly sorrow is producing in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done." See, these people understood repentance. It's not just a forgiveness fix for your guilty feelings. It's an all-out campaign to fix what your sin messed up. It's the kind of cleanup that "leaves no regret." Now, our daughter was quick to say she was sorry for what she had done that day, and she was forgiven. But she had to step up to the responsibility for the marks she had made. She had to do what she could to remove those marks. Well, so do you and I with some of the sinful mistakes of our past. If you've brought them to the cross where Jesus died to pay for them, and you've asked for His forgiveness, you are clean. In fact, if you've never brought the sin of your life to the cross where Jesus died for you to have the wall between you and God come down so you could go to His heaven and experience His love, today say, "Jesus, I take for myself what You did for me on the cross." I'd love to help you begin that relationship, to be clean, to be forgiven today and to be sure you belong to Him. That's why I want to invite you to go to our website - ANewStory.com. But then after you've made that commitment to Jesus, you're not really done. You aren't emotionally free until you go do what you can to remove any marks your sin has made. If you've wronged anyone, would you obey the Spirit's prompting to go back and make it right? If you took something, would you repay what you took? When you make every effort to fix what your sin may have damaged, you complete the spiritual circle of repentance, restoration and healing. Now, this will require special grace and special courage from the Lord. But if He's telling you to do this, He will give you everything you need to obey Him. The Lord who has forgiven that sin may now be pointing to a mess we made and lovingly saying, "Clean it up." By making things right you can really close a chapter. You can actually say a firm goodbye to the sin of the past, and maybe really feel that great forgiveness that Jesus has already given you.

On the first warm day of spring I can remember my son saying, "Ready for a little baseball, Dad?" Well, 'twas the season, although that early in the season we usually ended up stuck in the mud somewhere between home plate and first base. Now, he didn't ask about playing baseball if it was fall or winter. Now, he always had a like a strong sense of season. By the same token, the first cool day of late summer, of course, that brought a predictable question, "Ready for a little football, Dad?" This is the same son, of course, that got upset when he saw Christmas items up before Thanksgiving, or phone calls when he was studying or homework that you had to do on weekends. See, this kid had and actually still does have for that matter, a strong sense of what season it is, and there's actually a lot of sanity in living that way. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Strong Sense of Season." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ecclesiastes 3, and let me read some excerpts to you: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance." It goes on with a list of life's times, and then concludes in verse 11, "God has made everything beautiful in its time." Well, the message of Ecclesiastes 3 to me is this: Know what time it is. Know what season it is at this point in your life, or your month, or your week. And then really do what it's time to do and don't mix up your seasons. When it's time to work, really work; when it's time to fellowship, really fellowship. Just don't mix everything up. Now, I know some people who talk for half of their work day. Well, when it's fellowship time, do that, but don't mix that with your work and vice-versa. When it's time to play, really play. When it's time to be home, don't bring your work home with you; really be home. When it's time to be at work, don't keep doing personal stuff. When it's time to pray, block out everything else. Maybe that's why Jesus told us to go into a closet to do it. When it's time to listen, drop everything else and focus on that person. If it's time to finish something else before you listen, get that done and schedule a time when you really can listen. When it's time to study, don't talk. When it's time to unwind, don't study. Get the idea? It's like the Bible says in Colossians 3, "Whatever you do, do it with all your heart." I have a friend whose employees' wives are on the warpath because their husbands are coming home forever late from work. Guess who they blame? The boss and the company for overworking their men. Well, the fact is what the wives don't know is that these men are taking extended lunch hours for gym time and shooting the breeze much of the day. They waste as much time as they work, and then they have to work like crazy at the other end of the day. And then, guess what? They can't be the fathers they need to be. I like what the Bible says again, "Whatever you do, do it with all your heart." And I really like what Jim Elliott, the missionary martyr said, "Wherever you are, be all there." See, things don't work as well when you do them "out of season." Each day, each week has seasons in your life. Well, do with all your heart what it's time to do at that moment and then God makes everything beautiful in its time. I'll tell you, life is a lot more peaceful when you live with a strong sense of season.

We were in the middle of a community-wide outreach event, sort of a non-traditional strategy for bringing Christ into a community. One of the committee leaders took me on a media marathon to help build awareness for it. So we raced to the local CBS TV affiliate. I asked the cameraman when the interview would be on. He said, "tonight's news." That was amazing to me! He said, "I'll just go right into the editing room and we'll do a quick edit." I joked with him about spending half his life in the editing room, which might not be far off. Isn't it great that we can make all kinds of goofs on a video, and there are people who can edit all that right out? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Erasing Life's Big Mistakes." When that cameraman finished shooting me (you know what I mean), I asked him a question. "Wouldn't it be great if we could edit our lives like that videotape?" He liked that idea. So do I. After all, we've all got moments we're not very proud of; that we're actually ashamed of. There are too many failures on our life-tape, and they're not just recordings. They're flesh and blood, and we can't edit them. But there is Someone who can. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 130:1-4. This is filled with hope for me. "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy." This is a heart that's feeling the weight of their sin; the weight of the past. Maybe like yours. And then comes this incredible hope statement, "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? For with You there is forgiveness." Wow! God - the last one we would expect to forgive us? After all, He's perfect. It's His laws we've trampled. God is the only one who could edit our sins, and He will. His editing process is called forgiveness - erasing forever from His eternal records the sin that burdens us with guilt, and shame, and condemnation. When God forgives a sin, it's gone! Acts 3:19 - "Repent and turn to God, and your sins will be wiped away." But there's only one basis on which a Holy God can erase a lifetime of sinning. In God's own words, "The blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." Forgiveness can be found only one place; at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ, where He absorbed all our sin and all of its death penalty when He died. Your sin is edited from God's records the moment you come in faith and repentance to the cross where Jesus died for you. You say, "Well, I've done that, but I still feel guilty." You may feel guilt, but you aren't guilty any more. Not when the only perfect person in the universe has declared you forgiven and clean. Would you base your life on the fact that you are now clean in Jesus Christ and not on the feeling that you're dirty? If you've made Jesus your Savior from your sin, your sin is gone. Yes, you want to confess it as other ones come up but all of it is covered by the blood of Christ. This is liberating news! Don't carry unnecessary guilt around any more. Accept the forgiveness God has given you and remember, Jesus said, "Whoever is forgiven much, loves much." If you're still trying to deal with your past without the Savior in your heart, why would you go one more day unforgiven? This could be your day to have a lifetime of sinning erased from God's Book forever. That's freedom - that's forgiveness! If that's what you want, tell Him that, "Jesus, I turn from running my own life. You died and gave Your life to pay for my sin. I'm Yours today." I want you to be sure you belong to Him. That's why we have it set up at our website, to help you be sure of that. It's ANewStory.com. Would you go there today? There is Someone who can edit your life; removing from every record in God's Book, every mistake and every sin. It's that man who hung on a cross and said these three words, "Father, forgive them."

In much of America, spring announces its arrival with an explosion of color. Those yellow forsythia flowers start popping out on bushes, the daffodils start to poke their heads through the ground, and the trees around our headquarters suddenly color the landscape with those delicate white flowers. Now, my wife, who I think was a certified plantologist, told me that those are ornamental pear trees. When I asked her about the "ornamental" part, she pointed out to me that they produce beautiful flowers, but these pear trees don't produce any pears. I guess that's why they're ornamental. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Flowers But No Fruit." You know, God has people in His family who are like those pear trees. They look good, but they don't produce fruit. And fruit is what Jesus is interested in, not just spiritual decorations on the outside. That's pretty obvious in our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 13, beginning with verse 6. "And Jesus told this parable: 'A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'" Now, Jesus is the owner who comes looking for fruit. He is not interested in all our spiritual flowers that impress other people. Oh, it's nice that we can sing His songs, go to His meetings, give to His causes, do some things in His service, and put Him in our busy schedule. But that's obviously not what really matters to Him. He's looking for a life that's producing lasting fruit, not just parading impressive "flowers." So, when Jesus looks at you, does He see a follower who is fruitful or mostly decorative? When Jesus looks at your ministry, your church, does He see the fruit of changed lives or just the flowers of a busy program and some smoothly running religious machine? Jesus wants to know what lives you're touching for Him, what lost people you're introducing to Him, how you're investing the talents He gave you in the work He wants done, whether you're living to make an impression or to make money, or whether you're living to make a difference. Including the ultimate difference you can make in anybody's life - pouring yourself into the lives of lost people around you so you can help some of them be in heaven with you. What if Jesus came to you like it says here in the parable and He said, "I've been coming to look for fruit here for a long time and I haven't found any." I wonder if He would say to you, "One more year. Let's see what you do with these next few months ahead. I'll be back then to see what kind of fruit you have to show for all that I have poured into your life." You can't have any of the fruitless years back. They're gone - they're over. But you can decide today that you're going to make a far greater difference with the rest of your life than you have ever made before!

There's at least one important principle of advertising we need to consider today, and that is you have to demonstrate the need for your product in order to sell it. I'll tell you someone who was good at it some years ago in one of the classic commercials. It was Alka-Seltzer, one of those old commercials I still remember. They would show some irresponsible eater who consumed some nightmare menu, and then the camera just made him look all distorted, like one of those trick mirrors. I still remember the one with that poor guy holding his stomach and he's going in and out of focus, and he says, "I ate too much. I ate too fast. I ate too much. I ate too fast." Actually a lot of us don't really eat our food, we inhale it, we gobble it, we basically gulp it. And sometimes we lose it because of the way we ate it. Just because you ate it doesn't mean it's going to do you any good. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Bible - So Much More than Checking the Box." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Joshua 1:8. Joshua is facing the great challenge of his life. He's preparing to enter the Promised Land - this great leadership challenge of taking God's people in. Here's God's word to him, "Do not let this Book of the Law" - the Bible, that is - "depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." Now, if you dig into this verse, you find that there's an implied eating image here. We started out talking about how we eat, and this verse is about that. In fact, the Hebrew word for meditate is literally the word that's used to describe a cow chewing its cud. Now, I don't know what all cows are good at, but I know that they are the world's best chewers. Man, you've got to hand that to them. They just keep on chewing it! Well, God says, "I want you to keep chewing on what you get out of My Book." He wants us to do that with our daily intake from the Bible. Frankly, most of us don't. We just sort of stuff in some verses - "I ate too fast." And we never think about them again. That has two results. Even though we're reading the Bible, there's no real growth. We stay spiritually undernourished with a superficial faith. Secondly, if you keep stuffing in the Bible without chewing it properly, you get indigestion. The Bible starts to be dull and boring, and you say, "I'm not getting anything out of it." Well, of course not! You're not chewing it. That's how you get the good out of spiritual food. How do you chew spiritual food? Let me quickly give you seven steps in chewing your spiritual food. Compare it with what you're doing now. Number one, take in only a few verses - bite-size chunks. Two, go over them a few times. Three, look for a connection to something that you're going to face today. How does what God's saying connect with something in your life? Fourthly, pray back to God that connection that you found. Ask for Him to help you make that verse literally a part of that situation that day. And then fifth, write down what you digested. As you write it, it will deepen your understanding and it will deepen your commitment to Him. And then six, consciously refer back to it throughout the day; keep going back to that sentence, that phrase out of the Bible. And finally, go to sleep that night reviewing your word for today from the Word of God and how well you activated it. This command is followed by a great promise. If you do it you'll be prosperous and successful. In-gesting the Bible, it isn't enough; you only get its value if you di-gest it. So, when it comes to your daily Bible breakfast, chew your food properly.

Sister is a dog. No, I didn't say my sister was a dog. My friend, Curtis, has a dog named Sister, which leads to some very amusing sentences. When Curtis' Sister first arrived in our area, Sister lived in this big, fenced-in area around the house. But Curtis got a nice dog house for Sister, the dog that is, and went to work making it a nice winter home for her. He installed two inches of insulation, put in a new floor, and even put a waterbed heater under the floor and some zip lock bags of water for the heater to heat. Sister basically had her own home with her own waterbed. But for the first couple of weeks after her home was completed, she wouldn't go in it. Curtis was away for the weekend. He asked a friend to check on Sister. It was one of those days when a powerful Nor'easter storm hit our area with drenching rain. And when Curtis' friend visited Sister, there was that dog running around outside the dog house in the wind and the pouring rain, still refusing to go in that home that had been so wonderfully provided for her. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Peace Within Your Reach." Curtis said he was frustrated. He said, "Here I lovingly prepared a warm, safe place, and she insists on staying outside in the cold and the rain." That frustration is one that Jesus knows very well. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 19:41. "As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it. He said, 'If you only would have known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. You did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.'" This kind of grieving in the heart of Jesus isn't limited to that one time and that one place. It happens every time another person keeps running in the rain when they could be living in the safety and warmth that He has prepared for them. Jesus makes very clear what He wants to give us; what the result will be if we respond to Him. He talks about what would "bring you peace." And peace is what's at stake in what you do with Jesus - personal peace, peace with God, peace for all eternity. Jesus may actually have shed some tears for you. So many times He's given you the opportunity to come into that wonderful peace of a personal relationship with Him, but you have refused to enter. The results: you're alone out in the storm, feeling unnecessary loneliness because you're living outside His never-leaving love. Unnecessary stress because you're trying to handle life without His peace. You're feeling unnecessary pain because you're trying to carry the load without His great strength, and maybe unnecessary emptiness because you're trying to make life make sense without the One who gave you your life. And Jesus is saying, "If you only knew what I can do for you if you'll just come inside." The spiritual shelter Jesus invites you to has been very lovingly prepared for you, very expensively prepared for you. There was no way into a God relationship as long as the death penalty for our sins stood between us and God. We're spiritual orphans in this world. We're separated from our Father because of our sins. But the Bible says, speaking of the suffering and crucifixion of God's Son, "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities." All that because of how much Jesus loves you. And the result of this incredible love? Here's what it says, "The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." The peace that has eluded you for your whole life can finally be yours today if you'll give yourself to the One who gave His life for you on a cross. He's knocking on the door of your heart. Would you open up? Let Him in and let Him take the wheel of your life from this day on. If you're tired of being in the storm without the peace that He wants to give you, that He died to give you, would you say to Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." I'd love to help you with that. Go to our website as soon as you can - ANewStory.com. You don't need to run alone in the rain any more. You know which way is home and Jesus is there.

It's the Super Bowl of the Skies! No ticket required. In a world of people addicted to screens, countless millions of us are stopping everything to see a spectacle in the skies. When a celestial switch is flipped and the lights go out. The solar eclipse of 2024. Millions are traveling to be in the path of the total blackout known as totality. Towns in the path of full eclipse are getting rich quick. Hotel rooms, usually $150, are going for $600 and $700 a night. If we didn't know better, a lot of us would likely freak out as the sun disappeared. The ancient Mayans did. They thought the sun had been eaten - and they had some pretty elaborate rituals to stay safe. Now our rituals will be simpler. Weird glasses and everyone looking reverently at the sky. Now from our side of things the eclipse is a not-to-be-missed big event, but its galactic explanation is remarkably simple. Something comes between Earth and the Sun, its source of light. The moon is that "something." In totality, it gets totally dark. Now while solar eclipses are relatively rare, we experience eclipse personally a lot more frequently than we realize. Not in the sky. But in ourselves. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stuck in the Eclipse." We all know those times when life turns dark. When our heart is broken. A relationship is broken. Our dream is broken. Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint the reason for the darkness we feel in our soul. But there is this unrelenting loneliness... this unexplainable sadness... this uneasy fear... this unsettling despair. And it turns dark. It's easy to get lost in the dark. To make choices that only deepen the darkness. To let our thoughts go to dangerous places. To believe lies about our worth... our life... our future. There are a lot of factors can contribute to our emotional darkness, but I think much, if not most, of our darkness has a source beyond our circumstances. Something has come between us and our Source of light. And that source is revealed in the Bible in these words. Speaking of our Creator, the orbit we were made for, it says, "All things were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). In just six words, God gives us the answer to life's big question - "Why am I here?" Answer: I'm created by God and for God. Not a religion about God, but for a relationship with God. Then why the spiritual eclipse we live in so much of the time? It must be that something has come between us and Him. But He loves us enough to tell us what it is. Because He's the source of all the light in our life - lasting love... purpose... security... a peace stronger than our storms... a strength greater than our fears. Here's God says has come between us. "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). Sin - that's me doing my life my way instead of His way. Me saying, "God, you run the universe - I'll do me." And the Sun stops shining. When it goes dark in my soul, I've let some sin come between me and my God. I can try everything to dispel the darkness, but nothing can bring back the Sun until the spiritual obstruction between us is forgiven and forsaken. Listen to the hope Jesus talks about our word for today from the Word of God in John 8:12 - "I am the light of the world. He that follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." On Good Friday, I was thinking eclipse as I read again the account of Jesus' death on the cross. It says, "From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land." Just as He was saying, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:45-46). At that moment Jesus was carrying all our sins in His soul (1 Peter 2:24). All the garbage of my life and yours. Paying my spiritual death penalty. And all the darkness of all our sin came between God the Father and God the Son. God was turning His back on His Son so He would never have to turn His back on us. And why? The Bible says, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). Without Him, the eclipse will last forever. With Him, the Light floods my soul. Sin is forgiven. Guilt is gone. Death has no fear. I am safe. I am never alone again. The Sun has risen. Never to set again.

My wife and I got a late start for our drive to North Carolina this one particular trip, and we had a 12-hour drive from New Jersey to cover. So we thought we'd make a motel reservation somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. We got there pretty late and saw this disgruntled looking man leaving the lobby, heading for his car. And it was not the look of a man who had just received good news. When I walked up to the check-in desk - nobody home, just a sign that read, "Back in a few minutes." Well, while I was waiting, several more weary travelers rolled in, and they started forming a line behind me. The clerk, of course, finally reappeared, only to be greeted by a line of Interstate zombies in urgent need of a room. I had a guaranteed reservation so it was okay. But when she asked and found out that no one else did, she uttered those dreaded words, "I'm sorry, no vacancy." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Sign on the Door of Your Heart." Those two words are tough words to be welcomed with. Just ask Jesus. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 1:12. It says, "Jesus came to His own but His own did not receive Him." Jesus comes to people He created and they have no room for Him in their lives. That started the night He was born. His earthly Father and His about-to-deliver Mother were desperate for a room. But remember the innkeeper put out that sign that said No Vacancy. That sign has greeted Jesus many times when He's knocked on the door of a human heart - maybe yours. This verse says, "His own did not receive Him." He has a double claim to our hearts. First, because He made us, He's got the right of creation. But secondly, He paid for us. The Bible says there is an eternal death penalty hanging over each of our heads. The Bible says, "The soul that sins, it will die." We're all that soul that sins. We've all taken charge of a life that God gave us and that He was supposed to run. We've earned the death penalty for that sin. And God could have left it that way. But instead, in the incredible act of total love for you and me, in the Bible's words, "God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not die but have eternal life." And now the One who died for you knocks on the door of your heart again, but not forever. One day you will, in a sense, be knocking on the door of heaven. And if you have never opened your heart for Jesus to become your own Savior from your own sin, there'll be no vacancy there for those who had no vacancy for Him here. I pray the rest of this verse in John 1:12 will be about you today. It says, "Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." Look, if you've left Jesus outside, and you don't want to risk turning Him away one more time, please this very day realize that the knocking at the door is from Jesus himself. The Bible says of Him, "I am standing at the door and knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in." But the handle on the door of your heart is on the inside. You open up to Jesus and He will bring into your life all the love, all the forgiveness, all the heaven, all the meaning you've never had before. Our website is to help you be sure you know this Jesus, that you belong to Him. To make this your Jesus day. Would you tell Him, "Jesus, this is the day you are welcomed into my heart, the one you died to save. I'm Yours." And then go to our website ANewStory.com. The Son of God has waited in line for a long time. Maybe He has knocked many times, but every time He's knocked you've been busy, you've been distracted. He's been greeted with "Sorry, no vacancy." Don't risk that one more day. Today open your heart to Jesus and say, "Lord, you died for me. Come in."

You sit there staring at the phone for 45 minutes. There's this girl you really want to ask out, but every time you try to pick up the phone to call her, you freeze. Finally, you realize she probably isn't going to call you, and the phone isn't going to call her all by itself. So, you punch in her number. Are you still afraid? Yes. But courage is not the absence of fear, it's the disregard of it! So here goes! Yes, that actually was my life at one time. That battle with fear must be exponentially greater when there's a life-or-death situation where you could make a difference. Like the day a commuter flight crashed on takeoff from the Lexington, Kentucky airport. Fifty passengers - only one survived - the co-pilot. He owes his life to three emergency workers who were there as the flames began to engulf the plane. They said the heat from thousands of gallons of flaming jet fuel was almost overwhelming. There was a lot of reason to be afraid. But they went in anyway. One of the workers put it this way: "We just knew we had to get him out of there." He's alive today because they did. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why You Matter So Much to the People You Know." If you belong to Jesus Christ, you've probably heard sermons about how you're supposed to "witness" and "share your faith." Well, research shows that only a really small percentage of us Christians ever tell anyone what we know about Jesus Christ. If it's just "witnessing" or "sharing your faith," it's one thing not to do it. If it's the difference between someone within your reach living or dying, it's something much bigger. And that's exactly what it is - life-or-death. There's a simple eight-word command in Jude 23. It is our word for today from the Word of God. It captures the urgency of the mission that God has assigned to every follower of Jesus. Here are your orders and mine: "Snatch others from the fire and save them." The fire is the awful eternity that awaits anyone you know who doesn't know your Jesus. Jesus took the punishment for their sins so they wouldn't have to, but they have to put their trust in Him. And to do that, they have to understand what Jesus did for them on the cross. And someone's going to have to tell them about that, someone who knows this Jesus, someone who knows them. You have that information upon which their eternity depends. And because you're already a part of their life, they're more likely to listen to you than probably any other Christian on earth. It's our fear, though, that keeps us from going in for the rescue isn't it? What can help you overcome that fear, the fear that's kept you from telling people you know about your Jesus, maybe over and over again? First, understanding that this really is life-or-death, not just sharing your beliefs with someone. Without Jesus, the Bible says, they will "be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). He doesn't want that. He died so that wouldn't have to happen, but they need to know that. Secondly, you have to realize that fear always goes with rescue; rescue always means risk. It did for Jesus - it does for you. The fear is real, but it doesn't have to decide what you do. Listen to the words of the man who went into that burning plane, "We just knew we had to get him out of there." That's what will open your mouth. Deciding that whatever you're risking to tell them about Jesus, it can't be anywhere near as terrible as what will happen if you don't tell them. You can't just leave them lost. You can't just let them die without a chance. You're in a position to rescue them. This isn't just witnessing. This isn't just sharing your faith. It's rescuing the dying. Thank God you were snatched from the fire. Now it's your turn to "snatch others from the fire and save them."

Now it's always been my impression that the police like to have the element of surprise in their favor. Suddenly there's a police car coming up behind you, or appearing out of nowhere. That's why I was surprised by something I saw when I was meeting with some staff we had in Latin America in Guadalajara, Mexico. At night we were driving around with our Director, Timothy, and we saw a police car in front of us. Now, he was in no particular hurry, but his lights were flashing. Timothy said, "You know, the police cars here do that all the time. They leave their lights on whether they are on call or not." Now, that's an interesting approach to law enforcement - let them know you're coming. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Warning You Can't Afford to Ignore." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 24:30. Jesus says, "At that time the sign of the Son of Man (that's Him) will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory." Look, Jesus lets us know here - He's coming back! The world is not done with Him. There's no doubt about how it's all going to end. The same Jesus who ascended into heaven after his resurrection will return to this earth. The first time He came to take the death sentence for our sins. The second time He's coming to take over. It's described again over in Luke 21:27. Here we are in the words of Jesus, He says, "At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory." What time? Well, verses 10 and 11 say, "There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places and fearful events and great signs from Heaven." Actually the Bible describes many signs that will come just before Jesus returns. The warning lights will come on first. A lot of those signs sound strangely familiar. Like the Bible says there will be a nation of Israel, before Jesus comes back, and for two thousand years there wasn't. There is now. There will be great turbulence in the environment, and there is. They'll talk about trying to make peace in the Middle East, but there will be turmoil in the Middle East. Jesus said the Gospel will spread to the ends of the earth to every nation. That's a prophecy that can finally be fulfilled now by the technology that reaches every corner of the planet. Now, is Jesus coming soon? I don't know. But I know He'll return to a world that looks very much like ours is starting to look. Here's the warning of Jesus in Matthew 24:44. "You must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him." He's coming. The warning lights are on. Are you ready? Well, only if you have asked this Jesus to be your personal Savior from the penalty of your personal sin. Here's John 3:18, " Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the Name of God's one and only Son." Now, what does it mean to believe in Him? It's recognizing that your sin is a life or death issue. And that your only hope of forgiveness, your only hope of heaven is the One who loved you enough to pay your sin bill, Jesus Christ. And you believe when you consciously put all your trust in Him to be your personal rescuer from your personal sin. Knowing that He rose from the dead and He's ready to walk into your heart at your invitation. If you've never done that you're not ready for His coming. Whether it's His second coming to earth or the time He comes for you at your last heartbeat. If you'd like to be sure you belong to Jesus, and why wouldn't you? Why would you risk another day without Him? Let me invite you to our website, because it's there to help you get this relationship started? There's nothing for you to join. There is no religion to give you, but we can show you from God's Word how to begin this relationship. Just go to ANewStory.com. It's time to get serious about Jesus, because He is your future. Someday, maybe soon, one way or the other you're going to be facing Jesus. He's warned you He's coming. It's time to get ready.

You hear a lot about plea bargaining in court cases these days, but plea bargaining... that's not a new idea. Every child learns the art of negotiating his way out of his disobedience. You might call it the art of "yeah, but." For example, "You don't have your homework" says the teacher. "Oh, yeah, but the dog ate it." Or, "My grandma died." For the sixth time? See, that art is first developed at home. "You didn't call," says dad. "Yeah, but there was no phone." "Yeah, but my watch blew up. I didn't know what time it was." See, children are experts at knowing what they should do and then finding ways to excuse not doing it. Well, father isn't impressed. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The First Church of 'Yeah, But.'" King Saul, the first king of Israel, has been given a major assignment by the Lord who made him king. His job is spiritual cancer surgery. The cancer is called the Amalekites. They are a nation that bitterly opposed everything God has wanted. They are a pagan nation, and the instructions of Saul are that he is to go in as God's instrument and basically destroy what he finds there to eliminate this spiritual cancer that has poisoned so much for so long. Okay, instructions from our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Samuel 15:9 are that he is to totally destroy what he finds. But it says, "Saul and the army spared the king and the best of the sheep and the cattle, and fat calves and the lambs - everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely. But everything that was despised and weak, that they totally destroyed." Well, Samuel, God's representative, comes to him, and when he does Saul says to Samuel, "'The Lord bless you. I have carried out the Lord's instructions.' Samuel said, 'What is this bleating of sheep in my ears?' Saul answered, 'The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and the cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God. But we totally destroyed the rest.'" See, Saul belonged to the First Church of "Yeah, But." God said to destroy everything. "Yeah, but they made me do it! We'll do everything that we can that's religious with it; we'll do spiritual things with it. I did some of what God said." God doesn't buy it. He doesn't accept rationalizations, excuses, and negotiation. Later in the chapter he says, "To obey is better than sacrifice. Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you've rejected the Lord's Word, He's rejected you as being king." See, God wants obedience, not activity. He calls 'yeah, but' obedience rebellion and arrogance. God's Word on an issue is final word; no negotiating. Oh, the excuse might sound convincing to you, but God is not impressed. For example, "Do not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever." "Oh, yeah, but he's a nice guy and I'll reach him for the Lord someday." God has spoken. He says, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth." "Yeah, but we need security." God has spoken. "Love your enemies." "Yeah, but they're..." God has spoken. "Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure." "Yeah, but we're in love." God has spoken. The point is that God's Word on any subject is the final word. You'll know that eventually, after your "yeah, but" leads to heartache, disappointment, and shame. Face the truth now. Don't deceive yourself by twisting God's Word to fit what you want. Change your situation to fit God's Word. You don't pull the island of God's Word to the boat of your ideas. You pull the boat to the island. Everyone in the First Church of 'Yeah, But' is wrong.

"We were closer when we were poorer." The lady who told me that was speaking about her marriage, and she wasn't poor any more. You could tell that by looking at her. She was very affluent. But she was telling me that she and her husband were closer in the early days of their relationship when they were pinching pennies, and scraping by, and wondering how they were going to pay the rent, and fighting the wolf at the door. But they were at least fighting the wolf together. Now, since that conversation with that lady I've had many opportunities to quote her at women's luncheons and dinners. And I always see women's heads nodding in agreement as if that's been the case in their life too. Apparently there's something about not having much that can make a relationship stronger. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Very Needy, Very Close." The Apostle Paul knew about poor making you close, in life's most important relationship that is. He talked about it in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in 2 Corinthians 12:9. He says (quoting the Lord), "But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore," Paul says, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power will rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." I've had the wonderful privilege of meeting believers from a lot of other countries: Haiti, Africa, India, a lot of places like that. And I've noticed something about them. It's something, honestly, that I covet. They seem to live in the supernatural more than I do, and more than most Christians I know in this country. They seem to pray powerfully and they expect and honestly they often get miracles. They're radically Christian. And I feel like a pale office worker who hasn't been out in the sun all year, standing next to someone who just got back from Florida with a savage tan. I want what they have. And one believer summed up their secret. He said, "Ron, we live in a poor village. We have no regular support. We don't have organizations or manuals or tools. We only have God." I can't get those words out of my heart, "We only have God." See, they're rich in God because they're poor in earth. They're very needy and they're very close to God. Now, our Christianity is active, and sophisticated, and well-managed, well-planned, well-financed, and often pretty powerless. The early church had little machinery and much power. We seem to have a lot of machinery and, yeah, little power. I guess there are three roads that we rich Christians can take. One, we can continue with our mediocrity, doing the biggest things that man can do. Two, we can learn God's power through a time when He strips us of all the earth things that we are depending on. Or three, we could use all God has given us, but put no trust in it. You know, couples can have a lot but hold it loosely and still love each other as if they were living on pork and beans. A Christian can live in America and have it all but ask God to teach them childlike dependency. All that we have blinds us to our total need - our desperate need - of God and His power. We're as needy as the Christian from India, barely surviving in his village. We just don't recognize it. We just don't admit it. We just don't acknowledge it. We just don't live like it. When you recognize how poor we really are, that's when you're really rich. Whether we live in a condo or a hut, whether we eat filet or rice, we only have God.

You can always tell when Easter's on its way. All the Jesus shows start popping up on TV. And that's a good thing. I remember a few years ago there was one that was pretty good called A.D. - The Bible Continues. That's the sequel to a series called The Bible. When that series The Bible showed the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus, it was amazing. The social media lit up with shocked viewers who were saying, "I had no idea what Jesus went through." I'm glad they got an idea. The brutalizing of Jesus was so violent that Hollywood had to make The Passion of the Christ movie R-rated. But for all the realism and all the effects that Hollywood has brought to its' portrayal of Jesus' death, there's something very important they haven't shown, because they can't. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Good Friday - What the Jesus Movies Miss." You see, what they miss revolves around that heart-wrenching moment before Jesus breathes His last. When He cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?" Because, you see, that was the decisive moment in the eternal mission of Jesus - the moment when God the Father abandoned the One the Bible calls "His one and only Son." Rending that holy relationship that had never been broken throughout all the ages of eternity until that horrific but holy moment when my sin forced God to turn His back on His Son so He wouldn't have to turn His back on me or on you. I'm the rebel, the hijacker of the throne made for God to reign in my soul. I'm the one who pushed the God of 100 billion galaxies to the margins of a life that He gave me. If I harbored any illusions that I could ever get into God's heaven by doing some good things, that illusion dies at the foot of Jesus' bloody cross. That's where the price of human sin is spelled out in blood for all to see. That's what it takes to pay for a lifetime of rebellion against God. That's why the Bible says, "The wages of sin is death." Death as in forever being cut off from a holy God, who cannot touch sin. He's the source of everything good. You see, that penalty can only be paid by me, the sinner, who earned those wages or unthinkably, by a sinless substitute, Jesus. Who in that unfathomable moment of unspeakable, soul agony was going to my hell - taking on himself all the eternal torment of a world of sinners. It is a love I cannot comprehend. It is a love I can't resist. Those much-traveled Bible words well up in me every time I visit that cross. Like a million-voice choir in my soul, and those words are our word for today from the Word of God from John 3:16, "God so loved the world..." God loved me. "...so much that He gave His one and only Son that whoever (even me)... whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Have you ever grabbed the hand of the Savior who died for you as if you were a drowning person grabbing a lifeguard? As if He's your only hope? Because He is. The only response to that sacrifice is to say, "Jesus, I'm yours. You bought me. You've got me. Here's my life. Here's my heart. Here's the throne of my life." If you've never done that, you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." And I would love to give you all the information you need to begin that relationship and be sure you have it. If you'll just go to our website - ANewStory.com. You can go to His heaven because He took your hell. That Good Friday was an awful Friday. Oh, but it was such a good Friday.

It started with an almost unthinkable radio transmission to an emergency number. "The entire Key Bridge has fallen into the harbor." Unbelievable, I mean, and then the video - like something from a sci-fi movie. One minute the heavily-traveled Outer Harbor Bridge in Baltimore, stood there majestically. The next minute it was gone, in pieces in the river. And then the deep sadness of knowing the workers on the bridge had gone with it. As I awoke to that heartbreaking scene on the news, I immediately had two reactions. One was to go to God for all the people who were hurt, or lost, or missing, grieving, or helping. Because He is, as the Bible says, "The God of all comfort and the Father of all compassion" (2 Corinthians 1:3). My second thought was, "The 'always be there' things in our life are like that bridge aren't they can be there one minute, then so suddenly be gone." That collapsing bridge, I thought, is a picture of what happens in so many grieving hearts. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You about "A Tragic Collapse, and an Empty Grave." You know each day, all around us, people watch a piece of their life infrastructure crumble before their eyes. That marriage that was supposed to bring so much happiness, not so much pain. The future that is suddenly threatened by health issues that may change everything. The plans that just blew up... the relationship on the rocks... the child in trouble... the return of a ghost from the past. The Bible bluntly calls out how insecure our security really is. In Job it says, "What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider's web. They lean on the web, but it gives way" (Job 8:14-15). A fire. A tornado. A drunk driver crossing the line. A heart attack. It can collapse in a moment. Like the day I suddenly lost the love of my life. The day before was filled with the joy of our first grandchild's graduation. My Karen was so alive. The next afternoon, she was gone. My mirror, my cheerleader, my wise counselor, my very best friend - a lot came crashing down that day. One thing did not. In one of Jesus' many parables, He tells about two houses - one built on sand, one on rock. It's our word for the day from the Word of God, from Luke 6:48-49. He said they both look good until a violent storm comes. And then He described, when it hits the house "without a foundation" the verse says "the floods sweep down against that house, and it will collapse in a heap of ruins." Jesus goes on to say, "But when the floodwaters break against the house with its "foundation on solid rock... it stands firm because it is well built" (Luke 6:48-49). The storms, the crashes, the collapses, they're actually reminders that we were never meant to build everything on life's shifting sand. We need the "solid rock." And God reveals where our restless, fearful hearts can find it. In the words of Scripture, "He has planted eternity in the human heart" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We're created for something that's indestructible. That lasts forever. Which is why so many searching hearts turn to Jesus. Because He put a transforming word in front of the word "life." The word "eternal." The Bible tells us "that God has given us eternal life, quote, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son, has life!" (1 John 5:11-12). There's only one Man who can give us unshakable, unlosable life - the one Man who proved He has it. Of the estimated 100 billion people who have lived on this planet, only one has ever walked out of His grave under His own power. And that's Jesus. The One who, on Good Friday, loved me so much that He poured out His life on a cross to pay for the sin that had cut me off from God. On a dark May day, I lost the love of my life. But not the One who loves me most. And who promises, "Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). Unending life. Unlosable love. Finally, the eternity hole in my heart filled by the One it was made for. This is the glory of Easter. For when the Savior who walked out of His grave walks into your life, something transforming happens. You're safe. Forever.

First, the forsythia exploded - those little yellow flowers that announced to our area where we were living that spring was finally springing. Then the dogwood explosion detonated. It was really hard to be in a bad mood when those beautiful pink and white blossoms suddenly appeared everywhere. Happens probably where you live too, maybe just at different times. Actually, the word "suddenly" needs a little work. The coming of the forsythia and the dogwood, and all the other stars of the Spring Extravaganza - they've been getting ready to happen for a long time. We couldn't see it, but there's been this invisible process of nourishing and growth, and those nubby little buds start to peek out. And then, one day you start down the street and it's blazing with color that wasn't even there the day before. But sudden? Not really. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Spring is Never Sudden." You might be waiting for spring in some part of your life right now. But things right now still appear to be pretty brown and lifeless. Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 4:26-29. You might need that today. It's an important description of the processes of God - processes that are probably at work right now in those very areas of your life that seem like they will never see spring. Here's what God says, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain; first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." Okay, here's how God operates: First, there's the seed of what He wants to do, placed in the ground by faith. And then, as far as we can see, nothing is happening. Just ask any farmer you know. But there is, in fact, invisible growth going on the whole time. It would be a very damaging mistake to keep digging up that seed wouldn't it. You know, "I got to see if anything is happening here." You're going to ruin it that way. The invisible growing time is then followed by some first signs of life. And ultimately, the long-awaited crop appears...but not really suddenly. Just like those beautiful flowers of spring. Often when God is answering our prayer or preparing a great work, it looks for a long time as if nothing is happening. You might need to remember that right now. Think about what you've worked so hard for, prayed so hard for, and there's little or no visible result. A family member or friend you've tried to reach - or who's spiritually wandering. Maybe it's a medical or financial or spiritual breakthrough you need, or just a long-standing need of some other kind. Some days it looks as if the prayer, the cry, the dream of your heart will never happen. And you feel like asking, as Mary and Martha must have asked when Jesus did not arrive in time to heal their dying brother Lazarus, "Where are You, Lord?" He would answer quietly and invisibly, "I'm preparing the answer." By the way, Mary and Martha got more than they could have ever dreamed. They didn't get a healing - they got a resurrection! So, don't give up now, don't panic, don't try to figure out your own solution, don't push too hard or don't keep digging up the seed. Slowly, but surely, the processes of God will blossom and you will reap what you have sown. Just remain faithful in the part He's asked you to play. Just because you can't see God working doesn't mean He isn't working. Just think of all those spectacular spring blossoms. They were a long time in coming, but they came. And so will your spring.

When my wife got a headache I would try to be sympathetic. But occasionally I'd just say, "Well, honey, you know pain always attacks at the weakest point." Sensitive guy, huh? Well, one time my wife was having headaches every day, and burning eyes, and stinging eyes and I really was sympathetic. And she attributed it to the long hours that she'd been working, and she had been. She barely even noticed that her vision was slowly becoming worse. Some time went by. She finally took the time to go to the optometrist, and he said, "Lady, you need glasses." She said that was the day her eyes stopped burning. The headaches stopped, and the road signs suddenly cleared up. She only had one regret. She said, "Why did I wait so long?" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Avoiding Life's Biggest Mistake." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from this incredible incident in Exodus 8:9-10. Let me give you the scene: God's people, the Jews, have been slaves in Egypt for centuries. God sends Moses to give Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, this message, "Let my people go!" Pharaoh resists God's mandate, and God has sent a series of plagues on Egypt as a result. As we enter these verses, Egypt has been overrun with frogs everywhere. Finally, he's had enough. Here's what he said, "Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, 'Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people and I'll let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.' Moses said to Pharaoh, 'I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs.'" Listen to Pharaoh's answer, "Tomorrow." What? Pharaoh chooses another night with the frogs! He's not alone. Many, many people over the years have had an offer from God in front of them and they have said, "Tomorrow." They have, in essence, chosen another night, another month, another year with the frogs. Listen to Jesus, "Come to Me all you who are weary and heavily burdened and I will give you rest." It could be that Jesus has knocked on the door of your heart so many times and He's been saying, "Give your life to Me, and you'll finally have that peace that has eluded you for so long." And you've just said, "Tomorrow." Jesus stands ready to fill that hole in your heart with the relationship with Him that you were made for. He stands ready to replace the death penalty of hell that we all deserve with eternal life in heaven that none of us deserves. It's just like Moses of old, Jesus says, "You pick the time. I will do all of that this day if you will open the door of your heart to let Me in - to trust Me as your personal Savior from your personal sin." And over and over you have picked the time, "Later." So many who have said "yes" to Jesus have only one regret. "Why didn't I do this sooner?" Why postpone the relief that only Dr. Jesus can give you? One warning here: Pharaoh rejected several more times until the Bible says, "His heart was hardened and he could no longer respond to God's mercy." That's the deadly outcome of saying over and over again to Jesus, "Tomorrow." If you've never given yourself to the man who gave His life to take you to heaven, to erase the sin that will keep you out of heaven, I hope today you will say, "Jesus, I am yours." I want to invite you to visit our website. There you will be able to find out how you can be sure you belong to Jesus and know that, this day, when He died on the cross it was to give you life forever. That website is ANewStory.com. God's command is clear. Listen to God's word: "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." Are you hearing His voice? You feeling the tug? Don't let your heart get harder with one more "no." One more tomorrow could be one too many.

It was some years ago, but I remember when they closed our local airport. There was a violent storm at Newark airport, and thousands of people had their plans suddenly changed. Storms have a way of doing that, don't they? There's a snow storm, for example, and schools and businesses oh, they all had their plans made for the day, and suddenly all those plans are out the window. Meetings that had to be today are amazingly rescheduled. Planes and ships are diverted or blown off course. You see, a storm is a classic embodiment of that familiar phrase, "Due to circumstances beyond our control..." Maybe you're in the middle of a storm right now. Your life, your plans are being blown around, and it seems like everything is out of control. I've got good news for you today. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Surprises in the Storm." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is going to come from Acts 27. It's about surprises in the storm. Now, I don't know where your storm is right now, but maybe there's something that is just blowing your life out of control. By the way, if you're not in a storm, well just stay tuned - you'll have yours pretty soon. That's just the way life is. Now maybe in your life right now things are just suddenly out of control financially or at work. Or there's a family situation that you just can't seem to change. Or it could be that your health has suddenly become turbulent. Somehow there's an out-of-control time in your life. Well, you'll be able to relate to Paul's storm in Acts 27. What was happening was that he was being taken by Roman soldiers on a grain ship from Israel to Rome. They had a lot of water to cross to get from where Israel is and to cross the ocean and to get over to Italy where they needed to be, and in the middle of all this they encountered a terrible storm that lasted for 14 days. Hurricane strength, we're told in Acts 27:20, "When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved." Now, if you've ever felt like all your points of reference were gone, you couldn't see the sun, the moon, the stars - all the things you usually count on, the storm was that bad. The things you were able to hang on to before, they're not there. Well, maybe you're there right now, and you know what, it is easy to give up hope. Well the outcome of the story you need to take note of. It says, "Everyone reached land in safety." They were blown into the rocks after two weeks, but it says they were on an island. And in chapter 28 we found out the island was called Malta. Do you know where Malta is? It's on the southern coast of Italy. It's right where they had been heading all the time. Oh, they'd been out of control for two weeks or so it seemed, but the whole time they had been out of control they had been right on course and so are you. Nahum 1:3 says, "The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and the storm." It may feel like you're either going nowhere right now or you're on the verge of disaster - maybe on the verge of being blown on the rocks. But remember, the surprise in the storm is this: that God uses these out-of-control times. He uses them to blow His children right where they were supposed to go all along. I know it feels like your life is out of control, but you know what? You're really right on course.

I realize now that I really wasn't ever going to make it as a tennis player. Oh, I played the most with my son. And, I think I had a decent serve for a beginner. But I had trouble returning my son's shots. Now, I think you'll agree that is a basic skill for succeeding in tennis. You do have to get it back to the other guy. Actually, that's important in a lot of sports. For example: volleyball - you lose the point when you can't return the shot - ping-pong - oh, you know, there are a lot of places where that's important. In fact, in most arenas returning the shot - well, that's an important skill to be cultivated. In one arena it's a skill to be eliminated. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hold Your Fire." Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 2. I'll be reading verse 21. "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps." Now let's stop for just a minute here. Peter is saying that this world needs more of Jesus. Now, there are a lot of people around you who are desperate to have Jesus walk among them, and He can. He can walk into your office. He can be in your school. He can be in your family through you, because He's in you. Now, the Bible here says that Christ is our example, and the Greek word that's used there is the word that talked about a copy head on a school child's slate. And as they were learning their alphabet - alpha, beta, gamma, delta...the Greek alphabet - they would just simply copy the letter at the top and try to make their letter as much like the letter at the top as they could - an exact copy. Now, this says that Christ is our copy head. He's the one we're trying to make an exact replica of. We're trying to be as much like Him in our life as possible so that when people come in contact with us, they come in contact with Him. Now, when is it hardest to follow that example? When is it hardest to be like Jesus? Well, when it's most important to be. Verse 23: "When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate. When He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly." The real proof that shows a person's real character is what he does when he's being shot at. Now, you notice what happened to Jesus here? He was insulted, but there was no retaliation. They hurt Him and yet there were no threats coming back. Our Master was abusively, horribly treated - He was deeply hurt. And boy did He have the power to hurt back like you and I never will, and He chose not to! Now, when are you most likely to sin? Well, probably when someone is really attacking you, criticizing you, coming after you, when they're firing something at you. Maybe you've been betrayed recently, or you've been deeply wounded verbally, or maybe you've even been hurt physically. Everything in you cries out, "I'll fix him!" "I'll fix her!" Your mind starts racing through ways that you can retaliate - ways you can even the score. And now here comes the Jesus test. Does knowing Christ make any difference when it really counts? In Romans 12 the Apostle Paul says, "Do not repay anyone evil for evil; do not take revenge, but leave room for God's wrath." Let God even the score - He's much better at it than you are. Jesus turned to His Father for justice. An eye for an eye is not the way of Jesus. Even from His cross He says of those who have nailed Him to that cross, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." That's the example for us. When you refuse to return the shot, you refuse to shrink to the level of your attackers - you refuse to let them control you. And more importantly, you rise to the level of your Lord, who gives you the grace not to hurt back. Life isn't tennis. In Christ you win if you don't return the shot. So, my brother and my sister, hold your fire!

Some years ago for my wife's birthday, she was given a gift of dinner at a restaurant that is themed to look like an Air Force base during World War II. So we went out to dinner because it was a gift and we had a great time, and everybody there kind of gets into the atmosphere. You know, the dress is appropriate. They're wearing Red Cross aprons there like army nurses. And the music is 1940s music, and all the decorations are '40s and sort of World War II things. It was a lot of fun! The posters on the wall though reminded us of G.I.s of that generation who were told not to talk about troop movements, assignments, schedules, and their destination. In fact during World War II the motto was, "Loose lips sink ships." And that's true. If word got out to the enemy, even indirectly where the troop movements were going to be, it could very well be that that carrier would be torpedoed or hit by a Kamikaze and it could cost many lives. I'll tell you, I saw this one poster in the restaurant that has haunted me for a long time. It was a drawing of a G.I. drowning in the ocean. He's just barely got his head above water. He's desperately pointing one finger toward us and saying two words, "Someone talked." Boy, that was heavy. Someone had and he was the victim of someone's loose lips. Well, that war is long over, but loose lips? Oh, they're still causing fatalities. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Someone Talked." Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Proverbs 18:21. It's a short statement, it's a powerful statement, it's a convicting statement: "The tongue has the power of life and death." That's an awesome power described in the Word of God that you can, with a few words, deeply wound another person. In a sense, you can emotionally sink them or kill them. You can with a few words ruin a reputation, destroy a close relationship, maybe ruin your own reputation, or leave a scar on somebody that may never heal. I can still see the desperate image of that drowning G.I. shouting, "Someone talked!" Could it be that you've sunk another person because you talked? You talked too much, you talked too critically. Think of the damage we do when we disobey Jesus' command to take our problems only to the person we have the problem with. Maybe we've spread the poison to other people and we've victimized our brother with our loose lips - the gossip about another person that marks their most precious possession, their reputation - those critical words spoken behind someone's back - those angry words that were spoken to someone's face. We can sink people's lives with our words. World War II G.I.s were warned not to say the things they could say, because they were wanting to save lives. See, that's still an important warning and maybe it's a time for us to pray as the Holy Spirit points this out inside us, "Lord, help me to stop this tongue of mine before more hurting words come out." "The tongue has the power of life and death." Loose lips do sink ships and people. May we never be the guilty party to the sinking of another person. To be that someone who talked. That someone who knew better.

It was the biggest snowstorm of the year. Not the kind you dig out from very quickly. And the evening news showed one hazard of such a storm that was really out of the ordinary - a hazard that shouldn't have happened. The man in the news had started the challenging job of shoveling the sidewalk in front of his house, which happened to be on a main street. At the same time, of course, the city snowplows were doing what they should do. They were busily moving the snow that was clogging those main streets, and that's when it happened. Are you guessing? Somehow it was captured on video for all of us news watchers to see. The snowplow roared past the man on the sidewalk, showered him with this heavy shower of snow spraying out either side, and literally buried Mr. Shoveler in a sudden avalanche from the street and from the sky. The snowplow plowed onward, and the operator never even knew what he had done. Thankfully, the man on the sidewalk was able to dig out unharmed, but he was stunned. After all, snowplows are for unburying streets, not burying people. Right? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Human Snowplows." So apparently the driver was so focused on what he was doing that he inadvertently snowplowed a person. Excuse me, but you don't have to drive a snowplow to make that mistake. Sadly, I've done it way too many times in my life, and it's possible you could be unintentionally snowplowing some people you know. Look, maybe you're like me. You're a make-it-happen, goal-oriented, destination-oriented person. And God can really use those characteristics, but there is a downside if people get snowplowed because all you can see is your goal. Then there's the example of the man who had more to get done during His life than any man ever has - Jesus Christ. He was intensely goal-oriented, doing whatever it took to accomplish His life-saving mission. Listen, for example, to Luke 9:51. "As the time approached for Him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem." Look, it's why He had come, and He is not going to be deterred. But Jesus was no snowplow. In Luke 18, some of Israel's religious big shots are meeting with Jesus. The disciples are playing goalie, telling parents who are bringing their children to Jesus to take off, until "Jesus called the children to Him." He always had time for the children. They didn't have any votes to cast, they had no money to give Him, no keys to any doors, but He set aside everything to be with the kids. Then, in Luke 18:39-40, our word for today from the Word of God, we hear of His visit to Jericho, where the townsfolk wanted to make a good impression on Him. So, they told the local blind beggar to stop his embarrassing yelling for Jesus' attention. But here's what it says, "Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to Him." And Jesus took time with that man that nobody had time for, and He healed him. The man with more to do than anyone ever had to do was more sensitive to the people along the way than anyone has ever been. And He is the one you're following. If you've been snowplowing people as you move toward your goals - maybe even your family, your coworkers - that's just too high a price to pay for progress. When you're moving fast, people can become something less than those precious "image of God" creations to you. They can become objects, obstacles, intrusions, tools just to get it done - but how totally unlike your Master that is. Long after your work is done and your mission has been accomplished, the people in your life will still be there. Don't ever let your work leave them buried by your human snowplow. They just matter too much to Jesus for that to happen.

There's a mountain in northern New Jersey that has the most intriguing view in the area. It's called Garrett Mountain - it's right over the city of Patterson, New Jersey. At the time that we lived there, Patterson happened to be the fourth poorest, middle-sized city in America. Now, if you just drove around Patterson - that's all you saw - you would think that that whole area of north Jersey is poor. But just beyond Patterson on the horizon, you can see Bergen County, New Jersey - some of the bedroom communities of New York City - some of the wealthiest communities in America. Now, if you just drove around some of those towns, you'd think this whole area is rich. If all you saw was Patterson, you'd say, "Boy, there's no countryside around here, is there?" If all you saw was Bergen County, you'd say, "There's no city here, is there?" See, I like Garrett Mountain, because it gives me a bigger view than I can get when I'm right in the middle of things. Because, up there, you can see the bigger picture. You know what, you might need a mountain like that right now. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Handle Frustrating People." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Samuel 8. I'll begin reading at verse 4. "All the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel. They said to him, 'You're old and your sons don't walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us such as all the other nations have.' But when they said, 'Give us a king to lead us' this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: 'Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they've rejected, they have rejected Me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now, listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.' Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king." Okay, Samuel has a very frustrating situation here. All of a sudden, the structure of the judge ruling Israel on God's behalf is coming unglued. He's being very unappreciated by the people that he has given so much for. Does that sound familiar to anybody? These people are off on a total tangent that He knows is wrong. They're trying to get a king, when all they really need is God ruling through the judges. Now, maybe you've got some frustrating people in your life? Different issues, but still frustrating people. You know how Samuel felt then. Do you notice what he did when the people frustrated him? It says, "So, he prayed to the Lord." What they did displeased Samuel, "So he prayed to the Lord." Doesn't say he told them off - didn't blow up. He takes the people and his feelings straight to the Lord when he's frustrated. Do you? See, it has two good results when you do that. First, the Lord gives Samuel the big picture. He says, "This isn't against you. It's part of a pattern." And he defuses the emotions. It's kind of like me on that mountain overlooking both the suburbs and the city in our area. You can see the whole picture when you take the frustration to the Lord. You can see where things are coming from; you can see where things are going. You're above that limited view you have when you're right in the middle of the aggravation. When you take the frustrating people to the Lord, He gives you the big picture instead of you just reacting to an incident. Secondly, He gives you a balanced response. He told Samuel to listen to them and then warn them. See, listening to frustrating people gives you credibility. They'll listen to you if you've listened to them. Then warning them fulfills your responsibility to tell them the results of the way they're going. See, some people listen without warning people. Some people warn people without listening to them. When people's actions displease you, frustrate you and hurt you, would you go to the Lord first? You know what He'll do? He'll take you up on a mountain where you can see the whole picture, and He'll help you respond in a balanced way. When people frustrate you, well go over their head. Go straight to the Throne Room of the King.

A lot of times the evening news will end with something like, "And now, we have some good news for today." They have to announce that because that's news - that there's good news! And you know what, it's pretty scary watching the news sometimes isn't it? You know they call it "breaking news" and sometimes it's just heartbreaking news. I listen to what is being said, for example, by the head of the United Nations. "The world has never been more threatened or divided. We are on the edge of an abyss," he said. He said nuclear conflict, once thought unthinkable, now is in the realm of possibility. And those nuclear scientists who, every year since the 1940s, have published the atomic energy bulletin and have a doomsday clock, have now moved it to 90 seconds to midnight. I've heard it over and over again, these words: "People are afraid." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Safe Place in a Scary World." So many growing dangers that are beyond our control. I guess we could panic, we could freeze, we could hide. Or, we can just try to ignore the dangers. Those are all bad ideas. I'll go with that iconic line from Franklin Roosevelt's First Inaugural. As a desperate America lay devastated by the Great Depression. Fearful of a dark future. The new President confronted head-on the greatest danger people were facing. He said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." That's still true today. Even as deadly storms, once so far away, loom so close to home. I've made up my mind - no matter how unsettling the news - that fear is our worst enemy. It paralyzes us... it distorts our judgment... it makes us reactive rather than proactive. And it scares our family - because the captain is scared. So I'm committed to a pretty simple strategy to have peace in a scary world. First, stay informed. Not just about sports or celebrities or music, but about what's happening in our world. Rumors and speculation, they fuel fear. Facts fuel wise decisions and reasonable responses. And then secondly, take reasonable precautions. You know, those steps that the medical and security folks keep telling us about. To wash your hands often, be careful around sick people, drink a lot of water. But after all is said and done, the really great antidote to fear is in my soul. Anchoring my life to something I can't lose. A deep recession, weather calamities, world events that threaten to endanger our once-safe bubble - they remind us that everything we hold in our hand is so vulnerable. So loseable. And that's a reason to fear. Unless my safety, and my security, and my identity is beyond the reach of any disease, any terror, any disaster. Even beyond death itself. There is, His name is Jesus. Because of His death for my sin on the cross, I now belong to the all-powerful God who rules a hundred billion galaxies. He's in charge. And I know He will never stop loving me. His love for this rebel was written in blood. His love for you was written in His blood. Our word for today from the Word of God, from Romans 5:1 and 11: "we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us... He has made us friends with God." Peace with God, that's peace in my soul. Whatever happens, no longer at the mercy of evil or sickness or disaster. God's got me now. Do you know that for sure? Do you know you belong to Him? Do you know the wall that your sin has created between you and Him has been torn down because your sin has been forgiven by the one who died for them? That would be Jesus. And if you've never put your life in His hands, in times like these, why would you have your life anywhere else? He is the safe place in the scary world. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." Go to our website and let me show you, there, how to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. God has said, "I will never leave you. I will never abandon you," and the Bible says, "therefore, I will have no fear" (Hebrews 13:5-6). Run to Him today, you'll never have to be afraid because God's got you.

Now it's been a while since it was a primetime television show. You might catch it every once in a while in the odd hours of the morning. But there was a time when it was a block-buster on television, and then it became some block-buster movies. When it was on TV, I tried never to miss it. It was called Mission Impossible. Now, maybe if you're old enough, you can remember the theme music. It always began with Jim Phelps, who was the head of the Impossible Missions Force. He'd get the latest assignment. And then he'd get some photos that described a mission that was considered by his superior virtually impossible. You remember the voice would come on and say, "Your mission, Jim, should you choose to accept it is..." And then they'd go on. And then in the old days they'd say, "This tape will self-destruct in 30 seconds." And it just all kind of blew up at that point. Well, Jim would then go back and put together his team, and the rest of the story was how they pulled off this assignment that was supposedly undoable. Now, I haven't seen Mission Impossible for a long time, but I don't need to. I live it. And maybe you do too...or you could. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Mission Impossible Isn't." Well, do you ever look at the week ahead, or the day ahead, or the month and just say, "Mission impossible! It can't work! I can't do it!" I do that. For example, I remember when I saw a week ahead of me that was a mountain of deadlines, and decisions, and responsibilities, and people. And I tell you the truth; I know what it is to panic when I look at that wall-to-wall, jam-packed week or month ahead. Maybe you do too? Well, at that point, I had been reading 2 Corinthians for my personal time with the Lord each morning, and that morning (and you know, the Lord is good about this), I just read the next passage, and He lovingly gave me a verse that changed everything. Now you might be facing a challenge or challenges that look like some unmovable mountain right now. Maybe it's family, or school, or at work, or maybe you've got some relational mountains to move. Maybe it's a ministry you're doing; maybe it's medical issues. It's not the tape that's about to self-destruct like that Mission Impossible; it's you. Well, listen to this beautiful, redemptive verse in 2 Corinthians 9:8. I committed it to memory at that moment. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." You say, "Whoa! Where is that?" That's 2 Corinthians 9:8. No loopholes... all, all, all, all, all. "God is going to give you all grace, in all things, at all times, having all that you need." There's no attorney on earth who could find a loophole there. And you know what the word abound means? It says, "God will make you abound..." Well, His grace abounding to you so you can abound in every good work. It means literally from the Greek, "more than enough," or "to be left over," or "to make extremely rich." It was the same word used to describe the feeding of the 5,000. Remember, they thought there wouldn't be enough for the crowd, and then instead they had 12 baskets of fragments leftover lunch to spare. That's the same word - leftovers, lots to spare. If you depend on the adrenalin of God's grace for this mountain, you will get it done and you will have resources left over if you're using His resources. And that impossible week, I've found out over and over again; those turn into one of the most supernatural weeks I've ever experienced, because I was riding on this promise. Everything happened; it happened better than I could have ever dreamed. See, God makes you extremely rich in grace so you can make others extremely rich through the good works you have to do. God plenty's us so we can plenty those around us. You have in Christ more than enough grace for every assignment God has given you. And that's why your Mission Impossible isn't impossible.

It was heart-wrenching. The whole world seemed to be talking about Brittany Maynard's medical death sentence. It happened some years ago, she was a young wife, in love with her husband, and looking forward to having children. And then she was told that her incurable cancer would, after a painful decline, take her young life. It was controversial. Her decision to take the pill that would end her life on the day - and in the way - of her choosing. Her state's "assisted suicide" law afforded her that choice. Her decision added a face and more fuel to what is one of the deeply emotional debates of our time. Should a person have the right to legally abbreviate their suffering and hasten their death? Now, some were very quick to pass judgment on a woman who was gone and being grieved. Some were quick to canonize her as the symbol of a crusade to legalize a decision like hers. But I was processing this kind of thing on a personal level. I couldn't help thinking about the young people we've loved who've chosen to die because of the pain of a break-up or a tragedy in their family. I've been at their agonizing funerals. I've held the shattered loved ones, I've seen the ones devastated for life by their loved one's choice. And then, I remember the people who've deeply touched my life - and many others - with this supernatural hope they radiated from their deathbed suffering. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Death's Big Question." For me, I cling to the Bible's assertion that "all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be." And, as Job said, that "man's days are determined; You have decreed the number of his months..." (Job 14:5). In other words God has given me my life. But for all the questions this tragic situation has raised, they leave unaddressed the most important question death raises. Not about what leads up to it. But what happens after it. Again, I'm driven to the only One I believe can be trusted as the authority on that question. The One who gave me my life. In the world's best-selling book, the Bible, it says, "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Well to say the least, that's disturbing. But it's vital to know. I actually think many of us have a sense of that buried somewhere in our soul. That we'll meet God on the other side of our last heartbeat. And we will face our defiance of the One who made us. By pushing Him to the edge of the life He gave us. And hijacking the running of our lives from our Creator. Our worst nightmare is being unprepared for my appointment with God. That's why in our word for today from the Word of God in Amos 4:12, the Jewish prophet Amos said, "Prepare to meet your God." Well I know only one way to be ready to meet a sinless God. My only hope is to have every sin of my life - of which there are many - somehow erased. Then I hear across the centuries the words of Jesus as He was dying on the cross. "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34). The Bible actually says that Jesus "carried our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). I decided to take Jesus at His word. "Whoever believes in the Son [That's Jesus, the Son of God] has eternal life" (John 3:36). See, that's the word that Jesus added to "life." "Eternal." I believe Him because He didn't just talk about eternal life. He proved He's got it to give. By walking out of His grave three days after He died. He's the only one who ever has. And this very day He stands ready to walk into your life. And not only forgive your sin, but to secure for you, once and for all, a place in Heaven. He already paid for it when He died on the cross for you. And you can know from this day forward, you are ready to live, you are ready to die, and you are Heaven bound. Do you want that? Would you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours" today? Go to our website and you'll find there the very information from God's Word that will lead you right into a relationship with Him. It's ANewStory.com. Because Jesus has answered forever death's most important question - "Are you ready to meet the God who's on the other side?"

My three kids once gave me the most unique gift. It was called The Terminator. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. It was this little black, plastic control device. It looked sort of like uh... that remote control switch for a television, and it had three buttons on it. One said Missile Launcher, and when you press that button, it was supposed to make the appropriate sound of a missile being fired and exploding. Then you had a button for Machine Gun. And that had the appropriate rat-a-tat-tat of a machine gun. And if all else failed, you had the Death Ray. That was the other button, and it made sort of a surreal type of sound that lets you know that you've got the ultimate weapon in your hand. Now, The Terminator was very helpful when you're behind slow traffic for example. Now, you wonder what the use is? Well, if the drivers in front of you were really making you impatient, you just launched a missile, or let go with your machine gun, or you hit them with a death ray. I'm not really encouraging this, I'm telling you about what they gave me. Now, it really didn't do anything, it was just some sort of emotional release. Praying would be better probably. Or maybe someone was coming into your office or your house that you didn't want to see. All you need to do: hit that machine gun; get the message right away to them. I know, it's crazy. Somebody was making big money providing us with this harmless weapon for letting out our frustrations. I actually have had a Terminator long before they gave me that gift. Actually, we all have a terminator, and it really terminates. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Weapon of Mass Destruction - in Your Mouth." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 12:18. It says this: "Reckless words pierce like a sword." It talks about the ability of our tongue and our words to cut very deeply. Now, the "cutter" seldom knows how deeply the "cut-ee" has been wounded or for how long that wound may last. We can all remember the names we've been called, we remember criticism that has been leveled against us, put-downs that were aimed in our direction. You know what? I'll bet you the person who said them has long forgotten them, but they're still a part of our personality. Reckless words pierce like a sword; they go deep. In fact, so deep that Proverbs 18:21 goes on to say, "The tongue has the power of life and death." All day long you and I are giving out life sentences and death sentences; sentences that either make people feel more alive or feel like they're dying inside. There are some life sentences like, "Man, you look great today!" Or, "Thanks for what you've been doing." Or, "You know, what you're doing is really important. How can I help you?" But it's the death sentences I'm concerned about; the ones that make people feel like they're dying inside when we say them. We terminate people inwardly without even realizing it. In fact, research shows that it takes seven positives to bring a person back to zero from one negative they've had in their life. I wonder if that's the ratio at your house. Do you have seven praises for every one negative? How about the rest of your relationships? We're piercing people deeply with the names we call them, the accusations against them, the put-downs, the sarcasm, the criticisms, even well intended criticisms. It's no wonder that David said to the Lord, "Put a watch in front of my mouth." We should too. Oh, I could push buttons on my plastic terminator, and I could make some noises that did no real damage. But you and I have a real terminator. This tongue we've got is daily either making people feel more alive or more destroyed inside. So, hold the put-downs, swallow the sarcasm, and cushion the criticism. Remember, your tongue can be The Terminator.

Our daughter has been a married woman for a while. But there's one thing about our conversations that hasn't changed from when she was a very little girl. One of us will call the other one, and I might be real busy, but I'll just dive right into the conversation. At which point my daughter might say, "Wait, Dad. You didn't say it." I know what she means - "Hi, Princess." See that started when she was a little baby in my arms. I will almost always say to her, as I did when she was a little baby, "I love you, Princess." To this day she wants to hear that name. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living Like Royalty." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 6. I'm going to begin reading in the middle of verse 16 where it says, "We are the temple of the living God. As God has said, 'I will live with them and walk among them. And I will be their God and they will be my people. Therefore come out from them and be separate says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters' says the Lord Almighty." I remember when I was a kid, speakers would come in and they would talk about this. "Come out from among them and be separate." And they were telling us not to be worldly and to avoid certain worldly amusements, which was probably a good idea. It was usually accompanied by a list of don'ts. Now, God calls for us to be separate from the unclean things in the world. But notice the invitation comes with a crown. Look at the context. He basically says, "Do you know who you are? You're my people. I walk among you. I'm a Father to you. You are the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty." I think that means you are royalty, right? If He's the King, what does that make you? You're His son or daughter. You might as well put Prince in front of your name, or Princess. See, that's how God feels about you. That's who He thinks you are. And because you're royalty, that's the reason you say, "Wait! I am a prince in God's family. I am a princess in God's family. I can't touch that. I can't watch that. I shouldn't go there. I can't listen to that." It's not a matter of legalism. It's a matter of who you are, it's a matter of identity, it's a matter of being His royal child. Now, how come you may not feel like royalty right now? Maybe you've been hurt, rejected or abused. You've been sinned against or you've sinned. If you take your worth from earth, you'll probably think you're a loser and you'll keep making loser choices. But if you take your worth from your Father, the King, you will know you're royalty and you will make royal choices. Isn't it about time you started making royal choices? Sometimes you just want to grab a child or young person who doesn't realize who they are and say, "You're better than this, man! Do you know who you are?" That's what God is doing with you. It affects how you treat your mate, because now you see them as a prince or a princess; your kids, the people in your church, your coworkers, your friends. Don't cheapen yourself or do something that could embarrass the name of the King whose child you are. Maybe you've been away from Him. You've been doing un-royal things in your life. This is your day to come home. Quit believing the lie - the lie-dentities. Return to your Father, the King. Maybe you've never experienced this incredible sense of being loved by God, knowing you are loved by God, knowing you are valued by Him like this because you've never begun a love relationship with Him. That love relationship begins at the cross of Jesus, where the Son of God thought you were so valuable He gave His life and shed His blood for you. And then walked out of His grave under His own power to walk into your life someday. You want to experience that love for yourself and experience how special you are? Well, then today would you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." I want to help you begin that relationship, and know that you have. Go to our website, would you please? It's ANewStory.com. Listen to your Father as He calls you "Prince" or "Princess." He says, "I love you, my Prince. I love you my Princess. Now live like who you are."

I must have like one of those voices. I never get to tell people who it is when I call them on the phone. I say, "Hi, this is..." And they'll say, "Hi, Ron." Now, most people do have to announce who it is, at least the first few times they call. Think about someone who you call for the first time and you have to give them your full name. So I might say, "Hello, this is Ron Hutchcraft." Then after a couple of times talking with them you just give your first name, "Hi, this is Ron." Then there's the teenage version - no greeting, no hello. They just jump right into the latest gossip. You don't even have to identify who it is; they talk so often...usually several times a day. Or texting back and forth, messaging. I guess we all have voices that ultimately need no identification. After all, it's the voices we've heard so much. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Voice You Can Trust." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 10. I'm reading verse 3. "The watchman opens the gate for the Shepherd and the sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and He leads them out. And when He's brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them. And His sheep follow Him because they know His voice." Now, dropping down to verse 27: "My sheep," Jesus said, "listen to My voice. I know them and they follow Me." Now, here's this great picture: me sheep, Him shepherd. That's really what the Christian life boils down to, and the sheep are doing the only thing that they ought to do if they want to have everything that they need. They follow the Shepherd. And three times in these three verses Jesus talks about how they listen to His voice and they know His voice. Why? Well, for the same reason that a frequent caller doesn't need to identify himself when he calls. You've heard that voice so many times you know what He sounds like. Would you put yourself in this category: a follower of Jesus Christ? Are you one of those? Well, you can't be a follower according to what Jesus is saying here unless you're a listener first. Following Christ is not some passive or official status you have because you made a commitment one time. A follower of Christ follows because he listens first. "Those who hear My voice." Now, each day the Lord is trying to speak to you about choices to make, people to talk to, ideas He wants to plant in your head. And there are lots of other voices. How do you know which voices, which tugs are from Him? Well, you have to be used to listening to Jesus. How do you do that? Well, you've got to meet Him daily. In the morning before you start the day, you ask Him to use His Word, the Bible, and apply it to your life - to that day. Then, that day, having heard His voice, before you've heard any other voice, you consciously obey Him in that area that He talked to you about. And you listen during the day for His inner direction. He'll direct you into the middle of a lot of God sightings. You know what area of life you've trusted Him with because you've responded to His voice through His Word. So, you're daily listening, daily responding. You do that day after day, and an exciting thing will happen. You'll begin to say at certain moments, "Now, that doesn't sound like what Jesus sounds like." "Now, that does sound like Him. I've been listening, and that's how His voice sounds...how He speaks." Now, you're a follower of Christ. So, you begin your day by getting used to His voice before you hear any others. Then, when you're getting six voices at once, you'll know your Shepherd's direction from all the rest. You'll sense the call - the tug of Jesus that you heard just this morning, and that you've heard so often. And you'll say, "I know that voice."

The movie opened in theaters on Valentine's Weekend. It was called Fifty Shades of Grey. A hundred million copies of the book had been sold. It was known for its portrayal of a young virgin seduction into sado-masochistic sex in a charming man's "room of pain." I know, gross. A friend told me that it was the talk of all the women in her office; 40- and 50-year-old women "giggling like schoolgirls." Dying to see it. To see a woman submitting to sexual violence in the name of "exploring her dark desires." The top ten advance ticket sales were from Bible Belt states mostly. A lot of anecdotal evidence and Facebook postings suggested a great "buzz" about that movie from people with Christian backgrounds. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Cleverly-Disguised Poison." Christian. That's the ones of whom the Bible says, "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19). To whom God says in our word for today from the Word of God (Ephesians 5 beginning with verse 3), "Among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity...you are light in the Lord...have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness." It's not that God is against sexual passion. Far from it. He invented it! To unite, to ignite the lifetime love of a husband and wife. "Rejoice in the wife of your youth," He says. "Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love" (Proverbs 5:18-19 NLT). But sex the Inventor's way always means honoring a woman, respecting a woman, uplifting a woman; never hurting her, using her, violating her. Ephesians 5:28 (NLT) says, "Husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies." "The two will become one flesh," Jesus said. A holy, tender, loving merging of two lives, expressed with the passionate merging of their bodies together. But "Christian" interest in a morally bankrupt, "must-see" movie exposes much larger issues; more troubling issues, like the compartmentalizing of our faith. "Hey, I believe in Jesus. But this is my business, this is my love life, and this is my entertainment." Nope. "You must be holy in everything you do" (1 Peter 1:15 NLT). Everything. If I'm deciding where Jesus is in charge and where He isn't, then He's not Lord. I am. I have dethroned the Son of God and made me my de facto God. Then there's our naiveté about entertainment. "It's only a movie. It's only a song. It's only a TV show. It's only a website" See, entertainment is our hellish enemy's "stealth bomber" that slips death into our soul under the radar. James 1:15 - what a hammer this verse is! "Desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." We'd run from a frontal temptation to do this thing we think we'll never do. So the enemy of our soul just plants a thought, a desire, an indelible image. First, sin fascinates you. Then, it assassinates you. The terrorist from hell says, "Watch this. It won't hurt." The Savior who loves you says, "Guard your heart...it is the wellspring of life" (Proverbs 4:23). A little poison in the reservoir becomes death in the water. There are a thousand shades of dark, inviting us to what looks like a party but ends up in a prison; a prison that Jesus Christ, Prince of Heaven, came to save us from. To show us we are more than a body to be used. We are a soul to be cherished. This very day, if you've never experienced this most genuine, lasting, satisfying love of all, for yourself - the love of Christ demonstrated on a cross, dying for your sin. Let your search for love end today by giving yourself to Him. You can find out how that relationship begins at our website ANewStory.com. You're too precious to degrade, too precious to defile; you, Jesus thought, were worth dying for.

Some years I traveled to Alaska with my family to do some speaking up there. What an awesome place it is! You know, it says on the license plates The Last Frontier, and it really is. Now, we had one magnificent obsession while we were there. We wanted to see moose! We didn't see too many of those when we lived in New Jersey. So we wanted to see those moose. Now, people there are literally running into moose with their cars all the time; kind of like deer in the lower 48. There are just so many moose on the roads. And we thought, "Hey, we're going to see one for sure." Well, my family had not yet seen one, and so while I was out speaking at a high school, they went into the Moose Range and said, "Alrighty, we're going to see them on the Moose Range." When I got back I said, "How did the great moose hunt go?" My son said, "Oh, did we have fun today, Dad. We spent two hours looking at trees." I said, "No moose?" He said, "No moose." Well, we had looked and looked at all the places that they were supposed to be. The next morning we were coming out of our driveway and suddenly my son yelled, "Moose!" Yeah, well, after I totaled the car (no, not really), I looked around and there they were. We weren't even looking for them. Here are two moose just kind of nibbling the bark off a tree. And all of a sudden I remembered the advice we had received on our first day in Alaska. Someone told us, "As long as you're looking for a moose, you won't see one. But as soon as you stop looking, you'll find one." You know, that's true not only for moose, but maybe for some other quarry you might really want to find. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Getting it By Letting Go of it." Once we had spotted our first two moose up there in Alaska, my daughter made an interesting point. She said, "You know, Dad, looking for these moose is a lot like trying to find the right guy to date isn't it?" I thought, "What? You want one with antlers?" No, I said, "What does she mean by that?" She said, "Well, when you stop looking, you finally find him." I thought, "Well, now that's an interesting principle." Does that check out biblically? Guess what? It does. Our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 37:4-5 - "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will do this." Now, the part we like in these verses is that little sentence that says, "He will give you the desires of your heart." Well now, what do you really desire right now? What are you really tracking so to speak like we were tracking moose? Maybe right now your great desire is for someone to love you and for you to love...that partner you really want. Or maybe it's a home or a car, an office you desire to hold, a promotion you want, maybe some financial resources you really need or really want. You say, "Well, my desire is to succeed in this enterprise that I'm involved in right now, or to have a position in ministry that I don't have. Notice what verbs aren't here. How do you get the desires of your heart? Well, the verbs that aren't here...it doesn't say, "Look for it." It doesn't say, "Pursue it." It doesn't say, "Insist on it or find a way to get it." Notice what the verbs are. "Delight yourself in the Lord..." "Commit your way to the Lord." "Trust in Him." In other words, you let go of it and you get it when you stop looking for it, when you stop chasing it, when you stop insisting on it. You turn your deepest desire over to your Lord, of whom it is said in the Bible, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." That's a promise for a follower of Christ. And then it starts to happen. Let Him send it to you in His way, in His time. See, if He gave it to you when you wanted it this badly you might make an idol out of it. So, learn a lesson from our surprising Alaskan moose. When you stop looking and stop insisting on the great desire of your life, you're most likely to find it... maybe right on your doorstep.

I thought I might have to live to 100 to see the widening of this major highway in our area ever get finished. Man, it took forever it seemed like! But the trip north, oh now, it's a breeze. I love it. And I know why it took so long - mountains. Yeah, see, they were trying to put a road where there were hills and mountains, and those don't just move real easily. After all, they've been there quite a while. But they did move, because even a mountain was no match for explosives like dynamite. It's amazing what dynamite can do. It just blows away whatever is in its way. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Spiritual Dynamite In Your Hands." Now, I love the fact that the Bible calls the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus, "the power of God." In fact, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 1:16, where Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Let's go back to that power word. The original Greek word that God uses is "dunamis." And you can probably figure out what we get in our English from that - dynamite. The message of Jesus' death for us on the cross and His resurrection from the dead is God's dynamite! I spent July praying for and encouraging a team of Native American young people, and I got to watch them share that explosive Message on several Indian reservations. They were right out in the open; they're on basketball courts in the middle of everything. They were facing obstacles that have hobbled missionaries for centuries; the belief that "Jesus is only the white man's god," "We have our own Native religion; we don't need Jesus." They were facing the belief that "All religions are basically the same." They were facing objections that "Bad things were done to us in the name of Christianity." But God used these brown-skinned ambassadors as He has summer after summer as they told about our brown-skinned Savior. And He used them to detonate God's dynamite. I saw it happen. I've seen it happen over and over again. I was an eyewitness to hundreds of Native young people doing what so few of them have ever done. They were putting their lives in the hands of Jesus; many of them publicly. I remember telling some of our team members who were weeping over some young people who didn't come to Christ. I said, "Yeah, but you put the stick of dynamite in their heart. Remember, dynamite blows away whatever is in its way." You know, with the victories, there were tears that summer. They saw a lot of kids turn their back on Jesus, in spite of a young warrior who poured out their heart to reach them. It's a heartache that's not just unique to reservation rescue attempts. A lot of us are carrying a heavy burden for someone who just doesn't seem to care about the Savior who cares so very much for them. And we are wondering, "Will they ever come to Jesus?" On those nights when I saw the tears of brokenhearted rescuers who had to leave someone lost, I gave them an awesome promise from God and I give it to you today. Psalm 126:5-6 - "Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest." Remember, when you give someone the Good News about Jesus, you're planting that stick of holy dynamite in their hearts. It's dynamite strong enough to demolish the walls, the defenses they have built around their lost heart. And God knows exactly what time is the right time to push "detonate." No, it's way too soon to give up on that person you care about. You told them about your Jesus, and God has lit the fuse.

The San Diego Zoo? Oh, it's one of the largest in the world, and our family had a chance to visit there. And we were told that the best way to see all of these terrific animal exhibits was to take the tour bus. Well, they were right, but when we got to the tour bus there were two lines. One was very long, and one was very short. Of course the problem was that the short one was going to the lower level of the bus so you could get on quickly. If you wanted to wait a little longer you had to wait in that long line. Those people got to the top of the bus. Well, we debated for a minute. We said, "You know, we don't have a lot of time, but it seems like it'd be nicer if we were able to be on the top deck of that double-decker." So we took the long line. We reconsidered a couple of times because, man, it looked like a couple of buses were leaving with that other group in the shorter line, and we were still waiting for the top deck. I'm so glad we did, because as we went around that great zoo we found out that if you really wanted to see the animals, you needed to be on the top deck, and you couldn't see nearly as much if you got in the short line and ended up on the lower deck. You know what we found out? The longer line led to the better view. Well you know what? That's sort of how life is; a lot of times the longer line leads to the better view. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Waiting 'til It's Time." Well our word for today from the Word of God is found in Acts 7:23. "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not." Well... And if you remember the rest of the story, Moses then has to be a fugitive; he flees to the wilderness - he's in the wilderness for 40 years. Now, he actually had the right idea, God's people needed deliverance. Oh, yeah, and he was to be the leader, but he got the jump on God. He did it the wrong way; he couldn't wait. Listen to this: Now 40 years later God speaks to him in the burning bush and He says, "I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come..." Basically He says, "Now is the time I'm going to move. Now is the right time." And He says, "I will send you back to Egypt." See, it made all the difference when God sent him as opposed to Moses sending himself. God's timing made all the difference. Moses had the right idea, but he couldn't wait. See waiting, standing in the longer line, sometimes gives you a better perspective; a real solution instead of a half solution. A lot of us have got some buried Egyptians in the past of some remnants of some of the ways we tried to do it, and we couldn't wait for God to do it His way. Maybe God's asking you to wait in the longer line right now. And you know what? It's tempting to speed up the process, isn't it? Maybe you want to be married now, but He's asking you to wait. Maybe He's asking you to wait on that financial solution, or that change in your job, or that family member to change, a door you want to open, a prayer that you fervently want answered. But see, God still wants to prepare you a little more. You're not ready yet for the answer. Or maybe the answer isn't ready for you yet. Maybe He wants to prepare some of the other people involved in the answer and they're not ready yet. So don't do the easy thing; don't do the impatient thing. Probably there's nothing that's cost more people the perfect will of God than impatience. So, don't jump to the high-speed line. Remember that the longer line may very well lead to the better view.

I love the view of Manhattan when you fly into LaGuardia Airport. The view around the runways? Not so much. Water on three sides. The thought has crossed my mind, "A plane could end up in the water some day." On March 6, 2015, one almost did with 127 passengers on board. A jetliner that slid off the runway, crashing through a fence - its nose virtually in the water. A passenger said he knew the wheels weren't getting traction on that icy runway that day. Next thing - the jet was sliding uncontrollably to the left, off the runway and to the edge of the East River with some passengers crying, some praying, and some frantic. This young man named Jared was praying. He told the reporter, "Something like this makes you reflect on your relationship with God. God must not be done writing the story of my life." If God hasn't mattered much before, He really matters when you may have been seconds away from seeing Him. I've had a couple of pretty close calls in my life; some on an airplane, some in a car. And you really do - or you really should - start asking the bottom line questions we're usually too busy to consider. Somewhere along the way, we all get our wake-up call. So we'll stop and examine our life, our priorities, our relationship with God, and our eternal destination. Moments that bring us to the brink of eternity point us to life's big questions. What really matters and what really doesn't? Why am I here? Why did God spare me? If this had been the end, what then? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Plane on the Edge and Life's Bottom Line." The meaning of our life? The only One who can tell us is the One who gave us our life. And He has in His Book. We are, He says in the Bible, "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). Problem: I've lived pretty much for me. So I'm missing my purpose until I know my Creator. What really matters? Well, Ecclesiastes 3:11 says "God has set eternity in the hearts of men." What matters - and all that satisfies - is what will last forever. What about eternity? God says in our word for today from the Word of God in Hebrews 9:27, that man is "destined to die once and after that comes judgment." That can be disturbing because we're not ready. Because, as the Bible says, "your sins have cut you off from God" (Isaiah 59:2), and that's a terrible way to meet God. Thank God for Jesus! On that bloody Good Friday, I'll read you these five life-changing words right out of the Bible, "Christ died for our sins" (1 Corinthians 15:3). So we don't have to. He loved us. He didn't want to lose you. And the Bible gives us this best of good news in John 3:36, "anyone who believes in God's Son has eternal life." What does it mean to believe in Jesus? It doesn't just mean to agree with His teachings, or like Him, or know a lot about Him. No, it's what happened the day I was drowning when I was ten years old and a man jumped in to save me. I grabbed him like he was my only hope, because he was. I'd have died without him. You know, that's what it means to believe in Jesus. You grab Him like He's your only hope. He is your only hope, because no one else died for your sins. If you don't take His death for you, you pay for your sins. No one else can give you eternal life because no one else has got it except the man who walked out of His grave. This day He is ready to make you ready for eternity by changing a death penalty for your sin to eternal life you could never earn and never deserved. I'd love to show you how to begin that relationship with Him if you'd just go to our website ANewStory.com. In a very short time there I think you'll understand how to begin that relationship with Jesus Christ. I gave myself to this Jesus. And because of Him, I - and millions like me - have this anchored peace, even in the face of death. I'm ready for eternity whenever or however it comes. And you can be too.

When our daughter was little, one of her favorite books was Misty of Chincoteague. Now, if you haven't read that classic, let me bring you up-to-date. Chincoteague is an island off the eastern shore of Virginia. And it's known for these beautiful white ponies. They're wild ponies, and that's who Misty was-one of those wild ponies. Now at one point in the story, Phantom, Misty's mother, is in a horse pen on a farm because they have been captured. And the two children in the story who live on this farm are distressed because they see Phantom kicking Misty, her own colt. And so they yell at her to stop! Well, of course, enter Grandma-wise grandma. Those words go together, right? Grandma's always say wise things. And Grandma explains to the two children. She says, "Look, kids, she's not trying to hurt her foal; she's loving her in the hardest way there is. She knows that the time has come for Misty to be on her own." Well, that's pretty good horse sense. And it's always good horse sense to keep that time in mind. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Parent's Hardest Job." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 2:4. It's always good to know your goal, right? If you're a pilot and you're flying a plane, it's good to have your flight plan and to know what airport you're aiming for. If you're running with a football, it's very important you know which goal is yours. It's good to know where your goal is if you're raising your child, too. A parent's final objective is described to the very first parents even before they were parents - Adam and Eve. And our biggest assignment has not changed. Genesis 2:24 - God says, "'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.'" These are hard words if you're a parent. "Leave father and mother." Basically, God is telling us here that our children are not ours to keep. Our mission as parents is to prepare them to leave us; to live without us. And that starts very young. You don't come to your child every time they cry or they call, because if you do, they'll never learn to be on their own if you come every time. You don't solve every problem for them. You teach them how to solve a problem. You don't give them an endless supply of money; you teach them that you earn money, and then you plan your spending. When you're out of money, you're out of money. You're not like the girl who said, "I must have more money, I still have more checks." As they grow older you don't make every decision for them, you teach them how to make a good decision and then, if you have to, you let them make some mistakes. You don't give them a rule for every occasion. Instead, you teach them a personal set of principles by which they can make all their moral choices. You don't just give them all the right answers, but you teach them how to ask good questions. Everything in us wants to protect that child from every mistake, every hurt, and to hold on to them even sometimes to tie our identity to theirs. Don't do it. It's just not how God meant parenting to be from the very first parents. We're actually assigned, like that mama horse, to nudge our children slowly but surely toward the gate. The gate's called personal responsibility. And if we do it well, they'll one day rise up and call us blessed. We just don't dare need them too much for our own identity. See, we're supposed to be getting them ready to leave. And that's a parent's hardest responsibility, but it's also one of the most important jobs you will ever have.

One of the most challenging and graceful track and field events has got to be the pole vault. There's this athlete running, then he's airborne on that pole, now he's gliding up and over that bar. Can't you picture it? Well, up at least! Oh, no! The bar comes crashing down; the "vaulter" didn't clear the bar. But wait! Here come the officials! Listen to what they're saying to the unsuccessful "vaulter," "Oh, that was a little high for you wasn't it? Listen, why don't we lower the bar a couple of notches? We'll just keep lowering it until you can clear it." Don't hold your breath looking for a scene like that on the Olympics or any other sports program. They're never going to lower the bar in a track meet. Of course, it's happening all too often in the church. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Twisting the Bible to Match Your Life." There's an interesting trend among God's people today to sort of re-write God's laws when someone I love has violated them. So, if a friend or family member of yours hasn't cleared God's standards, we suddenly find justification for lowering the bar. In our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Samuel 13:14, David was the one who was described as "a man after God's own heart." And yet we know that by 2 Samuel 12, he has committed a gross sin of adultery with Bathsheba, and then setting up her husband to die on the front lines. Here is the man God loves; the man after God's heart. But listen to what God says through the prophet Nathan. "Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, David, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah to be your own." This is what the Lord says: "out of your own household I'm going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this in broad daylight before all Israel." See, the man God loved didn't clear the bar. Did God lower it? No. He can't. But apparently we can when it's a choice between the laws of God and our love for someone close to us, we tend to rewrite the laws to fit the one we love; to find a loophole that they can squeeze through. We can be very clear as to what the Bible says about sex, about abortion, about divorce, about marrying an unbeliever, about revenge, until someone close to us steps outside those boundaries. It's amazing how we suddenly start twisting verses, finding loopholes, re-interpreting Scripture, playing theological games that satisfy our logic but not God's holiness, and we accept some unacceptable compromises. It's understandable, but it's wrong. When sin gets close to home, it can teach us how to be more merciful than we've been before, and that's good. How to be less judgmental, and that's good. And it can give us a wonderful opportunity to show God's unconditional love for people whether they clear the bar or not, and that's good. But we can't, in the process when we're loving and forgiving and accepting people in a sinful moment, we can't dare to try to lower God's standard. He didn't even for the man He loved deeply, and we can't either. To be sure, God picks us up when we fail and when we collapse on the other side of our sin, He won't bend His laws for anyone. He can't, and neither can we. We love them, we pray for them, we embrace them...but the bar must stay where it is.

For me, I guess it started with comic books, then the old black-and-white TV series. Then it graduated to the big screen as the subject of several blockbuster movies. "Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! (Yep, you said it didn't you?) It's Superman!" Now, one of the Hollywood stories of the Man of Steel in more recent years was called "Superman Returns." His return was from a five-year absence from earth, and during that time, reporter Lois Lane wrote a major article called, "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." She makes this statement: "The world doesn't need a savior, and neither do I." Upon his return to earth, Superman visits Lois Lane and tells her, "There's something I want to show you." He picks her up and takes her on a flying trip over a long stretch of the planet. He says, "Listen. Do you hear it?" She hears nothing. Superman then makes this dramatic statement to the skeptical reporter: "I hear everything. I know you wrote that the world doesn't need a Savior, but every day I hear people crying for one." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Ears That Hear What God Hears." There really is a Savior. Not a fictional one like Superman, but a flesh-and-blood Savior whom a dying world needs desperately. His name is Jesus. He hears every cry of the human heart and He cries. He wants to give you ears to hear what He hears. In fact, you may be at a point where God is summoning you to something higher, much the way He summoned Moses centuries ago. That story, and maybe in a sense your story, is told in our word for today from the Word of God. Exodus 3, beginning with verse 1. It tells us that Moses was just tending his flock of sheep in the desert one day when God showed up in a burning bush. That morning, Moses woke up a desert shepherd. That night, he went to sleep a rescuer for his people. God often shows up in the middle of the routine of our life and changes the course of our life. He asks, in the words of the Christmas carol, "Do you hear what I hear?" God says to Moses: "I have seen the misery of My people...I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them." God might be saying to you today, "I have seen the misery of the people you know. I have heard them crying out." He hears the sounds of their quiet desperation, their aching loneliness, their bleeding and broken heart, their bondages, their bleeding family, their search for meaning. He hears their pain. He hears their grief and the past that always haunts them. And He has seen their awful eternity unless there's a rescue. And Jesus is coming down to rescue people you work with or play with, people you go to school with who live around you. But here's the "rocker." "I have come down to rescue them" He says, "So now, go. I am sending you." Jesus is inviting you; He is summoning you, to join Him in the eternal rescue mission for which He gave His life; to see your relationships and to see your situation as a divine assignment. You are being positioned by the Savior to help the people who are there be in heaven with you someday. So, how are you doing on the reason you're there? He wants to give you ears to hear the lostness behind their laughter and the misery behind their mask. He wants to give you eyes to see what He sees when He looks at the people you're with everyday. He sees future inhabitants of hell unless someone introduces them to the Rescuer who took their hell for them, unless someone gives them Jesus. Listen to Him. He's talking to you, "So now, go. I am sending you."

We're pretty avid New York Giants football fans at our house. Don't hold that against us. You know, you can understand it if you follow football at all. We're eager after a long basketball season and a baseball season to see the first games, even when they're exhibition games. Now, when my children were growing up, there was a particular game on one season that we really wanted to see, because it was against a top NFL team. There was one problem! That particular exhibition game wasn't aired live in the New York area. It was a home game. However, it was shown twice on tape late that night and then again the next morning. Now, we had heard the score of the game; we knew the outcome. My son was watching it and he said, "Well, Dad, it's sure exciting to watch a game when you already know the outcome." Well actually we did know the ending. We just didn't know how they got to that ending. It was fun to watch how they did it, but there wasn't much suspense. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You Know the Final Score." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Daniel 3, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 16. It's the familiar story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now, whether or not you recognize the names, you remember the story of the three men who were commanded by King Nebuchadnezzar to bow down to his ninety-foot gold statue of himself. They refused to do it, and he said, "Then I'll have to throw you into this very, very hot fire," an oven prepared just for them. What a way to die, huh? They said to the king, "O, King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves... If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king." Now, I like this. They're saying, "We don't know how God's going to do it, but we know He will. We're not sure all the plays He's going to call, we just know He's going to win." Now, you may be in a pretty bleak situation right now. Maybe the fire is heating up for you, and there's no apparent solution; there's no apparent way out. One of my favorite passages of scripture is in Romans 8, where Paul speaks of some of the greatest stresses in life. And verse 35 talks about "trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, not enough food on the table, nakedness, no clothes, danger, sword, even death." Then right after all that in verse 37 he says this, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Wow! As a soldier of Jesus Christ, you're in the same position I am when I'm watching a Giants victory being replayed. I know the final score; I know we win. I just don't know how. In Christ the question is never whether He will win in a situation, the only question is how. Our problem is if we can't see how victory will come, a lot of times we don't believe it will. "There's no money in sight, so I guess we're not going to make it." Or, "There's no person in sight, so I guess I'll just stay lonely." "There's no change in sight, so well, I guess it will always be this way." "Well, there's no progress I can see and there's no way to make any. I guess we'll always be in this mess." Read the scoreboard again! He wins all His battles. Live expectantly! The battle is not yours; it is God's. You can be more than conqueror, and He says it's in the middle of life's most intense moments. After all, you're sitting back watching how God is going to win this one, because you know the final score, and it will be your Father who decides your outcome.

I've had a number of young women complain to me about a condition they find rampant in young men these days. You could call it "commitment phobia." Or as one author did, "Peter Pan syndrome - I don't want to grow up." A guy's willing to show interest, he's willing to court you, charm you, agree with you, spend money on you, and you reach this level of mutual compatibility. That's good. And then you're on the edge of commitment and he's gone. That's pretty frustrating. And if you're thinking of a name...well, let's keep moving on. I met this beautiful woman many years ago, and we spent a lot of time together. We found out that we agreed on all the important things, so we reached the place of affection for each other and agreement with each other. I say, "I love you and I agree with you on a lot of stuff." So that meant we were married, right? Uh, no. There's something missing there. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How People Miss Heaven." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 7, beginning at verse 21. I think these are some of the most unsettling words Jesus ever spoke. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drove out demons and performed many miracles?' And then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me.'" Wow! So near and yet so far. That's a warning for religious people - church folks - people who know the verses, people who are busy in Christian things, maybe even in Christian leadership. Because these chilling words are going to be spoken to some of those people, "I never knew you. Everyone else thought you did, but I never knew you." It's like the guy who knows about a girl. He's compatible with that girl, he agrees with the girl, but he somehow never made a lifetime commitment to her. I had to say to my then future wife, "I give my life to you." There was a day I did that. I know I did it. That's the commitment that made us married, that began the life-long relationship. Actually there are five things you can do with Jesus. One is you can reject Him and say, "I don't care what He did." Another thing you can do is you can ignore Him. Some people just simply have no time for Jesus. The third thing you can do with Jesus is you can postpone Him. "Lord, I'll get around to you some day. I know that you're the answer. I still want to do some living though. I'll get to you sometime." The fourth thing is to agree with Him. Yeah, agree with Him on all His teachings. You can say, "I think it's all right. I totally agree with it. I believe it, Jesus." There's a fifth thing you can do and that is to surrender yourself and give yourself totally to Him. Those first four all end up in the same place. In a Christless eternity called hell. See, there's a big difference in rejecting Christ and agreeing with Him, of course, but they all end up with hearing the words of Jesus, "I never knew you" because agreement is not commitment. I agreed with my future wife on things, but we weren't married by that agreement. Because you agree with all of Jesus' teachings, you really like him, you believe it all. Does that make you really His? No. Not until the day you make your own personal visit to that hill where there is a cross where Jesus is paying for every wrong thing you've ever done. And in your heart you go to that cross where God's Son is paying for those sins and you will hear him saying, "Father, forgive them." He's forgiving you. And you pin all your hopes on that Jesus and you change your way for His way from that day on. Has there ever been a day like that for you? You may have never had a time when you actually gave yourself to Him. He's in your head, but He's not in your heart. Isn't it time to move Him to your heart? Don't you want to be sure you belong to Him? I'm inviting you if you've never done this to say, "Jesus, beginning this day, I am yours." I would love to help you do that. I think you'll find some help in beginning this relationship at our website. It's ANewStory.com. Today, get this settled finally, because it's only your commitment that will make you His.

I don't know who invented the credit card, but I'd like to have a very serious talk with him, because I'm not sure he helped any of us by thinking that this plastic "postponer" was going to help us. With a credit card you go to the store with $100 in cash, you get what you wanted, and you come out with $100 in your wallet. And it feels like, "Hey, that didn't cost anything." Wrong! Fantasy land! The bill will come...it always does. You postponed the payment, but you didn't cancel it. Oh, and by postponing it, that purchase is actually going to cost you more. I think that's what they call interest and I'm not interested. The time lag between what you buy and what you pay can get you into big trouble. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Thinking We Got Away With It." Our word for today from the Word of God; it's in Galatians 6:7-8. Familiar words, but words that may be right where you're living right now. Listen, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction. The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." Now, why does this statement begin with "don't be deceived"? Well, maybe it's because it's easy to think you're getting away with your sin, because the consequences, the reaping don't come immediately. It's like a credit card. You get what you want to get, do what you want to do, and then there's a time lag. Because it doesn't happen immediately - those consequences - you say, "Hey, I got away with it." Well that's credit card follies. The passing of time until the consequences come will not lessen the price tag you pay for that sin; in fact, it will accrue interest. It will make it cost you more. The farmer doesn't see immediate results from sowing seed, whether he sows corn or poison ivy. But it will come up. Doing what's right and what's wrong have this in common. When you're doing it, you can't see where that choice is going to lead. When you have a sexual relationship before marriage, you can't see the pain and the loss that it will cause in your marriage, but it will. When you build a pattern of lying, you might get away with the lie; you can't see what that's going to do to your reputation, but it will. When you extend a loving hand to someone who's been your enemy, you can't see the healing and the blessing that might come from that, but you will. Since we can't see where choices lead until it's too late, do we live by the throw of the dice? Well, that's where the Bible comes in. It tells us where our decisions lead. When you sow to your sinful nature, it will destroy things. It's gonna happen! When you sow to things that please the Holy Spirit, you're going to reap things that will last forever. It's gonna happen! God's Word has never been wrong. Oh, some have thought that they've cheated the consequences because they didn't happen immediately. Well, neither do the credit card charges or a farmer's crops, but they always come. Save yourself a lot of heartache. Believe what God says is going to happen...good or bad. Don't deceive yourself by thinking you'll get away with your sin, or that right choices won't come back to you with interest. If you're sowing sin, God's bill is in the mail. If you're sowing right living, God's check is in the mail.

I ordered out for lunch and of course it came on a paper plate. Guess what I did with the plate when I finished lunch? I didn't wash it, no, I didn't save it for later. In fact, I've never done that with a paper plate. But we have these other plates at our house. They're in a cabinet in the dining room, my wife put them there. We save them for special occasions. And we wash those after we use them. They're the best we've got - those dishes. When we're done, we put them away very carefully. Because if you drop them, you're out of the family. Now, what's the difference? Paper plates are cheap, practically worthless. You throw them away. Now, fine china, oh no, that's expensive, too valuable to throw away. Guess which one most people feel like today. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Worth So Much More." Yeah, an awful lot of people feel like paper plates these days. I mean they've been put-down, hurt, neglected, ignored, left out, abused. And they feel worthless, they're throwing themselves away. That might be you. I mean there's a lot of ways you can throw yourself away. You can throw yourself away socially by the friends you choose. You can throw yourself away alcoholically, chemically, romantically, sexually, musically. You can even be suicidal. But when you get close to Jesus you find out God didn't make any paper plates! If you think you're not worth much, you are so wrong about who you are. And anyone who's treated you like you're not worth much, they are clueless about who you are. The One who knows what you're worth is the One who gave you your life in the first place, who gave you your worth in the first place - your Creator. And here's how He feels about you. It's in our word for today from the Word of God, Exodus 19:5. "You will be My treasured possession." God says you're treasured; you're fine china. You're too valuable to throw away. But there's more in God's appraisal of your worth. He says in Ephesians 2:10, "We are God's workmanship." Now, workmanship isn't just thrown together; it's no accident. You're a masterpiece. You're a handmade creation of God the Creator. And then He goes on to say in that verse, "You are designed for good works, which He's prepared in advance for us to do." See, you are uniquely created to make a unique difference in people's lives. But there's more! 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, "You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." God says you're a treasure, He says you're His workmanship, and you're the one He paid a lot for. Look, you can tell how much a person values something by how much they're willing to pay for it. Well, God paid for you with the blood of His one and only Son, Jesus. And even though you and I have left His creator's plan for us, we've sinned; He wants you back so much that He sent His Son to do the dying for your sin. To pay the death penalty in your place. You're special, so don't believe the lies that your brain keeps telling you that you're a paper plate, you're worthless, you keep being tempted to throw yourself away. You are fine china, reserved for special purposes. If you feel like you're not worth much, it may be because you've never begun a relationship with the One who gave you worth in the first place. Who feels so deeply about you, who loves you so sacrificially. Listen, don't believe the lies about who you are anymore. Find out the truth of your worth. It happens when you give yourself to the man who died on a cross for you, for the sin that actually just dumps all kinds of lies on our worth. This could be the day that you say, "Lord I take this life of mine out of my hands, I put it into your hands. I'm putting my total trust in the man who died for my sin. You run it from here on." That's a new start. That's a new beginning. It's what our website is all about. I urge you to check it out as soon as you can - ANewStory.com. Start living like the treasure that your Creator says you are.

The funeral plans for Matt were in the works. The Park Service had announced that Matt was one of five people who had been killed in a plane crash on a mountainside in Montana. The funeral never happened. Suddenly, Matt's bereaved parents heard the stunning news: although he had been badly injured, their son, along with one other Forest Service worker, had just been rescued alive, miles from the crash site. Rescue workers at the scene of the crash had concluded that the charred wreckage and the scattered human remains indicated that the crash had been "un-survivable." But amazingly, Matt and his fellow worker hiked for 29 hours, often in subfreezing temperatures, until they reached a highway where a motorist picked them up. One news magazine called it, "A Miracle in the Snows of Montana" (Newsweek, October 4, 2004). I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bringing Back a Loved One." Many a parent with a child away from God has despaired of them ever coming out of the spiritual death that they've chosen. There may be wreckage, there may be damage, injuries, but it's way too soon to think it's over. If someone you love is away from the Lord and hope is sometimes hard to hang onto, God has a promise for you today in Psalm 126:5-6. It's our word for today from the Word of God and it's a good one. He says: "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him." All those months and years of praying and weeping and sowing the seed of God's Word in their life will not return un-harvested. How God does it, when God does it, whether or not you may even be here to see it is totally in God's hands. But you can be sure the Shepherd is persistently, skillfully pursuing that lost sheep you love. And that He loves so much more. Remember, He's more concerned about the one who's lost than the ninety-nine who are doing okay. I can't begin to list the wanderers and rebels that my heart has ached for over the years; so many who had tasted the goodness of God but who wandered away - some of whom are still wandering. Some of whom have gloriously come home to Jesus, now living for Him with the fervor of one who loves much because they've been forgiven much. Through all these battles for people away from Jesus, I've learned a couple of simple principles that are grounded in Scripture. They've been anchors when it looked like there was no hope. First, remember the difference between a chapter and a book. These dark times in the life of that one you love are not the whole book - they're a chapter, or even a series of chapters. But many a book with sad chapters has had a happy ending. Don't judge the ending by the dark chapters in the middle of a book. Don't decide the game is lost because your team is losing at halftime. If you think it's over, you may actually contribute to their continued wandering by resorting to nagging that will only drive them farther away, by compromise and accepting what can never be acceptable before God. By slowly giving up on your prayer of faith for them, or by just withdrawing from them when your unconditional love may actually be their best hope. See, when someone you love is the least lovable, that's when they need your love the most. Remember, as long as there's breath, there's hope. It just isn't over so long as they have breath to cry out to God for rescue. So keep on fighting for them in the Throne Room of Almighty God with defiant faith - faith that defies the devil's lie that "it's over. What's the use?" Keep on loving them. Keep on gently sowing seed, as the Holy Spirit opens up natural opportunities. Keep on asking God to make their sin unsatisfying to them, and cry out to the Lord, "Do whatever it takes, Lord, within Your will, to bring them to You!" Jesus is still bringing back alive loved ones that had been spiritually given up for dead.

I had the cutest little guy join me on my hike. I was in the country exploring a trail that wound along the creek and at first I just saw this little flash of black and white fur toddling along through the grass not far from me. He was all black, except for a nice white stripe all the way down his back, a big bushy tail, a cute little almost kitten-like face. Yes, it was a skunk! Two problems: one little spray and my wife wouldn't get near me for the next week. Secondly, it was daytime and skunks are nocturnal animals. If they're out in the daytime they can have rabies. So what did I do? I did the only thing any guy with any brains would do. I walked quickly the other direction, and I did not have to bury my clothes that day. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Four Mistakes That Mess Up Sex." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4, written by the creator of love and sex. I mean, the Inventor knows best, right? It starts out by saying, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified." That word doesn't mean you're wearing a halo and a white robe. It literally talks about being kept special. Now, He says that it is God's will that you should "avoid sexual immorality." That means any sexual relationship outside the boundaries of your marriage to your lifetime partner. And then He says His will is that "each of you should learn to control his own body." This unique, powerful love gift is too special to ruin. So God, the Inventor, sums up His strategy for staying pure. And you might think of it as the skunk approach. See, I knew there was only one way to keep from getting the skunk's worst; don't play with him, even if he looks like a cute little kitty. And don't try to resist him. You'll lose! Avoid him, man! That's how God says we can protect the beauty of no regrets sex. Avoid immorality. That's His Word! Don't get anywhere near the opportunity or the urge to do it outside of marriage. In practical terms I think it means avoiding four mistakes that can take you farther than you ever intended to go. First, you avoid spending a lot of time alone. If you've got feelings for someone and you're with them for a very long time in a situation where you could get very physical, chances are you will. Secondly, avoid exceeding the speed limit. In other words, don't even get near the point where your body and mind are preparing themselves for sexual intercourse. Because you cannot shift the car into reverse at 70 miles an hour. Thirdly, avoid feeding your fantasies by watching things or listening to things that will just fuel your lust and make it even harder to control. And finally, avoid squandering the innocent expressions of affection. Don't give away little things like holding hands, or a simple hug or a kiss. You need to guard those and make those special too. If I hadn't known any better, that skunk seemed to almost have a sign on him that kind of said, "I'm cuddly! Come play with me." I would not have been the same after that. Don't let sex too soon or adulterous sex lure you to get so close to something or to someone that it will cost you more than you ever intended to pay and take you where you never intended to go, and steal from you what you never meant to lose, and leave scars you never imagined. By the way, you say, "Ron, yeah, great! A little late for me. I already made those mistakes. I wish I could have it back." You can't. But you can be clean and you can be forgiven. That is what Jesus died for. The very nights, the very experiences that you remember with regret and guilt and shame, He died to forgive you of those. The Bible says you are a new creation when you come to Him. If you want that experience of a brand new start, a fresh beginning, come to Jesus and tell Him you're His and you want to be His from now on. Our website is all about this relationship. Check it out - it's ANewStory.com. And if you're facing temptation, if you're feeling the pressure, don't panic! Don't fight it. Do what God, the Inventor, says, "Run from it!"

I've often awakened in the morning to a local news station. Great way to wake up. Or check your phone for news. It gets your day off to a really cheerful start. You can hear about a war or two, a little terrorism, some of last night's fatalities. Oh yeah, that will get you started! Actually it's not the news I'm actually so interested in, it's the weather I want to hear. And when you hear the weather, then you can plan your day's wardrobe and your activities, you know, that's a good planning tool. In fact, if I'm in charge of an important meeting or an event that's coming up in a few days, I want the five-day weather forecast. Okay, it's not always right, but it does help me anticipate some of the problems and some of my responses and how we ought to plan. Recently I read a long, long, long-range forecast; one that should help you and help me as we make our plans. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Last Days Forecast." Our word for today from the Word of God; it comes from Matthew 24. The disciples are asking in verse 3, "What will be the sign of your coming, Jesus, and of the end of the age?" Well, people have been curious about this for two thousand years, "What's it going to look like before the Lord comes and He writes that last chapter of human history?" Well, Jesus, in part of His answer says, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation..." Sounds a little familiar doesn't it? "...kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains." Well, our world really seems to be fitting this description in a lot of ways: religious turbulence, merging with international turbulence, merging with turbulence in nature, all coming together at one time. When that happens, Jesus said, "I'm coming." What will the weather be in the church during those countdown days? Listen to this from verse 12: "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Now, you'd think that in these terminal days with everything turbulent that Christians would become more and more excited and more and more aggressive in their witness for Christ. But there are two groups, basically, in the last day's weather forecast...the cold and the hot. And it says, "The love of most will grow cold." You know, cooling is gradual, you don't even notice it. And it might be that you've been drifting toward coldness and you haven't even realized it. Because the way the world has become so corrupt, you still look good, but really you've cooled off tremendously in your walk with the Lord. You gradually start to spend less time with Him. You watch what you wouldn't have watched before, and you listen to what you wouldn't have listened to. You go where you wouldn't have considered going only a short time ago. Sin slowly becomes more attractive; the things of God less attractive. You're not exploded; you're just eroded - a deserter. But it's a time for heroes too, because Jesus said, "There will be those who will become hotter, who take their stand, who spread the gospel of the kingdom to the ends of the world." So, you're either going to become colder or bolder; no third group. Pick your group. You're becoming one or the other right now. Most, Jesus said, become colder. You know why? Because colder doesn't require any choice; you just drift to coolness. Bolder? Now, that demands a choice, "I will take a stand. I will not compromise. I will be unembarrassed about my association with Jesus Christ." If you haven't chosen bolder, you're probably getting colder. You know, I'm thinking there's not a lot of time left on God's clock. We don't know but it's looking like the kind of world that Jesus said He would come to. This is a time for passion, for action! The cold winds of earth's last days might be blowing right now. It's time to write your own personal forecast, "Very hot for Jesus until He comes!"

It wasn't my idea to get a dog. But, I did get pretty attached to little Missy. She became a part of the family; a little shih tzu dog. Now, I never called her Missy Hutchcraft. I mean, I didn't make her a member of the family, but she was cute. Getting a dog was my youngest son's idea. He really wanted a dog and I explained we couldn't afford a dog. And he said the magic words, "She's free!" to which I responded, "Okay, there goes my last argument." And I succumbed. Now, my son kept Missy in the kitchen most of the time, and when she was being housebroken, he would put a gate on the door of the kitchen so she couldn't get into the hallway and the rest of the house. It was a big help to my wife and to me, because he was gone most of the day. We didn't have to check on her as much. Of course she didn't want to stay in the kitchen. No, she wanted out, as any dog would. Four times this dog chewed through the plastic mesh on the gate. So we'd come in and we'd find her loose in the house doing things she shouldn't do. Then we got some strong electrical tape and put it over the hole. Well, she chewed and chewed. She finally chewed the tape until she got a piece loose. We found her running across the kitchen but slightly slowed down. See, she had a piece of tape stretched from one paw to the other, effectively handcuffing... or paw-cuffing that little dog until we could do a little tape removal surgery. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Freedom Can Leave You Stuck." Our word for today from the Word of God, John 8:34, the words of Jesus, "I tell you the truth. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin." Well, that's the ironic consequences of not living God's way, like our dog when she was a puppy. See, we see the gates that God has put up as confinement. "You know, it's really hard to stay married in my situation." "It's really hard to keep sex inside the fence of marriage." "It's hard to tell the truth if you only knew my situation." So we want to get outside the gate, because it's going to cost too much to do the right thing. "It's going to be hard not to be unequally yoked. I really love this girl/I really love this guy." "I don't know if I can stay in the gate." Maybe you've looked at God's boundaries and you've decided there's something beyond the gate that you want. Missy thought she'd get free and she got stuck. So will you, or so have you. There's something enslaving about sin. Oh, that voice says, "Oh, you could have just a little. Do it just once. Just a little compromise won't hurt." But soon you're in deeper than you ever imagined you would be. You didn't realize the scars this would cause. You didn't realize the guilt, the consequences, the darkness that would start to grow inside of you. You didn't realize how you were going to lose self-respect and you lose your closeness to God and maybe even some of your reputation. You didn't realize the difficulty of trying to stop it when you started it. Where are the brakes? It was easy to find the accelerator. Jesus said, "Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin." If you haven't crossed that boundary, would you run back from the edge? Freedom is never found in sin; only bondage. Don't be conned by the Devil. You say, "Well, I've gone beyond the boundary. I have gone beyond the gate. I've disobeyed God, and I'm paying for it." Maybe you're stuck. There's such good news two verses later in John 8:36. "If the Son of God sets you free, you will be free indeed." That's what a Savior means. Jesus wants to lovingly hold you in His arms and cut loose the things that have tied you up. It may hurt, but it is worth it. There is a cross where Jesus paid for every wrong choice you've ever made, every person you've ever hurt. Bring that garbage to His cross where millions of people have been forgiven and set free. You say, "I don't belong to this Savior. I've never experienced clean inside. This is your day! I hope you'll go to our website. Right there, you'll see the path that will take you right into a personal relationship with God where you will be forgiven. That website is ANewStory.com. There's nothing good outside the gate. Remember, when you sin to break free, you don't end up free. You end up stuck!

I never had a sister, but my sons have one, which means I have a daughter. Now, our oldest son is two years younger than our daughter, who is the oldest, but it was interesting to see as I watched their relationship what I had missed growing up. Oh, there was a lot of kidding around; the kids called it "busting." They had some exciting disagreements growing up because, well, they're two very different people. There were some hugs, there was some advice, there was sometimes some conflict, but one thing was really clear in that relationship - no one had ever better do my son's sister wrong. Even though he's two years younger, he was her personal - I'm going to make up a word here - "look-out-forer." I'm looking out for her! In fact, when any guy wanted to date her, he had to pass my son's very high requirements first. Oh, he's younger, but he was his sister's protector. Now, if you're a sister, it's nice to have a brother like that. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Protecting Our Sisters." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Timothy 5, and I'm going to be reading verse 2. It's a road map for relationships between, well, men and women in general, but particularly between young men and young women. He is addressing Timothy, who is a young man, and Paul says, "Treat the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers," and then get this part, "and treat the younger women as sisters with absolute purity." Now, if you grow up in our culture today, that's not the message you're getting. Oh, no, our culture says, "Hey, if you're a young man, treat the younger woman as a conquest; as a lover." But that's not God's design. He says, "Treat the younger women as sisters." Now, what does that mean? Does that mean you tease them all the time? Does that mean you argue with them, which brothers and sisters are known to do? No. Do you know what I think it's referring to? See, the love of a brother for a sister is, after all is said and done, protective love. It's like my son and daughter, "I'm not going to let anything happen to you that could hurt you, Sis." That's how young men are supposed to view young women. Not as targets, not as conquests, not as things to use. That's why it says, "Treat them with absolute purity" so you won't hurt them. You're supposed to guard your sister. That means you look at the women around you and say, "I will not use you. I will not push you for physical involvement. I won't even think about taking your greatest gift from you - your virginity. I won't let my mind wander into scenes where I reduce you to being a thing. I will guard your reputation, sister. I will guard your purity. I will guard your character." Now, that's manhood! And you know what? Ask a lot of young women today, and they'll tell you there is a critical shortage of that kind of man. See, what happens is you begin to say, "I'm going to develop some sisters here." So, you begin to develop friendships, and not just romances. And that becomes more important than just a passionate romance. You open the door to some real legitimate closeness, and really getting to know somebody. And you do that by finally throwing your sexual agenda out the window and developing a real friendship. Now, if you're a woman, by the way you dress, the way you act, the way you talk, the way you move, be sure you're encouraging this kind of relationship. Remember this: they always told me when I was fishing that the kind of bait you offer determines the kind of catch you get. Act like you want brothers. Act like you want guys who will be friends. And men, cultivate sisters; a level of sharing and caring that the sexual conquerors will never even get close to. Treat them with dignity, with respect. Absolute purity. Treat her like family. She's your sister, man! And every sister needs a brother.

John Parker had it made. After two attempts to escape being a slave to a Southern slave owner, he had finally gotten his freedom. He chose to live in Ripley, Ohio, right on the freedom side of the Ohio River. He got a house and he got a good job as a factory worker. In fact, ultimately, he owned a foundry and he invented many processes that were used widely in that industry. He was safe, secure and successful. But night after night, John Parker risked it all. Under cover of darkness, he rowed across the river to the Kentucky side - slave territory. If he was caught, he could lose his freedom. He could lose his life. But in spite of the risks, John Parker went looking for runaway slaves. And he found them and rowed them across the river to the freedom side. It's actually believed that John Parker was responsible for at least 900 slaves going free. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Setting People Free." A liberated slave, taking great risks, because he can't leave other slaves where he once was. Now, that's a hero! That's the kind of hero Jesus is looking for right now among His followers. It's the kind of hero who, humanly speaking, is the only hope for some folks that you're close to ever having a chance at heaven. The Bible graphically describes the bondages we're all in until we're set free by Jesus by His life-saving work on the cross. In John 8:34, He said "whoever commits sin is a slave to sin." It's true. We can't stop being selfish, we can't stop being hurtful, thinking dirty, talking trash, being negative, or prideful, or angry, or self-absorbed. We're addicted to our sin. The Bible also describes us as being "without hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). It also says that all our lives we have been "held in slavery to the fear of death." (Hebrews 2:15) We're nervous about dying because we know God's on the other side, and we might not be ready to meet Him. And ultimately, our family and friends and coworkers who haven't been to Jesus to have their sins forgiven, will in God's own words, "be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Thank God, someone came to you and me with the liberating news of what Jesus did on the cross, and you were set free by the Son of God! Now the question is, can you be content to just be free and forgiven yourself and let the sin-slaves all around you stay where they are? Whose responsibility is it to take the risks to rescue them? You're the liberated slave that Jesus has placed in their world. He's counting on you. They're counting on you and they don't even know it. Which brings us to our Lord's orders in our word for today from the Word of God in Jude, verse 23 - eight words that describe why you are where you are, with the people you are with all the time. "Snatch others from the fire and save them." You were rescued. Now you need to be a rescuer. If you'll evaluate the fears that keep you from "crossing the river" to bring them out, you'll notice those fears all have one thing in common. They're all about "me." They might reject me. I might mess it up. But rescue is all about them. A rescuer is still afraid of what might happen to him if he goes in for the rescue, but he's driven by a greater fear. What will happen if he doesn't go in for the rescue? What will happen to them? Someone will die without a chance to live. Jesus rescued you to be a rescuer. You are the liberated slave that He set free whose mission is to liberate others who are where you were. Jesus gave everything to snatch you from the fire. If you leave others where you were, you'll have to explain to Jesus why you did. You are their chance!

Our preschool grandson at the time? I think he overheard the weather forecast before his bedtime. It went something like this, "Chance of rain, maybe a few snow flurries." I guess that's all he needed to hear, because he began to pray fervently that night, "Jesus, please make it snow tomorrow." I know he's not the first child to pray that. Now, flurries are barely snow, but apparently the mention of them is enough for fuel for hope, and for faith...especially faith. And when he went to bed that night, his mom and dad...they prayed too. They said, "Dear Jesus, would you please answer a little boy's prayer?" Well, the next morning, this great scene: the little guy is standing in his jammies, in front of the big window in the living room, staring out at a day that was not white. It was just plain old gray. And then suddenly, there they were. The first flurries. Well actually, flakes. He started running around the living room shouting, "Thank You, Jesus! Thank You, Jesus! You made it snow!" And it kept snowing, by the way, appreciably more than the weatherman had forecast. Not only did Jesus answer a little boy's prayer, but a little boy showed us what faith looks like, asking God for what only He can do, then expecting Him to do it. Actually, standing at the window, watching for the answer to come. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Faith That Expects." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is Psalm 5:3. It's a verse we've had up in our prayer chapel. David says, "O Lord, You hear my voice...I lay my requests before You..." But wait, that's not the end of it. Here comes the faith part: "and wait in expectation." You know, I regularly "lay my request before" Him. But how often do I "go to the window," looking out for that answer; expecting Him to answer? You know, you can come to Jesus and you can talk to Him about something, but you can walk away and you're still carrying it. You haven't left it with Him. You haven't trusted it to Him. I've done that way too many times. See, faith works this way. It walks into the Throne Room of Almighty God, who we know now created and controls, like, two trillion galaxies. That's your Heavenly Father. But you walk into that Throne Room and you're all bent over. You're carrying the heavy burden that you've been carrying, but faith walks out standing tall. The burden isn't there any more. You know why? You left it at His Throne. Now, if I'm all bent over when I walk out of the Throne Room; if I'm still carrying that heavy backpack after I've prayed about it, then I talked to Him about it but I didn't trust Him with it. And that's where faith comes in. You know, Jesus made this incredible promise. He said, "If you ask anything in prayer, believe that you have received it..." Now, that's past tense. You haven't got it yet, but "believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Sure, the "snow" doesn't always come, and it doesn't always come on my schedule. But I have got a Father who loves me and Who only says no if He's working on something that's for my good and better than what I have asked for. I remember reading in Tim Keller's book on prayer where he said that "God does answer every prayer but He gives us what we would have prayed for if we knew what God knows." I wonder how many times the answer didn't come because I didn't really believe Him for it? After all, the Bible says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please Him" (Hebrews 11:6). I know who I want to be. I want to be the little boy at the window.

There's that old country song "Country Roads take me home to the place I..." Well, you know. Sometimes I thought that was my wife's national anthem. She grew up in the Ozarks and boy, she had the memories. Most of them were down some country road, unpaved, rutted, rocky and dusty. With a standard rear-wheel drive vehicle, you'd begin to wonder if you'd ever get back from some of those roads, especially if the weather had been bad. On one of our drives down those country roads I noticed something. Everyone we met was driving a pickup truck with four-wheel drive. But anybody who lives where there are steep roads, rocky roads, muddy roads, or snowy roads, really should have a four-wheel drive vehicle. Because all four wheels are working to get you over something or out of something so that you can go wherever you couldn't in a rear-wheel drive vehicle. You can drive on all kinds of terrain in all kinds of weather if you've got that four-wheel drive. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Four Secrets for Being Unsinkable." Our word for today from the Word of God actually comes from my life's verse, Romans 8:37. But before we get to that, here is the context. Paul talks about these things that have gone on in his life: trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Man, he just talked about the worst terrain life has to offer. So if you are on a rocky road or a slippery road right now, it's probably in that list somewhere. Or whatever you're going through is nothing worse than what's on that list. The response of someone who is living on spiritual four-wheel drive on those bad roads, Romans 8:37 - "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Well, the Bible says here that we can live with four-wheel drive, conquering; more than conquering those things that sink most people. Tell me, how can you be an all-terrain, all-weather Christian, unsinkable especially with the kind of difficulties you're facing right now? Well Romans 8 describes that all-weather faith and gives us four secrets to it. Verse 28 says, "We know that in all these things God works for the good of those who love Him." First of all, you know there's a perfect plan. No matter how the road or the future looks, you embrace the plan. You trust in God believing that this road is part of something bigger than you can see. Secondly, you count on inexhaustible resources. Romans 8:32 says, "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things." The one who loved you enough to send His Son to die for you will not ever abandon you no matter how it may feel right now. Your fuel tank may run out, but His is inexhaustible. The third secret to this four-wheel drive faith; you hang on to unloseable love. Romans 8:39, "Nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Others may not be willing or able to go with you on this tough road, but you will not travel one mile alone if you've got Jesus. He will never abandon you. He is there! Last of all, this secret: you belong to an invincible Savior. Invincible. Verse 31: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" We're more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Whatever is bigger than you are, Jesus is bigger than it is. It's time you shift it into four-wheel drive for that bumpy road, that dangerous road ahead of you. There's a perfect plan, there are inexhaustible resources, there's unloseable love, and there's an invincible Savior. Do you have a personal relationship with this Jesus? Or is He a religion? Is He rituals? Is He just a belief? Have you ever reached out to Jesus and said, "Jesus, you're my only hope of being forgiven from my sin because of your death on the cross for me. My only hope of going to heaven is You. Today you can begin a relationship with Him by saying, "Jesus, I'm yours." Go to our website and check out, there, how you can get started with Him and know you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. Look, is there any road you can't handle, when with Jesus you can be more than a conqueror?

Back when my son and his friends were going into their sophomore year in high school playing football, they moved up to the junior varsity and the varsity team. And they got word that they were going to have triple sessions in August and September practices. That's exciting... triple sessions meant that you get to go, not for the regular two-hour practice of calisthenics, and running, and working hard, and running into things, and running into each other. No, you get to go for four hours. Hey, you guessed it: not even four... you get to go for six wonderful hours of that! Twelve different times before the season starts - triple sessions. And you should have heard them when they talked about it, or actually, you should have seen them. Their eyes kind of rolled back in their head, and their mouths drooped, and their shoulders sagged, and they'd go, "Triple sessions!" Well, the coach knew he had an inexperienced crop coming up, and he was the coach who got used to winning. So, he put them through some very demanding training. Of course, that's the price you pay to be a winner. They were state champs! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why the Coach is Working You So Hard." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 5 - it's about God's training program; He, of course, being the head coach. And verses 3 and 4 tell us this, starting out with a kind of curious phrase, "We also rejoice in our sufferings." Have you been doing that recently? Rejoicing? Well, that's really great that we're going through this hard time, isn't it? Well, Paul says, "We rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope." Well, there's that phrase, "rejoicing in our suffering." How can a football player rejoice in triple session workouts? How can he rejoice in them? Well, he knows if he thinks about it that this extra practice is making him stronger, he's getting more endurance, he's getting experience that will give him the edge when he gets in the game. He'll be a fourth-quarter player. He's ending up having "hope" as Paul says here. His hope is that he's going to win. We're going to have a winning season. We might walk off with the championship. I might have something special on the back of my jacket all year and for the rest of my high school career. See, his hope comes from the fact that he knows he's getting strong enough to win, and he won't get strong enough to win without double and triple sessions. He may hate the process; he's going to love the outcome. Now, notice in these verses how God gives us hope in the middle of our hard times. It might be hope that you need right now because there's a lot of pain and stress that you're experiencing. Maybe you've almost lost hope. Notice it says that suffering produces perseverance. Or some translations say "patience." In other words, by making it through hard times, you develop the ability to hang in there even when it hurts like that football player hurting all over. To wait for God's timing to say, "You know, I don't have to have an answer or relief right now." And that patience converts into character Paul says. Or another translation says "experience." You can look back and say, "You know, I've made it through something like this, and now I know I can do it." There's a confidence that comes from making it through something very, very hard. You can say, "I know I can do this with God's help. I know I can, because I've been here before." And the big things, the daunting things, the scary things don't look as big and daunting and scary any more. But see, people who have never handled anything tough, well, they're the ones who leave practice when it starts to hurt. They run from their problems instead of confronting them. Sometimes that's even why people think about ending their own life, because they've not handled the tough stuff, and they just want the pain to stop. Listen, stay in the ring. You're building experience and that's what gives hope in suffering. There's no way to develop this kind of strength, this kind of toughness, this kind of durability without suffering first. If the coach has scheduled a triple session for you right now, don't despair. Don't give up. Don't quit. Let suffering develop patience, let patience develop experience, let experience develop hope. Triple sessions build winners.

I had just finished up a great conference in Canada, and Michael, our Field Director, was there with me. We were walking back to our hotel to pack up and leave. I was really tired and pre-occupied when he handed me this envelope. I noticed a phone message written on it, and I distinctly remember Michael saying something when he handed it to me, but I was concentrating on that message that had been written on the envelope. I looked at who it was and I said to myself, "Oh, I already made that call." And since I was finished with the message, after I got in my room I threw the envelope away. When we got back to our office, somebody said, "Where is the check from the folks in Canada?" They were referring to the check for our ministry from the weekend. I said, "Michael has it." When they asked Michael, he said, "No, I gave it to Ron." "You did?" You guessed it. It was in the envelope I threw away. I don't think I have ever thrown away a check in my life. Well, they stopped payment and they re-issued it. But I was treated for acute embarrassment. See, I didn't know what the envelope was worth, so I just threw it away. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Throwing Yourself Away." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Leviticus 26:12-13. It's an important passage for a lot of us who don't realize how valuable we are. See, the people here, the ancient Jews, had been mistreated in Egypt, they'd been used, they'd been hurt, and they'd been belittled and enslaved. And they started to believe that's what they were worth. Does that sound familiar at all? Well, here's what God said to them, and maybe to you. "I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt so you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bonds of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high." And here's what God says about whose they are and who you are: "My people, no longer slaves, walking with your head held high." See, they were out of Egypt, but Egypt wasn't out of them. They were out of bondage, but the bondage wasn't out of them. God was telling them what royalty they really were, that it was about time they started living like the treasure they were. Maybe that's what God is trying to tell you. You've been making the same mistake about your worth that I did with that valuable envelope; you think it's trash. Maybe you've felt like a loser, a reject, a victim. So you've been throwing yourself away, and there are a lot of ways to do that. You can throw yourself away academically by not trying, not working very hard at work, by getting sexually involved, maybe throwing yourself away chemically or alcoholically. You could be trashing yourself by what you do for pleasure, by settling for bad relationships. Maybe you've even thought about suicide. It could be you just don't try because you don't think you're worth it. You're wrong. You are God's handmade creation. His people, no longer a slave; head held high. You're making a mistake that breaks the heart of your Creator. You believe you are trash because some people treated you like trash. No, you are who your Creator says you are. They don't get to tell you who you are. You were created by God. You are loved by God. You're purchased by God through the death of His Son. You belong to God if you've given yourself to Him. You are not trash! You are treasure! I looked at a valuable envelope. I thought it was trash; I threw it away. I was wrong. It was worth a lot. Maybe some people have looked at you and thought you weren't worth much, and they treated you like trash. Well, they didn't know who you are. But you need to know, whether they know or not. Don't break God's heart any more by throwing away what He thinks is worth so much He would die for you. He would die for the very wrong things you have done, for every rebellion against Him. You were worth the life of Christ, His Son. This day, why don't you step into His love by opening your heart to Him? I'd love to help you do that. And I can if you'll visit our website ANewStory.com. I think if you can say to Jesus, "I'm Yours, today." You could start to live like the treasure that He says you are.

If you've flown commercially, you know you have to go through a security checkpoint before you can get to your gate. And for those security personnel who man those metal detectors and X-ray machines, there is a four-letter word they won't tolerate. You know what it is, it's the word "bomb." I mean, you can see signs warning you not to even joke about explosives or bombs or anything. And I'm glad! The slightest hint of the possibility of a bomb has been known to literally shut down an airport for hours - I've been there when that happened. That's fine with me if they want to check that out. Nobody in an airport wants to hear the word "bomb" because of what that word represents. That's something that could destroy everything. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Word Hell Doesn't Want You to Say." You know, there's a word like that in hell. It's a word that the devil and his forces hate because it can destroy everything they have planned. Like the signs at the airport warning people not to bring up the word bomb, the devil is doing everything he can to stop you and me from bringing up this word, because it's like a bomb in hell. He's been trying to edit that word out for a very long time - including in our word for today from the Word of God in Acts 4:17-18. Peter and John have been proclaiming Christ in Jerusalem, and the Sanhedrin - the same people who engineered the crucifixion of Christ - want to silence his followers. The Bible says they reached this conclusion: "'To stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.' Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus." There it is: the word the devil doesn't want to hear - Jesus - because of the power of that name to destroy all his plans. So the devil tries to make that name the issue, 2,000 years ago or today. In first-century Jerusalem, the authorities didn't care if the believers talked about God or the Scriptures as long as they didn't mention the name of Jesus. Not much has changed has it? It's OK to talk about God, the Bible, family values, spirituality, your church, but don't mention the name. Satan hates that name and he does everything he can to edit out the name of Jesus. All too often we fall right into his trap. We don't want to be offensive or we don't want to turn anyone off, and a voice says, "Hey, just talk about God. That won't bother anybody." So we talk about God in our lives but we avoid the name. Christian musicians write songs that vaguely talk about "Him" but too often they avoid the name of Jesus so their music can cross over to the unbelieving world. Even Christian leaders try to avoid conflict, sometimes, by watering down the name. But I love the way the first Christians responded to the pressure to edit out Jesus, "There is no other name," they said, "under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Wow! The power is in the name of Jesus. Philippians 2:10 says, "at the name of Jesus every knee will bow!" Satan knows it and Satan hates it, so he's trying to get you and me to choke on the name. For 20 centuries our enemy has been trying to censor the name of Jesus. Don't be a part of his godless crusade. Don't be ashamed of the One who died publicly on a cross for you! The people who don't care about Him, the people who hate Him aren't afraid to say His name. Why would the people who love Him be afraid to speak His name? The devil is afraid you will mention the name; you will talk about Jesus, because that name is a spiritual bomb that can destroy everything he's planning to do. You might very well hear the name of Jesus several times today spoken irreverently from the lips of people who have no love for Him, no respect for Him. How can you, for whom He died, who loved you so much; how can you be silent about His name?

You might just remember turning your television on and there would be Gilligan's Island. Maybe, you can even hear the theme song playing in your brain. It was a big hit when it first came out. Now, here's Gilligan, who's the terminally stupid first mate of the S.S. Minnow. There's the millionaire, his wife (you're probably thinking of the song now if you can go back that far), the professor, the movie star... OK, you know, the characters are pretty well-known. The plot was very simply summed up in the theme song. These people went out on the S.S. Minnow for a three-hour tour. The storm blew them into some unknown island where they were stranded until the series finally ended years later. Some three-hour tour, huh? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Ending Up Where You Never Wanted to Go." By the way, what is the Gilligan Syndrome? Well, it's going farther than you wanted to; staying longer than you planned to. It might be happening to you right now. Jesus told us about a young man it happened to many years ago; our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 15, beginning in verse 13. It's after this man has asked his dad for the family inheritance that's coming to him. While his dad's still alive. "Not long after that," the Bible says, "the younger son got together all he had, went off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father." He was just going for a fling on the wild side, just a three-hour tour. He almost never made it back. What was supposed to bring him pleasure and happiness did for just a little while. Ultimately it left him stranded on this spiritual island all by himself. "He squandered his wealth," Jesus said. In other words, he wasted what he'd been given. Have you done that? He spent everything he had, it says. He was alone except for the pigs. The Bible says, "The way of a transgressor is hard." It always is - sooner or later. Except it's sin that carries us to a place that's hard to get back from. Here's the ugly truth about sin: it will always take you farther than you wanted to go, it will keep you longer than you planned to stay, and it will cost you more than you ever thought you'd pay. And, maybe you've seen that already. And the bill has come. If it hasn't, it will. Maybe, you're listening and you say, "That's all happened to me." Or maybe you're just starting down a sin road that looks exciting, and profitable, and desirable, and you think it will be just a three-hour tour. Sin never is. Listen to God's statement in James 1:15, "After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." It will take you where you never meant to go. If you feel like you're just too far away to ever get back, you can get back the same way the Prodigal Son did, but only that way. It says he "got up and went to his father." It's time for you to run to God instead of running from Him any longer. You say, "He'll never take me." Look, that's why Jesus told this story, to let you know that God is waiting for you to come into His waiting arms. It says "His father saw him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." God proved He wants you home with Him by sending His Son to die for your very rebellion against Him. For all that you've wasted with your sin, He says come home to Me. He's saying it to your heart right now as you listen to this. Do you want to get home? Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I believe some of the sin you died for was mine. I am yours as of today." I'd love to share more information with you at our website ANewStory.com. God will come running to you because of what Jesus did on the cross for you. Haven't you been gone from God long enough? It's time to come home.

It was Christmas Eve a long time ago, and we got an emergency S.O.S. phone call from a school principal that we knew in Patterson, New Jersey. She actually had promised to supply Christmas toys for some of her students who were burned out families, and I think at that time Patterson was one of the arson capitols of the country. Actually, she had come up short and it was Christmas Eve. So - this emergency call was asking if we could help. Well, I was pretty thrilled to see our kids respond. They dropped everything and started digging into their old toys for things to give, and then came the fire engine. It was my oldest son's favorite. It was this big, new, bright red Tonka fire engine. And with both hands he carried it upstairs and extended it to me to be put in the Christmas bag. And I said, "Oh, son, are you sure you want to give this? I mean, I don't want you to feel bad about this tomorrow." I think he was almost offended. He looked at me with those big, blue eyes and he said, "Dad! Isn't this what Jesus coming here is all about?" Oh, man, I melted. You see, even at his young age, my son knew that even your most precious possessions really belong to the Lord and are to be held loosely, whether they're toy trucks or the children who play with them. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hug Them Tightly, But Hold Them Loosely." Our word for today from the Word of God, it's from 1 Samuel 1. It's about a mother who could not have wanted her child more. Her name is Hannah. She has suffered many childless years, frustrated years. She gives God a desperate prayer, "Lord, give me a child." And He gives her a glorious answer in the person of a baby - Samuel. She says in verse 20, after the baby comes, "I will name him Samuel because I asked the Lord for him." Then in verse 22, it says, "Hannah did not go up to the temple. She said to her husband, 'After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord and he will live there at the temple always.'" She wants him to be raised for the Lord's service by the High Priest. Verse 27: "I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord." Man! Hannah loved her child dearly, but she held him loosely. You know, I think many of us Christian parents can say, "Whatever You want, Lord, about everything we have except maybe my son or my daughter." You see, it's one thing for our children to need us; it's something else for us to need them too much. Had Hannah needed Samuel too much, she would have restricted God's training, and God's movement, and God's plans for his life. Without realizing it, we often end up standing in the way of God's best for our kids because, well, we might lose their attention, or their closeness, or their help that we need. Or the identity that they give us. Maybe our dreams for them are different from God's dreams for them. But we continue to press our expectations, maybe even using spiritual language to do it. It's so easy to let our children become an extension of our ego, our hopes, our dreams rather than letting them simply be God's servants. Maybe you even have a child God is calling into His service and you're kind of standing in the way. We just dare not forget that our children are God's property trusted to us. We dare not hijack them from His service to be in ours. Oh, love them deeply, but don't hold them back. Hug them tightly, but hold them loosely.

It was another one of those tragic shootings that killed four students (and the shooter) at Marysville High School in Washington state. It shocked everybody. When the identity of the 15-year-old shooter was revealed, it was all the more shocking. Because he wasn't the typical loner, the bullying victim, the outsider. He was the Homecoming prince, a football player, the popular guy. But, as it turns out, there were hints of the anger and anguish in his soul. You could read about it on Facebook and Twitter. See, social media is the new confessional. That's where he spilled his romantically broken heart, his despair, his rage. Social networks have become the new place to dump the contents of your heart. All the contents of your heart, even the dark stuff. It's a catharsis, but it's not a cure. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where to go Before the Explosion." The authorities and talking heads analyzed for a long time that shooting. Teenage angst. Gun violence. Warning signs. For my account, I found myself asking what we could learn about handling life's shattering moments. Without making tragic choices. Well here's some lessons I think: First, don't stuff it. Buried pain is a ticking time bomb. A lot of us were raised to believe that our pain and brokenness should be kept inside, hidden behind this "I'm fine" mask. And all the while, this volcano is building inside. And there's grief, and there's anger, and desperation, and feeling alone - I'll tell you, if you stuff those things they just keep growing. They morph into an emotional monster. Until that emotional monster explodes, doing irreversible damage. Like the eruption at Mt. St. Helen's years ago. The explosion didn't last long. What was blown away is gone forever. And then, don't store it. Treat the wound before the infection sets in. Talk about it when the wound is fresh. Before it submerges. And don't take it to someone who's in the same swamp. You say, "but they get me." Well when we're broken, we don't just need someone who gives us sympathy. We need the objectivity of someone who's completely outside our situation. Someone who can help us see the big picture. Because pain distorts reality, convincing us that this wound will never heal. That everything's dark. But there's never been a winter without a spring. Or a sunset without a sunrise. We need someone with perspective. And another lesson is to have your "go to" person before your storm hits. When you live in "Tornado Alley," they tell you to "know where your shelter is before there's an emergency." That's a good idea emotionally, too. Decide what wise, objective person you can trust with your deepest, darkest feelings. As soon as they hit. I'm so grateful I have found my "911" person. He's the one I've been able to trust with feelings I didn't dare tell anyone. He has calmed my frantic soul when nothing else could. He's pointed me to hope when it looked like there wasn't any. He actually said, "The Lord has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted." The Bible says, "He is close to the brokenhearted and He saves those who are crushed in spirit." That's Jesus. And the more broken I've been, the closer He has seemed. And as far as having someone who understands? No one has ever been more wounded, more broken than He was. Abandoned. Attacked. Crucified. Of course, I'm not alone in finding refuge in the open arms of Jesus. So many people have found that, for a very long time, they've accepted His invitation: "Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest." This man who loved you enough to die on a cross for you, who's powerful enough to walk out of His grave and conquer the biggest monster of all - death - He stands ready to come into your life, at your invitation. If you have never had a moment when you began a personal relationship with the savior, where you've told Him, "Jesus, I'm yours." Would you tell Him that today? Get to our website. We've laid out, there, the path where you can be sure you belong to Him. That website's ANewStory.com. See we're all Humpty Dumpty at times. All the King's horses and all the King's men can't put us together again. But the King can.

I don't think this is going to come as a news flash to anybody who's been around very long, but the differences between men and women aren't just biological. For example, the difference between how a man and woman tell a story or relate an incident. The man sort of skims the surface; gives you the 30,000 feet view of things, and usually he can't even remember a lot of details. I often had to ask my wife, "When did that happen? Where were we? Who were we with again?" Now, when a woman tells the same story, oh, we get the color of the drapes, the weather forecast for the day, the expressions people had on their faces. And the man's going, "Okay, so what's the point? Where's this going?" Actually, this underscores an important difference between men and women; one that I think God designed. And the sooner we understand it, the sooner we'll really appreciate each other. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Man's Forest and Woman's Trees." Now, our word for today from the Word of God goes back to the very creation of man and woman, Genesis 2:15. Notice what man's assignment was. "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." Adam, run the garden! That's no small job; he's got a big challenge. God has set him up to deal with the big picture. Now notice the creation of woman only a few verses later. It says, "The man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the air, the beasts of the field." Okay, he's busy running the big operation. "But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman..." I personally am very glad He did. And it says, "He made her from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man." Notice, He's created Eve now; not to run the garden, but with a focused concern. In this case, her concern is to be, largely, Adam. He would care about the big picture; she would care about the details. He would see the forest (or the garden); she would see the trees. And, you know, it's still that way today and we really need each other's perspective! See, if a man doesn't have a woman's perspective, he tends to trample over people without even knowing it while he's pursuing his conquest, his big deal. And the man without a woman, he misses the journey because all he can see is the destination. He doesn't see the problems until they are a crisis; maybe too late to deal with. A woman tends to see them sooner and soon enough to solve them. But see, if a woman doesn't have a man's perspective, she could be overwhelmed with worry over the details. She could tend to overreact to a bad situation because she's so close to it. To panic, maybe even make short-sighted decisions. But, man, it's dynamite when you put the two perspectives together. A man has this objective distance, and he's able to say, "Honey, come over here and let's look at the whole forest and we'll probably make a better decision and better choices." Created by God for that big picture, and there's nothing wrong with that. But then you put that with a woman's sensitive closeness, where she says, "Honey, come over here. Did you notice that there are trees dying and falling down in the forest? You've got to come and look at the smaller picture with me, because if more of these trees die there ain't going to be no forest anymore." See, put us together; we've got the whole story. The genius of our Creator. Let's celebrate the fact that we're different. She needs to see his forest, and he needs to see her trees.

Not long ago, someone told me about a pastor who stood at the pulpit one Sunday and announced this to his people, "Folks, I have some bad news, some good news, and some bad news." He had everyone's attention. "The bad news is that the roof on this church is shot. We have to replace it. But the good news is - we have the money. The bad news is - it's in your wallets!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Eternity Dollars." Interesting thought, huh? The money is there for the work God wants to do. But it's still in our wallets, our bank accounts, our toys. Recently, a friend who is the head of a major missions organization said, "It's taking our missionaries three years to get their support raised. And we've tried every creative means we can to change that, but nothing has worked." The experience of their missionaries is echoed by hundreds, and maybe thousands, of missionaries. Here they are ready to get to the people God has called them to reach - and they have to wait three years because they can't get enough financial support. Is it because there's no money to send them? Probably not. The money is there, it's just tied up in our wallets. And meanwhile, on the other end, people go on dying without Christ. In our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 10:14, God asks a series of questions that are very revealing and convicting...uncomfortably revealing really. Pouring out His heart for the people who don't yet know His Son died for them, God asks, "How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?" Now where does this bottom line responsibility rest for whether or not lost people hear the Good News about Jesus? With the messenger? Not according to this. It's with the sender. God takes the process of the unreached hearing the message all the way back to its source - a sender. For 2,000 years the Great Commission of Jesus has depended on two kinds of people sacrificially playing their position - the senders and the sendees. In what could be the fourth quarter of God's game on earth, there is so much work to be done in Jesus' name. And it's going to take money. Money we may have tied up in things other than what God gave it to us for. He sacrificed His Son so the lost could be rescued. Many of His workers and messengers are willing to sacrifice to tell the lost about His Son. Rescuing the spiritually dying has always meant sacrifice - and no follower of Jesus is exempt. We can't delegate the sacrifices to a few spiritual warriors - God intends for all of us to spend and be spent in the cause for which His Son was spent. Lottie Moon was a great missionary hero, who made a real great impact on 19th-Century China. She asked some hard questions. She said, "Where is the silver and the gold that should be in the Lord's treasury to send out those men and women who are asking to be sent? Alas! Some are adding more fields to their broad lands. Some are spending on selfish indulgences. So these lost souls go down to death without ever having heard the name of Jesus. In the day of judgment, at whose door will lie this sin?" By God's grace, let's release the funds God gave us to send His messengers. Let's transfer funds in our account on earth to our eternal account in heaven. The soldiers of Christ are waiting for the bullets that they need to win this battle. It's in our hands!

"Wake up, kids!" We were in this campground - 3:30 in the morning. You ask, "What were you doing to your kids?" Well, I had planned a trip up Cadillac Mountain. I had been told this was the first place you could see the sunrise on the East Coast. I wanted to see this. I thought this would be a great adventure for my wife and my kids. Well, they weren't as enthused as I was, especially when I woke them up at 3:30. Oh, but I thought ahead. I bought donuts the night before, so when they woke up I stuffed a donut in each mouth so they wouldn't wake up the campground. Then we started my well-planned adventure up Cadillac Mountain. We wound our way up to the top, and there on the eastern horizon, in that chilly early morning air, we were rewarded with an unforgettable view of the clouds! Oh, I had listened to the weather forecast. They promised me sun. I had a family insurrection on my hands. We never did see the sun that morning. I had made my plans. I went to a lot of effort. I got to the top of my mountain, and this is not what I thought I would find there. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Disappointment Mountain." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 6:32. Jesus has been talking about clothes, and food, and earthly possessions. And He continues by saying, "The pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." I think Jesus is sort of talking about two mountains you can climb. One I call Earth Stuff Mountain. Then He describes what I would call Kingdom Mountain, which is "seeking first the kingdom of God." Even if you're a follower of Jesus, unless you make a conscious, courageous choice to climb Kingdom Mountain with your life, you'll probably spend your best years and your best energy on Mount Earth Stuff. I remember this seminar where I was teaching years ago about Peaceful Living in a Stressful World. A man in his 30s was there, and he was very successful in business. He told me he'd come that day to find out how to be more successful. At the end of it he walked out in tears. He told me, "All these years I've been climbing the wrong mountain. And I want the rest of my life to be in the service of the Lord." It could be you've been climbing the wrong mountain too. Maybe you love Jesus, but you're really living mostly for earth stuff, for earth security, for earth significance. You have all your plans together, like when I tried to go up Cadillac Mountain. You've worked hard; you're getting to the top. But when you get to the top you say, "Wait a minute! Why am I so empty? This isn't the view I expected." It's called Disappointment Mountain. The Bible says God planted eternity in the hearts of men. So, we're built for eternal things. Earth stuff won't do it. We need something that lasts forever. You know, Jesus stands there to challenge your daily value system. Not your official beliefs, but your real decision-making value system. Would you let Him loosen your grip on all you've accumulated? Would you let Him change what you're aiming your best efforts at so it is compatible with your hunger for something eternal in your heart? The Bible says in the words of Jesus, as He asks this disturbing question, "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" I wonder if that could be the pursuit you're on; the path you're on. You've gained so much. You've done well. You've fulfilled some of your dreams. But, it's the wrong mountain. Even if you get to the top you will not find what you're looking for. Because you were "created by Jesus and for Jesus" the Bible says. He says it's too high a price to pay to lose your soul and your eternity to think that somehow what you've got is going to be enough, even your religion. See, He came and died on a cross to remove the sin that keeps us across the Grand Canyon from the God who made us. And He would love to bring you together with Him today so you can finally have the end of a life that has been searching but not finding. Our website is about how to begin your relationship with Him. Would you take a few minutes and check it out - it's ANewStory.com. Because I can tell you, the view at the top of Mount Kingdom is all that your soul has longed for and all that your heart has been looking for.

We had a home of our own! The ministry I was working with in the New York area that is. We rented a facility for many years, and then God provided this rambling old home that we called our headquarters and the home of our ministry finally. And, it was a great gift, but it took a lot of work to get it in shape, like most old homes do. So, a lot of friends came in to help us with painting, and wallpapering, and electrical work. And then we were in, but one big job remained. See, the outside looked kind of shabby. It very much needed a good paint job. The problem was that our staff didn't have the time, and I'm not sure they really had the ability to do it right. And we for sure didn't have the real equipment to do a big painting job. Well, along came a friend of the ministry who is a painter. Bless his heart, he had the equipment, he had the ability. He said to us, "I'll make you a deal. You get the paint, you get some helpers, you tape up all the trim around the building, and I'll do the rest." He had a deal. Couldn't pass that one up! So, he would do what we couldn't do on this basis, "You get it ready, and I'll do the job." I know someone else who works like that. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Get It Ready, He'll Do The Job." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Kings 4. Let me begin reading at verse 1, "The wife of the man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, 'Your servant, my husband, is dead. And you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.' Elisha replied to her, 'How can I help you? Tell me what do you have in your house?' 'Well, your servant has nothing there at all,' she said, except a little oil.' Elisha said, 'Well, go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars, and don't ask for just a few.'" I like that part. "'Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.' So she left him, shut the door, and they brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, 'Bring me another one.' But he replied, 'There's not a jar left.' And then the oil stopped flowing." I love this story! Elisha, representing the Lord, is basically saying, "You get it ready, and God will do the job." Just like my painter friend. You get all those jars in here. Now, I know that you've only got a little oil. She'd look like a fool with her neighbors. She's out on a limb. "Give me all your jars. Give me all your jars!" For that little bit of oil? But God is saying to her, "You prepare for a supernatural result. You just get it prepared; God will produce it." He does it all the way through the Bible; you just see it over and over again. He says, "I want you to walk into the waters of the Jordan River, and then they will part. You act like there's going to be a miracle, and I'll do the job." Remember the wedding feast at Cana? "Bring the water pots, fill them with water, and I'll take care of the rest. But you act like there's going to be a miracle." "Bring that lunch to Me and I'll make plenty of it." "Move the stone away from Lazarus' tomb, and if you act like there's going to be a miracle, I'll do the rest." Here's an important principle: the size of the preparation often determines the size of the miracle. See, we live in unnecessary poverty because we overestimate the problem and we underestimate God. So, pray as if something God-sized is going to happen. Plan as if something God-sized is going to happen. Budget, and dream as if something God-sized is going to happen. Live as if that obstacle will move like the waters of the Jordan River. Live as if there's going to be plenty of what we've run out of like that wedding feast at Cana. Live as if what's dead will come to life, like Lazarus coming back from his tomb. Remember, the size of the preparation may determine the size of the miracle. Now, maybe you're in a situation that's too big for you right now. Can't you just hear God saying, "You get it ready. I'll do the job."

Centuries ago, Tyre was one of the great cities of the Middle East, strategically located on the Mediterranean Sea...until it was leveled by a foreign invader. Actually, there was an ancient Biblical prophecy that Tyre would not only be leveled, which was unimaginable at the time, but that the site would be so swept of Tyre's rubble that fishermen would one day lay their nets there to dry. The city was gone, but the rubble still remained until Alexander the Great came along. By that time, Tyre had moved to an island offshore, confident that they would now be unreachable by any future invader. They underestimated Alexander. He ordered his engineers to use the rubble of the old city to build a causeway to the island, and that's what they did. And Alexander and his army marched across the bridge that was made from rubble and won what seemed to be an impossible victory. So the site of ancient Tyre was, in fact, swept clean. And in modern times, fishermen have (Well, you guessed it.) dried their nets where the city once was. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope From the Rubble." So history was made by a conqueror who made a bridge out of rubble. Many a personal history has been changed the same way; by someone who could make from the rubble of a broken life a bridge to something better. A bridge to hope, I guess you might say, when hope seemed pretty hard to find. It could be that you're living in the rubble right now of a broken marriage or a broken romance. Maybe you're trying to put together the pieces of a broken career. Or maybe it's your health that's broken, or a dream you've held onto for a long time. I know a Savior who makes our broken times into a bridge; a bridge to a victory we could have never imagined. For so many people I know, their broken time turned out to be the last stop before a place called hope. Jesus uses your broken hope to turn you to the hope that will never let you down. It's the hope God describes in Hebrews 6:19, our word for today from the Word of God. It describes the incredible security so many have found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It says, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." No other hope can ultimately be an "anchor for the soul, firm and secure." Only Jesus can do that. But often it isn't until we're standing in the rubble of what we once depended on that we consider looking in Jesus' direction, and you may be at that crossroads right now. The Bible tells us that we're without hope because we're "without God" (Ephesians 2:12). And we're without God because we've repeatedly chosen to do things our way instead of God's way - even the most religious of us. Every one and every thing we try in order to fill the hole in our heart ultimately becomes just another god that failed us. And then along comes Jesus. He's God's one and only Son who went all the way to a cross to build a bridge from our brokenness to God's power and God's presence. He died to pay for the sin that's created an awful chasm between us and God; a chasm that one day will keep us out of heaven. But the bridge is there for you to cross; the cross that bridges the chasm. If you'll step across that bridge today, you'll step into the hope that is "the anchor for your soul, firm and secure." Are you ready for that? We're talking every sin forgiven and we're talking you in a permanent love relationship with the God who made you. If you say, "I want that." Then tell Jesus, "I'm Yours, Lord, because You paid the price for my sin." We'd love to help you plug into this hope that Jesus has. Someone did that for us, and we'd love to do it for you. We can at our website, I hope that you'll go there today. It's ANewStory.com. Wouldn't it be something if this broken moment in your life became the bridge to the greatest hope you've ever known? It could happen today.

Because I travel so much, I watch the Weather Channel, or something like it, a lot. I just sat back, this one time, in amazement as I watched them track this monster low pressure system moving across the country. By the time it reached the Eastern United States, that low pressure system stretched on the Weather Channel map from the Maritime Provinces in Canada all the way to Mexico! I mean, it was massive! And everywhere it went, it left flooding rains or heavy snows or even violent weather. In Minnesota, for example, this low pressure system registered the lowest barometric pressure ever. All across the eastern half of the country, the news reported massive power outages, cancellations, delays. For millions of Americans, whatever they had planned just didn't happen. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "What God's Saying In Your Storm." One thing a night like that turbulent weather night demonstrates is this: God can change your plans anytime. And He may be bringing some weather into your life right now to do just that. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 148 beginning at verse 1. It's a Psalm that reaches across the universe to celebrate the scope of God's power and control, and to remind us of the size of the God we belong to. "Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the heights above. Praise Him, all His angels, praise Him, all His heavenly hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him all you shining stars... Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds..." And then this phrase that just leaped out at me, "Praise the Lord...stormy winds that do His bidding." Obviously, this refers to the physical storms that blow through our lives, but I believe it's true of all the stormy winds that hit us: medical storms, financial storms, emotional storms, all those "turbulences" that take things out of our control. They are "stormy winds that do His bidding." If you're feeling some of those stormy winds right now, remember that God is asserting His sovereignty over your life, and your plans, your priorities, and your timing. He is in charge - and sometimes we forget. But as His stormy winds move across the weather map of our lives, we can remember again that "our times are in His hands." If it's stormy right now, consider what He might be trying to say to you. As Solomon tells us, "When times are good, be happy; when times are bad, consider..." (Ecclesiastes 7:14). Is God trying to slow you down? Does He want you to reconsider? Is He trying to get you to change course? Is He trying to get your attention because you've been ignoring something He's trying to say to you or something He's trying to do in your life? Don't just stand there frustrated because His weather has messed up your plans. Don't fight what He's trying to do. Listen for God in this storm! It's hard to be a follower of Jesus when you're a rigid person. Following someone requires flexibility because you never know when your leader is going to speed up, slow down, make a turn, or change direction. Actually, flexibility is fundamental to being able to follow the dynamic leadership of Jesus Christ. And the storm is a lot more bearable when you go with His flow rather than flying stubbornly against it. The stormy wind blowing in your life right now is doing God's bidding. Make sure that you are.

Well, I watched three of our children run on this track that they call "high school senior." Oh we know about the disease. It's a creeping disease called senioritis. I've seen it for years with other teenagers, and then finally we got to watch it in our own home. It begins with the sense of "Okay, I'm a senior now! High school is my past. I don't care about high school any more even though I have another year." At best a senior just sort of slacks off until graduation. Or at worst, he or she becomes irresponsible and maybe even destructive. Senioritis? It doesn't bring out the best in anybody at any age. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Don't Stop Before the Finish Line." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Jeremiah 29. The Jews are no longer in their homeland of Judah. They've been carried away into captivity in Babylon. Here's the situation where it would be very easy for them to have spiritual senioritis, because they know that they will one day return to their native country. They know God has them in Babylon for their disobedience. They kind of live in-between Babylon and returning to Israel. They could be saying, "Hey, who cares about Babylon? Put it on cruise control. We're not here for long. We're going home in a little while. What we do here doesn't matter." Listen to God's advice for them in Jeremiah 29:5, probably surprising advice for them. "Build houses and settle down." I can hear them going, "Here? We're just living in-between." He says, "Build houses, settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons. Give your daughters in marriage so they, too, may have sons and daughters. Increase in number. Do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers you will prosper." Seems like God's saying, "Make something of this time, guys. Don't have senioritis and act like it doesn't matter." It's like old Caleb in the Old Testament. Eighty-five years old and he's still not going to quit. He says, "Lord, give me this mountain to conquer!" Boy, there's no senioritis there. Maybe you're at an age or a situation where you're tempted to put your life on cruise. Maybe you're waiting for the next stage, or you're just waiting for heaven. Well, don't sit there and say, "I don't care much about where I am." God is saying, "I want you to care. I want you to bloom where you're planted, my child. Make this count." A while back I met an 80-year-old woman. She said to me, "Ron, I was married to the same man for 60 years. He took great care of me." Then she went on to tell me how he had died the previous year. And she said, "It's so easy for me to be bitter, and I could be desperately lonely." But then she said, "You know, this week as I listened to you at this conference, I've decided I'm going to reach out on my own. I'm in this condominium filled with lonely people, and I'm going to go back there and I'm going to start writing notes to those people, and I'm going to bake for them, and I'm going to visit them. I'm going to share God's love with them." She said, "I'm going to start giving my life away." I said, "Well, you know what? That's what the Bible says about how you find your life by giving it away." She said, "Well, I figured my mother died at the age of 88. So I've got at least eight years to make a difference." I love that! She's going to find her life by giving it away. That is the vaccine for senioritis; for not caring. Get a mission for yourself. You're surrounded by needs. Get some people who need you. That's the best way to find your life. Wherever you are, look for a mission. Look for an assignment from God. Wake up in the morning and ask, "God, who needs me here?" Don't slow down! Don't hold back! Capture the corner that you're in for Christ. When you're living for Jesus, there's just not a day you can afford to waste.

Jerry and I were best friends in high school, and then we didn't see each other for several years. But we were able to get together again when we found out that he and his wife had moved to an apartment in New York City. He was training to become a 747 pilot for a major airline back when that was a brand new plane. Karen and I went in to have dinner at their apartment, and we realized that Jerry and Gail were making the big bucks. They had an exclusive apartment, expensive furniture and a brand new Cadillac. Jerry took us down to the high-security garage to show the Caddy to us with a lot of pride. A couple months later, they drove out to our little apartment in a New Jersey suburb. We didn't live in a fancy neighborhood, but you know, it wasn't a bad neighborhood. Jerry had to park his Cadillac where we parked our un-Cadillac - on the street. We prepared a nice dinner, but Jerry couldn't enjoy it. He couldn't enjoy the conversation we tried to have after dinner. The whole time he was a nervous wreck. Every five minutes or so he would leave the conversation, go over to the window, and check on his Cadillac! I assured him it would be OK, but no, no. He spent the whole night worrying about losing his expensive car. At first, I thought Jerry owned a Cadillac. It turned out that a Cadillac owned Jerry! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Slaves To Our 'Stuff.'" Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Timothy 6:17-18: "Command those who are rich in this present world (which, by the standards of most of the people in the world, would include almost everyone listening right now) tell them not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age." God uses a revealing word here to describe all of our earth-stuff, did you get it - "uncertain." Hello, Jerry. I can't help but think that Jerry's anxiety about losing his treasure that night was a glimpse of what happens to all of us as we get more earth-stuff. Once we get it, we have to put a lot of energy into not losing it, which leads to an interesting phenomenon; you being owned by your stuff instead of your stuff being owned by you. I know, for example, of a number of couples who had intended to answer the Lord's call to go into His work after they got on their feet financially. Unfortunately, in the process, they established a lifestyle and they made commitments that could not be sustained on a ministry income. They still aren't in God's work today. Their stuff ended up owning them. Could it be that you have gotten some possession or some position that now is pretty much consuming the heart of your energies in order to keep it? Could it be that the business you own actually owns you? Or your money? Or your house could own you? Or your investments? Somehow, without intending it or realizing it, you have become a slave to your stuff. And you have to keep running to the window to make sure it's still there, which makes it hard to really enjoy life. God doesn't say it's necessarily wrong to have earth stuff. It's wrong for it to have you. His prescription for freedom is first, don't trust in earth-stuff, that's what we read in 1 Timothy. Don't base your identity on it. Realize it's just a gift from God and that God has the right to give it or take it away. He's always provided for you. And don't pursue earth-stuff. Jesus said your Father knows what you need and He'll provide for you. You pursue His Kingdom, not yours. And don't hold onto your earth-stuff. Give it away. When you know your earth-stuff is only a gift and when you sign it all over to God and when you see it as resources God gave you to make a difference with, you can relax and stop running to the window. In God's words, you have traded "uncertain" for treasure that's "a firm foundation for the coming age." Your security isn't your earth-stuff, it's your Jesus!

It was one of the dumbest things I'd done in a long time. It was years ago. I was involved in this intense ministry on a Native American reservation. That was not the dumb thing. What was dumb was, I was missing a lot of sleep but I decided to drive. That was dumb. One day we had our longest drive; seven hours to an Apache Reservation. My wife, knowing how tired I was, said, "Would you like me to drive?" "No, of course not! Let me drive." (I'm a guy!) See, I hate to ride. I like to drive. She kept offering; I kept declining. (You probably know where this is going.) I realized I was getting real warm in the car, and the next thing I remember was my wife yelling, "Ron!" I had dozed off at the wheel. I was running off the road on a gravel shoulder in a jeep that could have easily rolled over. Man, I told you it was dumb! Well, I thank God she woke me up in time. But I made an almost fatal mistake. I held onto the wheel too long. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Letting Go Before You Crash." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. You might find some of these phrases applicable to your life right now: hardship, under great pressure, beyond our ability, despairing of life. Sound familiar? Well, those were the words used by the great Apostle Paul during a difficult time in his life. He found out the why as he tells us in these verses. "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death." It's like he's saying, "I thought we were going to die." Maybe you'd like to find out why the pressure, why the pain, why the problems right now. "What's going on here, God?" Well the answer Paul found might turn out to be yours as well. He says, "But this happened (here we go) that we might not rely on ourselves but on God." In modern terms Paul might be saying, "God was trying to get my hands off the wheel." Could that be what He's trying to do with you? See, most of us want to drive our lives; we want to control everything. Oh, we believe in God. We love God. We maybe even serve God. We give to God, but we maintain the real control of certain cherished parts of our life and we won't relinquish the wheel until we're running off the road and about to crash...or maybe even after we've crashed. See, we were created to live God-dependent. We keep trying to live independent. I mean, you think about it. We don't take our next breath without Him. The Bible says, "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." But we want to make it happen. We don't want to watch God make it happen. We want our outcome. If we can depend on anything other than God we will. So our Lord lovingly turns up the heat. Maybe you're there right now. You're stubbornly holding onto the wheel. You're insisting on driving your family, or your mate, or your child, or your ministry. God is politely asking to drive and that didn't work. You won't let go. And now things are crashing. Listen to Paul, "This is happening that you might rely on God and not on yourself." When you finally let go and surrender control to Jesus, you'll receive power you could never have when you were driving; resurrection power available to those who have quit depending on their own power. The ultimate disaster is when we think somehow we can do something to get ourselves to heaven, when the Bible clearly says, "It is not of works, so no man can boast. It is by grace (undeserved love of God) when Christ died on the cross to do for us what we could never do for ourselves; to pay sin's death penalty. And today He's ready to walk into your life and do what only He can do. But first, you must surrender control. You say, "Ron, I don't know how to do this." Listen, if you're ready to turn your life over to Him, would you please go to our website and let's get it done there. It's ANewStory.com. Listen to Jesus. He's saying, "Let Me drive. Unwrap those fingers that you have so tightly wrapped around the wheel."

Few people captured the American imagination like America's first astronauts. That's why, for many of us, names like John Glenn are on a list of 20th Century heroes. John Glenn was, of course, one of the first men to ride a rocket into space. Then, as a "senior citizen" he amazed the world by doing it again. So when John Glenn gave advice to modern space shuttle astronauts, he's got credentials! I love what he is reported to have told the Columbia astronauts before what turned out to be their last flight. He said, "Hey, don't forget to look out the window!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Missing the View." Once they were in space, the Columbia astronauts - and other astronauts - expressed their appreciation for John Glenn's advice. They confessed to being so busy doing what they were doing that it was all too easy to miss the spectacular view all around them. A tendency, by the way, that isn't just limited to astronauts. Those of us who are highly task-oriented or goal-oriented (that's me), can easily get so consumed that we "forget to look out the window." We miss the beautiful things happening right in front of us and all around us. In our word for today from the Word of God, David seems to be addressing this tendency to miss or forget a lot of life's blessings. In Psalm 103, beginning with verse 1, he says, "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives our sins and heals our diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things." When you take time to enjoy the beauty "out the window" you'll see the new beginnings the Lord has given you after you've blown it. You'll see the health that He's preserved or restored, the pits that He's rescued you from, the little and big things that He's doing right now to show you His love, and the good things you wanted that He has provided. When you fail to stop and "smell the flowers" as some have said, you start to get all stressed, brittle and overwhelmed and negative. But taking a timeout to catch your breath, regain your perspective, and appreciate all the good things around you will renew your joy, it will renew your energy, your faith, and your attitude. Maybe in your hurry to get it done or to get to your destination you've inadvertently been running over people, including people you should stop and enjoy; stop and listen to. Maybe you're missing all the blessings in your situation because all you focus on is your burdens. You need to take some timeouts to let your soul catch up with your body. Enjoy the scenery. Stop the rat race long enough to just take a leisurely walk, take time to listen to a child. They often help us see the world as we ought to see it. Stop to give a hug, look for things you can compliment in the people around you, and consciously, intentionally thank God for specific blessings of the past 24 hours, or the past 24 minutes. The Bible reminds us that God's "mercies are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:23), which means there's new God-stuff to appreciate each new day for those who are looking for evidence of God in their day. If you're tired and if you're tense and you're feeling overwhelmed, it could be you've been so absorbed in your mission that you've forgotten to look out the window. There's always something beautiful to see because of the awesome God who's always doing something new and something good.

My wife and I were out for a Sunday afternoon drive, and we saw a very strange contradiction. There was this church, and there were long stairs leading up to the entrance, and one lady, all alone, at the door. She was trying every door to get in that church and they were all locked. She was frustrated. Now, what was the contradiction? Well, the name of the church - Our Lady of Perpetual Help. My wife said, "You know, this reminds me of a scene I saw when I was in Haiti." She said, "I was right near a church and there was this very gaunt woman, maybe starving to death, and weeping at the door of this church. And she looked like she was desperate to get in and every door was locked. She literally was beating her fists bloody on the door and there was no response." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sincerely Wrong, Eternally Wrong." Our word for today from the Word of God is sobering. It's one of the most unsettling passages in the Bible. It's in Luke 13, beginning with verse 23 - listen to these words. "Someone asked Jesus, 'Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?' And He said to them, 'Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, "Sir, open the door for us." But he will answer, "I don't know you or where you come from." Then you will say, "We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets." But he will reply, "I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!" There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out." Oh man! This is the door of eternity. People are trying to get into heaven, but it says many will not be able to. Jesus will utter those sobering, chilling words, "I don't know you." They'll end up weeping. They'll end up thrown out. This is about real people locked out of heaven; people like our neighbors, our coworkers, like you and me. People who have been around Jesus a lot. They know a lot about Him, but somehow they missed the personal relationship with Him. You know, with the current demands of our lives, it's really easy to kind of neglect eternity. It's a mistake to just have Jesus in your head and not in your heart. But each of us has this non-cancellable, non-postpone-able appointment with our Creator. The Bible says, "It is appointed to man once to die and after this the judgment." And in that instant when God decides we've taken our last breath and our heart has beaten for the last time, there is only one thing that matters. It won't be our religion, won't be our titles, not our net worth, our sickness, our references, and not even our Christian activities. Only one thing will matter, "What did you do with my Son, Jesus?" Get a picture here of the greatest eternal tragedy, being locked out of heaven. God doesn't want it that way. He did all He could to remove the sin that keeps people out of heaven. When Jesus was dying on the cross, He said, "Why have You forsaken Me, God?" Why did God the Father turn His back on His one and only Son? Because He was carrying all the guilt and all the hell of my sin and yours. Your sin has been paid for so you don't have to. Jesus was cut off from the Father so you don't have to be. But you do have to take this eternal gift purchased by the blood of God's Son. You have to surrender that self-running of your life and tell God you're putting all your trust in Jesus. The Lord will come down and the gate of heaven will be wide open for you. Have you ever reached out to Him with desperate hope and faith and said, "Jesus, I'm Yours"? Would you today? We're not guaranteed tomorrow. This is the only day we know for sure. If I can help you with that, I'd just love to have you drop by our website. It's ANewStory.com. You have nothing more important, nothing more urgent to do than to be sure you have settled things with Jesus, because your forever depends on it. Jesus said there will be many who are like the lady at that church pounding on the door of heaven, desperately trying to get in. But it will be too late for them; too late to find Jesus. Please, would you open your heart to Him now?

One of the more special opportunities I've had over the years has been to speak for professional football chapels. I spoke a lot for the New York Giants, and when I was with them, of course, it looked like about 30 New York Giants and one New York Dwarf (that would be me). You can tell who is the speaker in the room, believe me! I did stand out in that group. And people will often say, "Well, what do you talk to them about?" Of course, I had the opportunity to simply present the Gospel. But I did try to use a lot of sport's illustrations and things that will relate to their everyday lives. There's one subject I couldn't talk to them about. Oh, now, if you speak at a baseball chapel, they don't mind so much if you're with the other team. You'll speak in one locker room for the visiting team, and then you'll come down and speak for the home team. And everybody knows you speak for both teams. Not in football! When you speak for professional teams, you've got to make sure you don't speak to the other team or you've got cooties! Yeah, you've been contaminated! So, guess what is the subject you don't mention when you're speaking. Do not under any circumstances mention the name of the other team. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "There's Something About That Name." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from several places in the book of Acts, showing us that the problem with Christianity and the power of Christianity are the same thing. Peter is preaching that great sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2:36. "Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." They walk up to a lame man in chapter 3, a man who is carried to the temple every day. And when he asks them for money, they reply, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you." And then they proceed to say, "I'll give you a name. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." And he did. And then in Acts 4:12 they boldly preach, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." And then in verses 17 and 18, the Sanhedrin calls them in, asks them to stop preaching, and they say, "We have to warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this Name. So they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the Name of Jesus." Are you getting the idea here? What's the power that pushes back the darkness and changes people's lives? The power is in the Name of Jesus Christ. What's the problem people have with Christianity? Oh, you know, we can talk about God; nobody cares. About problems? About church? Fine. We talk about love or life or family values? That's okay. But it's when we talk about Jesus that people say, "Whoa! That's too far!" See, nothing has changed over 2,000 years. The power of Christianity is in the Name of Jesus; the problem people have with Christianity is the Name of Jesus. But there is no other Name, the Bible says. You know when you're having a chance to talk spiritually to someone. Maybe you can talk to them about God. But, do you ever notice how you choke when it gets to the Name of Jesus? Guess what makes you choke? The one who hates that name. The one who knows the power of that name. The Devil himself for 2,000 years has given the order, "Don't mention The Name." Sometimes you hold back and you don't talk very openly about Jesus Christ because you know that's controversial. Don't hold back! That's the power for answered prayer - Jesus' Name. It's the power that clarifies the real issue to people. Jesus is who they have to deal with. You're not deciding about my belief. You're deciding about Jesus. That's where the power is to change lives. The people who don't respect Jesus, who don't care about Jesus, use His Name all day long. They're pretty bold about it. How can we, who've experienced His love and forgiveness, be ashamed of The Name. Oh, talk much, talk boldly about Jesus, because the Devil is saying, "I don't want to hear that Name!" And we will say in reply, "There is no other Name."

So I'm sleeping all night, but something very interesting happens. There are people all over the world making news! The world's different from the time I close my eyes till the time I wake up, and I want to know what's happened during the night. I think a lot of people do. That's probably one of the first things some of us do is make sure we check in with one of the news channels, or check our phone, and maybe check what's on the Internet. I used to have a newspaper that arrived early in the morning, (in the good old days) and at that point I could just go out and get that and check out the headlines! Of course, I liked it better then and I still like it better now, even if it's on my phone, when it's good news, which isn't nearly often enough. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Waking Up to Good News." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 143:8. Listen to this: "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love. For I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go. For to You I lift up my soul." God's inviting us here to check out the news from heaven every new morning. If you do, you will notice that the headline is always the same - God's Love Is Unfailing. God still loves you very, very much. Basically, David is saying, "That's all I need to know about this day. This day may be filled with stress, and pressure, and danger, and challenges. But all I need to know is that I'm covered again. I am covered by the unfailing love of my Heavenly Father." Why? "Well, I've put all my eggs in one basket. I have put my trust in You, Lord." See, it means hanging everything on the protection and the provision of a God whose love for me is uninterrupted and unloseable. That is security! And He will show me the way I should go for this particular day. That's the way to have a day where you have peace no matter what; joy no matter what. We've got a lot of days that aren't like that though. The problem is that I think we choose early in the day to focus on other headlines instead of God's banner headlines. Instead of focusing on God's unfailing love, we fill our heart with a headline like this: The money is failing! My strength is failing! My health is failing! My loved ones are failing! My dream is failing! The church is failing me! In fact, every earth thing, every earth person will fail you sometimes. Many mornings you will wake up to a headline about something or someone who has failed you. But God's Word offers you a headline that never changes; the unsinkable anchor to this particular turbulent day. His unfailing love is still unfailing. The Old Testament prophet promises, "Every new day He does not fail." God, again this morning, whatever's happened still loves you very, very much. You are covered by that love. You are blessed if you're one of those rare people who are always calm at the center like the eye of a hurricane. None of us knows what news will break in our life on any given day. That's why I love the security of Hebrews 6:19, that says, speaking of Jesus, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." One love that will never leave. One unmovable relationship. One unloseable security. And it all begins with a trip to the cross where Jesus spent His blood and His love to pay for the sin that separated you and me from God. How wonderful it is to wake up in the morning and go, "I know He loves me. I've opened my life to that love that began on that cross." By the way, have you done that? If there's never been a day you have, make this your day to say, "Jesus, I'm Yours." Do you want to know how and make sure you have? Go to our websiteANewStory.com? Every morning, your emotions, your attitudes to the headlines from heaven. They overrule every other headline. The morning news is always this: God Loves Me Today!

OK, so there are more bills to pay than you've got money to pay them. You have to make some choices. What you probably won't do is decide not to pay the electric bill and certain other bills like that. Those bills where, if you don't pay, they can cut off your service. You get this little notice: "If you don't pay your bill right away, your service will be cut off." It's amazing how a service cutoff can help you set your priorities! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Your Service Has Been Interrupted." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from some of the most preached on words in the Bible...and maybe some of the least acted on. 2 Chronicles 7:14, with the introduction of verse 13, "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." To be in a position to receive God's healing of what's hurting and broken, we have to humbly pray; we have to seek His face. But let's focus on that last and maybe most neglected step. A lot of people get that far. They humble themselves, they pray, and they seek His face. It's that last step where a lot of us fall short, "If My people... will turn from their wicked ways, then will I." God seems to be saying, "As long as you're hanging onto that sinful practice, that sinful attitude, or that sinful way you treat people, I can't open up heaven and bless you." In other words, your service will be interrupted until that outstanding spiritual bill is settled. Maybe you've wondered why that repeated prayer hasn't been answered, or why things have come unglued, or why you're going through the pain you're facing, or why things don't change! Maybe it's because you haven't changed! Now, there can be other reasons God hasn't seemed to answer, for sure. Maybe He's asking you to wait, or He's taking His time to enlarge your faith in Him, or He's preparing to do a larger miracle than the one you even asked for. But the first explanation we should consider is this: "Is there a sinful action, a sinful attitude, or a wrong relationship that I haven't let go of? Am I hanging onto a stubborn sin? Am I excusing what God wants me to be refusing?" God accepts only one response to sin, not rationalizing it, not excusing it, not comparing yourself to other people. He says, "Turn from it!" Do you want God's best? Then deal with the "wicked ways" that are holding back the very answers you're seeking. The Lord has so much He wants to give you, so much He's ready to fix, and so many mountains He wants to move in your life. But His holy hand may be held back by some unrepented, unforsaken sin. The difficulties you've been experiencing might be God's warning notice! If it seems like God's service in your life has been interrupted, check your account with Him and settle what's come between you.

Now, I wasn't expecting a goat to be my teacher. But something kind of special happened. A good friend of ours actually helped a new baby goat come into the world. Right after this little wobbly thing arrived; his mother ran off and abandoned him. Which, unfortunately, is a sad picture of what happens to too many human children. Well, that is when Sandy, the Great Pyrenees guard dog, came to the rescue. Our friend tried to remedy this heartbreaking situation by leaving the baby in a grassy area, near where the little guy had arrived. Nope! No deal. Then Sandy, the dog, went over to the newborn and the dog started licking off the little goat's birth residue. Here's how the barnyard drama played out: Sandy, who now was carrying the newborn's scent, gently nudged the mother, "Come on! Get over to your baby." And they ended up walking over there together, and mama goat got the point. Her mom instinct kicked in; she started licking her kid. Now, in the animal kingdom, when you give your kid a licking, that's actually a nice thing. Well, that's when my grandson weighed in. When he heard about all this, and he heard about how the guard dog had lovingly intervened, he instinctively said, "Well, that's just like Jesus!" I had two reactions. First, "He's right." Second, "Why didn't I think of that?" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Life-Saving Nudge." Our grandson explained that he saw the baby was us, the mother was God and the dog who came to the rescue represented Jesus. Now we've got a little theological tweaking we need to do here, because it wasn't God who walked away from me. It was me who walked away from God. Or as the Bible says, "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's path to follow our own" (Isaiah 53:6 - NLB). In a word, that's sin. Fact is, God and I were hopelessly apart. Away from our Father's love, we just wander all alone and clueless. In the Old Testament, and around the world today, Jewish people are celebrating the highest holy day of the year - the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. It goes back to Leviticus 16 where there were goats involved. "And two goats came to the place of worship and the High Priest shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering." This was kind of an advanced picture of what one-day God's Son would come and do. And that is to take the sin of my life and pay for it with His blood. Jesus came, and here's what the Bible says in our word for today from the Word of God. That final Day of Atonement was that Good Friday. 1 Timothy 2:5 - "There is only one God and there is one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity - the man Christ Jesus. He gave His life to purchase freedom for everyone." One person who can bring God, who is a holy, perfect, sinless God, together with a guy like me, who has broken God's laws, run my life my way, and tried to act like I was my own god. That is Jesus; one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity. So, from a barnyard birth drama - a dog and a couple of goats - I got a good glimpse of that first Good Friday; Jesus hanging on that cruel cross. I can almost see Him with one nail-pierced hand in God's hand and the other hand reaching for me to bring us together. When He was reaching for God, He was reaching for you too. It was your sin He was paying for. And this very day He's nudging you in the direction of the God you were made by and for. There's nobody else who can get you to Him, because nobody else died to pay for the sin that separates you from your God. And this day He is ready to reconcile your restless heart to the God who made you and loves you. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I have sinned. I have broken Your laws. But You died for those sins, and You're alive. You walked out of Your grave. You are my Savior from this day on." If you want to make sure you belong to Him, check out our website - ANewStory.com. Today, you're being nudged in the direction of the God who made you, so you can experience the love that your life depends on.

King George and his army must have had a really good laugh. George Washington and his Continental Army had been whipped in battle after battle in their campaign to become independent from Britain. British troops had driven the Americans out of New York City, across the Hudson River, across New Jersey, and finally into Pennsylvania. Then came the winter of 1777, at a place outside of Philadelphia called Valley Forge. Washington's troops faced not only a physical winter there, but an emotional winter. Discouragement and defeat may have been their worst enemies. But General Washington wasn't about to let those enemies win. He fought back by immediately deploying his soldiers to fortify their camp. Then the drills began. A veteran European military officer began to drill those soldiers every day, teaching them a single set of maneuvers rather than the multiple approaches that had just created confusion in the past battles. That winter, they were learning one way of doing things while Washington worked on getting more recruits and building his army into a real fighting force. Many historians believe that the outcome of America's battle for independence was actually decided at Valley Forge more than any battle - because there was an army that came out of Valley Forge to stun the British with major victories. One army went into the winter at Valley Forge - divided, discouraged, demoralized. Another army emerged from that winter. They were unified, they were fortified, they were confident because of what they had done with their winter. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Using Your Winter To Win Your Battles." In many ways, the outcome of your battles may be decided, not on the battlefield alone, but in how you use your winter. And you may be in one of those cold, bleak times right now. You could succumb to your fears and your feelings and just surrender. Or you could pull a spiritual "Valley Forge." You could use your winter to get stronger, more together, more focused on what you need to do to win. In some ways, Jesus' disciples expected their winter to begin with His announced departure to heaven. The One who had called them to be with Him was now leaving them and entrusting to them the work He had started. In Luke 24, Jesus tells them to tell the world about Him and then, "while He was blessing them, He left them and was taken up into heaven." In a way, their winter had begun, as it often does when you lose someone you love. But they knew what to do with their winter! In our word for today from the Word of God taken from Acts 1 and 2, "they all joined together constantly in prayer." Then they got their team of twelve back to full strength by replacing Judas with another disciple. And, "When the day of Pentecost came" - that's the day God sent His Holy Spirit - "they were all together in one place...and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit." At that point, they exploded on the city of Jerusalem with the Gospel that would, one day, start spreading around the world. But they had to use their winter to get together, to get stronger, and to get closer to God. You need to handle your winter that way. Don't just sit there worrying or feeling sorry for yourself or wallowing in your emotions. Take action to get strong. Spend extra time with God right now. Strengthen your relationship with your family and your coworkers. Think through what you need to stop doing and what you need to start doing to focus on what really matters. And prayerfully plan for a future, right there in the middle of your valley, even when the future looks very uncertain. While the bombs were falling on London during World War II, Winston Churchill was in his underground bunker - not worrying about the bombs, but actually planning the invasion of Germany! Discouragement and fear and drifting from God - those are your greatest enemies, not what faces you on your battlefield. This winter is not dead time or despair time. It's get ready time. What you do with your winter will decide whether you win or lose!

I guess it started when the kids were growing up. You know, it says in the Dad's Job Description, "Must have quarters at all times!" Even now when I travel I still try to carry some quarters, even though we don't need them as often anymore. But I would always make sure that I had enough ones and even fives. You never know when you're going to need a vending machine. Not need; actually want a vending machine. I'm in a hotel, I'm working late and I want a snack or I want a cold drink. So I go through the familiar ritual: put the dollar bill in, then the quarters, hit the selection button, and something good comes out. At least it had better! I mean, it's pretty annoying if you put your money in there and nothing comes out. I probably wouldn't put any more money in that machine, would you? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Giving That Counts - And Doesn't." I read a report about the giving of American Christians, and it was very revealing. The survey discovered that American Christians expect to get something back when they give. Oh, vending machine! For example, the survey found that they will give to their church, but they expect to get it back in things like new drapes, new hymn books, a better choir, or a better parking lot. Put something in and get something out. And don't put any money into a machine that doesn't give you anything back, right? The researchers have a name for this - "consumer giving." Or you could call it "vending machine" giving. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 12:41. "Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, 'Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty put in everything - all she had to live on.'" So what kind of giving did Jesus honor? Sacrificial giving. He's far more interested in the size of the sacrifice than the size of the gift. And what kind of giving did Jesus himself model? Sacrificial giving. Aren't you glad Jesus wasn't a consumer giver? We'd all still be headed for eternal death. But He gave everything with no thought of return. So maybe consumer giving is an oxymoron. Someone might say, "Okay, so we like to give to things where we get something back or it does something for us. So what?" Well, maybe that's why it's taking missionaries two or three years to get their support raised while people keep dying on the mission field that they're ready to go to. Maybe it's why the missionary conference in a church is fighting for its life on the church calendar. Maybe it's one reason why the American missionary force in the world continues to drop. Some have said it's been at its lowest point since WWII. After all, what's in it for me to give to some missionary out there? Is it any wonder that so many ministries are struggling financially; especially those who are called to evangelism? After all, the lost are those people; they're not my people. But those people are why Jesus came. In many cases, Satan's attempt to stop Jesus' warriors has failed. He couldn't get to them. And so have his attempts to stop their attacks on Satan's kingdom. But when all else fails, stop their supplies. Attack the supply lines, because if the supply lines don't come through, the guys on the front lines can't fight. A soldier without bullets cannot wage war. Isn't it time for each of us to examine our own priorities before the Lord to whom we will answer for our stewardship? Are we giving to get? The holy work of Jesus Christ is not a vending machine. It's an eternal investment. It may not pay off now, but it will reap incalculable dividends forever.

Men and women are different. Aren't you glad you're listening today? Now, that is not exactly news worth tuning in for, but trying to understand those differences, oh we could talk about that for a long time. For example, one of those differences shows up when I can remember my wife and I were driving long distances across this country. I can sum up the difference pretty succinctly. She wanted to stop and see things; I wanted to get there! My honey would see signs for an interesting attraction or the kind of store she liked and she'd suggest we stop and check it out. Not me. Hey, we have a destination. We've got to get to it girl! Who wants to waste time along the way? Guy-think! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Make a Woman Feel Loved." It took me a little while being married before I got it figured out, but I found out what is the number one way to make most women feel loved. Listen to her - not just her words, but her heart. I made a promise at my wedding that God's voice would always be the most important in heaven and my wife's voice the most important on earth. Easy to say. Harder to do, especially with so many voices to listen to. The woman who's trusted her life to me ought to be the most important voice in my life, right? Many of us are familiar with God's challenging instructions to husbands in Ephesians 5:25, which happens to be our word for today from the Word of God. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her." That's an incredibly high standard for us, guys. Love with the same kind of self-sacrificing love that Jesus showed for us when He laid down His life for us. Now, if that meant sacrificing our life physically to save our wife's life, I think most of us would probably do that. But the kind of sacrifice this turns out to be is the daily sacrifice of putting our needs and our agenda on hold to focus on hers. And we'll never know what she needs or wants, or why she's hurting, if we don't take time to listen. And time is probably what you have the least of. That's why taking time to listen is where Christlike love begins in a marriage. Because (and now I'm asking for it) women often take considerably longer than men to say it! Men are saying, "Amen!" Women are saying, "So what?" Now we're back to how my wife and I do a trip. I just wanted the bottom line - getting to the destination as soon as possible. That's how men like to communicate - get to the point. Wives, mine included, like most women, want to enjoy the process; explore what's between here and the destination. Women are wired by God to care about the details (and thank God they are), many of which a man would blow right by and sometimes miss something very important. When a woman is telling a story, bringing in what seems to be tangents, including a lot of detail, a man's "destination brain" is saying, "Where is this going?" A woman's heart, which believes the journey is important, not just the bottom line, wants you to love her enough to go on the journey with her - to see the things between here and the destination. Many times if a woman jumped to the bottom line like we wanted her to, we would jump to all kinds of wrong conclusions because we didn't take the time to understand how she got there. A quick word to the ladies: it shows love on your part whenever you can fast-forward to the bottom line. So, to some guy who's tuned in today, do you love her enough to make the sacrifices to listen to her with loving patience? That's love in the language of the woman you love. It's the Jesus-way of loving - sacrificing the way you'd like it to be to benefit someone you love. It's more than listening. It's opening your heart to her heart.

Our daughter was driving through town with our four-year-old grandson in the back seat. As she passed a local senior housing facility, she said, "Honey, that's where my grandfather lived until he died." At that point, our four-year-old jumped in with a respectful correction of his Mommy's choice of words. "Until Jesus called him home," he said. There was a pause - and then our grandson added - "Someday Jesus will call me home, too." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Just Beyond Your Last Heartbeat." Not bad for a four-year-old! I'm sounding like his grandfather now. But that little guy actually has this death thing figured out better than a lot of us grownup people do, because we don't decide when it's over. God does. And the thing you want to have happen on the day you take your last breath is for Jesus to call you home to heaven. Unfortunately, not everyone's going home. And the alternative is too eternally awful to contemplate. The Bible makes this clear in 1 John 5:11-12. It's our word for today from the Word of God, and it says that we're all in one of two groups, headed for one of two possible destinations. You are in one of these. It says, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Notice - it doesn't say eternal life is in His religion or His rules or in living right. No, the only One who can get us to heaven is His Son. Why? Because He's the only One who died to pay for all the sin that we have; sin that makes it impossible for us to enter a holy God's heaven. The Bible then continues: "He who has the Son" - that's the Son of God, Jesus - "He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life." There it is. Either you're totally forgiven or you're still carrying your sin and its penalty. Either you're headed for heaven or you're headed for hell. And Jesus indicated there will be surprises in both places - people that humans would never expect who are going to be in heaven because they pinned all their hopes for spiritual rescue on Jesus. And people in hell who had tons of Christianity but somehow missed Jesus. They never grabbed Him as if He were their only hope. The truth is that your last call could come any time. Speaking to God in Psalm 139:16, King David says, "All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be." You're not going to die until your work is done. And you can't stay one day longer than when your work is done. And God decides when that is. For a 17-year-old girl who attended a youth event I spoke at, the call actually came in a head-on collision on the way home. And because she had put her trust in Jesus that very night, when she got the call, she was called home, because "He who has the Son has life." You can't postpone God's call. And you can't be ready for it any other way than to be sure you belong to Jesus Christ, the only One who can remove the sin that will otherwise keep you out of heaven. You say, "But I'm a good person." Not good enough; not for a perfect God. That's why Jesus came. Why He died. Why He rose again. That's why He's knocking on the door of your heart, maybe this very day. He wants you in heaven with Him forever. He doesn't want to lose you! But you have to choose that - by consciously and totally giving yourself to Him. Have you ever really done that? If you're not sure you did, you probably didn't. Let this be the day you finally say, "Jesus, I'm Yours. I accept your death on the cross as being for my sin. I turn from running my own life. You are my only hope." If you want to be sure you've begun a relationship with Jesus, and you want to get this settled today, go to our website? It will help, I know it will. It's ANewStory.com. You're another day closer to the day the call will come. It just doesn't make sense to risk one more day without Jesus does it? He's calling you right now to give you to Him, so that one day, when the last call comes, He can call you home.

We'd stopped for gas next to an Interstate that takes you at 75 MPH across long miles of desert. I love the west. That's where I saw the sign: "Dead End - 3 Miles Ahead." I thought, "I wonder if anyone ever said, 'I'm not sure that's true of that old dirt road. I think I'll drive that way and check it out for myself.'" Nope, We got back on the Interstate, and of course, I had to see where that other road went. Sure enough, that bumpy road ended three miles later in the middle of nothing in the desert...right next to a road that speeds you to a lot of great destinations. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Driving Hard On a Dead-End Road." Why would anyone drive down a road that goes nowhere, especially when there's another road nearby that takes you to some wonderful places? Sadly, people are doing it all the time. Not with their vehicle, but with their life! Maybe because they missed the dead-end sign or they didn't believe it. Someone who's listening right now may be making that very mistake and not even realizing it. God has put up a sign that warns us to avoid the dead-end streets. In fact, He's written in some big, bold letters. It's posted in our word for today from the Word of God in James 1:14-15. It says: "Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." That's pretty clear. Every sinful choice is a dead-end street. It leaves you dead at the end. Of course, temptation never announces where it's taking you; it only gives you the "goodies" that it seems to be offering. Sin says, "This may be wrong but it will give you love." You go for it, and you end up more lonely or used. Sin says, "Don't worry. This will give your life some excitement!" You go for it, and you end up hating yourself for what you've done. Sin says, "Come on, you'll feel better about yourself." You drive down the road and you end up feeling worse about yourself. Sin always kills. It always kills your self-respect, it kills people's trust in you, it kills your reputation, people you love, your future, your closeness to God. First, sin fascinates you, then it assassinates you. But the road looks so promising that you blow by God's "Dead End" sign. Jesus said, "Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:13). What's important is not how nice the road looks but where it's going to take you, and God has made that ironclad clear! Don't waste any more time on a road that's ultimately going to leave you in the middle of nowhere, even if you can't see that now. God's Word still proves true. When we don't find what we hope to find on a road that we should never be on, we sometimes make a choice that only makes it worse. We decide we need to do more of what already hasn't worked! God says to you, as recorded in Isaiah 48, "I am the Lord your God who teaches you what is best for you...If only you had paid attention to My commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea." Now that sounds like where you'd like to be, doesn't it? Then it's time to turn back from a road you never should have been on in the first place. What's ahead is only disappointment, despair and death. Within your reach is the Jesus-road - the one that leads to life! He's waiting to welcome you, forgive you and then lead you onto the road you were made to be on! I want you to know how to begin this relationship with Jesus. That's what our website is there for, let me urge you to go there this very day - ANewStory.com. Here's the choice you have in God's own words: "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19).

A long time ago, my wife and I were vacationing in a mid-south state, and she convinced me to explore this back road. It was just marked "Erbie." It's a town. We never did get to see it, though. For the first time that day I looked at my gas gauge (duh!) and the needle was on the big red E. Yes, that's for empty. And this sudden realization changed everything. The scenery didn't matter any more; the conversation didn't matter any more. I was desperately looking for someone who could answer one question, "Where can I get some gas?" When you're running on empty, filling up is suddenly the only thing that really matters. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You're Running On Empty." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 4. It's a story of a woman from a place called Samaria. She has been married five times. She's living with a man now, and you really can't tell that there's a search going on inside of her just from her daily routine. But she has, as you find out about her life, gone from relationship to relationship in this lifetime search for something to fill the emptiness in her heart. She needed a fill up. She was running on empty. Jesus met her at this well, and in John 4:13 He says, pointing to the well, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. The water I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life." Basically, He's looking at the fuel gauge on her heart that reads "empty." He refers to it as being emotionally thirsty again. Then He says, "I want to give you eternal life. Not just heaven, but an inner life that will never leave you unsatisfied; that will finally quench that spiritual and emotional thirst." In other words, Jesus says, "I want to fill the tank in your heart for the very first time." And I'll tell you, this lady decided she wanted the relationship with Christ that would do that. And in verse 28 it says, "She left her water jug" - which remember was the very reason she had come to the well - "went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.'" And that was the day that Jesus forced this woman to face her emptiness and show her that only He could fill it. This might be that day for you. Jesus wants to show you what you've been trying to avoid. He wants you to look at the fuel gauge in your soul. And maybe it's very close to empty. Oh, sometimes you get something that will move the needle off empty a little bit; a good time, a vacation, some victory, some relationship. But then it's back down to empty again isn't it? See, often we're cruising along on empty, and we don't even realize it. Then suddenly we lose our job, our income, or someone we're really depending on, and we're looking at empty. Sometimes it takes bad news from the doctor, or a close call. Do you know why that might be happening in your life? To get you to admit that there's a hole in your heart; that you can't go it alone. Your religion is not enough. You need a Savior; a personal Savior. We're hollow inside because the God we're made by and made for isn't there. We've hijacked our lives from His control and we've created this fatal sin-gap between God and us. When you feel that un-peace, that dissatisfaction, that emptiness, that's the warning light - running on empty. It's Jesus saying, "You were made for Me." He died for you to bridge that gap between you and the God you were made to belong to. He's ready to forgive you today and fill the hole in your heart as only He can if you'll reach out to Him. And I'd love to help you do that. Got there, would you, to our website and we'll show you how to begin that relationship today! ANewStory.com is the website. He can do for you what He did for that woman at the well. He can meet you right where you are, show you where your answer is. Maybe God's been drawing your attention to that empty in your heart and only one thing really matters. Getting to the only place where you can find the peace that has eluded you your whole lifetime. In other words, it's time for you to meet Jesus.

It's really hard for me to drive by Civil War battlefields without stopping. I'm a history buff, and I like to stop at those things! Now, when I say Civil War, I might have to explain that to some of my friends, because if you grew up in the South, they say there was nothing civil about it. That's what my wife always told me. It was the War Between the States. At least that's what they taught my wife at school. One of the battlefields that I've driven by a lot is in New Market, Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. I've been there several times on other trips but I finally had the opportunity to stop and find out what went on there. It was a time of desperate days for the confederacy. I know there's a lot of controversy that goes on these days about some of the issues of the civil war but this is more about heroism and not so much about a specific cause. It was 1864, and Ulysses S. Grant was making an all-out push to try to take the Shenandoah Valley, and then Richmond, the capitol of the confederacy. And the Union Army had failed to do that five times. One part of the army was to move down the Shenandoah Valley, which is where New Market is. Now, General Breckinridge was in charge of some confederate troops. He was a former Vice President of the United States, believe it or not. He ordered the students from Virginia Military Institute (VMI) to march for three days and help resist the Union advance. They hadn't used students before to be in the army, but they were that desperate. There were a lot of teenagers in that army. They said, "They'll hear from the institute today." You know what? They did. At a very decisive moment in the battle, these kids charged into the Union lines and drove them back. The South won the battle that day at New Market. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Young People Leading the Charge." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 2:17. A very exciting verse. God says that the greatest spirit outpouring in history will take place just before Jesus comes back. We could be getting close to it now. Here's what it says: "In the last days I will pour out My Spirit on all people." Notice next who's in the lead in this great spiritual offensive. "Your sons and daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams." You know what this sounds like to me? Young people will be helping to lead the last great Holy Spirit movement, with the older generation sharing their vision and cheering them on. Now, if you're young, it's time for you to step up to spiritual responsibility. You've been a taker long enough, drinking in all the Christian stuff. Isn't it time you became a giver? You've gone to the meetings. Now you need to get a mission, not just go to a lot of meetings. You need to be making a difference man! It's time for some young people who will commit themselves to tell about Jesus to the people who need to know Him in order to be in heaven with us. You need to get involved in some needs in your town. Don't make your life a "selfie" life. There's so many needs around. Go meet those needs in your town in Jesus' name. This isn't any time to be sitting around waiting for someone to entertain you. It's not all about going to a concert or a retreat or conference or Christian meeting. I mean, you'd be insulted if someone tried to get a babysitter for you at your age, right? You're too old to be spiritually "baby-sat." So don't wait for an adult to get young people praying. Why don't you get some praying going? Don't wait for an adult to plan an outreach. You do it. Don't wait for an adult to start a Christian club or to start a mission emphasis. You do it. If you're older than young, like I am, be sure you're doing all you can to create a climate and to create a church where young people are valued, trusted, and challenged. Over two-thirds of the people who ever come to Christ do it by the age of 18. The church has no more urgent priority mission than its' young people and the young people around your church who don't even know about Christ yet. So, if you're tuned in to the General's final strategy, you're either going to be a young person on the front lines or an older person encouraging young people to be in spiritual leadership. The most important spiritual battles in history could be shaping up right now, right before our eyes, and the outcome may very well be determined by young people leading the charge.

You can become fairly addicted to a predictable television adventure series. A lot of them have a formula. You know how it's going to go. There's a victim you like; there's a villain you don't like, and there's a predicament. And you want to see the predicament resolved, but what if the predicament isn't resolved? You see this wrong sense of values as it goes down to three minutes, two minutes, one minute. You know it's going to end very quickly and it's getting worse. The villain you don't like is winning. The victim you really do like, well, how are they going to fix it? And finally, one of the heroes appears on the scene and, suddenly, it's resolved. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It Ain't Over - God Isn't Finished." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 8, and I'll begin reading at verse 39. It's the familiar story of Jesus being asked to heal Jairus' daughter. She was very sick with a fever, and then as Jairus comes to Him, Jesus has stopped, and He's healed someone else. We pick up the story there, "While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus and said, 'Your daughter is dead. Don't bother the teacher any more.' Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, 'Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.'" Now, this is kind of like on those TV shows where they just put "Continued" and you're hanging on to see what will happen in the next episode. Well, finally He arrives at the house of Jairus. It says, "He did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child's father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. 'Stop wailing,' Jesus said, 'She is not dead but asleep.'" Then Jesus spoke to her and she returned to life. The servant had said, "Don't bother Jesus any more. Wrap it up. Go home. It's too late. The end!" Like a television adventure, it was time to give up; all was lost! But when God writes a series, it continues. That's always how it is when your life is in God's hands. It ain't over till it's over! And it ain't over because God isn't finished yet. You might be. You might have tried every human solution you can think of, but God isn't finished yet. And He doesn't need much time to change the ending. No matter how dark a chapter you're living in, no matter how final it seems to be, in Christ there is always another chapter. This might be just like the middle of the book. Don't act like it's the end of the book. Don't give up. If it weren't for the dark episodes, you would never have the opportunity to see how powerful your Savior is. He does His best work when we are powerless. See, if you look at the book of your life, there is a word that God writes over every hopeless situation - the word "continued." Jairus thought it was over, but it wasn't. "She's dead. It's over." It wasn't over. "I'm not finished yet," Jesus said, "no matter how it looks." You know, one of the strange things is that when we reach a point in our life where it is hopeless for us, we are at the edge of the greatest hope a human being can discover. When you get to the point where there is something you can't fix, and you can't change, and you can't control, that's the time you begin to look around for someone bigger and more powerful than you. And those are the times when people finally discover the Jesus who has all the power to conquer death, who walked out of His grave under His own power. But only after He died on the cross to pay for every wrong thing we've ever done, demonstrating beyond any shadow of a doubt how loved you are by Jesus. This very day He may have brought you to what seems like the end of the story to begin a whole new story. And, actually, I want to invite you to a website called ANewStory.com, because I'd like you to go there and let me explain to you how this day you can begin your personal relationship with this all-powerful, all-loving Savior named Jesus. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." He's changed the lives of so many people. If you know Jesus, don't let anybody treat you like you're over. Because when you've got Jesus, you can always say about your life, "Stay tuned for the next exciting episode."

Class reunions are always enlightening, and one thing is obvious after 20 years - people change. Yeah! I was a pretty big boy back in high school. I mean, there were a lot of pounds on this boy, but not quite as many when I went to that reunion. And, you know what? I'm glad they saw the new me. Less of me! And then there are those changes that aren't always positive that you see in people. You know that athletic hunk you knew in high school who's kind of gone to seed a little bit, or that beautiful bombshell who's... changed, shall we say. Or that great head of hair that's now just a great head. But sometimes it's a pleasant surprise to see how people have changed in positive ways. People do change, and if we're not careful we'll still be thinking of them as they were - not as they are. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Allowing People to Change." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in Acts 9:26-28. A man that they almost froze in time. Saul of Tarsus has been, as you may remember, a violent persecutor of Christians. And then dramatically, in a blaze of light, he meets Christ on the road to Damascus. Well you can imagine how the early Christians must have greeted him when he showed up, because they figured he was the "hit man" coming for them. Verse 26: "When he came to Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him." Well, I can understand that. "...not believing," it says, "that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the disciples. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord." Now, it looks like at the early part of this account that the Christians had Saul in a category. Saul is the enemy; Saul hates Christians. But much to their surprise, not anymore! God has changed him. You know, this incident underscores a tendency that we all have - we tend to freeze people in time. You know, we remember how they were and assume they're still that way today. We sized up this man or woman some time ago; we know what they were like. And we won't allow them the privilege of having changed. "Oh yeah, he's lazy." "Oh yeah, she's always irresponsible. She never keeps her promises." "Oh yeah, you can't trust him. He's always deceitful." "She uses people." "He's got a real problem." See, the human mind puts a person into a category and then closes the door on that category. But see, he's changing and we can't close the door. Sometimes we won't see the changes, even in our families. We tend to see the weakness in our mate, or our child, or our parent. But we can't see the changes that they're trying to make. They're growing! Sometimes we even discourage them by expecting and noticing the worst in them all the time. The things they used to do, let's say, nine out of ten things wrong in a given area. Now they're only doing five out of ten wrong. But we only see the bad five, because we froze them in time. We underestimate the life-changing power of the grace of Almighty God. He is changing His children. We have to allow for it, give them a chance to change, encourage the change, notice the change. The early Christians gave Saul a chance and I'm so glad they did. Let's expect the best of each other. Not because we trust each other. That's not it so much, but because we trust the transforming power of our Father's grace. Stay up-to-date on what God is doing in the life of that person near you, and don't leave them frozen in time.

Oh, for goodness sake, it was the polar vortex again! There I was, digging out the sweaters again, and turning up the thermostat to help the Propane Dealers Retirement Fund. And hoping the weatherman was wrong about snow and ice. But, you know, I had no right to gripe. I mean, some cities ran out of salt for their streets this past winter. My poor friends in places like Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, New York - they were "whomped" with storm after storm this past winter. And then we've got friends in places like western New York where they just get mountains and mountains of snow during the winter. If you had just moved to one of those snow-swamped places, it would have been easy to say, "It's always going to be winter. This much snow is never going to melt. It's just going to keep coming." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sick of Winter, Ready for Spring." Nope. It won't always be winter. There's hope. And hope has a name - spring. No matter how high the snowdrifts were, how endless the parade of winter storms, spring always comes. And that helps me grasp just what that precious word "hope" is all about. Hope-less means things can never change. But hope means things you've never been able to change can change because hope has a name. His name is Jesus. He's the One of whom the Bible says in our word for today from the Word of God, Hebrews 6:19, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." As a follower of Jesus, I can be - for the hope-starved people around me - living proof that He could change what I could never change. Because of Jesus, a parent can change. A husband or wife can change. A family can change. Because of Jesus, a temper can change, a life of depression, or a fear of death. Jesus changes control freaks, chronic worriers, fearful people, and people who have always been defined by their pain. There's a magnet in us that attracts people to our Jesus. It's not our beliefs, the meetings we go to, the bad things we don't do. It's our hope. The Bible says folks will want to know "the reason for the hope you have" (1 Peter 3:15). When you meet Jesus, you experience the ultimate makeover miracle: "If anyone is in Christ," the Bible says, "he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17). So we have hope to give! Hope of Jesus changing our dark side, our fears, our relationships, our eternity. So the most powerful tool I have to open a heart to Jesus is my story - My Hope Story. Because what people want to know about Jesus is, "What difference does He make?" Your Hope Story tells about how your stressful times are different because of Jesus, your lonely times, your sad times, your wounded times. The difference Jesus makes when there's bad news from the doctor, when your family's in chaos, when the one you were counting on walks out the door, or when you stand by the casket of the one you love. People can argue with your beliefs. They can't argue with your Hope Story. Once you were "blind." Now you "can see." The only explanation is Jesus. I always want to be looking for natural opportunities to share some part of how my life is different because of Jesus. As you listen to a person's story, the door opens for you to tell your story. And how His story - His dying for you - has changed your story and could change theirs forever. I am, and all my spiritual brothers and sisters are, living proof that it doesn't always have to be winter. Spring comes when Jesus comes. And maybe you've never experienced that hope for yourself. Today Jesus stands ready to give you the new beginning that your heart is hungry for. I'd love to introduce you to Him and help you know how to get started with Him. Just go to our website as soon as you can today ANewStory.com. It's time for spring.

It was so dramatic that the cable news networks just kept replaying the video. A mother and her baby were trapped in a burning building. Some people saw the mother leaning out of the second story window with her baby in her arms, desperately trying to save him from both the smoke and the fire. The news video showed three people standing directly beneath that window, ready to catch the infant. It was an agonizing choice for that mother. If she held onto her baby, if she let him go; either way she risked his life. Finally, painfully, she released her baby and dropped him toward the people waiting underneath. It was breathtaking to see one man catch that little guy in his hands. It just so happens that he plays softball and he's a, guess what, a catcher. That baby was fine today, because a mother made a hard but life-saving choice. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Save Your Child." In a later interview, a tearful mother explained the decision she had made about her son. She said, "I had to let go of my baby to save him." That's a choice many parents have had to make over the years, and maybe a choice you're facing right now. The only way to save your child may be to let him go...to let her go. And that's not easy for many of us, because we're far more prone to try to control our son or daughter than to release them. It may be because we love them, but it may not be the most loving thing we can do. It's often in what we do to hang onto a child that we actually damage or destroy that child. The Bible gives us a beautiful example of releasing the child you love in our word for today from the Word of God. Hannah has shed tears for years because she cannot bear a child. Then God responds to her cries and sends her a son named Samuel; who will one day be God's man to lead His people. We can only imagine how much Hannah must have wanted to hang onto this precious son that she'd waited for so long. But listen to her prayer in 1 Samuel 1:27-28; a prayer that might change things in the life of your son or daughter. "'I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.' And she worshiped the Lord there." A mother who deeply loves her child loves him enough to release him into the hands of God. When we choose instead to try to control our son or daughter, we start using approaches that are more likely to ruin their life than to run it. We know the child we wanted, and we're gonna do whatever we can to shape him or her into that child instead of celebrating the child God gave us and nurturing who that child is; not trying to re-create him into something they're not. I was speaking at a conference where a lady came to me and afterward reminded me of when I had spoken there ten years before. She told me that I'd given an opportunity for people to come forward and surrender some part of their life they'd refused to give to Jesus. She said, "Ron, that night I surrendered my nine-year-old daughter to the Lord. She wasn't turning out the way I wanted, especially spiritually. I had tried everything to control her. That night, I just released her to the Lord. The next day she came to me and said something she'd never said, 'Mom, can we read the Bible together?'" Then that mom melted down as she said, "And today she's finishing her first year at a Christian college, training for a life in God's work." God can do with our surrender what we He could never do with our control. When we hold onto our child, we tend to create a rebel or a robot. When we release our child to the God who gave that child to us, we cooperate with the great plan for which our child was created. Almost every religion in the world has some kind of ceremony where a newborn child is given back to the Creator. We did that in a dedication service with each of our three children. But that needs to happen every day of their life; giving them back to the One who gave him or her to us. If your child is struggling, you may need to make that difficult but life-giving choice, "I have to let go of my baby to save my baby."

Our former offices were on this long hall, and each night the last one got to walk that long hall and make sure all the doors were locked and the lights were turned out. And with the amount of work the team had to get done each day, it was pretty close to "beddy-bye" time when some of them left. Of course, Daylight Saving Time meant that you could leave well into the evening and it would still be light. Maybe that's why the lights in some of our closets were accidentally left on sometimes. When it's still bright outside, it's easy to miss a light that's on. But in the winter, when it's dark, you can't miss the light! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Night Lights." The familiar and very challenging words of Jesus are our word for today from the Word of God. It's Matthew 5:14-16 where He said, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, I wonder if you realize how important you are! Think about when you walk into a totally dark room. What's the most important thing in that room? Isn't it the light? Who's the most important person where you work, or you live, or go to school? Isn't it the one who's the light? Jesus said that's you. If the light isn't working - if it's dim - if it goes out, there's only darkness. You may say, "You don't know how spiritually dark it gets where I am!" And you're right. I don't know all the details. But it probably looks something like this: the talk is dirty or blasphemous or profane, sin is something to laugh at and brag about, people are routinely backstabbed and wounded verbally, honesty and integrity are hard to find - maybe even unappreciated, Christians are stereotyped as being intolerant, old-fashioned, condemning, and irrelevant. Maybe you'd like to add a few more layers of darkness to describe the place where you're trying to be like Jesus. But remember those office closets with the light left on. Where it's bright, you don't see the light much. But the darker it is, the more the light cannot be missed! The darker the darkness, the more the light shows up! Paul talked about that contrast when he said in Philippians 2:15, "Become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which "you shine like stars in the universe" as you hold out the word of life." A star can barely be seen in a bright sky. But up against the stark darkness of the night, a star is something beautiful. That's supposed to be you in the universe where God's put you. So don't keep trying to hang out in places where there is already plenty of light; places where you feel safe because they're Christian places. You're needed where it's dark, where the lost people are. You can enjoy believers in heaven forever. Your job now is to get more people to go to heaven with you! We always told our kids as they left for school in the morning, "Go MAD today." And that means "make a difference!" That's what Jesus is saying to you each morning, "Go Make a Difference there." Be a living alternative in a place where truth doesn't matter, always tell the truth. In a place where dirty is cool, don't dignify the dirty. In a place where people cut each other up, you build people up! In a place where it's everybody for himself, you be the one who always puts other people first. In a place where Christianity is laughed at or misunderstood, you let them know what Jesus is like! Don't be intimidated by the darkness - you are the most important person in that dark place because you have the light of Jesus. Without you, darkness is all there is. Humbly, gently, lovingly, be the light there. You are one light that should never be turned out!

Isn't it amazing how different your second child can be from your first child? Just when you think you've got this parent thing all figured out, God sends you a totally different kid. I remember when you know, our son's family and the kids were born and when they were little. Food was just a necessary evil for our son's oldest, our granddaughter. She can take it or leave it. Since infancy, she hadn't cared much about whether or not she had food. Oh but not her brother! No! The eating machine. Only about a year old, but he was Food King for much of his little life. When he was still supposed to be only having milk, he was following every bite any of us put into our mouth as if to say, "So when do I get some of that stuff?" How did he graduate to crawling? One thing that helped was putting some food across the room. He just needed incentive. He took off on all fours like a firecracker had gone off behind him. One day, his mom was mixing up his next meal, and he was watching and complaining. As she continued to get it ready, he continued to escalate his expressions of impatience and displeasure. By the time his food was ready, we were dealing with a very loud, very insistent protest. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Reason For the Wait." Our grandson didn't have the words to say it, but he made his desires very clear as his food was being prepared, "I want my food, and I want it NOW!" It's a good thing his mother didn't give in. It wasn't ready yet! Believe me, it wouldn't have been good for him to get what he wanted when he wanted it. It would have been, in plain English, bleaaahhh! I can't begin to count the times that I've been the same way with God about something I wanted it, I needed it. "What's taking so long, God? I want it, and I want it NOW!" Maybe there's something you've been asking God for, trusting God for. And it's been a while, and it still hasn't come. You want it now, but there's a reason God isn't giving it to you now. It's not ready yet. And it would disappoint you if He gave it to you now. There's a word that's one of the major keys to God's best, it's a word that is spelled out in our word for today from the Word of God. Psalm 37, beginning with verse 5, tells us to: "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this...Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him...Wait for the Lord and keep His way." There's the word that often stands between you and God's best - wait. Part of committing your way to the Lord, of trusting in Him, is to wait until God says it's ready; until God says you're ready. So many people are living today in the heartache of their own impatience. They couldn't wait, so they grabbed what they could have now. And it's been much less than what God was getting ready for them. Look, you've been waiting for God to come through. You want to be married. You're waiting for Him to answer your prayer about having a child, raising a child. You're waiting for that job, that heart change, that breakthrough, that answer, and it hasn't come yet. Don't panic. Don't let impatience cost you the perfect will of God. Premature babies aren't as healthy as ones that are full-term. Premature solutions aren't healthy either. Wait until it's full-term. Remember the principle of Galatians 4:4, "In the fullness of time, God will," that's when He'll bring your answer, when it's ready. So stop whimpering, stop whining, stop trying to grab it before it's ready. If you insist on having it now, you're not going to like it!

Like most Americans, I just about O.D. on the news. No matter what it's about! It could be news about elections, or some economic problem, or eruptions in the Middle East. It's all important, but it's not exactly in the "joy to the world" category. So I absolutely loved the feel-good story out of New York City that went viral across Facebook a couple of years ago. It was about the friendly policeman and the freezing homeless man. And it had "Christmas Story" written all over it. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stopping for You This Christmas." In case you missed it, a young police officer on patrol in Times Square, came upon a homeless man, who was sitting there barefoot on the sidewalk. It was one of those "two pair of socks" night for the officer and even then his feet were freezing. He couldn't imagine a man sitting there barefoot all night. So the man in blue went inside a nearby store and bought the homeless man a $100 pair of boots with his own money. When he gave those boots to that barefoot man, well, you can only imagine the joy. It would have been one of life's invisible acts of kindness except for a tourist who was there with a cell phone camera. She was so moved with what she was watching, she snapped the picture, which was then seen by millions of people. Maybe because it was the Christmas season, that poignant scene triggered a flashback to something my personal Hero did over and over again. It's one of the many things that makes me love Him. That would be Jesus. The incident I remember took place when Jesus was entering a town, surrounded by crowds that were really anxious to see Him. The Bible says there was a blind beggar who had heard that "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." Much to the aggravation of the people around Jesus, he started shouting loudly, "Jesus, have mercy on me!" A lot of annoyed people there told him in no uncertain terms to shut up. So he just shouted louder. And the blind man was a growing nuisance. He was an embarrassment. After all, they had a "celebrity" in town. Then two little words that tell me so much about Jesus, and they are our word for today from the Word of God. Just two words: Luke 18:40; "Jesus stopped." Nobody else stopped, but Jesus did. Not for the mayor. Not for the millionaires. Not for the ministers, but for the miserable. The guy everyone else walked by or walked over. That's who Jesus stops everything for. And the first thing that blind man ever saw was the face of Jesus. Because Jesus did what only He could do; He gave that man his sight. The Bible's filled with stories of people nobody would stop for except Jesus. Marginalized people like blind Bartimaeus. Obnoxious people like Zacchaeus, the hated tax collector. For 2,000 years, Jesus has been stopping for the lonely, the losers, and the lost. And letting them know that someone knows their name. Someone hears their cry. Someone sees them. Someone really loves them. And it's God's one and only Son. He sees me; He sees a world lost in sin, away from God, headed for an awful eternity. And He does what no one else could do. What no religion could ever do. He pays for my sins with His blood. In the words of the Bible, "He was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten so that we might have peace; He was lashed and we were healed!" (Isaiah 53:5). You know, Jesus stopped for me when my soul was destitute, when my soul was doomed. Like the hymn says, "Once I was lost, but now I am found. I was blind, but now I see." You know, He might be passing your way today. Would you grab His hand today to begin your personal relationship with the man who loved you enough to die for you? If you want to know how; if I could possibly help you, please check out our website today ANewStory.com. He's stopping for you, He sees you, He loves you. He's moving in close. On the day we celebrate Him coming into this world, let Him come into your life.

I dropped off a Christmas poinsettia at a friend's house - she was getting home from the hospital that day. Her husband died of cancer the week before and she was laid up with back surgery. For her, I guess the words "Merry Christmas" might have sounded kind of hollow. Of course, she was not alone that Christmas. In many families each Christmas, there's someone missing around the table. My wife and I have had ten friends die in just a few weeks. There are clouds over Christmas for a lot of us, especially for the families of those who are gone. Grief and sadness, mixed with "joy to the world" and "happy holidays" - it's a bittersweet cup at best. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Clouds Over Christmas." Still, there is, as was announced that first Christmas, "good news of great joy" - even for those who are walking through "the valley of the shadow of death" (Psalm 23:4) as the Bible says. Maybe, especially for them. Not long before Jesus was born, God sent this prophecy written in our Word for today from the Word of God, Luke 1:78-79 - "The rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living...in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." Some 700 years before, the prophet Isaiah said, as He prophesied Messiah's birth, "On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned" (Isaiah 9:6; 9:1). It is for those very people in the "land of the shadow" that Jesus came that first Christmas, because we all take our turn in that shadow. When the days run out for someone we love or for us. Everyone has a last Christmas, and few of us know which one that will be. But that's why Christmas is such good news. Because Jesus came to illuminate those clouds and shine the light of heaven on the darkest corridor of all. He walked out of His grave to prove there is life beyond the funeral. Not some religious speculation; living proof. His Light has illuminated the mysterious darkness called death and shown us a heaven beyond. But it took Him carrying His cross into that darkness and absorbing all the hell for all my sin. Jesus died so all of us God-disobeyers could, as He said, "cross over from death to life" (John 5:24). Death is an abyss of total darkness if we have to face it with our sins unforgiven, because "the wages of sin (the Bible says) is death" (Romans 3:23) - forever death. That's eternal separation from a totally holy God. But here's the hallelujah part: "God sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him" (1 John 4:9). Death penalty paid. Death's power shattered. Now all death can do for those who belong to Jesus is send them home. Because of Jesus, death can't end a relationship between Jesus-followers; it can only interrupt it. There's a reunion coming! So, in the words of the immortal 23rd Psalm, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." Darkness has lost. The Light has won. So we can say, "Merry Christmas!" There's a wonderful peace - a peace like no other - in knowing that you are ready for eternity, whenever it comes and however it comes. It is a peace you can experience this Christmas season, my friend, and from now on. If you'd like to know more about belonging to Jesus, I wish you'd join me at our website and let me show you there how you can be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. You can receive, there, the greatest gift anyone could ever imagine. You know what the Bible says about it? "The gift of God is eternal life" (Romans 6:23).

Christmastime is kind of like time to get things in shape, especially around the house. Most of us become very motivated when December arrives in terms of getting things cleaned up. We dust corners and clean areas that haven't been touched for like eleven months. Trouble spots in the carpet that had gone unnoticed, suddenly we notice them and we work on them. That wall in the kitchen that needed some touch-up paint, it becomes a priority. We begin decorating things! Houses are suddenly in better shape than they've been in all year, especially since last Christmas. Christmas is shape-up time for houses...and people. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Really Ready for Christmas." Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Isaiah 55:6. And it happens to be about fixing things up. Here's what it says: "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He is near." The 7th verse says, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts, and let him turn to the Lord and He will have mercy on him and to our God, for He will freely pardon." Now, you notice here it says, "Seek the Lord while He is near." You say, "Wait a minute. This isn't about Christmas. What does this have to do with Christmas?" Well, honestly, I don't think there's any time of the year when people feel closer to the Lord or have Jesus more on their radar than the Christmas season. Remember, "while He is near." I think Christ seems close at this time of the year; almost inescapable. You can probably sense that. There's a softness - a kind of warm and cuddly feeling on the inside this time of year. We're softer than any other time. We find ourselves drifting into thoughts about Christ more often than usual. I mean, even watching the Charlie Brown Christmas Special or hearing a carol at the mall; in places we wouldn't normally think about Christ. We're open to Him. That's when it's time to fix things up with Jesus. Not just around the house; I mean inside the heart house of your life. "Seek the Lord while He may be found," it says. That's really the Christmas season. "Call on Him while He is near." Well, in a very real way, that is now. This may have been for you a year of slowly drifting away from the Lord. You didn't run away; you're just not as close and warm...intimate like you used to be. Maybe it's been a year of real confusing doubts, hardships that have made you disillusioned and maybe a little hard-hearted. Or there could be a distraction that has taken His place for a while. But I'll bet you've discovered it's really no good away from Him is it? Those are the best times of your life when you're close to Him. It's Christmas time! It's time to fix things up. "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He's close" like He is now. And maybe this year, maybe this is when you finally think about opening up to Christ as your personal Savior. Not just a baby in a manger. Not just the One we sing about in our carols and we go to church services and go through our Christmas thing. You miss Him. You've missed having a personal relationship with Him. That's what you were made for. It's not that you haven't known about Him. You've never been against Him. You're religious. You know a lot of people who are Christians, but maybe you've never made your personal commitment to Christ. You've never said, "Jesus, what you did on that cross; what you came to do was for me. That was for all the wrong things I have done." Well, Christmas is close, and I wouldn't be surprised if you feel a tug in your heart. And that tug? That's not me. That's Jesus. This could be your first Christmas with Christ in your heart if you'll fix things up with Him. I'd love to help you begin that relationship with Him and understand from what He wrote in the Bible exactly how this relationship works. Would you go to our website? It's ANewStory.com. I think you'll find your way home there. Whatever stands between you and Jesus right now, would you let Him clean it up before Christmas? Then it will be more than a song for you. You can really say, "I'll be home for Christmas!"

Over the years, our family's had the chance to see Christmas from many different perspectives: Christmas in Manhattan, in Chicago's Loop, a mountain Christmas, a colonial Christmas. But it's a man named Nate Saint who, better than anyone else I know, may have captured Christmas from heaven's perspective. He was one of five American missionaries, called by God to the jungles of Ecuador to introduce the Gospel to one of the "lostest" people groups on earth, the primitive Auca (Waorani) Indians. Once they found the Aucas in the dense jungles, it was Nate who, as the seasoned pilot, managed to land them on a narrow beach by the Curaray River. Well, I've had the privilege of standing on that beach where Nate Saint, Jim Elliott, and three other men died at the hands of the people they had gone to reach. But years later the men who murdered them had become the leaders of the Waorani Church, and many, including me, were inspired by their example to give our lives to serve the Lord Jesus. There were countless people who went into God's work because of that example. On the eve of his last Christmas on earth, weeks before his death, Nate Saint wrote his perspective on Christmas, and I can't get it out of my mind. I hope you won't either. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Christmas Mission." As you listen to these words from one of heaven's heroes, listen knowing this is the heart of God about Christmas, maybe better than any card you'll read or sermon you'll hear. Here's what Nate Saint wrote in his journal on December 18: "As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christ-less night without ever having a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of the darkness. Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem, may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha. May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility." Twenty-one days later, Nate Saint died attempting to rescue some of those very people. You know, His words are hard to hear in the middle of all of our Christmas activity aren't they? But they're important to hear because they reflect on why there is a Christmas. It's all about a spiritual rescue mission that cost the Son of God His life. That mission was clearly spelled out to Joseph when the angel announced the coming of Jesus to him in Matthew 1:21, our word for today from the Word of God. "You are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins." The very name Jesus means "the Lord saves" - that's "save" as in rescuers saving people from the rubble at Ground Zero, a firefighter saving people from a burning building. Sin is the burning building we're in. We're trapped with no way out except for heaven's Rescuer, Jesus Christ. He came and gave His life to rescue ours, and He went through the "crushing agony of Golgotha." But every day, we are with people who don't know that. See, following Jesus means living to join Him in His rescue mission to save them. This season, when the celebration of Christ's coming seems to be filled with days that are honestly so much about ourselves, about stuff, things that couldn't be farther from why there is a Christmas, could you call a timeout long enough to get with Jesus and pray this prayer? "Go ahead, Lord, and break my heart for the people around me who don't know you. Let me see what you see when you look at them. Help me feel some of your heart to rescue them from an unspeakable eternity." And pledge to Him to do all you can to help people you know be in heaven with you. Tell them about why He came, why He died, and what He does when we open our life to Him. Because Christmas is all about a rescue mission; to intervene for someone who is, in Nate Saint's words, hurtling "headlong into a Christ-less night without ever having a chance." You know what? You could be that chance.

It was our grandson's two-year Christmas, and he was so much fun to watch. One day during the season, his mother unpacked the family Nativity Set for her and her boy to set up, and he loved it. They put up the manger, and Mary and Joseph, and the angels, and the shepherds. They put out everyone except the one figure they couldn't find. They couldn't find baby Jesus. Well, our grandson was pretty concerned about this missing person, so Mommy told him Daddy would look for baby Jesus when he got home from the office. A lot of hours passed. Our grandson heard Daddy coming up the back steps. He ran to the door and greeted his father with an impassioned two-word question, "Where's Jesus?" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Missing at the Manger." That question from the heart of a two-year-old might be the question God is asking some of us as He looks at our lives this Christmas season, "Where's Jesus?" It's possible to be like our grandson was that day. Spiritually, you have everything except Jesus. The danger of that deadly deficit is what God addresses in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 13:5. The sobering truth is that these words were, and are, written to church folks; the folks involved in a lot of Christian things - maybe like you. Here's God's challenge: "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" Apparently, you can be into Jesus, but not have Jesus in you! God says here that the deciding factor as to whether or not you belong to Him is whether or not "Christ Jesus is in you." Now He's in you only if there's been a time when you personally have flung open the door of your heart and welcomed Him in as your personal Savior from your personal sin. If you don't know you've done that, you probably haven't. It's like getting married. You know if you've made the commitment or not. But you can miss the fact that you've missed Jesus when you've got everything else. You've got a Christian vocabulary, Christian beliefs, a Christian image, Christian fellowship, maybe a Christian environment or a Christian family. But maybe there's never been that deciding transaction with Christ; that deeply personal moment when you talk to Him and give yourself to Him with all the faith you've got. So as God looks at all you've got spiritually, is He asking, "Where's Jesus?" If you've consciously begun your relationship with Jesus Christ, He is in your life right now. He's clearly said, if you open the door, "I will come in." It is settled. But if you've never really given yourself to Jesus, I know it's hard to admit it to yourself, but it's deadly not to. And be grateful. God has given you another opportunity; He has given you this opportunity this Christmas season to take the step that will finally, really bring Jesus into your life, because some day will be your last opportunity. Would you tell Him right now you want to know Him for real; not just know about Him? Let today be the day you really begin with Him. Not just have some beliefs about Him, but you belong to HIm. It's time for you to tell Him that's what you want; to admit to Him you realize there's never been a time you've really given yourself to Him. But this is the day you open your heart, finally, to the man who died for you; who came to this earth to die to pay for your sin. He's alive because of Resurrection Day that first Easter, and He's available to you right now, my friend. He came that first Christmas, and now He's come where you are to come into your life. Are you ready to tell Him, finally, "Jesus, I'm Yours"? I would love to help you get started with Him. It would be a great joy of my life to help you do that. Would you join me at ANewStory.com? That's our website, ANewStory.com and let's get this settled. Today, in this Christmas season, please make sure that Jesus is in your heart.

Now, we've driven some pretty desolate stretches of the U.S. For a guy who used to wait 'til the last minute to get gas, those stretches were life-changing. A couple of bad experiences and you become mister "fill up at half a tank." But America's desert and wilderness stretches take a back seat to some of the wilderness of the Middle East; especially some of the desert traversed by God's ancient people as they went from Egypt to the Promised Land. Recently, a writer named decided to physically retrace some of the geography of the first five books of the Bible. Including the still-challenging Sinai wilderness where God's people wandered for forty years. He spent time with the nomadic Bedouins who make that wilderness their home. He walked the hot sands, the daunting mountains of that wilderness. And, in the process, he found himself on an unanticipated journey of spiritual discovery. And he learned something about why God led His children through the desert - and why He still does. Here's what this author said: "In the desert, there's no such thing as independence - only dependence." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Treasure In Your Desert." I think it started when we were little kids with words like these, "I can do it myself!" And we've been trying to do it ourselves ever since - even when it comes to totally trusting God. Oh, we believe in Him. We go to His meetings. We try to live by His commandments, but we want to drive. We're control freaks, especially when it comes to the things or people that really matter to us. We can make it happen. We can make it work. We can think of something. We can fix it. Then comes the desert; a season in your life when the bottom drops out. Things and people that you've depended on either aren't there or aren't enough. It's dry. The heat is intense. You're worn out physically and emotionally, and there's no road to show you the way to go. Welcome to the wilderness. But before you give up or give in, remember the desert is part of the plan. It was for God's ancient people. It was for John the Baptist. It was for Paul. It was for the Son of God, and it is for you. Here's what God says about the desert stretches; it's in Deuteronomy 8:2-4, our word for today from the Word of God. He says: "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert...to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." Ok, God says He leads us into the desert to humble us; to bring us to a place where the Lord is all we have. Because that's when we learn that the Lord is all we need. "In the desert, there's no such thing as independence - only dependence." When you come to your Lord in total desperation, running on empty, you open yourself up to an experience of God's power and God's grace you can't get any other way. And just in case you're not sure you can make it through this desert, listen to what your Heavenly Father will do for you there - Deuteronomy 1:31 says this: "In the desert...you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way." And like any tired little child, you'll go much further with your Father carrying you than you could ever go on your own. The desert may not be pleasant. It may stress you, it may strip you, but there's treasure you'll only find there. Because you'll find the treasure that is discovered only when God is all you've got.

It happens a lot in sports - especially when there's one of those games they like to call "The Big Game." Two rivals go at it in a game that's really important in the standings, and one team blows out the other team with this huge, lopsided victory. You can almost predict what's going to happen to the winning team in their next game, even if they play some pitiful team that loses a lot more than they win. The guys who totally dominated their rivals in the Big Game may very well lose the little game that follows. It happens a lot. You win big and then, for some reason, you lose big. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Dangerous Season of All." When you've really won big, it's easy to let down, get overconfident, or just get careless. When you've been the champion for a while, you tend to coast, and suddenly you're not the champion anymore. That doesn't just happen in sports, it happens in life. In fact, it happened many times in the Bible; like what happened to the Jewish king Uzziah, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 26, which is where we find our word for today from the Word of God. From this story, and many others like it, we can conclude that a season of success in your life may actually be the most dangerous season of all. Uzziah led his nation to new levels of economic prosperity, military dominance, and international respect. The Bible says, "As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success." Notice, God gave him success; see, success is not your achievement. It's God's gift. You don't achieve success, you receive success. Now, in 2 Chronicles 26:15 we read, "His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall." What follows is the tragic account of a king who becomes arrogant, self-willed, a man who starts doing it His way, not God's way; and ultimately a man who dies the horrible death of leprosy. Uzziah's story, unfortunately, is not unique. The truth is that very few of us are able to handle success. If you're experiencing a time of success and pretty smooth sailing right now, it's important to realize that you may be in the spiritual danger zone. When you're flying high, it's just all too easy to forget how you got there. Or, more importantly, Who (capital "W"!)... Who got you there. The ancient Jews were given a solemn warning from God when they went from the wilderness to the wealth of the Promised Land: "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord." And, sure enough, they did. So if this is a good season of your life, don't ruin it by getting careless. Have you allowed your success to inflate you? Are you thinking, "Hey, I'm really something" instead of "He's really something"? Have you moved from the desperate praying of the hard times to less-frequent, less-fervent prayers now that you're in the good times? Have you started to rely on your gifts, your cleverness, your experience, your strength, instead of what you once relied on - totally depending on God? Are you becoming more self-focused? Are you taking more things into your own hands instead of leaving them in God's hands? Those are some of the great dangers of success. Don't make God remind you who is the source of everything you've got. Because success that costs you the blessing of your Lord is simply success that you cannot afford.

So who needs an alarm clock in our neighborhood? We've got ravens! Yeah, those big black birds discovered our backyard. Now, ravens apparently are early risers, a little earlier than most people are. And they are also, shall we say, active conversationalists. Which makes them wonderful alarm clocks for those early morning hours whether you want them or not! Now I don't mind it. It's great to have all the birds singing their little spring concert in our yard. Actually, they do more than sing, they preach! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Security When You're On Empty." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 12, where we find the Gospel from the birds. The Gospel's not for the birds, no, it's from the birds. The subject of their sermon is security. And that might be an issue that you have reason to be concerned about right now. In this passage, Jesus has just told us about a man whose idea of security echoes that of almost everyone around us. He has a lot of crops to take care of, and he says in Luke 12:18, "I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to myself, �You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.'" Well, that's pretty much our world's concept of security. What have you got in your storeroom, man? What have you got to fall back on? What have you got in your IRA? What have you got for retirement? What have you got in case medical emergencies come up?" Then here comes the message from that bird passage in the Bible as Jesus talks to us beginning at verse 22, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body what you will wear. Life is more than food and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens..." Well, I have no choice. They make sure I consider them every morning. Jesus said, "Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable are you than birds!" I love these simple words, "They have no storeroom, yet God feeds them." And then He says, "If He'll do that for the ravens, He'll surely do that for you." Now, we live in a world that says surplus equals security. The Gospel according to the birds is simple but eloquent. It says, "Our security is this: We have a Father who is a great provider. That's where your security is; not what you have in your storeroom." Jesus goes on to talk about how the pagans are chasing after things and after material security. But He says, "You seek His kingdom, and then sell what you have and give to the poor, and pass on the kingdom to other people." You're secure. Not because you can see where it's going to come from, but because of who your Father is. In fact, I wonder if some day Jesus isn't going to return and say to a lot of us, "What are you doing sitting on all of that? Why do you have so much in your storeroom?" See, we are Father-fed people. We don't need big reserves. We're to feed others with the gifts that He's given to us. You don't ever have to worry about having enough. In fact, one day those ravens proved that God will always find a way to meet your need. When every other source of security and supply was cut off from the prophet Elijah, the ravens brought it. God will always find a way, even if you have to keep your window open for the ravens to come in and give it to you. If the usual means of supply are cut off, God can do it without those. It's been God that's been your source all along. He'll deliver it another way. He will feed you from His storeroom. If you don't believe me, just ask the birds.

I was in a board meeting in a hotel conference room. It was in the 90s outside, but I was ready to put gloves on so I could write without shaking. The air conditioner in our conference room was set one notch past high. It was on arctic! We wandered over to the control box on the wall, and all we did was discover that the controls were locked up. Great! So, we called the desk and they had a hard time understanding us because our teeth were chattering. (I'm not exaggerating at all, no.) They finally got the message, and the maintenance man came and he turned down that ice machine. At that moment, he had the power in his hands. Summer or winter, he is the man who decides what the temperature will be. You know, that's a pretty significant position. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Leader's #1 Job." Our word for today from the Word of God turns the spotlight on one of the Bible's greatest role models for leadership - my hero, Nehemiah. He led God's people in the effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in just 52 days. As we join the story, Nehemiah is now governor for a poor group of people who are trying to establish life in their rebuilt city. In that difficult time, the climate was very important, and God had a man who knew how to establish just the right temperature. Our word for today from the Word of God, Nehemiah 5 beginning in verse 14. "When I was appointed to be their governor...neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors - those preceding me - placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God, I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled for the work; we did not acquire any land. Furthermore," Nehemiah says, "a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations...I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people." In the intensity of this survival situation, the people desperately needed a climate of unselfishness, of sharing, of cooperation. But someone had to be the thermostat, and Nehemiah was that man. He led the way, setting a temperature of sharing, and you know what? The people followed. The greatest responsibility of any leader is probably not even in his or her job description. It's establishing a climate. Parents do it at home; Dad establishes a climate when he walks in the door at night. Teachers set a temperature in a classroom. A chairman sets a temperature in a meeting. Leaders do it in a church. Supervisors set a climate in an office or factory. In a sense, we're all leaders to the extent that we set a climate where we are. If you're in a position of influencing others, have you considered how the temperature feels where you are, what kind of climate you're establishing? Not so much with what you say, but more with the way you are. Is it tense around you or peaceful? Are people around you seeing a model of caring? Of unselfishness? Of pitching in on what needs to be done, as Governor Nehemiah did with the work on the wall? Are you setting a climate of respect for other people? If people are around you, do they become people of prayer? You're a leader. You're setting a climate, whether you realize it or not. And the interesting thing is that you end up reaping the climate you sow. So make the place where you are feel like it would if Jesus were there. He is.

It was like a dream come true. I'll tell ya', it was right after Christmas. I was in Manger Square in Bethlehem! Near the entrance to the Church of the Nativity, which is built over the cave believed to be the birthplace of the Son of God. It felt like the whole town was a celebration. There were festive lights lining the streets and caroling choirs. There was a parade. And a dazzling Christmas tree on the square. Not this Christmas. The birthplace of Christmas will be dark and deserted this Christmas. Just like so many hearts. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You about "Light For A Dark Christmas." You know the song says, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." Well it's not for everybody. The "joy to the world" only seems to amplify the sadness if your holiday heart is lonely or broken. You've lost a loved one. A crumbling marriage. A wandering son or daughter. Maybe a life-upending diagnosis. It could be a shattered relationship. Or just a nameless darkness in your soul. Strangely, when Jesus came that first Christmas, there were no lights, there were no parades - not even a room where He could be born. Rome had found another way to get more money from the already impoverished Jewish people. And the Son of God would come into the world in the filth and stench of a stable. And soon the little family, well they'd flee as refugees, when the evil king ordered the massacre of every Jewish baby boy under two. Yes, it was pretty dark that first Christmas. And, in a way, it was dark all the way to that Good Friday 33 years later when Jesus would die alone on a Roman cross. But for every heart that feels "dark and deserted" this Christmas, there is hope in that manger. The Bible reveals what was really going on in that stable in John 1:4 and 5 - "In Him was life, the life was the Light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." You know we often hear that God is at the top of the mountain and all the religions of the world are ways to get to Him up there. But Jesus didn't come to start or to be a religion. He was something no one had ever conceived of... The God who came down from the mountain to where we are! To be one of us. To bring God close. And, ultimately, to die for us. For the very sinning we've done against Him! For ultimately, that darkness in our heart is the absence of the God we were made for. Our loneliness is cosmic loneliness. We're lonely for God. And our brokenness well, that's the damage done by a world of eight billion people who have defied His rule over their lives. But since that "O holy night" in Bethlehem, millions have found the Light that is stronger than the darkness. A light inside you, that's not dependent on a flickering world around you. It is a new beginning, and Jesus offered it in His liberating invitation. It's our word for the day from the Word of God in John 8:12. "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Imagine, every wrong thing you've ever done - forgiven. The broken pieces repaired and restored by His resurrection power. And finally, the end of lostness, the beginning of a life with eternal meaning. And one unlosable love. For as the Bible says, "nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39). One love that will never desert you, never divorce you, never die on you. You want this relationship with Him? It can begin today when you tell Him, "Jesus I'm Yours. I believe it was my sin You died for." I hope you'll go to our website because we're set right there to help you be sure you belong to Him as of today. ANewStory.com. Somewhere today there is a heart that has just spent its last day "dark and deserted." Because today, the Light's coming in. I pray that's you.

When our son was in college I think his favorite Christmas song was "I'll be Home for Christmas." That might be every college student's favorite song. He started counting the days, the hours, and the minutes until it was time to go home. But none of our kids have ever experienced anything like what my wife called her loneliest Christmas. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Loneliest Christmas." My wife was a college student in Chicago, and things were really hard for her family back home that year. Dad was a farmer, and the drought was really wiping him out financially. There was no money for her to go home that Christmas. You can imagine how she felt as her friends one by one said goodbye and headed out for their family Christmas at home. Eventually my wife was one of only about a dozen students left on the whole campus. Those were two very long weeks for a young woman who was used to mom and dad and grandma and grandpa, and sister and friends; all celebrating Christmas together. Actually, she would tear up when she thought about it. It really hurts when it's Christmas and you're not home! In a sense, many people have never really been home for Christmas. I mean, spiritually home. Oh we all have a homing instinct; this deep-down sense that there's something missing in our soul and we won't be home until we find it. The search for that missing piece of us takes us from relationship to relationship, from experience to experience, and that search inevitably leaves us still wondering where home is - for our heart. Our word for today from the Word of God is from Colossians 1:16, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, six words that say it all. Speaking of Jesus Christ: "All things were" - and here are the six words - "created by Him and for Him." You and I were created by Jesus. We were created for Jesus. And we're going to have a hole in our heart until we have Jesus. There was an article in a news magazine that said our lifestyle had "yielded only deeper hungers and lonelier nights." Wow! Well, God's Book reveals to us a startling fact that no person on earth can ever satisfy our loneliness. It's cosmic loneliness. We're away from God, and He's the only One who has the lasting love that we were made for. We're like my wife that lonely Christmas at college. Our heart is aching for home! Can you feel it? And God didn't leave us; we left Him. In the words of the Bible, "All of us have wandered away like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way." That's maybe why the middle letter of sin is "I." We've basically said to God, "Hey, You run the universe. I'll run me, thank you." And that rebellion has cost us the one relationship that we can't live without and we dare not die without. Then comes Christmas. There's nothing we can do to erase the sin that keeps us from God, to be able to one day be with Him forever in heaven. So God sent His own Son into the world to pay the death penalty that sin requires. And God explains His motive this way, "God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." You see, to believe in Him is to tell God you're pinning all your hopes on Jesus to forgive your sin and to give you eternal life. Because only the One who died for your sin can forgive it. And only the One who walked out of His grave can give you eternal life. A little boy was lost on a street corner in New York, and this policeman said, "Can you tell me your address or your phone number?" And the boy couldn't remember. Finally the little boy said, "But, sir, there's a big church next to my house, and there's a big cross on the top. And if you can get me to the cross, I can find my way home." So can you. If you can get yourself this Christmas to the cross where Jesus died for you, you can finally be home in that relationship with the One you were made by and made for. I would love to help you make that discovery and secure your relationship with Jesus and your place in heaven. Would you go to our website? That's what it's there for. It's there for a moment like this - ANewStory.com. Your new story could begin this Christmas season. Give yourself to Jesus, and you'll be home where your heart has wanted to be for so long - home for Christmas; home forever.

Our oldest son had just graduated from a wonderful Christian college. Most of his good friends were headed for careers in business or the professions - which can be great places to serve God. But his calling was to go as a missionary to an Indian reservation among a people listed by some world prayer people as one of the most unreached people groups in North America. We knew it wasn't going to be easy. In fact, his first place to sleep at night was just a little storeroom, where he slept on a table so he wouldn't be a snack for the critters on the floor. Now, he was there pretty much on his own, and he was just starting to try to break down some walls and meet some of the tribal young people there. He'd been there a couple of weeks when he called us, I guess it was some morning at sunrise his time. He had driven about eight miles to find a phone to call. It was before cell phones! It was the kind of call that a parent doesn't forget. He said, "Mom, Dad, I've got to tell you I've probably never been so lonely in my whole life. In college, I had friends whenever I wanted them, I could go out on a date whenever I wanted to, I could get some money together when I needed to. But here, I have none of those things." To be honest, our parents' hearts were aching at this point. And then we were blown away by his unexpected conclusion. He said, "But I've got to tell you this, "I've never had such peace in my life. I'm where I was born to be, doing what I was born to do!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where You Were Born To Be." It could be that your life has been very full, but not very fulfilling. What you're doing may be successful, but maybe not necessarily significant. It may be cheered by men, but not very important to God. Let's face it. You're restless inside. You know there's got to be something more. Maybe God is stirring your soul. Maybe He's trying to move you where you were born to be, to do what you were born to do. And it's different from what you're doing now. Don't be afraid of it. Be expectant. And be obedient - no matter how risky that obedience looks. Actually there's no such thing as a risky obedience - only a risky disobedience. In Jeremiah 1:5, our word for today from the Word of God, the Lord says this to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart." When Jeremiah expresses his sense of being inadequate to carry out his calling, God says, "You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you." On the one hand, these words applied particularly to the calling of Jeremiah to be God's prophet. But the sense of what He said is true of every child of God...including you. He formed you in the womb for special purposes as Paul says, "for good works He prepared in advance" for you to do (Ephesians 2:10). And He's calling you to be where He made you to be, doing what He made you to do. And it may be something different from what you're doing now. You won't be able to see the whole road ahead, but He's expecting you to start walking that direction right now, following the light of His Word, and His leading through your prayers, and His defining circumstances. His call is for you to "offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God." Out of that surrender, you will, according to Romans 12, "be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will." To follow Him to your designer destiny, you may have to defy the drumbeat of the culture around you. You may be called foolish by those who can't understand heaven's plans. You will almost surely have to proceed by faith; trusting in the Lord who loves you, not in a plan that you can control or even figure out. But, by all means, follow Him where He's taking you. The alternative is a future filled with the bitter regrets of someone who knows they've missed what they were put here for. Don't settle for anything less than being where you were born to be, and doing what you were born to do.

Well they called it "Avalanche" in one paper, "Tsunami" in another. "A cultural watershed moment." "A day of reckoning." Some of the words the news used to describe the seasons of relentless accusations of sexual misconduct by powerful men. The blizzard of revelations is new. Men using power to exploit someone sexually; sadly, that's not new. From athletes to politicians, from bosses to clergy sometimes. Tiger Woods outed an abuser's rationale when he went public with his extramarital relationships years ago. I haven't forgotten what he said, "Normal rules didn't apply...I felt like I was entitled." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sex, Power, and Christmas." There's the word. Entitled. The dictionary says entitlement is "the belief that one is inherently deserving of privilege or special treatment." "Privilege?" Like assuming the right to use power to dishonor or degrade a woman? No title, no favor, no authority can ever give a man that right. From the time we guys are boys, we're raised on what I call the Male Conquest Myth. That a man proves his manhood by the sexual conquest of a woman. And it starts early. For centuries, the Bible has presented a radically different proof of manhood. It is, in fact, about conquest. It says in Proverbs 16:33, "Better to have self-control than to conquer a city." So, a man proves he's a man, not by conquering a woman - but by conquering himself. His passions. His anger. His mouth. His dark side. That's the battle one Bible author faced in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 7. "I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't...there is another power that...makes me a slave to sin. Who will free me?" In his disgust with his own powerlessness to tame his dark side, he suddenly finds hope. He says, "Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ." For 2,000 years, men who couldn't change did change. When they've turned to the Man who poured out His life on a cross to break the chains of human sin, and who proved His singular power by conquering death itself. If He has the power to walk out of His grave, there's nothing that conquers me that He can't conquer. In the midst of swimming in a cesspool of sex-and-power revelations and stories, there is Christmas. The manger. The Baby. And one of a thousand reasons I love and follow this Jesus. Because the most powerful Man who ever lived used it only to help, to heal, to save. Leaving behind, not a trail of wounded, exploited people, but powerless people lifted to full humanity. Lepers. Beggars. Women. Children. People kicked out of the "church." Behind that silent night in Bethlehem was a stunning divine transaction. The Bible says, "Though He was God...He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being...He humbled Himself...and died a criminal's death on a cross" (Philippians 2:6-8). In His own words, Jesus explained that He "came not to be served, but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). King of kings, the Bible calls Him. Lord of Lords. Prince of glory. Son of God. Birthed in a stable. Giving, never taking. Hanging on a cross to bring rebels, like me, against Him home. In the midst of the crud, there is Christmas and the hope of a new beginning. Something pure, more powerful than the darkness. His name is Jesus. You want to begin a relationship with Him? There's no better time. Go to our website to find out how that can happen for you today. ANewStory.com. For 2,000 years, "wise men" have ended their search at the feet of Jesus. We come to Him with the chains of our own personal darkness. And we leave forever free.

The funeral plans for Matt were in the works. The Park Service had announced that Matt was one of five people who had been killed in a plane crash on a mountainside in Montana. The funeral never happened. Suddenly, Matt's bereaved parents heard the stunning news: although he had been badly injured, their son, along with one other Forest Service worker, had just been rescued alive, miles from the crash site. Rescue workers at the scene of the crash had concluded that the charred wreckage and the scattered human remains indicated that the crash had been "un-survivable." But amazingly, Matt and his fellow worker hiked for 29 hours, often in subfreezing temperatures, until they reached a highway where a motorist picked them up. One news magazine called it, "A Miracle in the Snows of Montana" (Newsweek, October 4, 2004). I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bringing Back a Loved One." Many a parent with a child away from God has despaired of them ever coming out of the spiritual death that they've chosen. There may be wreckage, there may be damage, injuries, but it's way too soon to think it's over. If someone you love is away from the Lord and hope is sometimes hard to hang onto, God has a promise for you today in Psalm 126:5-6. It's our word for today from the Word of God and it's a good one. He says: "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him." All those months and years of praying and weeping and sowing the seed of God's Word in their life will not return un-harvested. How God does it, when God does it, whether or not you may even be here to see it is totally in God's hands. But you can be sure the Shepherd is persistently, skillfully pursuing that lost sheep you love and that He loves so much more. Remember, He's more concerned about the one who's lost than the 99 who are doing okay. I can't begin to list the wanderers and rebels that my heart has ached for over the years; so many who had tasted the goodness of God but who wandered away - some of whom are still wandering. Some of whom have gloriously come home to Jesus, now living for Him with the fervor of one who loves much because they've been forgiven much. Through all these battles for people away from Jesus, I've learned a couple of simple principles that are grounded in Scripture. They've been anchors when it looked like there was no hope. First, remember the difference between a chapter and a book. These dark times in the life of that one you love are not the whole book - they're a chapter, or even a series of chapters. But many a book with sad chapters has had a happy ending. Don't judge the ending by the dark chapters in the middle of a book. Don't decide the game is lost because your team is losing at halftime. If you think it's over, you may actually contribute to their continued wandering by resorting to nagging. And that's only going to drive them further away. Or by compromise and accepting what can never be acceptable before God. By slowly giving up on your prayer of faith for them, or maybe just withdrawing from them when your unconditional love may actually be their best hope. See, when someone you love is the least lovable, that's when they need your love the most. Remember, as long as there's breath, there's hope. It just isn't over so long as they have breath to cry out to God for rescue. So keep on fighting for them in the Throne Room of Almighty God with defiant faith - faith that defies the devil's lie that "it's over. What's the use?" Keep on loving them. Keep on gently sowing seed, as the Holy Spirit opens up natural opportunities. Keep on asking God to make their sin unsatisfying to them, and cry out to the Lord, "Do whatever it takes, Lord, within Your will, to bring them to You!" Jesus is still bringing back, alive, loved ones that had been spiritually given up for dead.

A dog and bubbles: ah, there's an amusing combination! I think my wife discovered this when our little Shih tzu dog was just a puppy, a new member of our family, and she was kind of still discovering her world. My wife went out and bought one of those containers of bubbles, you know the one with the little wand. Well, the puppy couldn't resist those bubbles. She'd try to pounce on the bubble as soon as it landed on the floor. And when they were in the air, she'd watch them come down, she'd wait for them. She was in attack mode. The problem is that the bubbles disappeared as soon as she could get to them. She'd open her mouth to attack it (or eat it or whatever you do with it), and suddenly it wasn't there anymore! All that was left was this bewildered dog sniffing and searching and looking up at the new bubbles coming down. She wasted an awful lot of energy looking for bubbles. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Chasing Bubbles - and Meaning." Our word for today from the Word of God; Ecclesiastes 1:14. It's from a man who chased plenty of them. King Solomon, the ancient Jewish King said this, "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind." Our dog would have said chasing after the bubbles. See, Solomon probably lived life with more gusto than anybody you ever knew. He was the richest man of his time. He built an incredible temple with his name on it. There were roads and buildings everywhere that he was responsible for. He had the best of entertainment. He had more women than you could possibly imagine, and he studied the greatest ideas of his time, and repeatedly he says in his book, "it was all chasing after the wind." Chasing bubbles - maybe you know that feeling. You see something or someone that looks promising as a goal and you think it would give you personal happiness or personal fulfillment. So, you pounce on it with everything you've got and poof - it's gone! It leaves you sniffing and wondering why you're still empty and you keep looking for the next bubble to come along. How long is it going to be before we realize that what we really want isn't any of life's bubbles, any of the things that earth can even offer us? Okay, Ecclesiastes 3:11 - Solomon got it figured out. He says, "God has placed eternity in our hearts." See, there's this eternal hole in our heart. It's so big that only someone as eternal as God can fill it. We've been trying to put earth stuff there and earth people to fill a God hole in our heart. We're hungry for something that's going to be there forever. Right now you might be aggressively pursuing a position or a possession or a person with everything you've got. But when you get it, you're going to discover what you always discover - it's a bubble that bursts. That's why Solomon concludes after his life-long search in Ecclesiastes 12:1, "Remember your creator, in the days of your youth." There's only one pursuit worth everything you've got - and it's a personal relationship with your Creator. Life lived for what matters to God. The Bible says this, speaking of Jesus Christ, "He is our peace." Maybe you're away from God right now and you know you are. The Bible says we all are actually, because of our sin, our self rule of our life; but Jesus came to pay for that sin on His cross. He took the death penalty for it, and when you meet Jesus at His cross, you are finally as the Bible says, "complete in Him." So how soon are you going to give up chasing the wind? Looking for love and peace in things that will disappear as soon as you get them? It's time for you to belong to Jesus, isn't it? Do you want to do that? Would you tell Him that today; "Jesus, I'm yours." Let me invite you to go to our website - ANewStory.com. Meet me there and I'll explain how you can be sure you have this relationship and your search is finally over. Remember, you're finally ready for something that's eternal, that's unloseable, that's unbreakable. You, my friend, are ready for Jesus.

You may remember when the word window just referred to that opening in a wall that kind of, you know, you covered with glass? Well, NASA changed all that. A window is still an opening, but the folks at Cape Canaveral use that word to refer to that brief period of time where everything is right for the launch: the wind is okay, the weather's okay, they've checked it at the Cape, they've checked it down range, and the atmospherics are okay for communication. The conditions have been predicted for the time of return and they look good, too. But the window will pass soon. If you're going to get this thing off the ground, go when the window's open. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Christmas Window." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 2 beginning at verse 16. This might be a dimension of Christmas that we often miss; maybe with tragic consequences. "So the shepherds hurried off and found Mary, and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in a manger. And when they had seen Him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them." Now, notice it says they had seen Him and then they spread the word. The first people to ever celebrate Christmas saw it as a time for telling. That was their first response! "Man, it's time to spread this good news!" Now, 2 Corinthians 5:20 tells you what your lifetime assignment for Jesus is, "We are Christ's ambassadors." Whatever you do for a living, or go to school for, your highest calling is that you're an ambassador for Jesus Christ. If the people in your world are ever going to hear about Him, it's going to be through you. See, He's assigned you to this particular little tribe that's around where you work, or go to school, or live, or recreate. That's your territory as a "missionary." Your environment might change. You may move, but your assignment doesn't. You are His ambassador wherever He puts you. Christmas, I think, is the best window of the year for telling about your Jesus. Hearts are softer this time of year. People are open. Christ is kind of like everywhere. You can't even go to the mall without hearing songs about Him. It's never easier to talk about Jesus than it is during the Christmas season. But the Devil? Oh, he loves to see us so consumed with Christmas busyness that he keeps us distracted when the window in lost hearts is the most open. Think about it. Who is there this Christmas, in this countdown to Christmas, that you need to communicate Christ to? They need to hear about your Jesus. This Christmas season would be the time to tell them about the One who promised peace, and brought peace to your heart. Maybe it's time to take that person out to lunch. Maybe it's time to give them a Christian recording of some kind or contemporary worship music. Share with them the songs that really mean a lot to you. Most of all, tell your Hope Story; write down your Hope Story. If you do Christmas cards, put it in the cards. Look for opportunities to tell your personal Hope Story of the difference Jesus is making in your life. Maybe you need to invite them to an event that will be a good place for lost people to go and some place "seeker friendly." They're ready to hear Christmas music, it's that time of year! Everybody wants to hear that. Invite them to your home afterwards. Don't just go to the concert. Invite them to your home to fellowship and talk about what was sung and what was said about Jesus there. My wife and I had great opportunity to make progress in communicating our Jesus to our friends by that alone. Just invite them to a concert or a Christmas event and have them over afterwards and talk about what we all felt. Jesus said that it was "harvest time." He said the harvest is plentiful. And I've asked farmers, I've asked what harvest means to them and they say, "ready." Well, I think someone around you is ready because it's Christmas. They desperately need your Lord, and they may be more ready than ever before. If you're ever going to launch an effort to take that person to heaven with you, would you do it now while the Christmas window is open?

Christians that were in Russia anytime during the 1950s to about 1990 were familiar with the voice of Nick Leonovich. For decades before the Iron Curtain came down, Nick had been faithfully broadcasting the gospel in Russian to his people. When the doors began to open, and Nick would travel through Russia and meet those Russian believers finally, a lot of them would stop him and they'd say, "Hey, I know your voice! You led me to Christ." Wow! Well, I've got to tell you, Nick wasn't always working for the Lord. That took a miracle. Nick was living as a teenager in Passaic, New Jersey, and his older brother, Alex, was pioneering Christian broadcasts in Russian for a company and ministry in Ecuador. And when he would ask Nick about his relationship with Christ, Nick kind of waved him off and said, "Hey, that's my business." It was an August day in 1945 when older brother Alex was driving to the radio station in Ecuador, and he heard the breaking news. He threw out his planned message and he spoke spontaneously from what he had just heard on the news. Nick happened to be listening on shortwave radio in New Jersey. He would never be the same. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I was to have A Word With You today about "Unconditional Surrender." The news that day? The unconditional surrender of Japan to the Allied Forces. Japan had expressed earlier interest in a surrender with specific conditions. But that day in 1945, they surrendered without condition. Alex Leonovich spoke on the subject Unconditional Surrender to Jesus Christ. Nick heard it in New Jersey, and he fell to his knees. He said, "Lord, I've been a Christian but on my terms. Now I want to surrender to You with no terms. I unconditionally surrender." Well, I'll tell you, the lid came off his life from that day on. And just as God directed a man to speak about unconditional surrender over a radio almost 70 years ago, I really believe God has wanted me to do that today, maybe for you. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 12:1-2. "I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is; His good, pleasing and perfect will." You notice here, that the appeal is made on the basis of God's mercy; after all He's done for you through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. So, we're being asked to respond to what He did for us. Then it says, "Offer yourself as a living sacrifice." A sacrifice. Well, that means that you have no further plans of your own. But you're still going to go on living, except from now on you will live surrendered to Jesus and His plan for your life. No longer marching to the drum beat of your generation, or the culture, or your surroundings, your environment, your occupation. No, you won't be conformed to the world, because you're hearing another drummer. The result: You will be experiencing God's good, and pleasing, and perfect plan for you. The reason you're here. See, conditional surrender, which is what most of us would like to do, hands Jesus a contract for Him to sign with your conditions. Unconditional surrender gives Jesus a blank piece of paper which you've already signed, and then He fills it in. Have you ever done that? That's how you get His best. That's when He's truly your Lord. The world was changed by an unconditional surrender. And the world will always remember that day. One man's life was changed by an unconditional surrender, and he would always remember that day. Maybe that day is today for you; the day you win the battle because you unconditionally surrender to the Savior who unconditionally surrendered His life to rescue you.

If you live on the East Coast, there is one word that's pretty sure to get your attention - hurricane. Yep! I'll tell you, 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 this cyclonic circle inching across the weather map toward, well at that point, an uncertain destination. Half a million people were evacuated from Florida to the Carolinas, not knowing where that destructive little circle on the map was going to land. Finally, it became clear that Hugo's 130-mile-an-hour winds were going to slam ashore at Charleston, South Carolina. Now, 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 was quoted as saying, "Hugo is a killer! If you stay, you may very well die." That was true then; that's still true today. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Dying From Doing Nothing." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament. Chapter 18, beginning in verse 30, he says, "Repent! 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; a new spirit." And then God asks a very pointed question. He might be asking you this today, "Why will you die?" Then He turns it around and He says, "Repent and live." In the Bible the word repent always refers to changing your mind about your sin. Whatever you've been cuddling and tolerating in your life that's wrong, displeasing to God, you turn your back on it. You change your mind about God and you pin all your hopes on Him instead of on you. Remember that mayor of Charleston who said the hurricane was a killer? Well, God's trying to tell us here sin is not to mess with. It's a killer! With a hurricane, those who don't leave might survive. But when it comes to sin, there are no survivors. There are eternal consequences of not dealing with our sin. But sin kills us even now. It kills marriages, it damages the people you love with your temper, and ruins the beauty and purity of sex, and it destroys your reputation. See, the people who die in a hurricane don't have to do anything to be killed by it. No, they die from doing nothing; 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 eternity in hell instead of heaven is to do nothing. Stay where you are and sin will kill you. God says, "Rid yourself of your sin. Get a new heart." And you can only do that in one place. It's the cross where Christ died for you; where He took all the fury of all God's judgment, for all your sin and mine and paid for it out of His love for us. He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." He was forgiving you and me when He said that. He was giving us the possibility of a new beginning; that new heart the Bible talks about. God's been warning you. He's saying, "If you stay where you are, you'll die." In the words of the book of Hebrews, "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" Don't flirt with disaster. In fact, that's why He had me talk about this. He wants you ready to meet Him. If you want to be sure you're ready for that appointment with God that you will keep on His schedule; if you want to be sure you've begun your love relationship with Him; if you want to be sure you'll never meet your sin on Judgment Day, this is your day to get started with Jesus, the One who died to pay for your sin and walked out of His grave so He could walk into your life. That's what our website's all about. It's about having this most important relationship. It's called ANewStory.com, and that's the right name to call it, because that's where your new story can begin. Would you go there? Move away from living your own way, because the storm is closer than it's ever been to your coast. It's time to flee right now to the safety of the cross of Jesus Christ.

It was a crazy Christmas at our house! Everybody in our family, three generations, is really excited about giving gifts to the others, and getting them. Well, sometimes our festivities aren't quite like "peace on earth." Such was this particular Christmas. The chatter was loud, the laughter was hearty, and the buzz was intense. Or, in the case of a two-year old grandchild at the time, it was just confusing. My wife had this finely-tuned grandma's radar, and she noticed that our little grandson seemed a little dazed by all this happy Christmas crossfire. So you know what? She just quietly slipped to the floor. (We didn't even notice.) She got down where he was and began working patiently with him on assembling a toy he had just opened. That precious scene had been going on for a few minutes I think before any of us even noticed in the chaos. But there was Grandma, quietly creating this island of sanity in a sea of craziness. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Being the Harbor In Their Hurricane." That's what Grandma was for our little guy. She provided the human harbor that protected him from the storm that was blowing all around him. There are some people in your life who need a harbor like that - someone who will be for them a safe place in the middle of a life bombardment. God has put you there to be that harbor. And He's given us a wonderful flesh-and-blood example of it in our word for today from the Word of God which begins in Acts 4:36 where a man named Joseph was renamed by the church leaders, "Joseph...whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement)." I love that. I mean, we've all been called some names we'd like to forget, but wouldn't it be great if people thought you should be called "Encouragement"? Well, let's watch Mr. Encouragement in action. Saul, the chief persecutor of the early Christians, has just been brought miraculously to Christ. But with his reputation, man, he's radioactive. No one wants to risk letting him in the door, except for Barnabas. The Bible says, "When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles"'' (Acts 9:26-27). He was the harbor when no one else was there for Saul. When Gentiles, who the Jewish believers weren't very excited about, reportedly came to Christ in Antioch, guess who was there for them? Yep, Barnabas. The Bible says, "He encouraged them all" (Acts 11:23). Saul became the Apostle Paul and he and Barnabas went out as the first Christian missionaries. But they got into a major disagreement over bringing a young man named Mark along. He'd washed out in a previous mission and Paul didn't want to take him along. But Barnabas, the guy who believed in second chances, he took Mark with him to another ministry assignment. Wouldn't you know, later in life, Paul wrote that Mark was "helpful to me in my ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11). I think that was because a guy named Barnabas kept believing in him. Will you be the Barnabas for the people around you? While the world is going crazy and the bullets are flying, will you be the one who makes each person feel like they're the only person in the world when they're with you. You can be their island of sanity in an insane world just by giving each person your total focus and your undistracted listening. Human harbor folks like Barnabas give people the "Three Life-Changing A's": your attention, your affection, and your affirmation. Those positive strokes will help them feel how special they really are. Not just to you, but to God. They know they can come to you and they'll be uncondemned, they will be unjudged, and they will be unafraid. There are few things you can do that will mean more in the midst of a storm than to pray, right then and there, with that person who's under pressure. In the midst of the crossfire and the craziness of this very cold and confusing world, you have so much to give, because you have found your harbor in the arms of Jesus Christ. Be what the people around you need so desperately. Be the one place that they will know they are safe.

One of the milestone days of any kid's life is the day they get their driver's license. It's usually cause for great excitement and celebrating. It's been about a century, I think, since I first got mine. They traded in the horse and buggy. But not long ago, I was a teenager again, celebrating getting my license. No, I hadn't lost it. The law didn't take it away. My license had expired, and the motor vehicle department had mailed my renewal form when my wife and I were on the road during a time of extended ministry. We'd been traveling to, as we always do during the summer to Native American reservations, reaching out to young Native people where they are. Once we returned home, we mailed the form in immediately, and of course the state responded with the usual governmental eye-blurring speed, many weeks later. Meanwhile I was one frustrated man. I like to drive, but I had to be a passenger for weeks. Once I got past my initial pouting, I've got to say I assumed a different identity. I mean, there were some advantages to being a passenger. I never knew this before. I got a lot of work done when someone else was driving. I even got a little sleep that I probably shouldn't have gotten when I was driving. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Shouldn't be Driving." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Chronicles 20. We hear about King Jehoshaphat, a man who's used to driving, until the day several powerful armies formed an alliance and came against him with an overwhelming force. In fact, he is praying in verse 12, "O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You." There is a crisis here that Jehoshaphat's in, but there might be some issues here that you could relate to right now in your situation. Like how about this? No power to face it. Does that sound familiar? "A vast army"...You don't know what to do. Pretty bleak, except for one hope factor, "Our eyes are upon You, God." In verse 15, God says, "This is what the Lord says to you. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours but God's." God's saying, "Move over, man. You've got no business driving right now. I'll drive." Here was a king that was used to driving. He's king, but he learned to be a passenger because of an overwhelming situation, and the result, by the way, was an overwhelming victory. Verse 29: "The fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel." This isn't the first time the Lord took over an impossible battle and won it. Think about when David went against Goliath. David said, "The battle is the Lord's." The giant was bigger than David, but God was bigger than the giant. Frankly, the outcome of your battle will depend on who's driving. So, are you? See, most of us are control freaks. We insist on controlling what really matters to us. We insist on controlling who really matters to us. But spiritually, you and I were never meant to have a license to drive. That's what it means when you talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. He drives; we ride. He can't be our passenger. It seems so risky to let go of the wheel, I know. But it's a lot more risky to hang on to it. The battle is the Lord's. The very essence of our broken relationship with God is that we've been driving the life that He was meant to. In the words of Scripture, speaking of Jesus, "All things were created by Him and for Him." You and I were created by Jesus. We were created for Him. We're supposed to be revolving our lives around Him. Instead, we have taken over the wheel and hijacked our life from the One who gave it to us, who we will face in judgment one day, except for the fact that Christ came to be the cure of this sin cancer by dying on the cross. And all of the years of rebellion that have amounted to a death sentence for us. That could be forgiven for you today if you'd turn over the wheel to Jesus. I would love to help you know how to get started with that. Go to our website ANewStory.com. Your new story could start today. I had to be forced to give up driving by not having my license. But I learned one thing - a lot can get done when someone else is driving; especially when that someone else is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Over the years, there were two words that could really stir up some action at our house. They go like this, "Let's romp!" Yeah, you have to understand I was a father of two sons, and that meant that Dad is ready for some "rough housing" with one or maybe two sons. But I learned I had to be careful, because then one day they got to be my size. So I didn't say that much any more. No. That was a key to a lot of fun though, "Let's romp!" And when they were small, I'd sort of antagonize them until they took after me. Uh-huh. And they'd pursue me through the house. And much to my wife's dismay, I can hear her yelling three words, "Save the furniture!" Well, the boys would jump me, and they'd make loud noises and growl and try to keep me down. Of course I acted real scared and I acted like I was almost beat, but it was no contest. They were after me, but they couldn't really hurt me. Just like some attackers who may be chasing you right now. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Chased By The Past." Our word for today from the Word of God; we are in Exodus 14. It's a story about people who are being chased. They are the Jews who have just gotten out of Egypt. The Egyptians are not really happy that they've just lost their entire slave workforce, so this familiar story finds the Egyptians pursuing them until the Israelites have their back against the Red Sea. So the pursuers are people who used to be their masters. It's going to be important for you to remember that in just a minute. Let's read from Exodus 14, beginning with verse 23 right now. "The Egyptians pursued them, and all of Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He made the wheels of the chariots come off so they had difficulty driving." (I guess you would.) "And the Egyptians said, 'Let's get away from the Israelites. The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.'" And the rest is history, as the waters of the Red Sea swallowed the Egyptian army. Now, I think we're looking, not just at a historical picture here; there's a spiritual picture. See, you and I used to be slaves, but you are, if you know Christ, no longer a slave to something that used to own you - that used to control you. But you know what? I'll bet it's still chasing you. See, our old slave masters always pursue us. The difference is that you have Christ in control of that area in your life right now. You can say to that old slave master, "Hey, you can chase me, but you can't have me." Just like when my boys were little, chasing me. Yeah, they could chase me, but they couldn't conquer me. Think of what used to be your Egypt. Was it that habit that once mastered you? Was it that depressed way of thinking, that temptation, a destructive attitude maybe? Or was it a sexual sin, or an uncontrollable temper. It could have been some selfish way of getting your own way. But that was all B.C. - before Christ - before that came under the all-powerful lordship of a risen Christ. But that old master hasn't given up has he? No, just like Pharaoh in the Old Testament, the old master's pursuing you right now, trying to bring you back to that old slavery. Well, you go to your new Master and once again you give Him that part of you that was the enslaved part. Turn Him loose to fight for you. You've lived in Egypt long enough; you don't ever have to go back to that slavery again. Oh, you'll be pursued, but in Christ you don't ever need to be a prisoner again. You'll hear the noise of the chariots, you'll feel the pressure. But turn and face your enemy and tell him, "Because of Jesus, you can chase me, but you can't have me."

Our son-in-law was visiting his grandfather in Florida, with a nice Florida view outside his bedroom window - grapefruit trees. It wasn't all a happy view though. Many of the grapefruit were actually rotting on the ground. His grandfather wasn't up to harvesting them anymore. So those grapefruit got all ready to be picked and no one came, and they dropped to the ground and died. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Are Their Best Chance." That's what happens when there's no one there to harvest a crop when it's ready. It will die ready. Tragically, that same thing can happen to something much, much more valuable - a human soul. But it doesn't have to happen. In Luke 10:2, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." Okay, I grew up in an apartment in Chicago. What do I know about harvesting? I mean, we harvested cockroaches in our apartment. But I've asked a lot of farmers what's the first thing they think of when I say the word "harvest." Their answer is almost always the same, "ready." So Jesus was saying, "The ready is plentiful." In other words, He's got a lot of lost people ready to hear about Him. They don't know that it's Jesus they're ready for, but they will when they hear about Him...if they hear about Him. Because Jesus' problem isn't with the people who don't know Him; it's with the people who do - His spiritual harvesters. He has so many of His people He's counting on to harvest the hearts He's gotten ready for Him, but they're just sitting in the farmhouse with the rest of God's family. Meanwhile, the harvest of hearts is waiting in the field ready...until that person dies ready. This is a heartbreaking spiritual tragedy - lives lost because the Christian they know isn't telling them about Jesus. Here's what He says to do about this deadly apathy. "Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest field." Those words "send out" sound so gentle in English - send out. But the original Greek word is "ekballo." You know what it means? "Forcibly expel." It's, like, used to throw demons out of people, and undesirables out of the temple. Many uses of the word include at least a hint of getting pretty aggressive, even violent. Jesus said His people need to be forcibly thrown out into the harvest of ready hearts. That's what He's trying to do with you. That's why you're restless. That's why you're unfulfilled as a believer. He's rescued you to be using your everyday influence for something eternal - rescuing others from a Christless eternity. In Jesus, you've got so much that lost people around you are looking for. You've got peace in times of trouble, when Jesus is the only explanation for your peace. You've got a love you know you will never lose. You've got the power to change the dark parts of you that you could have never changed yourself. You have a purpose to live for beyond just making it through the day and an eternity you are sure of. You have all of that because you have Jesus. They have none of that because they don't have Jesus. The Savior who died for them has been working in their life to get them ready to hear about Him. And He's moving and shaking things in your life and in your soul to get you to tell about Him. You are in possibly the best position of anyone in their life to tell them. Before you talk to someone without Jesus, pray that 3-Open Prayer: "Lord, open a door to talk with them," "Lord, open their heart," and "Lord, open my mouth." You have no idea how important you are to the people you know. And they have no idea how important you are, but Jesus does. You are their best chance at Him and their best chance at heaven. It's harvest time, but it won't be for long. The ready time never is long. Don't wait 'til their heart turns hard or until it beats for the very last time. Please don't let the people you know die ready. Look in the mirror today and say these words, "I am someone's chance."

I used to work with our high school football team quite a bit, and their practices were in full swing. And I was talking with one of the soon to be freshman football players, and he said, "Ron, it seems like just yesterday we were having our first practices back in the summer." And I talked to some seniors, and then they said, "Ron, weren't we just freshmen? How did we get here so fast?" Well, another friend's daughter was getting ready to make a decision about college, and he said, "It just seemed like yesterday that she needed my hand even to go anywhere outside the yard." You know this feeling? And then I heard a pastor not long ago who was soon to turn 60, and he said, "You know, when I was 16, 60 seemed like forever; seemed like it was so far off. It was just yesterday I was 16 and saying that." I think we all know about this, huh? Billy Graham said when he was asked what the biggest surprise of his life was, he said, "The brevity of it." I guess it's somewhere early in our teenage years that we realize that time is limited. Time seems to, like, hit the accelerator and it never looks back, never slows down. Months and years fly by like months used to fall off the calendars in those old movies. The speed of sound and the speed of light have a companion called the speed of time. And when you realize the speed at which your life is racing by, you don't just watch it happen. You do something about it. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Days to Waste." It's been a theme with us this week. I think it's important, very much on my heart. It comes from our word for today from the Word of God, and it comments on the flyingness of time. It's in Psalm 90. It goes back to at least when the psalmist wrote and said in verse 10, "The length of our days is 70 years, 80 if we have the strength. They quickly pass and we fly away." But in verse 12 (a favorite of mine), he comes up with a flight plan for when time is flying. He says, "Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Ephesians 5:16 tells us to "make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." It's kind of like the psalmist is saying, "That life that seemed so long is really so short." It's given to us in something called days. He said, "Our days are flying by." "Teach us to number our days." Now, life seems to come sometimes as sort of this, you know, dull routine pace. The days just sort of slip by and then the days become weeks, and weeks become months, and we don't know where they went. There's no plan; there's no thought. They're sort of this plodding cycle. But this is a call from the Scripture to have no wasted days. Smart living makes each 24 hours matter. Older people wake up one day in their life and wish they could have their days back. And you may still have a lot of years ahead. Hey, capture them now. Awaken each morning with an awareness that this 24 hours is a gift not to be wasted, never to be lived again. You say, "Well, I've got school, or work, or traffic, or errands." That's not the wise way to live. There are people who need you, opportunities to see God at work in your every day. A chance to give love. A chance to receive love. And nowhere is time more precious than investing in your family. This is a building block; this day that will either bring you closer to God and His will or farther from it. "This is the day the Lord has made." Don't just dedicate your life to Him, dedicate this 24 hours. When you fly a plane you don't just cruise wherever you feel like. You file a flight plan of where you're going. As you face time flying by, file a flight plan for that day; seize that day. Don't just let that day happen to you. Pray for it, plan for it, make it count. Well used days may fly by just as fast, but they'll land you where you want to land.

Millions of Americans are on the move right now. It's part of the annual Thanksgiving migration. They'll get to experience turkey on the table today and turkeys in those traffic jams! My friend Bev said that she's baked ten pumpkin pies. Yeah! Tons of folks will watch Macy's big balloons - and then later feel like one of those balloons after pigging out. And tomorrow, stores will be stormed with people that camped out in parking lots just so they could get that coveted Black Friday bargain. I'm thinking about the people who aren't here this Thanksgiving. Some friends who have slipped into eternity recently. Their passing reminded me of my own mortality - and, in some cases, how quickly it can all be over. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Thanksgiving Goodbyes." Doing Thanksgiving against that backdrop has made one word loom very big - cherish. My big dictionary says "cherish" means to "hold dear; treat with tenderness and affection; to keep or guard carefully; to make much of." So this Thanksgiving weekend, remembering how fragile life is and how close eternity is, I want to cherish my dear ones. I always love them, but I'm thinking more about what it means to "hold them dear," to "treat them with tenderness and affection," to "make much of them." There was one Thanksgiving that was like all the others, where my wife and I stood and prayed together over our family. By the next Thanksgiving it was just me. I have so many blessings and so many kindnesses to thank my family for, so many strong points that I need to affirm in them. And some things to apologize for. To cherish someone is to say, as God says, to "live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us" (Ephesians 5:2). Cherishing - giving me up for them. And I'm cherishing my days a little more, too, this mortality-shaped Thanksgiving. Like the Bible says to do in our Word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 90:10-12. "Our days...quickly pass, and we fly away...Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Weeks, months, and even years, just seem to fly off the calendar. Right? I'm pretty sure there are only about, like, a hundred days now between Christmases. There are just zero days to waste. Each new day is a treasure from God to be invested, not just spent. I need to sit with Him before I hear any other voices and find out His desires for this day, "the day the Lord has made" the Bible says.(Psalm 118:24) One other "cherish" for me this Thanksgiving - my destination. Heaven seems a little closer with each friend or loved one, and especially the love of my life. They are there. It's the place Jesus said He was going Home to prepare for those who belong to Him. All the earth-stuff that we cling to so tightly? It's just so trivial. Because the Bible says "our citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20) and we're really (it says) "aliens and strangers in the world" (1 Peter 2:11). This isn't home. It's Hotel Earth. When I've been away, I love to come home. After all is said and done, home isn't so much a place; it's those people I love who wait for you there. Knowing each day I'm one day closer to eternity, I cherish the eternal destination Jesus made possible. It cost Him His life! He made it possible by His awful death but His awesome resurrection. It's really not so much because it's such an amazing place. But because the One who loves me - Jesus - is waiting for me there. What great peace it is to know beyond any shadow of a doubt you're going to heaven when you die. You can if you know Jesus. And if you're not sure you do, would you tell Him this Thanksgiving, "I'm yours!" Go to our website. I think it will help you know how to belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. Home for this Thanksgiving? It's a relationship you were made for and the love you were made to experience. His name is Jesus. This Thanksgiving, come on home.

You can find it at a football game. You can find it in a concert. There are thousands of people drawn to a gathering, and they're talking excitedly about some star they've come to see or hear. Hands and voices are raised in praise and all eyes are on the star, or the stars. In fact, if you want to get people really agitated, use the name of their favorite musician in vain. Yeah, or say something negative about their favorite athlete. Uh-huh. I mean, people who might be relatively passive about minor issues like nuclear war, or abortion, or people starving to death are majorly aggressive about their heroes. I mean, we're excited about our favorite musician, or politician, or sports star, even our favorite spiritual celebrity...maybe too excited. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Misguided Worship." Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke 4:5-8. I think you'll find the passage familiar; it finds Jesus in the wilderness just before He launches into His public ministry. And here is this cosmic confrontation between the Son of God and the enemy of God - the devil. And the story I want to point us to goes something like this, "The devil led Jesus to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. He said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.' Jesus answered, 'It is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'" Well, the issue in this, and it's the second temptation of Jesus. It's the issue I want us to look at for a couple of minutes today. The issue was worship. Jesus and the devil obviously both know that we're wired for worship. We're just built that way. We're instinctively worshippers. We want to lose ourselves in someone; find out all we can about that person that we lose ourselves in; identify ourselves enthusiastically with them. Talk about what we know about that person; tell about what we feel about that person. But it's God alone that we're built to wrap our lives around... to think about most of the time. That's why Jesus said when given another worship option, "Only worship God; only serve God." Sometimes I think we use up a lot of our - can I call it worship-ness - on someone human. Oh, we don't call it worship. But a lot of our thinking, our loyalty, our time, our energy, our passion, our money, our enthusiasm gets taken over by our favorite music group, or by an obsession with sports that finds us talking about our favorites most of the time, or even a politician. There was an article in a New York area newspaper that had this headline, "Sport takes its place among the religions of America." Sometimes we can actually inadvertently worship some Christian teacher or personality. We quote them more than the Bible. We've gotten unbalanced without realizing it. We've got to guard this worship thing we've got. It's easy to become such a fan of someone on earth that the King of Kings gets pushed to the side - gets our leftovers. The devil's strategy is to just get our worshiping redirected. Because he knows we're going to worship something. So let me recommend that we begin our day getting overwhelmed by Jesus Christ; focusing all of our worship-ness, our fan mail so to speak, on Him. Evaluate...maybe are you a little too excited about some earthly star? See, you're wired for worship, but save it for the only One who deserves it.

You know, flying commercial airlines isn't as much fun as it used to be. A lot of people who have to fly seem to agree with that. There are overbooked flights, and there's long lines at security, and canceled flights, and crowded flights, and equipment problems, and all kinds of frustrating delays. If you don't like something about the way the airline is performing, guess who usually gets all the grief? I've seen it happen at the airport over and over again. That poor ticket agent. See, the ticket agent usually has nothing to do with causing the problem, but you can go to almost any airport, go to some desk and find an agent being besieged by people yelling, waving their arms, and using various forms of unpleasant language. I want to say, "Hey, man, don't blame the agent! Take your complaints to someone in charge." The representative isn't the issue. You've got to deal with the person in charge. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Way to Miss Jesus." Alright, our word for today from the Word of God. It comes from Matthew 16, beginning at verse 13. "Jesus asked His disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?' They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; still others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' 'But what about you,' He asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Then Peter replied, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" Now Jesus says here the issue is "Who do you say I am? See, the issue is Me" Jesus says. Well, the issue is still Jesus. The disciples kind of give the answer in the local Gallop Poll, "35% say You are John the Baptist, 22% say You are Elijah..." Well, finally Jesus closes in and says, "Who do you say I am?" That's the real issue. A lot of people are dealing with the representative of Jesus rather than dealing with the boss. Jim is the son of some friends of ours, and they said that he has been really wandering from the Lord. He said to them the other day, "What if I had grown up in a different family? Maybe I'd be another religion. I'm not sure I believe any of this any more." And I said, "Would you tell him that Jesus would still be who He claims He is, wherever he grew up. Let him know the issue isn't his parent's beliefs. It's a Savior who's been there for 2,000 years before His parents were born, before that church existed. Jesus is the issue and He's saying, 'Who do you say I am?'" Some other friends came to us about their son, and he had said to them, "I don't know if I believe it any more." And I said, "Well don't let him get away with that. The 'It' in Christianity is a Him - it's Jesus. Don't look at Christians, don't look at the church, don't look at Christian leaders, or your background and your friends. They're just His representatives. Jesus is the issue. He said "follow Me." The only reason not to be with Jesus is something about Jesus. Listen, don't let people become the issue. Don't let religion become the issue. Go back 2,000 years before all of these things existed and there on the middle cross is the Son of God paying the price for every sin you ever committed. If you're rejecting Christianity or rebelling in some way, don't deal with smoke screens. It's God's Son, who gave His life for you, who blew the doors off death when He walked out of His grave, He is the issue. Not His representatives, not His agent. Go to the person in charge. The issue is Jesus. This day, in spite of a back you may have had turned to you for many years, He's waiting for you with open arms, to welcome you into His love, which He expressed and proven when He died on a cross for you. I want you to know Jesus. Not His religion, but Jesus. If you want to finally belong to Him, I'd love to point you in that direction. I think it could help if you'd check out our website ANewStory.com and find for yourself, this Jesus who's been transforming lives for 2,000 years, who walked out of His grave so He could walk into your life today.

Honest, we really didn't mean to be in northern Kentucky on Kentucky Derby weekend. But obviously, thousands of people did! In trying to avoid flooding as we traveled, that's exactly where we managed to be. So there we were in the middle of rampant Derby Fever. I didn't bet on anybody, and I refuse to wear one of those floppy hats. The restaurant where we had dinner made sure the TV was on so everyone could watch the world's most famous horse race. Boy, I'll tell you, it is impressive! High-stakes horsemanship, a drama-packed "run for the roses" - over in two minutes. Yep! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Whatever It Takes to Win Your Race." Now, actually that race is pretty amazing to watch. Those horses, like, explode with raw power and they've got this give-it-all intensity; they're driving with everything they've got to win their race. So should I. So should you. Like the original thoroughbred Jesus-man, Paul. Yeah, he talks about it in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Timothy 4. I'm going to begin reading in verse 6, with Paul's final words of his final letter before he made the final sacrifice for Jesus. He will soon die for his allegiance to Christ. Here's what he wrote: "I am already being poured out...I have finished the race" (2 Timothy 4:6-7). Hey, when you pour out what's in a pitcher, it's empty; there's nothing left. Paul says, "Man, I've got nothing left at the finish line. That's the way I want it to be." It's just like his Master. I've actually been thinking a lot lately about the fact that God calls our life in Him a race. Not a jog, but a race to the finish line. Are you running it with that kind of intensity, that kind of passion? See, the thing is, we don't know how much longer we have before we get to the finish line. That's why we've got to run with everything we've got. We're talking about thoroughbred intensity here, not just casual, go-to-church, business-as-usual Christianity. Even if I live to be 108, there are so few days to make the eternity difference I was put here to make. There are no days to waste, my friend, no opportunities we can afford to miss. There's no time to say "maybe later" to say that "I love you"...or to say the "thank you"...or to say the "here am I, Lord"...or maybe "let me tell you about Jesus." I think it's time to make the prayer of Moses our prayer: "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). I think that's saying, "Make every day count, man." That's what it means to live smart. He said that's wisdom. We've got to race to the finish line. Randy Alcorn said, "Thirty seconds after we die, we will know how we should have lived." Wow! It's a little late then. How about getting that figured out now instead of when it's too late? Because my finish line...well, it's not a carpet of roses. My finish line is Jesus. And, you know, His "well done" - that's the only prize that matters.

Three New York City boys broke into a zoo there, and one of them climbed into the polar bear area to swim in the moat. He was attacked by those bears. He was brutally killed. I was intrigued by an interview with the Park's Commissioner of New York City who said afterwards, "You know, bears are portrayed to children as friendly animals, even as cuddly animals. We've got Winnie the Pooh, Paddington Bear, and Smokey the Bear. But the Park's Commissioner went on to say, "Actually, they're carnivorous killers." He was right. I mean look, the image of bears is cuddly; the reality is deadly. And not just in bear country. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Sin Looks Safe." Which leads us to our word for today from the Word of God which is found in James 1:15. It's a very revealing verse. "After desire has conceived" - okay, wait, I want to do this, I want to have this - "After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown gives birth to death." Now it's interesting this scenario ends in the death of a relationship or the death of self-respect, or even physical death, or the death of a reputation. It all starts out only as a desire - just an enticement. Sin looks so good. It looks like so much fun. It looks like it will meet a need for me; it will benefit me in some way. Like those polar bears. Looks cuddly, but it's a killer. You see, in reality, there is nothing more beautiful than good, and nothing more ugly than evil. But our world and our imaginations tell us that the opposite is true, there is nothing more ugly than good, and nothing more beautiful than evil. So we flirt with what we should be fleeing from. Maybe you're playing right now in the bear cage of sin. And the wrong still looks cuddly and exciting, enticing. You're in a relationship you never should have gotten into. Maybe you've fallen for the pressure to try some things that are wrong, but apparently they're not hurting you now, right? Or maybe it's all in your mind, playing with sin right now, fantasizing, considering. You're doing something you never thought you would do as God's child. Or maybe you're thinking about something you still think you'll never do, but remember it's inevitable. It starts as a desire, and desire becomes sin. You think it, you do it, and then you pay for it. That compromise seems to promise love, or attention, or excitement. But remember, God's equation is never wrong; it will always lead to dying. Sin will fascinate you but it will ultimately assassinate you. A New York boy underestimated the danger of a bear, and he died as a result. Right now, you might be underestimating the danger of what seems to be a very desirable sin. And if you don't get out now while you can, it will turn on you and it will kill everything you care about. If you want to know what sin really looks like, unwrapped in all of its ugliness, in all of its dyingness, you take a look at the cross and the mangled body of the Son of God hanging on that cross, nailed there, beaten beyond recognition. And you will see Jesus crying out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" That is the price of sin. But one He never meant for you to pay. He paid it himself. That's how much he loves you. This is a day for you to be set free from the sin that can only carry a death penalty forever. "The wages of sin is death" the Bible says, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." I invite you today, to abandon the killer called sin at His cross, and allow Him to forgive you and set you free. If that's never happened for you, never made personal for you what He did on the cross, I'd love to help you do that. Would you go to our website? It's ANewStory.com. It doesn't matter how warm and cuddly a sin may appear, it's a killer, not to be played with but abandoned, forgiven, and set free from.

I had just finished speaking for a Christian leaders' gathering that was part of the countdown to a Franklin Graham Festival. The setup team there was in their early days of working together on this massive mobilization. The team leader thought it would be a good idea to get his team together for a few minutes after the meeting ended, and he invited me to join them. Then he handed me a cluster of helium balloons tied together. Suddenly, I felt like I'd gone from speaker to circus clown. And, you know, I've read Winnie the Pooh stories to our kids enough that I couldn't help but picture Pooh Bear being carried into the sky by a bunch of balloons like that. Well, anyway, in spite of my trivial imagination, the team leader had a holy purpose actually for having me stand there with all those balloons. He asked his team members to spread out around the room. They ended up widely separated, and he asked them to get as close to me and my balloons as they could. Within moments, those workers, who had been so scattered, were shoulder-to-shoulder in a clump around me and my balloons. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Bring People Together." That morning the team leader actually made a powerful point. He said, "You guys notice this, that the closer each of you got to Ron, the closer you got to each other?" He said, "The more we focus on Jesus and lift up His cross, the closer we will get to each other." (I love that.) We didn't have a cross in the room, and I think the balloons were a strange but available substitute for me to hold up, but the point was made. And that point reaches to where you are right now in your family, your church, your ministry, your community. The closer each person on your team gets to Jesus and what He did on the cross for us, the closer those people are going to get to each other. It's focusing on lesser things; titles, personal agendas, hard feelings, little issues, politics, comparing with another person, the things we disagree on - that's what makes any group of people distant, divided and very easy for our enemy to defeat. The 133rd Psalm says, "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity...for there the Lord bestows His blessing." There's a helpful picture of how the right focus can bring people together in our word for today from the Word of God in Acts 2, beginning with verse 42. It actually shows us the lifestyle of the original Christians; possibly the most powerful people in history. It says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Celebrating Jesus' death together in Communion, talking to Him together, learning about Him together - that's what they were doing. So it says, "So all the believers were together and had everything in common. They continued to meet together, and the Lord added to their number daily (This is extraordinary.) those who were being saved." Imagine people coming to Christ every day! When was the last time you saw that? But then, when's the last time you saw God's people setting aside their differences and coming together consistently around Jesus and His cross? If someone's depending on the same Savior for their eternity, if they've been to the same cross to be forgiven, isn't that enough to at least pray together, if nothing else? If you want, you can focus on the 90% that we agree on or you can focus on the 10% we disagree on. We can focus 90% of our energy on the 10% that makes "our group" or we can focus on our magnificent Savior and the magnet that is His cross. When we realize that He has left us here to draw a world of lost people to that cross, we realize we can rescue far more people together than we ever could apart. Remember, Jesus said, "When I am lifted up...I will draw all men to Myself" (John 12:32). Jesus and His cross - they're the magnet that pulls His people together and pulls lost people to Him. Isn't it time we made that our focus instead of whatever has kept us in separate parts of the room? Because the closer we get to Jesus, the closer we get to His cross, the closer we're going to get to each other.

Many of the world's greatest dramas are not on a stage or a screen. They're played out in that quadrennial spectacle we call the Olympics. Maybe you remember the year, many years ago now really, that Britain's representative in the 400-meter race, Derrick Redman, began to falter and went down in the back stretch with a torn right hamstring. As the medical attendants were approaching, Derrick Redman was fighting his way to his feet. Now, he's limping along in anguish. Hopping, desperately trying to finish the race. He knew he wouldn't win; he was just trying to finish. If you remember this at all, he reached that final stretch. And as he did, a large man in a tee-shirt forced his way out of the stands, ran up to Derrick and hugged him. That big man was Jim Redman, Derrick's Father. And he said to him, "Son, you don't have to do this." Gritting his teeth, with tears in his eyes, his son said, "Yes, I do." His Father said, "Then we're going to finish this together." And Derrick's head was literally buried in his Father's shoulder, but he stayed in his lane to the end. And when they crossed the finish line, the crowd who had been stunned at first, stood to their feet. They cheered, they wept, and they watched those two men finish that race together. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Father to Run With You." Our word for today from the Word of God is a simple statement from Deuteronomy 1:30. It says this: "The Lord your God carried you as a Father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place." Maybe today finds you very tired, stressed out. And like that 400-meter runner in the Olympics you're staggering right now. You're having a hard time finishing your race. You started well. You've been running real hard, but you're about to go down. Maybe you've been hit by discouragement, or illness, you've got family trouble, a lack of support. Or maybe there's just obstacles. You're just hurting and there's a lot more race ahead of you. Well, God wants to give you the good news that someone has left the stands to help you, and He's coming to the track to get you the rest of the way. It is your Father. It's your Heavenly Father. First, God left the stands to come to a cross, and there He rescued us from the sin wound that would have kept us forever from reaching heaven. There's a rich promise here that when you're in the desert and you can't go on, your resources are dried up, you say, "Daddy, I can't go any farther." Then He says, "Then I will carry you." Right now, let's be honest. You're not going to make it alone. But today there is an all-powerful Father who is offering to carry you. But you've got to let Him. If you're too proud to collapse in His arms, surrender to His control, then your power is limited. You're not going to make it. But if you will totally release the control and in the words of the Bible, "humble yourself" you will have all of your Father's power. Each of us reaches days when we just don't have any more to give. Maybe you're there right now. It's those moments in the race that can take you deeper into the love and the power of Jesus than you've ever been before. Your Father is not a spectator in the stands today. His arm is around you right now where you are. And it could be you have never established your own personal relationship with God as your Father made possible by the death of His Son, Jesus, on that cross for the sin that has separated you from God for a lifetime, and will separate you forever unless that wall comes down. He's come down. He's come down to a cross; all the way down to die and to pay for you. That's how much He loves you. You don't have to do life alone any more - never again. You've spent your last day alone if this day you will invite this Jesus to be your Savior from your sin. Listen, we've set up our website to help you begin to belong to Him today. I hope you'll go there. It's ANewStory.com. I'm telling you, the voice of God is saying to you today, "You're not doing this alone. From now on we'll finish this race together."

Well, I'd been asked to speak at an adult couples thing at our church. And they did this auction sort of deal. It was sort of a "Let's Make a Deal game." I think some people call it a White Elephant Auction or something like that. It's the kind of game where you go to your garage and you get something you really want to throw away, and you wrap it up in real pretty paper and you bring it to the auction. And what happens is this: One person goes up and has to pick one of those packages, and they open it and then they have it. From that point on everyone can either take an unwrapped package and take their chances on that, or they can trade for something that's already been unwrapped that looks interesting. Well, there was really only one valuable thing there that night. It was like this beautiful hand-carved lamp stand. And I'll tell you, these were adults, but they were acting like ten-year-old kids going crazy like, "Where's that lamp stand?" Ladies had it under their skirts; men took it to the Men's Room with them. I mean, it was nuts! Everybody was going bananas except for one guy. He sat there the whole time kind of just smiling wisely. And I thought, "Hey, wake up man. Get with the program! What's the deal here?" You know who he was? He was the guy who opened the first package. Yeah, he was the only one who remembered the rules of the game, which are that the person who opens the first one, since he didn't get to make a trade, he's going to make the last trade of the game. So, this guy's sitting there while everyone else is going crazy saying to himself, "I know how this is going to end!" You know what? That could be you. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When It Looks Like It's Over." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 30:5, and today is especially for someone who's got a heavy burden on their heart. Maybe there's a major disappointment recently, or a painful loss, or a deep hurt. This is for you. Psalm 30:5, "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." God does not deny the pain or the tears. They're real. But compared to the joy coming, God says, they're brief. He's seen your tears. The Bible says He stores them up in a bottle; He's so involved in your grief. And He's also scheduled the morning celebration. Now, I know it feels like it's always going to be like this, but rejoicing will come in the morning. This is temporary. This, too, shall pass. Lord Wellington won for Great Britain at the famous Battle of Waterloo. He defeated Napoleon, and he passed the word up the British coast by semaphore - by flags. And finally the word got to the Tower of London, where they posted the message up on the tower. Here's what it said, "Wellington defeated..." And then - it's London - a fog settled in, and for an hour no one could see anything else. They couldn't see the rest of the message, and I mean people were so depressed. "Wellington has lost!" And then the fog cleared, and they saw the rest of the message, "Wellington defeated the enemy." You know, right now your feelings are sending you only half the news, and it feels like a defeat. It seems over, like it did for Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus died and Jesus didn't do anything about it. Little did they know He was going to do something far greater than they ever dreamed. That which seems to have won right now will be defeated unless you despair and you walk away from the God who will finish this battle victoriously. Right now it's night time and there still are tears, and you need to dig deep into His strength until the rest of the message comes clear. You can stay peaceful, you can stay poised while everybody else is going crazy, because you know that ultimately joy is coming, victory is coming. You can sit back and smile in the middle of great chaos and hurt and say, "I know how this is going to end!"

I suspect that children go to secret seminars on how to manipulate parents. They are so good at it, so early! Especially at bedtime. You notice? The object seems to be to squeeze out a few more minutes before you have to go to sleep, right? Let's see, there's water, and then there's praying. And then, "Let's pray some more." Who can argue with that one? There's a sudden interest in talking about things; they are suddenly communicators. Then, of course, the ever popular "monsters in my closet." Actually a lot of these things are based on real needs and real feelings. I mean, a lot of children really believe there's a monster in their closet, and that the monster will come out and get them as soon as there's not a mommy or daddy in the room. Well, I'm sure glad we're all grown up now and we don't have to be afraid of a monster in the dark any more...except for one. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Last Monster in the Closet." Our word for today from the Word of God is 1 Corinthians 15:54 where this audacious statement is made, "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Well, there's the last monster; the one that lurks in the dark no matter how old we are - death! A doctor friend of mine who is a follower of Jesus Christ was at his 45th class reunion talking with another doctor friend who's always been an atheist his whole life since high school. But all of a sudden he said to my doctor friend, "Can you tell me a little bit about what you believe in?" My friend was really surprised! And he said, "Well, I'd be glad to, but can I ask you why you're asking?" And this man who had been an atheist all his life just said, "Well, frankly, I'm nervous about eternity." You know, we should be, especially if we're not ready to meet God. God says that because of Jesus' death, death can be swallowed up in victory. Why? Well, see, the only thing to fear about death ultimately is meeting God. And that's because as the Bible says, "All have sinned and missed God's glorious ideal." And the sentence that follows that verdict says, "The soul that sins, it shall die." That eternal death penalty hangs over us. I think even deep down inside we know that, and it makes us nervous about eternity. But Jesus came as our substitute, to die the death penalty we deserve. And anyone who puts all his trust in Him will have their sin erased from God's Book forever. John 5:24 in the Bible says at the moment you come to Christ, you "cross over from death to life." It's wonderful to be able to look forward to eternity and not fear it; not be nervous about it. One of the world's great preachers, D. L. Moody in another generation, said, "When you see in the newspaper that Dwight Moody of Northfield, Massachusetts is dead, don't you believe it, for I will be more alive then than I've ever been before." I'll tell you, it's so great to know that the Savior who's waiting for you on the other side of your last breath is the One you will meet and that you are ready to meet Him. If you're not sure you belong to Him, then you're not ready for eternity, you can take care of that right now. You say, "Jesus, I get it. You paid for my sins. I hereby trade the death penalty I deserve for an eternal life I could never deserve. Jesus, right here right now I'm giving me to You." I've kind of laid out this path, knowing that you're ready for eternity at our website, and that's ANewStory.com. I urge you to go there today. I think it will really help at this moment. Death, that last monster in the dark, pursues us all our life, and we know it will always will. But you never need to fear that monster again if you have your hand in the hand of Jesus, because He has beaten that monster once and for all.

Oh, it was a great time to be traveling out East! I got to be there at cherry blossom time. I was where those pink beauties were popping out everywhere! I'm so glad. I mean, wherever we went there they were. One of the gals on the Weather Channel was broadcasting from Washington, DC, and she had this beautiful backdrop of these exploding cherry blossoms all around the Jefferson Memorial. And the Park Ranger there, she interviewed him, and he provided some information that surprised her and actually made me slightly smarter. He said those springtime wonders have a normal life span of about 60 years. But because the Park Service prunes them regularly, they can keep beautifying their world for up to a hundred years. I mean, these guys live a long time, these Park Service cherry blossoms. Of course, if I'm a cherry blossom tree, I'm not thinking happy thoughts as someone's chopping off my branches. I'm going, "Hey! This guy's killin' me!" No, silly tree, he's making you more fruitful for a lot longer. I can almost imagine having a conversation with God like that. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Purpose In Your Pain." Now there are those painful times when I don't especially like the cuts and the wounds: bad news, bad treatment, bad health, bad finances, bad people, bad feelings. It turns out, though, that they may not really be bad. No, Ron, He's making you more fruitful for a lot longer. Because God is the Master Horticulturist, and He prunes what He loves. Jesus said so in our word for today from the word of God, in John 15:2, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener...Every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." So, life's cuts aren't ultimately to hurt me but to make me more valuable to God and to other people than I've ever been before. It's when life gets harder that I ask those life-changing questions that I'd never ask otherwise. I find myself asking God, "Is there something I need to change, Lord?" Somehow my vision improves when I'm hurting. I see things I couldn't see when life was rosy. I need mid-course corrections that usually are revealed to me by those shock waves of struggle. I need to get my hands off the steering wheel and let God drive again. Sometimes it actually takes a close call or even a crash to show me that. And whatever I have to give to hurting people around me, I can tell you this, it grew out of the times when God used suffering to show me how to care. Maybe realizing God's loving purposes can help me get to that peaceful plateau that Paul reached when he said these words: "I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10). Calling all cherry blossom trees and people like me. The pruning knife is your friend. The Gardener knows what He's doing. See, He knows what you can become.

When I'm in a new city, I don't usually make visiting a local cemetery one of my sightseeing priorities. But I did in a ministry trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia. I visited the cemetery where 121 passengers of the doomed Titanic are buried; many with their names still unknown. Not long after the midnight radio transmission, "Have struck iceberg," three telegraph cable repair ships were dispatched from Halifax to make the 500-mile trip to the collision site to pick up the bodies of the victims. In a way, the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic is a tale of two ships. One was the Carpathia, the ship that rescued hundreds who had made it into lifeboats, and then took them into New York Harbor. The Carpathia carried a ship full of rescued people, but not the Mackay Bennett. No, that was the first funeral ship to arrive at the scene of the sinking. All they found was 328 people, floating in their life jackets, frozen to death. The first one they found was a little two-year-old boy, floating face up. They were devastated. By the time they sailed into Halifax Harbor with every church bell in town tolling, there were three long rows of bodies on their deck - every one a person who did not have to die. Because see, those lifeboats had been half empty. But as the people in the water cried out for help, the people in the lifeboats just kept rowing away. So one ship carried those who had been rescued, and the other ship carried those no one cared enough to rescue. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Room in Your Lifeboat." Those people in the water died, not because the Titanic sank; they survived that. But because the people who were already saved did nothing for those who were dying. Dear God, is that us - the already saved, secure in our half-empty lifeboat, doing nothing about the spiritually dying people all around us? We're enjoying the fellowship of the folks already in the lifeboat, singing our lifeboat songs, and maybe even making the lifeboat bigger or more comfortable for us. But our coworkers, our fellow-students, our neighbors who don't have a relationship with Jesus, the only one who could forgive their sin, they just go on living and dying without Him. Our word for today from the Word of God paints a portrait of stark contrast as it describes the destinations of those who were rescued and those who never were. It's in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. "When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels, He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and the majesty of His power." Think about it! Those are real people, condemned to pay for the sins Jesus already paid for on the cross - some because they didn't take what Jesus died to give them and others probably because no one ever told them how. The Bible goes on to describe this as the day when "He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed." Don't you want the people you know, the people who you love to be there? Then whatever has kept you from telling them about Jesus - your fears, your inadequacy, your hang-ups - can they possibly be as important as rescuing someone who's dying? In a sense, eternity will be a place where the ones someone rescued will sail to one port where there will be celebration and reunion. While those no one rescued will go to another port where there's only death and sorrow. You've got room in your lifeboat and there's still time. Why don't you spend the rest of your life pulling as many dying people into your lifeboat as you can?

The five members of the Hutchcraft family have the same last name, of course, except for our married daughter, but that's pretty much where the sameness ends. And I think it's good that we're different. When we needed an emotional lift, for example, well we've always had our oldest son there with his sense of humor. If we needed a physical lift, he was there with his very well developed physical strength. When we needed a job done or something fixed, oh, go to our youngest son. He has sort of... Well, he sort of had the helping hands and the figure-it-out mind in the family. And when it comes to greeting people or talking with people, or giving guidance, well our daughter was always there with her great people gifts. And, Mom? Well, she was always there with her common sense. Thank the Lord for my sake! And she had this great "drop everything for you" attitude. I guess every family's like that. Youknow, you have the same name, but you've got different styles; you make different contributions. You know what? That includes God's family. And some of the family who are the most different from you, guess what? They're the ones you need the most. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why We Need Each Other." Our word for today from the Word of God is from 1 Corinthians 12. I'll be reading from verses 12, 21, 25, and 27. Basically it tells you that you're not all there. Yeah. Listen to this: "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts. And though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you.' And the hand cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you.'" Then verse 25 says, "So there should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other. Now, you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." You know what God is saying here is that basically He has made all of us incomplete. None of us has all of Him. But you put us all together and all the gifts are there. Or to put it another way, you're not all there. There is no family member in God's family that you don't need. Wow! You say, "Oh, wait a minute! What about those folks who..." You need them! "Yeah, but I know a group of people who are very different from us. They don't have as much (you know...)" You need them. See, we're not all there. We need those people who are different from us. We tend to get into our own clusters and we appreciate only Christians who see it our way, say it our way, do it our way, express it our way. But you're not all there; I'm not all there; we're incomplete! Now, if you're a feeling oriented Christian, you need the stabilizing influence of some believers who are more content oriented. But if you're real fact oriented, content oriented, guess what? You could use some of the warmth and spontaneity of the more feeling oriented Christians. Or maybe you're a free-wheeling believer, well you need some Christians who are more structured, who stress boundaries in the Christian life. You need that. But if you're real structured, you need some of those more spontaneous people. You could use their openness. See, some of God's children will teach you how to really worship, because they're really good at that; they're experienced in that. Others will stimulate your vision for a lost world. Some, by being around them, you'll learn to give; other Christians may show you how to really pray. There are others who will teach you to go reach the lost. Then there's others, well, you hang out around them and you'll learn to love unconditionally. And then there will be others who will teach you to dig into the Bible as your source of authority. I'll just say of my life I'm like a river that's been created by a lot of tributaries and I've been so enriched by the variety of the body of Christ. I've needed them all. See, if you will open up to the rest of the family, you're going to be really rich! Let different Christians challenge you, and balance you, and complete you. There is no family member in God's family that you don't need and who doesn't need you, because we're just not all there.

It wasn't the big one, but it was pretty big. It was that 6.6 earthquake that rocked Los Angeles some years ago. It was 4:31 A.M. and the ground began to tremble underneath Southern California again. And those who watched it will not forget the picture of what collapsed; those Northridge Meadows Apartments where 16 people died in those apartments. But in the midst of the Northridge tragedy, you heard the word miracle a lot. Maria Ballesteros was one who survived that apartment collapse and she was rescued. And she claimed she knew why. She said there were 50 pictures hanging on her wall and 49 of them were destroyed. But one was still there when the shaking was all over. Maria said this, "The one of the Lord was the only one left hanging." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What Your Quake Cannot Shake." Frankly I was pretty touched when I heard about that one picture that the quake couldn't shake. It was a picture of Jesus. It made me think of two men in the Bible who had a similar experience and of how you and I can live in times when it seems like everything is shaking. Job was a wealthy man. He had a wonderful family, and he lost it all. His children all died violently, he lost everything he had materially. He later lost his health. He was living in constant pain. Even his wife turned on him. Every picture fell but one. And Job, in the book named after him, said in his agony in chapter 19, verse 25, our word for today from the Word of God, "I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon the earth." Now, Paul was that major ambassador for Christ in the early days of the Christian faith. He wrote about half of the books in the New Testament. And in his last one, 2 Timothy, Paul was in prison in Rome. He was facing execution by Nero. Every picture has been shaken off the wall of his heart except one. He talks about it in 2 Timothy 1:12. "I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day." He's speaking about Jesus Christ. Job and Paul - unsinkable, unshakable because of a personal Savior who cannot be shaken who lives in our heart. Working with young people, I've often handed out four 3x5 cards in a meeting, and I've asked them to put on those cards the four most important things, people or activities in their life. Then I've said, "Okay, now there's been a tragedy and you have to lose one of those four most important things. But you've got to choose which one." Like real life, sometimes something comes along and you are forced to drop a card. It's hard. Then I tell them there's another tragedy, and they've got to drop another card. It's getting tough; they're resisting now. But finally they're down to one card. They can keep one. But one is all. Even though it's just a card, they battle over it. But that one card, I ask them one question, "Is it something you can lose?" How about your last card? Is it something you can lose? In our world today you need something that's quakeproof, someone that's quakeproof, and there's only One. It's God's Son, Jesus Christ. We need Him desperately. A relationship with Him, it's the only dependable anchor there is. And the Bible says, "Our self rule of our life has cut us off from that God." But that's why Jesus came to remove the barrier by paying our death penalty for our sin on His cross. In the words of the Bible, "Nothing can ever separate us from His love." But you've got to choose Him for yourself. If you've never done that and grabbed that one hand that will never let you go, the one picture that will be there when all the others have fallen, let this be the day you do that. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours." Go to our website. It's all about beginning this personal relationship. The website's ANewStory.com. Once you choose Christ, then you can know there is no life quake so powerful that it will cost you Jesus. No matter how you're shaken, you can be quakeproof, because nothing can shake Him and He has got you.

Monday was not a favorite day for our local high school football players during the season. No, that was the day they watched the film of last Saturday's game. Oh, it's nice to see what you did right, of course, but see, coaches don't spend much time on that. Most of the coach's attention is focused on what you did wrong or what you could do better. And so, on Monday you may get yelled at, critiqued, pushed to improve. I happened to know our head coach pretty well, and I knew that he spent many, many hours - late hours - reviewing those films so he'd be ready by Monday. Why? Well, is it because he liked to yell at 16-year-old guys? No. See, he was looking for weaknesses that an opponent could use to hurt them, to beat them. And you know what? That's not a bad idea. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Devil and Your Weakness." Our word for today from the Word of God; we are in Luke 4, and I'll be reading verses 1-4. Basically, you should know as we enter this passage that someone has been watching your films of how you've been playing your game. And they've been sizing up what could bring you down. That opponent is identified for us in Luke 4. "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry. The devil said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.' Jesus answered, 'It is written, man does not live by bread alone.'" Now, this passage really exposes for us the two areas the devil tries to exploit. First, he'll exploit an area where God has been specifically speaking to you. Yeah. He will, because well look, just before this incident, Jesus was baptized, a voice came from heaven saying, "You are My Son." So what does the devil say? "If you are God's Son..." Think of areas where God has been speaking to you over the last few months; things He's really affirmed to you, challenged you with, changed you with. Well, the devil's going to try to discourage you in that very area (put an "if" there. Oh, "if." Are you sure?) because He's got to get you to be too strong to be stopped. Secondly, he'll try to attack us in an area where we have a weakness. And where would Jesus be weak after forty days of not eating? Of course, He's going to be tempted to leave God's will to get some food, and the devil tries that temptation on Him. He appeals to his appetite. Now, maybe you have an appetite that keeps showing up in the films as a weak spot of yours; an appetite for attention that you'll do almost anything to get, or for acceptance, an appetite for power, or to be in control, maybe it's a sexual appetite, an appetite for money, for the spotlight, or to get even. See, the devil will go after a sin in that area, and it's all downhill from there. It's important for you to look at the films and see what your opponent is seeing. Be honest about your vulnerabilities. Imagine the devil having a map of you with red pins in that map wherever he can get you. Now, where would those red pins be for you? Now, the point here is not to focus on the enemy. He doesn't need any more credit. It's to make your weak spots the centerpiece of your growing relationship with Christ. That's where you need to be opening up completely to Him, daily bringing those areas specifically under His lordship for that day; to win for that day. Find the scriptures that deal with that weak spot of yours. That's what Jesus did. "It is written..." He said. Be ready to quote the Word of God to the enemy. Treat your weak areas with generous applications of the memorized Word of God so it's part of you. And when your weak spots drive you to depend on Jesus as you never have before, well then you can say with Paul, "When I am weak, then I am strong."

My wife was on this airplane flight, and she was sitting in the aisle seat, and a mother was sitting next to her in the middle. And this little four-year-old girl, the daughter of that mom, was at the window. The daughter had never flown before, so she wanted to be where she could see. It was one of those cloud-covered days. This little girl occasionally glanced out the window. But when they got above the clouds, oh, all of a sudden her nose was pressed to the glass; she's looking intently all over back and forth, and after a few minutes of inspecting the sky, she turned to her Mom. She said this with real concern, "Where are they? I can't see them, Mommy! Where are they?" And her Mom said, "Where are what, honey?" She said, "The angels. Mommy! Where are the angels?" The poor little girl! She thought she knew where to find these spiritual beings, but they weren't where she thought they would be. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Searching Without Finding." That poor little girl! She searched, but she was disappointed. She didn't find what she was hoping for, what she expected she'd find. She's not the only one this has happened to. A lot of people are looking for spiritual reality today. They're looking intently, and they're not finding it where they thought they would. You look out that window spiritually and you go, "Where is God? Where is this spiritual peace? Where is eternal life? Where is the love I thought I'd find here?" Jesus answers that in our word for today from the Word of God in John 6:35, where He declares, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry. And he who believes in Me will never be thirsty." Now, Jesus is addressing something that I think throbs inside of each one of us. It's a spiritual hunger and thirst. It's what the Bible calls eternity in our hearts. I think you already know that we need something spiritual to fill the hole in our heart. Maybe you would classify yourself as a spiritual seeker. You've lived long enough to know that earth stuff and earth relationships are not enough to complete us. Jesus says He's the end of that search. We're always seeking; seems like we're never finding. Maybe in a sense you've been looking out spiritual windows hoping to find some peace and some reality. You've looked in maybe this religion or that religion, maybe crystals, or horoscopes, or psychic powers, or whatever. So many windows you could look through today, but each view has ended up unsatisfying and disappointing. There are reasons why all the roads except the one to Jesus and His cross leave us hollow inside. It's because what we really need is not spiritual experiences or warm feelings or beliefs, or even a caring group. We need to get rid of the sin that blocks us from the relationship with the Creator. That's why we can't see Him. There's this sin wall. The Bible says in Isaiah 59:2, "Your sins have separated you from your God." And what we're searching for is a bridge across that separation. How do we cross this Grand Canyon between us and God? We're trying hard. We're looking in all these things, but we haven't found a way to get to Him. Romans 5:8 says, "But God proved His love for you in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." See, only one person can remove that wall. It's Jesus. Are you tired of looking out that window for spiritual reality and coming up disappointed? Where is God? Where is the love and peace? It begins at the cross where you say those two words with all your heart. As you observe Jesus' dying there, you say, "For me! This is for me." If you want to know this Jesus, finally find what has eluded you in all your searching? Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." I invite you to go to our website, because it's there to give you what you need to know at this particular moment of being at the end of your search. Go to ANewStory.com. No religion is going to do it for you, or an experience, or a group. You're looking for a love relationship with the One you were made by and made for. Why don't you look His way? Because Jesus is everything your heart has ever looked for.

I was on an airplane flight and I overheard a conversation in the seats behind me. Eavesdropping? Maybe. In any case, there was this boy flying with his Dad and he was full of questions...I mean the little guy. He said, "Daddy, what are all those lights for? Daddy, why did part of the wing go down? Daddy, why is it called Lake Erie?" See, the pilot told us the name of it, but he didn't necessarily tell us why it's named that. Most of the flight Dad just patiently answered each question. It was a kind of a nice sound to hear! What I especially noticed was the reaction of the boy to the answers that his Dad gave. Some of them, he obviously understood, others he obviously didn't. His Dad said, "Now, do you understand that?" "Well, no." I liked the one about how air holds up the plane. Of course I don't understand that, so how could a little boy be expected to? But each time, no matter whether he understood the answer or not he always seemed satisfied with the answer. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Faith of a Child." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 18. I'll begin reading at verse 1, "At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 'Who's the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?' He called a little child and had him stand among them and He said, 'I'll tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.'" Well, you know, for some strange reason, this passage came to my mind on that airplane flight when I heard a curious little boy asking his Daddy questions. He knew who to ask, he knew where to go for answers, and he believed what his Father told him. Even when he didn't understand the answer he got, he was satisfied with his Daddy's answers. How about you and me? Jesus said we need to be like a little child in order to be in His kingdom. So, are you satisfied with your Daddy's answers? I'm talking now about your Heavenly Father, of course. Jesus said our faith had to be childlike. And that means, "I will see what my Father has to say about this and I will choose to be satisfied. I may not understand my Father's answers, but I'll be satisfied just because I trust Him." Maybe you've prayed and you've said, "I'm not getting any answer to my prayer." Well, you know, actually, every prayer is answered. God says, "Call unto Me and I will answer you." And He's answering; maybe not in the way you want it; not in the time that you wanted. Could you settle back in your seat and relax in the answer that He's been giving? Maybe God's Word speaks about the situation you're in right now or the choice you have to make. And it's pretty clear what you ought to do. But it goes against what you're feeling, or it's going against what your family, or your friends, or the conventional wisdom or our culture's telling you to do. You may not like it. Would you trust what your Father says and act on His answer? See, you and I are still like that little boy, no matter how old we are. We're full of questions about "Why God?", and "God, how come...?", and "Father, when is it going to be?", and "Who?" I just hope you'll be like that boy in another way. When your Father gives an answer, be satisfied with your Daddy's answers.

The summer of '88 was a long time ago, but man, it left an indelible mark on Yellowstone National Park. Forest fires? They ravaged our national treasure. And you know, it left behind thousands of acres of charred landscape, displaced animals, dead animals. In fact, the fire almost reached that famous geyser called Old Faithful. It came really, really close to it. There's a historic inn right nearby where people have stayed for almost a hundred years, and it was rescued from the wall of flames that was closing in on it, but it was close. A lot changed dramatically at Yellowstone when the fires hit. One thing didn't. No matter how hot the fire got, no matter how close; no matter what else was destroyed, Old Faithful went off right on time every day. The fire just could not affect her performance for one very simple reason. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fireproof Fulfillment." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 4. It's a familiar story of Jesus talking to the woman of Samaria who has tried so many ways and so many men to fill that aching void in her life. They both meet at the same well for a drink on a hot afternoon and Jesus says to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water." I think we were just talking about that a moment ago, but it was a geyser, right? "...a spring of water" (in this case) "welling up to eternal life." Jesus says, "I want to put in your life... In fact, I want to make you a faithful fountain and we'll be able to handle any fire, any storm, any hurt, any disappointment. Oh, you'll still be able to perform even with the fire closing in around you because of two words." Ready? He wants to put the source in you, which is different from it being something around you. Old Faithful-that geyser that continued to function no matter how hot the fire got or how close? The source is underground and the fire cannot touch that source. Now, when you have Christ living in you and you're counting on Him-not on yourself-you believe He's your source of strength, you become an Old Faithful, or maybe a young faithful. See, your source is where it can't be touched. No depression, no bankruptcy, no election, no lost job, no illness, no personal loss, no national tragedy can touch that source of your strength because it's in you where it can't be touched. Jesus spoke to a woman here who was depending on a source that she would lose; in her case, the men in her life. She'd been through a lot of guys, but always disappointed. Whenever your identity or your source of strength is something external-something you can lose-you're going to be up and down all the time. Your career can be touched by life's fires, your family can, your income, the body you've worked so hard to develop, your friendships, the person you love-you can lose those. The fire can get to them. That's why Jesus makes you an offer of something that is everlasting. He said, "This will spring up into something eternal," what I'm about to plant in you, and it will be a life that will begin now but will last through all eternity. He's talking heaven there. Wouldn't this be a good time for you to open up to this Jesus and let Him, and your relationship to Him, be who you are; be where you get your security, be where you get your strength. Then you can be steady, you can be consistent no matter how hot the flames. You say, "Well, Ron, I'm not sure I've ever begun a personal relationship with Jesus." Well, you can. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." Our website's there to help you make sure you've gotten going with Him, how to belong to Him. Go there, please. Check out ANewStory.com. A human "Old Faithful" with Christ as your underground source. Why, you could be counted on for fireproof faithfulness.

It was another one of Daddy's great vacation adventures! I announced to the family that we were going to climb Panther Mountain that day. The idea was greeted with underwhelming enthusiasm, but off we went, hiking up the gentle uphill trail that would get us to our goal: the rock fortress I had been told was at the top. As we trudged up the trail, my wife kept pointing out nice things along the way, "Oh, look at the chipmunk! Look at that tree growing out of the rock! Oh, don't you love the sound of the wind blowing through the pines?" I would smile and politely acknowledge her little observations, all the while keeping my male mind firmly focused on the real reason for this activity-getting to the top of the mountain. You can imagine how un-thrilled I was when my wife suddenly said, "Well, the kids are getting tired, and this has been a really neat hike. Let's head back." What? Head back? We were only halfway to our goal? If we went back now, this would all have been a waste of time! I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Racing To Get There, Missing the View." I learned a lesson that day on Panther Mountain. My wife said, " Honey, this has been a great hike. We've seen a lot of neat things God made, we've had a nice time together as a family, there's no need to keep pushing." I objected, "But what about our goal? What about getting to the top?" That's when the wise woman I married pointed out something to me that I've never forgotten. She said, "Ron, it isn't just the result that matters. It's the process!" The process is as important as the result? It's not just my wife who feels that way. Now I'm learning that the process is important to God; maybe more important than the result. Many of us are like I was the day we hiked up the mountain. We're so focused on getting to our goal that we miss the good things along the way to get to our goal. But I'm beginning to think that the process is more important to God than the result. He could answer your prayers and deliver you to your destination immediately if He wanted to. But God has a process, a journey; and He wants to take us through that first and show us things that we've never seen before. But we miss those things because of our race to get there. We only care about the destination. God cares about the process and what we'll learn and what we'll become through that process. He talks about that process in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 84 beginning with verse 5. "Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca (now, here's the process), they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength 'til each appears before God in Zion" - okay, there's the goal. The Lord blesses those who enjoy the journey...who make a difference along the way...who look for Him in the process. Most pregnant women? They'd probably like to shorten the process and have their baby in three months or six months; those nine months, that gets pretty long. But it's the process that makes the baby what he or she is. It's the time on the potter's wheel, spinning and being shaped that makes the pottery the masterpiece it becomes. It's the same for you and me. You may be in God's waiting room right now, frustrated. Your answer hasn't come. The process is taking so long! But that's the plan! Take in the scenery, enjoy what God's doing along the way, look for "God sightings." Look for the lessons God is trying to teach you. Light up each spot along the way. Here's a great prayer: "Lord, I'm not only trusting You for the result, I'm asking You to do it in the way that will bring You the greatest glory and make me what You want me to be." Whether or not you make it to that mountaintop, enjoy the great things that God wants to show you along the way!

I know the flight attendant was trying to be polite. The kid wasn't! No. We're on this plane and everyone's eager to take off, everybody's got their seatbelt on and we're ready to go, except for this mother and her four-year-old boy who were standing in the aisle of the plane. The son wouldn't sit down. He's crying, he's yelling at his mother, and the flight attendant was making the announcement, "We'll be able to leave as soon as everyone is seated." The mother was trying. Oh yeah, but this boy went rigid. He started yelling his reason for standing up. "I want to drive!" The more she pressured him the louder he got, "I want to drive!" This is a very big plane. He's a very little boy. He really shouldn't drive. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "I Want to Drive!" The boy wanted to "drive" that airplane. We wanted the pilot to "drive." The boy didn't seem to understand he wasn't capable of driving. Well, guess what? We've got the same problem. Our word for today from the Word of God - Isaiah 53:6. Here we go, "We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity (or the wrong doing) of us all." Life, kind of like that airplane, is too big for us to drive. We've taken over the cockpit anyway. Again in the Bible's words, "Everyone has turned to his own way." God gave us our life. He's supposed to run it. He's doing a very good job of running a hundred billion galaxies, but we shake our fist and we say, "Excuse me, God, I'll pilot my own life." He's the only One who can pilot your life properly. But see, "We want to drive!" Like the little boy, if we try to fly, we're going to crash. Maybe you're facing right now some of the wreckage of trying to run a life that God was supposed to run. Or maybe you're cruising along right now but you're headed for a crash. See, no one ultimately gets away with hijacking God's property. And that's what we all do. I once asked a Navajo shepherdess what happens to sheep when they get away from the shepherd. She answered with one word. She said, "Coyotes." See, it always ends up in disaster when we get away from the Shepherd, or from the Pilot. "We all like sheep have gone astray." That means we're away from God. And you know what? Maybe you can even feel that loneliness right now. Maybe you can sense the confusion, the lostness of being away from God. Unless you're rescued, I'll tell you, it always leads to death. The Bible puts it this way, "The wages of sin is death." But the Bible says, "God placed the penalty for all our wrong doing on Jesus Christ, His Son. God's only Son has paid the price for the sin you and I have done. Isaiah 53:5 says, "The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." You and I did the sinning; Jesus did the dying. If you can get yourself to that cross in your heart, get to that cross where Jesus paid your death penalty for your sin and give yourself to Him, you can trade death for life. Jesus Christ sacrificed His life, shed His blood. He was dying in exchange for your life; taking your death penalty. Why would anyone reject Him? Is it pride? Is it stubbornness? Is it thinking somehow our religion will get us there, our goodness? Well, if it could, He would have never gone to that cross. This is the day to let go of that wheel and start to become who you were meant to be in the relationship you were made for. If you want to get that started today? Go to our website. I can help you there, I believe, know that you actually belong to Him from this day on. That's ANewStory.com. Can you just picture Jesus reaching out a nail-pierced hand to you? Are you going to keep saying, "I want to drive!" Or are you going to say today, "Jesus, I don't want to drive. I want to live."

I had been scheduled to speak at a winter retreat in Pennsylvania. I lived in New Jersey. It was the kind of thing where I could drive to Well, that day, winter decided it was time to do some serious wintering. We had heavy snow all day long and I knew it was going to be a very exciting drive along Interstate 80 out to Pennsylvania. Actually, it turned out to be much easier than I expected. Much of the way I managed to get behind snow plows. Yeah, they were out, and they were doing a good job, and it was a whole lot easier because I was right behind them. So, where I was driving, the plows had already been. Now, if you have a snow plow ahead of you, you're a lot less likely to end up in a ditch. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Plowing the Road for Your Journey." Our word for today from the Word of God is in John 10, and we're going to begin reading at verse 3. It's that great Good Shepherd passage. It says, "He calls His own sheep by name and He leads them out. And when He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them." I love that! These verses took on a very personal meaning for my wife and me some years ago. We were getting ready to leave the city of Chicago, where we had lived for many years, and we were going to move to northern New Jersey to begin a ministry in the New York area. And I'll tell you what, we were stepping into a total unknown. We had no office, no supporters, we had nobody that we knew, no friends, no kids to work with, and no staff. Other than that, everything was ready for us. Well, in Chicago, I knew people, I knew how to get things done, I knew what number to call, I knew where the resources were, I knew where all the roads were. New Jersey, New York-a total unknown. And then, as we asked the Lord for some reassurance, guess what? He gave us John 10:4. I just read it. I like that because you know, the troopers say that on a CB before they sign off - everything's under control. They go, "10-4 good buddy." Well, this is the "10-4 good buddy" verse. It says, "When He brings out all His sheep, He goes on ahead of them." We learned that the Shepherd always goes where he is about to take his sheep. He gets there before you do. The Shepherd also makes sure that there's going to be food there, no wolves, no danger of walking off the edge. Kind of like that snow plow I was following, plowing the path in front of me, making it a lot safer. And when we got there, boy did we find that out! The apartment we needed, the friends we needed, the office we needed, the open arms that we needed. Everywhere we went we found the footsteps of our Shepherd. And so will you. He promised. Anywhere Jesus takes you; He will always get there ahead of you and get it ready. It may be that fear is holding you back right now from God's next step for you. Fear of the "might's" and the "could's" and the "what if's." Maybe you can't go any farther in Christ without taking some risks; trying some things you've never tried, or leaving some things you've never done without, going into situations that are unfamiliar to you, or reaching some people whose reactions you can't be sure of. Maybe you're in a transition time and you're about to move from one season or one stage to another. There's a wonderful answer to the fear that spreads that shadow on your future, and it's in this verse, "the Shepherd goes ahead of you." How often I've claimed that verse, the big things and the little things. I've gone into offices and found the Lord had gotten there ahead of me, into meetings, taxi cabs, doctor's offices, ministry situations. You can count on it. He promised! The Lord will never lead you anywhere that He has not first scouted and prepared for you. The snow plow clears the road ahead of you, and so does the Shepherd. And because He does, my friend, you will never end up stuck.

Now, excuse me, but I don't expect to be inspired when I eat at McDonald's. I mean, fed, but not inspired. There was a time when there was a little inspiration with my burger and fries. It was a striking poster on the wall. It showed two mountain climbers near the peak of this Alpine mountain, straining to reach the top. But it was the inscription that impressed me most. "Conquest without risk is a triumph without glory." Oh! That's pretty good. I'm Ron Hutchcraft,and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Conquest Without Risk." That doesn't just apply to reaching the top of a mountain. In fact, it pretty much describes everything worth doing in life. No risk, no meaningful conquest - a triumph without glory. Low risk - low return. High risk - high return. It's a principle that defines spiritual greatness or spiritual mediocrity. In Numbers 13, the conquest was not a mountain; it was the taking of the Promised Land that God had promised. Of course, it was currently inhabited by fierce people who, of course, didn't plan to hand it over. And whether or not they would ever experience all God had for them depended on whether or not they would trust Him enough to take some really big risks. Now whether or not you experience all God has for you may depend on that same thing. Twelve scouts had explored the land of Canaan, and they reported back on the fabulous beauty and bounty they found there. But ten of those scouts chose to focus on the risks, two on the Lord who had promised them this land. It boiled down to an exchange like this, recorded in our word for today from the Word of God in Numbers 13, beginning with verse 30. "Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, 'We should go up and take possession of the land for we certainly can do it.' But the men who had gone up with him said, 'We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are.' And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, 'The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people there are of great size...we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.'" You probably know the result. The people followed the lead of the ten scouts who said, "The risks are too great." And they never saw the Promised Land. They chose what was safe, and they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They could have had wonderful. Instead, they lived and died in the wilderness. Many of God's children over the years have made that same tragic miscalculation at their crossroads. And they have lived that same sad result. Right now your Lord may be asking you to follow Him into something risky. To obey Him is going to mean taking a financial risk, or a geographical risk, a social risk, doing something that's way beyond your comfort zone. In fact, serious obedience usually involves risk. But the great danger is not in obeying God's "risky" leading; it's in not obeying because you won't risk it. You'll miss the top of the mountain. You'll miss the best God has for you. You'll miss the promised land. Almost always, God's will means going out of your comfort zone. If you're addicted to your comfort zone, you're almost sure to miss God's best. Maybe you're all settled in at your little base camp at the bottom of the mountain. You're safe, but you'll never see the view from the top if you stay where you've always been. You can dare to risk if you know your security is never in your situation - it's in your Savior, and He's everywhere you go. Like the old hymn says, "Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go" - even if He's leading you where it just doesn't look very safe. The conquest, the triumph, the glory of living for Christ is for those who are willing to risk.

One Sunday afternoon, my son and I were chasing a Giants football game wherever we went. When we were near the TV at home, of course, we were glued to that. And then we were in the car, and so we'd listen on the radio. And when we got to a place where one of us had to go in, only one of us went in so the other one could stay in the car and could get an update. A little fanatic! Yeah.And then the one who went in got back as soon as he could. You can see why the word fan is short for fanatic, right? We were in bad shape! But, you know, it was a decisive game and the outcome was up for grabs. When the Giants took the lead, my son said, "Dad, I'm wearing my Giants sweater to school tomorrow." I said, "Good. What if they lose?" He paused for a moment and then he very proudly said, "Either way." I respect loyalty like that, and I'm not the only one. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Wearing His Colors, Win or Lose." There's a man in the Bible who didn't always wear Jesus' colors. In John 19:38, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus has been crucified. Later it says, "Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away." Now, listen, it's interesting that Joseph of Arimathea probably, well, figuratively had a jersey that said, "I belong to Jesus Christ." But he took it off when he was in settings where it could be embarrassing or where it could cost him something like in the Sanhedrin. Jesus has a lot of followers like that-maybe you. You're probably His when that's the winning idea; when that's the thing everybody's doing, is singing the songs and maybe give a testimony. You voice His values when you're in His meetings, and then you go to the office or your workplace where being identified with Jesus might give you a loser status. Or you go to school, or you're with that group of friends, and suddenly you submerge faster than a submarine. See, we're like "fit in" people; changing our allegiance as the environment changes. Well, there's good news for people like that, because people like that can change. Joseph did. Notice he came out of hiding. He took his stand for good. He said, "Jesus can be buried in my tomb." He would be forever identified with Jesus from that day on. There was no turning back. Why? Because he saw what Jesus did on the cross for him. Isn't it time for you to go public with your commitment to Christ - to let people know where you stand and who you stand with; to let them know you're not ashamed of the Man who was not ashamed of you as He hung on a cross? The fans who can truly celebrate when their team finally wins are the ones who were loyal when no one else was. Jesus will win. Every knee will bow at His name. The real winners will be those who stood by Jesus when it cost them something. So, step up to the freedom and the adventure of finally saying, "I belong to Jesus Christ no matter what it costs." And if someone should ask you, "But what if it means you lose?" You'll answer proudly, "Either way."

"Never leave a soldier behind." That's pretty powerful stuff. It's the time-tested promise of our military to its men and women. And the stated reason that our government swapped some dangerous detainees for one imprisoned - and controversial - sergeant in Afghanistan. It was some years ago, but they made that trade. But in all the emotional debate about this particular soldier, I never heard anyone say that "never left behind" is anything but the right thing. It's just too bad life isn't like the military in that case - "no one left behind." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No One Left Behind." We've got plenty of people around us who actually feel like we do leave people behind. That widow who feels like everybody withdrew once her husband died. The senior citizen, feeling like she might as well die because everyone treats her like she already has. Kids abandoned to a foster care system that often leaves them abused and angry. How many times has the immigrant, or the newcomer in the neighborhood felt abandoned? I've been the guy, in another culture, surrounded by a language and customs I didn't understand. And I'll tell you, it was just plain lonely! The crowd blows right by those that they consider "un-cool," leaving them feeling like a discarded paper plate. It's people who can't do anything for us, whose association might make us look bad. So many are feeling "left behind" by a world of people too self-absorbed to go after them; the painfully shy person, the troubled - or maybe troublesome - kid. In virtually every workplace, every school, every neighborhood, every roomful of people - there's someone who feels invisible, small, unseen, left out, left behind. It's been bothering me. I want eyes to see those people no one sees. To stop for those people no one's got time for. To gravitate to the person on the edge, in the corner. To make the "little guy" feel big for once. To show love even when it's inconvenient. Because that's what my Hero did. See, in His world - in Jesus' world - no one touched the repulsive lepers. But He did. No one treated children like they were more important than the big shots. But He did. No one treated women with dignity and respect. But Jesus did. No respectable person hung out with those reviled "sinners." But He did. See, that's my Jesus. He came after me when I was a deserter, a cosmic deserter, because I had turned my back on the very God who gave me my life. Walking away from the One who loved me like no one else; selling out to my dark side. In essence, waving at God with one hand and shaking a fist in His face with the other. The Bible says that's a choice we've all made, that all of us have "wandered away like sheep" it says that in Isaiah 53. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." So we've left Him behind, but He refused to leave us behind. I'm so glad. Our word for today from the Word Of God, 1 Peter 3:18: "Christ died...the righteous (that's Him) for the unrighteous (that's me), that He might bring us safely home to God." That's how much He doesn't want to lose you and me. That's why He's come after you where you are now. Perhaps through what you're hearing right now, He's reaching out and the voice you're hearing now in your heart, that's not mine. It is the heart of Jesus who said, "I'm not leaving her behind. I'm not leaving him behind." And He's not leaving you behind! This is your day to reach out and grab the man who loved you enough to pay the death penalty for your sin. Nobody loves you like He does. And I'd love to help you be sure that you've made that connection and gotten this settled. That's why our website. That's why I ask you to go there - ANewStory.com. Check out ANewStory.com. I want to be like Him, and leave no one behind.

Our local high school football players survived grueling triple practice sessions one summer. Our sons were on the team, and I know. But you know what? It was then off season, and I noticed then that several of them were going for a relatively simple one-mile run. I mean, simple compared to those triple sessions. When they got back, they were totally wiped out, they were gasping for breath, they were sore, they were exhausted. My son was among them, and he summed up what he learned that day. He kind of collapsed in the car when I picked him up after the little run, and he said, "You know, Dad, it doesn't take long to get out of condition." Well, he's right - especially when it comes to your heart. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Showing Up at God's Gym." Now our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Timothy 4. I'm going to begin reading at verse 7. Paul says, "Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." Now, this word train...where Paul says, "train yourself to be Godly." It's an interesting word. If you looked at it in the original Greek language that the New Testament was written in, it's the word gymnazo. Does that sound like any word we have today? Well, of course, gymnasium. We go to the gymnasium. That's where we get the word gymnasium from this gymnazo word. It's talking about workouts, exercise, staying fit. And I think it's appropriate that God should suggest that staying in shape spiritually is something like staying in shape physically. He's saying, "Train to be Godly. Go to the gym to be Godly. Work out; exercise to be Godly." See, as our football players discovered, it doesn't take long to get out of condition. You just can't miss many days, or you lose most of the conditioning you've gained. I know what happens when I'm off the treadmill for a few days. I get back on it and I'm like, "Oh, boy! I've got to work my way back up again." When am I going to learn you can't be spiritually strong if you only have an occasional workout? It wouldn't work physically; it doesn't work spiritually. Oh, we go to the retreat, we go to the big conference, we get the Sunday sermon from the pastor who preaches so well, we get occasional binges of Bible study where we do it and then we quit, we do it - we quit. You can't stay in condition unless you exercise consistently. Our binges usually just bring us back to the condition we were in before. We just get back to zero. We never really grow; we never really expand spiritually the distance we can run, or the weight we can lift, or the challenges we can handle. We get stuck at one level, and we fall back through neglect, then we make it up on a spiritual binge, and then we repeat the process over and over again. Why don't we try Paul's better idea? He says, "Train yourself to be Godly." Get in a regular, consistent program. And commitment is the key, whether it's physical or spiritual. You have to set a time to get into God's Word. So, when do you do that? When is your non-negotiable time to be with Jesus? You have to set the alarm, you have to set a place where you're going to do it, and then all day long you live with discipline, staying within the boundaries, creating good habits that keep you on track. You know, there's no such thing as a spiritual day off. Oh, King David took one and he paid for it the rest of his life. See, you step into spiritual adulthood the day you commit yourself to the daily discipline of life in Christ. You know, in sports and in spiritual growth it just doesn't take long to get out of condition.

My son used to sleep and drink and eat football - especially eat. You should have seen him after a game. He was a sophomore lineman, and he played with great intensity. John was one of his teammates. John was, let's say, a hard-living kid who had sampled a little bit of everything. And John knew that my son was a Jesus follower. Well, John came to him after the first week of football practice and he said, "Hey, Hutch! I thought you were a holy man!" My son said, "Well, yeah, what do you mean?" John said, "Well if you're a holy man, how come you hit so hard?" Well, right there he was speaking volumes about what our world thinks Christian manhood is all about and he was wrong. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Those Hard-Hitting Holy Men." Now, our word for today from the Word of God will come from John 2, and I'll begin reading at verse 13. It's a seldom seen view of Jesus. In fact, I've never seen a painting of Him like this. I remember what one young man from Harlem said a while back. He said, "You know, Jesus in those religious paintings, He doesn't look like He could last ten minutes in my neighborhood." Well, listen to the Jesus of John 2. "When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at the tables exchanging money. So He made a whip out of cords and drove them all from the temple area; both sheep and cattle. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves, He said, 'Get these out of here. How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!'" Woah! This is the hard-hitting Jesus; the Jesus we sometimes lose in those pictures of lowly Jesus meek and mild. Now, we don't have a physical description of Jesus, but we do know He was a carpenter before they invented power tools. And that took a lot of strength. We know He spent forty days in the wilderness fasting without food and He emerged strong. And we know that He physically expelled these crooks. He didn't just say, "Would you guys please leave?" Listen; when a man comes to Jesus, this is the Jesus he comes to. And He doesn't lose his manhood, he discovers it. See, I think a man is wired to give himself 110% to something he believes in-a cause he thinks is worth giving himself to. That's why he likes sports; something he can give himself totally to for a little while. Then the game's over or the season is over. Or he gives himself to his business career, to something. I mean, every cause is a letdown, it runs out. A man is still looking for that cause for which he was made. And when a man like Simon Peter, that rugged fisherman, encounters Christ, he says, "This is it. This is the cause I can give my manhood to." As a man, you're going to be incurably restless until you find the Lord that you were built to serve. When you find Him, you discover a better best and a greater intensity than you've ever experienced in your life, plus a new capacity for love, for sensitivity, for courage you never knew before. He exhibited all of those when He paid the ultimate price for you. The man Jesus died for, a man like you and a man like me, knowing our anger, knowing our lust, knowing our selfishness, and taking the price for all of that on Himself; paying the death penalty for your sin and mine. And this man, Jesus, now says, "Give your life to Me and I will make it what it was created to be." This could be the day of a new beginning for you, as you fall at the feet of Jesus, as those men that were His disciples did years ago and you say, "Jesus, I'm Yours." If you want to know more about how to begin a relationship with Him, then go to our website. It's ANewStory.com. Check it out! Listen to Jesus, the God-man, as He says to you, "Follow me." You'll find in His strength an intensity you were created to have in everything you do. And then, like your Master, you'll be one of those hard-hitting holy men.

It was four months after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center a moving postscript was added to the accounts of rescue heroism that we had already heard. Some 343 firefighters lost their lives on September 11, going in to rescue people at a time when everyone else was fleeing. But a subsequent review of the fatalities actually revealed that sixty of those who died were "off duty" when they rushed into the burning towers. Some of the firefighters who gave their lives that day had been home or working second jobs when they heard about the fires at the towers and they sped to the scene in taxis or in their own cars. A fire department spokesman said, "Those who were 'off duty' joined those who were already working in a valiant and courageous effort to save as many lives as possible." Wow! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Never Off Duty." That actually is the mindset of someone who's concerned about saving lives. You're not always rescuing, but you're never "off duty" when it's time for a rescue. That's a powerful picture of a follower of Jesus Christ whose life is truly available for Christ's service. You never go "off duty." Not when lives are at stake. Paul, the early church's greatest rescuer, gave that kind of instruction to an up-and-coming rescuer. His name was Timothy. We're in 2 Timothy 4:2, our word for today from the Word of God. Here's what Paul says, "Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season." See, you never know when the opportunity is going to pop up to talk about having a relationship with Jesus Christ or to reach out and let someone else see Christ in some way that you love them. You can't schedule those things. And you don't just do it when it's your "job" to do it - when you're "on duty." You never know when the call is going to come from your Lord, when He says through His Holy Spirit, "Hey, there's a life right there that needs a rescuer right now. I've opened the door. There's an opportunity here, my son, my daughter. You have a chance to speak for your Jesus. I'm sending you to that person right now." This doesn't mean you don't follow God's command to take time off or to focus on your primary ministry (your family), or to take care of your everyday responsibilities. They're part of your life's work, too. But this "never off duty" mindset means you're always open to the opportunities in your everyday life to represent Jesus. Actually, you go into your day looking for, praying for those opportunities. And you're flexible enough to drop what you're doing when the summons comes from Headquarters to touch a life with God's redeeming love...always on call, always on assignment, always like a policeman in his patrol car, ready to hear from the dispatcher. Maybe you've seen those city buses that have a sign on the front, "Out of Service." Well, let me tell you, if you understand what it means to belong to Jesus Christ, you are never "out of service." Those who have joined Jesus in the spiritual rescue mission for which He came, for which He died, just don't go "off duty," not when there are lives at stake. No matter how uncomfortable they are, no matter how weary they are, no matter how they're feeling, no matter how risky it is, that tragic day at the burning World Trade Center, people showed up to make a difference who didn't have to be there. But they were rescuers. They knew that when lives are at stake, you drop everything to do whatever you can to save a life. Well, can those whose job it is to rescue people for all eternity do anything less?

Robin Williams, many thought was one of the funniest men in America, successful in movies, TV, even Broadway. But a suicide? That was the shocking news that left the entertainment world - and the entertained world - reeling. It just seems that the joy and laughter he gave so many just somehow wasn't enough for him. Not to keep on living. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Pain Behind the Laughs." You know, his death makes me think of Jimmy, who always made me laugh. He made a lot of people laugh. He was never famous, but he was the funniest guy we knew at the time. I tried not to show how shocked I was the night I got a call from Jimmy to say goodbye. In fact, he had broken into my office. He said, "I just was going to call you - because you're the only person I want to say goodbye to." He was on his way to kill himself. Well, thank God, he stayed there until I could get there. We talked all night. And Jimmy poured out all the pain that his humor had concealed. I never knew. And seemingly, so full of life, he was thinking about dying.That's part of what has made Robin Williams' death so hard to grasp. There is this huge gap between the bright light we saw on the outside and the darkness that must have been stalking him on the inside. And there's certainly many other examples of this as well. Sadly, that haunting contradiction, it's all too familiar to a lot of folks who may never have their name in the headlines. See, we've got it all together on the outside, but we're falling apart on the inside. You see my smile - inside, I'm battling my secret pain. And it's that word secret that makes our inner darkness so dangerous. When I hide my monsters in the shadows, they stalk me constantly. Rather than facing our monsters, we opt for pain relievers. Which, rather than solving our problems, become another problem in themselves. Stuffing our pain? That's not a cure. "Outing" our pain, that's where a cure begins. When I drag those monsters into the light, they begin to lose their power over me. There is no shame in letting people into your battle. There is great danger in trying to fight it alone. I'm forever grateful that young Jimmy called me that night that he was going to die. Strangely, he found a reason to live that night; actually, the reason to live. He opened up all his pain to the One who said, "The Lord has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted." He talked about a darkness that comes to us when He spoke of it in our word for today from the Word of God, John 10:10. He said, "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." That's Jesus, of course. The Bible actually says we were "created by Him and for Him." Which means we've got this God-sized hole in our heart that no relationship, no accomplishment can fill. So, we're ever searching; we're never finding, because God has planted what the Bible calls "eternity in our hearts." I'm so thankful that I found that "forever" thing when I embraced that relationship with the God I was made by and made for. A relationship that was free for me, but it cost Jesus everything. It meant sacrificing His life, dying on a cross, to open the way for a sinful me to belong to a perfect God and to live forever. Now, with the vista of my life opened up beyond my years here to this amazing forever, I can live life here to the fullest, doing life with the One who said, "Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life." On this very day, this Jesus stands ready to come in and turn the darkness to light inside of you. Please tell Him today, "Jesus, you died for me. I'm yours." Go to our website and there I'll show you how to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. See, because of Jesus, we know the darkness doesn't have to win, because light has come.

Sometimes I forget all the things that our uncle pays for. I mean, Uncle Sam. Well, a while back they were talking about another government shutdown. Oh, it's happened before, and it probably will happen again sometime when there's political deadlock in Washington. But I remember this time as they talked about it, they started to reveal all the things that wouldn't happen if the government shut down; all the people and the services that would feel the pain if Uncle Sam didn't get some money. For example, it looked like America's military and government workers might not get paid, and they're doing more things for us than we ever realized, and they wouldn't be seeing their paycheck on time. It looked like even our National Parks were going to be affected. Can you imagine Smokey the Bear not getting paid? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Your Supply Line Stops." You know, beyond all the convoluted politics, I'm actually thinking about times when our personal supply (my wife and I), that when that's been shut down. Like the time the ministry we worked in...well, they couldn't pay us for a while. We were six months behind in our salary; we were two years behind in getting our expenses reimbursed. My wife worked for a Christian organization who actually had some "Chicken and Stars" soup leftover from some summer camps. Well, that kept us going for a little while, although I have to tell you, I haven't eaten any "Chicken and Stars'' since then. We reached the point where our fridge was literally empty. Well, no, wait a minute... wait, almost empty. There was this half bottle of ketchup. That's right. We racked our brains; we really couldn't think of a good ketchup recipe. (Feel free to send me...no, don't, please.) There was no food and there was no money to buy any. Now, that morning we prayed and we committed our need to our Heavenly Father again and we went off to work. We got home that night, guess what? The fridge was still empty. Well, again, almost empty. Did I mention the ketchup? Yeah. Well, suddenly, the doorbell rang. I opened the door and I met a miracle. Up the stairs came one lady after another, carrying a big bag of groceries. They didn't know anything about our need, but their women's missionary group was having a meeting and they up and decided, "You know, let's have a pantry shower for the Hutchcrafts." It might as well have been God Himself coming up the stairs with all that food. I can't begin to tell you all the times and all the ways that amazing God has shown up when the usual supply line was shut down. It's true that God often, even usually, supplies through our job and our paycheck. But there are those times when that faucet is suddenly turned off. And that's when God has said to me, "Ron, did you think it was ever your work or your boss that was providing for you? That was just one of My many delivery systems. I'm your Provider, and I never run out of resources, my son." Well, our word for today from the word of God shows us that Jesus was pretty plain about this. Matthew 6 beginning in verse 31 says, "So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." If you have put your trust in Jesus, you belong to the God who Jeremiah said has "compassions that never fail. They are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22-23). He's the faithful Father who is infinitely creative in how He meets our needs: bread from heaven, water from rocks, shoes that don't wear out in the wilderness, one lunch that feeds a multitude, food delivered by ravens...or ladies from the church. When the usual supply line suddenly shuts down, it might be a good idea to open the windows for the ravens.

If a flight attendant ever faints during a safety briefing on a flight, well, I think I could take over. Yeah, I've heard about the seat belt, and the seat and the tray being in the right position. Oh yeah! There's one thing that they mention that I've never experienced, and that's fine with me-the oxygen mask. It goes something like this, "In the event of a sudden change in cabin pressure, an oxygen mask will drop down from the compartment above your head." And then they explain this, "If you're traveling with a child, please make sure you put your mask on first, and then put it on your child." That's a good idea. Make sure you can breathe, and then take care of your child. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Greater Gift You Can Give Your Child." Our word for today from the Word of God; we're in Deuteronomy 6. I guess I'd call it flight instructions for parents. It's addressed to parents who are raising kids in a culture that is more pagan than the one they grew up in, where their kids are going to be handed what their parents had to work for. That's kind of true of the generation this was written to, and it's kind of true today. Deuteronomy 6:5, the flight instructions begin this way. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. These commandments that I give to you today are to be upon your heart. Then impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your foreheads and hands, and write them on the door frames of your houses." But verse 12 warns, "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord." Well, the Bible says here that your children are going to need a love relationship with the Lord if they're going to make it, where they love the Lord their God with everything they've got. That's an inner guidance system that you can plant in a child that will keep them from crashing when you're not with them. It's that internal spiritual strength that keeps them from collapsing when the external pressure on them is insane and intense. They need this deep, real, personal relationship with the God who made them, who is the key to their purpose for living. But you've got to breathe that spiritual oxygen before you can give it to them. That's why it says this has got to be impressed on your heart before it can be impressed on theirs. You've got to love Him first. Frankly, there's nothing like the needs of our kids' lives to expose the needs of our own lives. Right? I mean, you look in your son's or daughter's eyes, and you're face-to-face with your own inadequacies, your own needs, your pain, your failures; parts of you that you may want to deny or excuse. But when we look at our kids those things stare at us in the mirror right there in the lives of our children. And their spiritual needs? Well, they're the mirror of your own. We can't lead them where we haven't been. Maybe it's time for you to experience for yourself as a Mom or Dad this love relationship with God. First, we have to recognize why we don't have one. Because of this monster called sin, it's the self-rule of our life really. Secondly, we need to recognize how we can have that relationship. And the Bible makes that really clear. It's by visiting the cross where God's Son took the rap for our sin and made it possible for the sin wall between us and God to finally come down. And then thirdly, we need to pin all our hopes on that Savior; telling Jesus He's in charge from this day on and then beyond that commitment. We can't settle for a relationship that's just mostly rules and rituals and religion and meetings, and beliefs. They're not going to sign up for that. The only Christianity that our kids will breathe themselves is one that is lived out before them. But if you've never experienced Jesus for yourself, you can have Him change your family by changing Mom, by changing a Dad. By saying, "Jesus, I bring you all of my needs, my failures, my sins, my inadequacies and I lay them at your cross where you died for me. Beginning this day I'm Yours." Man, I'd love to help you nail down that relationship so you know you have Jesus for sure. Would you go to our website? It's ANewStory.com. Because it will be a new story for you and for your family.

Sometime when you're tired of pushing your way through the mall, just sit down somewhere and watch the children play. Yeah, playing the amateur psychologist, I've observed children relating to their parents there on three different levels. First, there are the kids who are running ahead of their parents - until they suddenly realize they are lost in a sea of legs. Now, at my height, I can relate to that feeling. Then there are also those children who are walking along, holding Mom or Dad's hand - they know the mall is not for the small, so they hang onto a tall. But my favorites are the little ones who are totally exhausted and sort of collapsed in their parents' arms. Their legs have gone on strike and their parents are carrying them. In fact, the child is often sleeping soundly with his head embedded in his parent's shoulder. You've seen them all. Sometimes, I've even said to a parent carrying a child like that - "Now that's the way to travel, isn't it?" It really is. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Your Weakest Time Can Be Your Best Time." In those little children collapsed in their parents' arms is a helpful picture of how God may want you to be traveling right now. After all, you're pretty tired aren't you? It's been a long walk, a lot of pushing and shoving - your resources are pretty depleted. Enter the Apostle Paul in our word for today from the Word of God beginning in 2 Corinthians 12:7. Paul says, "There was given me a thorn in my flesh... Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me." We don't know what Paul's thorn was, but, whatever it was, it was something that limited him, that frustrated him, that caused him pain. Paul thought what God would do was to miraculously remove it. God had a better idea. Paul continues, "But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Now, Paul's first reaction to the thing that makes him weak, that's beyond his control is pretty much the same as ours - he struggles with it. But eventually, he ends up celebrating it! Why? Because he has discovered a power he could never touch when he was strong. Like that child in the mall with no strength left - he's experiencing in his Daddy's arms a strength and stride he could never experience on his own two legs. Those kids in the mall? They're a picture of how we experience God in a deeper and deeper way. First, we're running around, not caring where God is - until we realize we're lost and our Father finds us. Then, we move into walking along holding His hand, allowing the Lord to help us - I know I can't make it alone, but I'm still walking in my own strength. Then the "thorn" hits - something in my life that levels me. I can do nothing about it. It leaves me limp. It leaves me powerless. That's when I discover how strong a Heavenly Father I have. Not just one who saves me, not just one who or helps me - but my Father who carries me. Now it's all Him! And you can go farther and faster in His arms than you could ever go on your legs! So you can honestly look at your powerlessness and say, "I'm glad I can't." You see, at that point, you are about to taste God's grace and power as only powerless people can - and your struggle will become your platform for talking about a Savior who is all you need when you have nothing. Maybe you're still trying to get there on your own. Isn't it time to look up and say, "Daddy, carry me"? Because you're never stronger than when your Father is carrying you.

Some friends of ours struggled with a wide variety of health issues over several years. And a while back, a trusted friend told them about a juice taken from a rare fruit that seemed to have measurably improved their health, and the health of several people that they love. Well, our friends invested in that juice, and they liked the early results. I can just imagine what would have happened, though, if some telemarketer had called them cold and tried to sell this product to them. "Hey, I have some juice for you." Click. See, I know these people. They never would have bought it from some professional salesman. But, you know, it helped when someone like them, someone they knew and trusted, was the one who told them about it. They wanted what she believed in. They wanted what was changing her. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why You're His Best Messenger." You are divinely positioned. Yeah, because someone will believe you about Jesus that would never believe anyone else. You know, most of us are like my friends that I described. We're not going to buy from Mr. Slick Salesman. We'll buy from someone who's like us. Even when it comes to the most important choice we'll ever make in our life - our relationship with the God we will stand before when we die. Many of us have found at the cross of Jesus Christ the greatest love in the universe. And in His empty grave, we found the greatest power in the universe - the power of the only man who ever walked out of His grave under His own power. But every day we're with folks who've never experienced His love or His power and who will never experience His heaven if they don't meet Him for themselves. But whose responsibility is it to tell them? Many of us would like to leave it to someone who can do it better - like my pastor or that evangelist. He's really good. He's better at this. The problem is that in our world today, those folks are perceived as professional God-salesmen, which most lost folks aren't interested in listening to. But then, God's strategy never has been to leave spiritual rescuing just to His professional lifeguards. He works through the everyday believer; His satisfied customers. Take our word for today from the Word of God, for example, in John 4:39. Jesus wants to reach the Samaritans in a nearby village, but He's Jewish and they don't like Jews. He doesn't go into that village and have rallies there. He reaches one Samaritan woman and sends her back to her village to tell about Him. The Bible says, "Many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the woman's testimony." They listened to someone like them, and so will the people around you. Over the past twenty plus summers, I've been an eyewitness to a modern miracle. I think in 400 years of missionary effort, only about 4% of Native Americans know Jesus Christ. And yet, over the years I've seen thousands of Native young people give their lives to Christ, because our On Eagles' Wings teams - they're the ones telling about Jesus and their people just like them, young Native Americans who have lived the drinking, the drugs, the gang life, the violence, the despair and the suicide. But now they have found hope in the Creator's Son, Jesus Christ, and they're going to reservation after reservation introducing people just like them to Jesus Christ. It could be one of the greatest harvests in 400 years among Native people. Why? Because the messenger is someone like them! That's why I believe there's been a breakthrough. Do you see yourself in all of this life-saving picture? Who are the people around you going to listen to about your Jesus? Someone from their tribe, their vocation, their avocation, their generation, their location, their association. And showing them in that world - their world - the Jesus-difference. Is there someone who could say it better? Maybe. Would they listen to that person? Probably not. They'll listen to you. Jesus is sending you to your people to tell them about Him. Humanly speaking, you are their best chance.

When our kids were younger, we did a lot of camping together. You say, "Well, how was it being like that with the kids?" Well, I get to say camping was intense. Intense! Well, okay, there is a pun in there somewhere. Anyway, we'd get ready for bed at night, and it was in tents, and we would just tuck each one of those three kids into their sleeping bag, get it all zipped up, tied up, and then I would go and tie the flap of the tent, zip it closed, turn out the light, crawl in, get nicely situated in my sleeping bag all secure, turn over. And then, there in the dark you would hear a little voice saying, "Daddy, I've got to go to potty." Great! So, reverse the process: unzip my sleeping bag, get unsecure, go over untie theirs, unzip their sleeping bag, untie the tent flap, etc. Oh, you know, stagger out into the night, of course guided just by our trusty little Coleman lantern. I'll tell you, it was a long, dark walk usually to that bathroom. We couldn't see our destination, but we could see enough. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "All the Light You Need." Our word for today from the Word of God is in Psalm 119:105 - pretty familiar words. "Your Word," David says to the Lord, "is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Man, I'll tell you, that makes me think back to my campground days and going out staggering toward that bathroom with a little child in the middle of the night with only my lantern. And you know what? It gave us insight into how God leads us; how He makes His will known. You might be wondering what His will is right now; something you've got to decide. You need to know it right now. Well, He does it like my camping lantern did. We had just enough light for the next step. That's not how we want it. We want to see the whole path don't we? We want to see the destination. We want all our questions answered. We're trying to figure out the big plan, and God's trying to show us the next step. Now, why does He just give us light for that next step, for the next place we need to go on the path? Well, first, you can only take one step anyway, so He gives us what we can handle. Secondly, if God shows you everything ahead, you would probably either run to it or run from it. Either way, you'd ruin it. Now, when you get to it, after all the steps toward it, it will seem natural. It will seem just right. But, see, you're not ready for that yet. You will be, but you can't skip the steps. That's why Psalm 37 says, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord." Now, since our lives are really days, God tends to shed enough light for today's choices and today's challenges. God's will is actually the natural next step for someone who's been following Christ a day at a time. So, begin your day with His Word, which is the light for your path. And you say, "Lord, what obedient step do You want me to take today? What are Your orders for today?" Now, you'll want more information than that, especially if you've got a major choice ahead of you. But you really don't need more than that. You only need today's assignment. Put all those obediences together. After seven of those, you've got a week of following Jesus and His will a day at a time. Thirty of them, you've got a month. Three hundred sixty-five of them, you've got a year. Pretty soon you've got a life that way. God will take all those daily obediences. He will weave them together in His perfectly timed, perfectly constructed, master plan for you. You know what it is? It's called take a step, see a step. So, like a child walking with his Dad through that dark campground, you just step where the light falls next. See, light for the next step is really all the light you need.

Years ago, when I went to Niagara Falls, there was this waxed figure on a tightrope over the street in Niagara Falls. And I learned that that's a real remembrance of an incredible moment in Niagara Falls history. It goes back to the turn of the century, The Great Blondin, a great aerialist, had drawn a tightrope across the roar of Niagara Falls. And then he took his balancing pole and ran across the falls on that rope and back. I thought, "Man! This guy must be a crazy person!" Well, there were thousands of people there to see him. Then he said, "Now, how many of you believe that I can take a 150-pound man across the falls on that wire in that wheelbarrow?" Oh the crowd cheered, and they hooted and hollered, "We do! We do!" And he said, "All right, who would like to climb in the wheelbarrow?" There wasn't a big rush for the wheelbarrow. No, there was one volunteer, his manager. And he took him across and came back safely. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Cheering for Jesus - But Missing Him." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Isaiah 6:1. Isaiah says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted." Then there were angels calling to one another: "'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.' At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Then a little later he said, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'" Now, Isaiah here is just absolutely caught up in praise and worship. "I saw the Lord high and lifted up." That's like many contemporary followers of Christ. I mean, you love praise music, you love to go to praise gatherings, you love praise concerts. I do too. You often hear, "Praise the Lord!" and that's good. God invites our praise; He desires our praise. He deserves our praise. He inhabits our praise. We need to lift Him up and praise Him. I mean, He is worthy of all the praise we give Him and more. But, see, praise doesn't end in itself. It's supposed to make a difference. As he sees how big God is, Isaiah begins to see what he's got to deal with himself. It's kind of like, "God, you are awesome, and now I see that I'm a mess." He's talking about his sin. See, after you've done all the praising the Lord's, are you saying, "Lord, I've got a mess inside me that needs to be dealt with?" We've got to deal with our sin. Biblical praise isn't just a feeling; it leads to repentance if it's the real deal. But then it leads to action, "Here am I. Send me." Well, I'm concerned that a lot of our praise never gets past the experience of praise. And you look around and you say, "I have seen the King, but I'm surrounded by people who've never seen Him." Just like in the days of that aerialist with the tightrope over Niagara Falls. A lot of people were cheering. A lot of people believed in him, until it was a matter of getting into the wheelbarrow and resting everything on him. You know, you may have heard about Jesus your whole life. You are a very religious person. You may have a ton of Christianity in your background. But Jesus is going, "Thank you for cheering for Me. Thank you for being enthusiastic about Me, but did you ever get in the wheelbarrow? Did you ever pin all your hopes on Him to carry you to heaven with Him someday?" If you've never really had that day when you put your trust in Him, all you've heard and all you've cheered Him for will not matter. For it's getting in the wheelbarrow and letting Jesus take you home. That's what brings you to heaven. If you've never done that, I'd love to help you get started with Him and get this settled once and for all. Would you go to our website right away today? That's ANewStory.com. And there you will find the man who thought you were worth so much that He went to a cross for you.

Our family had a chance to visit Colonial Williamsburg, that great restored 18th-century village there in Virginia. And as we were looking at one of the more important homes there in Colonial Williamsburg, we noticed a lot of activity in the yard next to the house. I went over and I asked some people what was going on, and they said, "It's a dig." Sure enough, there were some archeologists and college students excavating in that yard to find the remains of the old slave quarters and to discover some treasures there in the dirt that would give them some idea of the lifestyle of those slaves back in the 18th century. Now, I don't know what your image of an archeologist is, but they weren't throwing around big shovelfuls of dirt. Let me tell you that. They weren't even using a shovel. No, they were dealing with spoonfuls of dirt, in carefully marked off little sectors of the yard. And they meticulously scraped one tiny layer of dirt at a time, put it in a little sifter, sifted it out, and then they carefully numbered and logged anything they found. You know, I think they have a lot to teach us about how to investigate something valuable. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Truth - Your Deep Dive." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Joshua 1:8. Joshua is standing on the river bank of the Jordan River, looking at a swollen river. Beyond them are the great walls of Jericho and the Promised Land that he is to go conquer. And here is a formula for success. "Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night so you may be careful to do everything written in it." Then here's a great promise: "you will be prosperous and successful." It's a blueprint for conquering a big challenge. Maybe like you've got right now. You could be looking at one. Well, this is your blueprint for success, and it's all in how you approach God's Word. He says, "Meditate on it day and night." Now, that's an interesting word in Hebrew. It's the same word used for a cow chewing its cud. So you could almost translate this verse to say, "Here's what you do with the Bible. Chew and do." Chew it and then do it. That's how you can be successful, it says. Now, most of us approach this biblical archeology project of digging into the Bible with a shovel, not a spoon. Now, I have nothing against reading through the Bible in a year. That's good. But you grow the most when you get a spoonful of God's truth, examine the layers, sift it carefully, and then log what you found. It isn't how much you get of the Bible, but how much of you the Bible gets. We're archeologists on a daily dig for a word with you from God. Now, if you're serious about growing; if you want to succeed, slow down and dig into a few verses at a time. Read them over two or three times. Look for phrases or ideas that are repeated and try to connect them. Try to enter into the situation of the writer; maybe the reader that was receiving it. Where am I in this passage? Where am I in this story? Stay with it until you can connect something in those verses to something that's happening in your life right now. Then, like a good archeologist, log it. Write it down in a spiritual journal. So as it says in Joshua, you would be "careful to do it." Remember, chew it and do it. I've got a drawer full of the spiritual journals that I've kept over the years. Man, what a treasure it is to be able to write down each day, "What did God say to me today, and what am I going to do differently because He said it?" You don't get the treasure out of an archeological site by the shovelful. You find it in those little spoonfuls. It's the same with treasure from God's life-changing Word. Slow down, take your time, and get all the treasure you can from your daily dig into the truth of Almighty God.

I love high tide! It's when you can see and hear the ocean at its max power. It just takes over everything. I distinctly remember one powerful moment at the Jersey shore during a summer visit. It happened to be high tide and I walked out on a jetty; you know, these huge boulders. What an experience! Everything in front of me and behind me was just covered by this surging surf, but I was standing in the middle of those rocks and in the middle of that high tide. But something fascinating occurred to me. It was that the tide and the ocean and the storms had beat on that rock for centuries, but the rocks never moved. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sandcastles and Things That Last." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 John 2. I'll begin reading at verse 15 where the apostle says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world." And then in verse 17, "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." That happens to be on the tombstone of the great evangelist D. L. Moody. And there's something about our heart that needs something that will be there forever. Actually, I think I know why. Because Ecclesiastes 3:11 in the Bible says, "God has placed eternity in the hearts of men." We need something that's going to always be there. And there isn't much that's going to last forever. Right? I'm thinking of sand castles, you know? I've seen kids build sand castles at the shore, and some of them are like these huge, elaborate civilizations. But they're gone by morning, because the tide always wins. I mean, you put a lot of effort into a sand castle; it just doesn't last long. You got any sand castles you've built in your life? Maybe you've invested a lot of time and effort in it. You thought it would last: that relationship, those investments, that position. High tide took it away. Do you have a relationship that turned out to be a sand castle? You were so sure this was the one. You were so sure this was the thing that was going to satisfy your heart, and then high tide hit and took it away. God's Word says that all earth stuff "passes away." Maybe you've been distracted by the sand castles. Maybe you've wasted a lot of energy on sand castles. See, that's a hint that we're meant to hold onto the one thing that never goes away - Jesus Christ. Hebrews 6:19 says, speaking of Jesus, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." The rocks that are never taken away by the high tide. All of this other stuff is soon going to pass away. In fact, there's an old saying I heard a lot when I was a teenager. "Only one life, will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last." Maybe you've gotten so busy doing things your way, that you've neglected God's way. Maybe you've been putting a lot into your house, your recreation, your romance, your career, and those aren't bad things. But they've just kind of marginalized the one thing that really matters. They've marginalized Jesus. You know, everything you've built, eternity could prove was a sand castle, because you've missed the one thing that lasts forever - eternal life; that one anchor for a life that never goes away. And it's talked about in Romans 8:38-39. "I am convinced that neither death nor life, not angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." What have you got that time can't take away? What have you got that will last forever? Have you got that one relationship, that one love that's unloseable? If not, I would encourage you today to say, "Jesus, I'm yours." Go to our website and find out more about how to be sure you have begun that relationship. It's ANewStory.com. Don't settle for sand castles. Put your feet on something no tide can take away; that can stand every strong tide. Put your best efforts into what's going to be there forever.

I heard mooing from our kitchen, and it wasn't a cow in the kitchen. No, it was my wife. No, I don't mean... she wasn't mooing. No, she was doing something that caused the mooing sound. I bought my wife these charming salt and pepper shakers in honor of her farm upbringing. The pepper shaker is a pig and the salt shaker is a cow. Whenever you turn over the pepper shaker, you cause it to start this pig-snorting sound. Would you like to hear one? Nope, I will not demonstrate. The salt shaker? Well, that was a cow, and it worked in the same way. So when I hear that mooing from the kitchen, I know it's announcing that the salt is doing what salt is supposed to do-which is get out of that salt shaker! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A World That Needs You." I'm sure God would love to hear the sounds of His salt getting out of the salt shaker more often. After all, the work salt is supposed to do is not inside the salt shaker, all clustered together with the other salt. It's supposed to get out and change the flavor of something! Well, according to Jesus, "You are the salt of the earth." That's His word to His followers in our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 5:13. He goes on to say that "You are the light of the world," and that light is supposed to be "put on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house." Look, you don't put all the light bulbs in one room in the house, do you? You'd have one blazing bright room and the rest of the house would be totally dark. You don't keep the salt all stored up together in the shaker. You scatter it around so it will be in contact with the things that need their flavor changed. And Christians were never meant to be all clustered together in their spiritual salt shaker, just salting each other and soaking up more blessing and more fellowship. The salt's got to be in direct contact with the meat or the vegetables that need it. So guess what? You and I have to be in meaningful contact with the people who really, really need our Jesus. We're not supposed to be hiding out, playing defense all the time, trying to keep from being contaminated by avoiding the world that Jesus left us here to change! If your social life, if your discretionary time is pretty much with Christians all the time, maybe you're missing your mission! We'll do that in heaven. We'll hang out together all that time. Right now we've got to be involved with some people who aren't going to heaven yet! It's time for you to take all that you've been storing up spiritually and start taking it to places and people where it's really needed. It's time to be intentional about building relationships with that neighbor of yours, you know, with that lost co-worker, with some of your fellow students who need your Jesus. It's time to look around your community and find some human needs that you can be involved in meeting in Jesus' name; to build some bridges into those lives. They're all around us. It's time to look around your community for a place to volunteer, maybe, so you can be in contact with some unreached people with some really deep needs. You just need a community connection of some kind, not just a church connection; something that will put the salt of your life in Jesus in contact with some of the lives that really need the flavor of Jesus; with some lives He gave His life for but they don't know it yet. Don't you think we need to be actively involved in the life of our church? Absolutely no doubt! God wants that. You need it, but not to the exclusion of connecting with the world that God so loves. You are the spiritual salt where you live. So, get out of that salt shaker!

It was time for the annual Prayer and Planning Retreat for our ministry team. And someone offered their large farmhouse to us. So we took them up on it. We drove out in the country, hauled in our suitcases, and our bags of groceries, our files, and our bags of groceries, our flip charts, our easel, and our bags of groceries. Now, one of our team was setting up our dry erase board for us; the kind you write on with a dry erase marker. This was a brand new board; we kind of just got it for this occasion, and it was ready for our great ideas to be written on it. And so, Ryan decided once that he set it up, he'd try it out. So he grabbed a marker and drew an amusing cartoon of us. While we were having a good laugh, somebody said, "You didn't use the permanent marker did you?" There was this very long, awkward silence followed by a very long groan, and then, "I'm so sorry." Poor guy! He really thought it could be erased. I don't think the word permanent ever occurred to him. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sin's Permanent Marker." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 51. It's right out of the very personal diary of King David after his adultery with someone else's wife, a woman named Bathsheba. He says, "Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin." He's hurting pretty bad. "For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight." In verse 7 he says, "Cleanse me and I will be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow." Can you see how desperately he wants to be clean again? Verse 12, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." I don't know how good the thrill was with that woman, but the bill haunted David a long time after the thrill was gone. Sin's always like that. It promises to give you so much before you do it and then it takes so much from you after you do it. We know David was forgiven. He says in Psalm 32, "You forgave the guilt of my sin." But the scars remained. See, sin is a permanent marker. You have no idea the marks it will leave on your relationships with others, your sense of worth, your reputation, people's trust in you. It could be right now that you're looking at something that's out-of-bounds spiritually and it's tempting. It's looking good. It would be easy to give in to that temptation and to tell less than the truth, or to hurt that person back who hurt you. But first, get out your calculator and add up the bill. It can't be that good; not when you see how much it will cost you long after the brief benefits of that sin are gone. You say, "Ron, the marks are already there." Well, realize that the most deadly marks of all are the record of your sins in God's spiritual accounting book. And those were erased at the cross where Jesus went to the hell that you and I deserve. Acts 3:19 says, "Repent and turn to God, and your sins will be washed away." And His forgiveness, it's total. It's eternal because of the nail prints, the permanent marks in His hands and feet; the price He paid to forgive you - His unfathomable love. Forgiveness makes us clean before God. But don't forget, if you just think you will abuse that grace the scars will remain. Listen, we forgave our brother when he made those marks on that board. Our relationship was okay, but it didn't make the marks go away. Sin could be forgiven, but its consequences may be there until we see Jesus. And you just can't afford those marks. But maybe you've never had that day where you've had your sins forgiven by God once and for all, and you know what it is to feel dirty inside and you're ready to feel clean. You're ready to be forgiven. That can happen this very day. Tell Jesus, "I'm Yours, based on what you died for." Go to our website and get the rest of the story there. It's called ANewStory.com. My coworker had no idea that the result of putting those little marks on the board could not be erased-a permanent marker, just like sin. But when you do it God's way, there are no regrets and no marks that you can't erase.

You know, you and I are living in a, well, a pretty adjustable world. I mean, we have adjustable rate mortgages, and I have an adjustable wrench that changes sizes for different jobs. Good thing we have adjustable clothes, because it seems like we have adjustable bodies don't we? We have one size that fits all even . And, of course, negotiations that go on between nations, oh yeah, constantly adjusting their views, and their policies, and their public statements. And then politicians...you get it. As the situation changes, we all seem willing to change almost everything with it-sometimes including the truth. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "My Bible, My Bottom Line." Now, our word for today from the Word of God. We're in Luke 5:5. And we find out that Simon Peter, for all of his weaknesses, had one thing that gave him the heart of a disciple. There was one bottom line in his life that simply was not negotiable. And that must have been what Jesus loved about him. Maybe you remember the incident where he had just been out all night fishing, and he came in and Jesus said, "Now, I'd like you to go out again." Okay, it was already the heat of the day, and Simon Peter could think of all kinds of reasons to do something else. It's going to be inconvenient, we're going to get the nets dirty again. You don't catch fish in the day if you don't catch them at night. I'm going to look foolish to the other fishermen. "Hello! Nobody goes out in the middle of the day, Simon." It's not going to work. No, and he'd already tried and he failed. A lot of reasons; a lot of things that told him not to do what Jesus said. But listen to what he says, "Master, we've worked hard all night. We haven't caught anything" - which sounds like that's going to be the reason he won't do what Jesus said. But listen to the next sentence: "but because You say so, I will let down the nets." That's the heart of a disciple. "If you say so, Jesus, I'll do it." That's the bottom line no matter what anyone else says. Now, today there's kind of a dangerous drift from that kind of spirit-filled, scripture-anchored stability. "Thus saith the Lord." Well, that's often compromised by "thus saith society" or "thus saith the Gallup Survey" or the culture, or it's compromised by the latest best seller or what somebody said on a talk show or a website. Sometimes I think we have a tendency to follow sociology more than theology. For example, you could take the issue of divorce. In the Christian world, divorce became accepted pretty quickly. Now, society says it's okay, but has God changed His mind? He uses strong language in Malachi 3, and He doesn't say he hates divorced people, He doesn't. But He does say, "I hate divorce." He hates to see a marriage break up. See, the problem is we tend to have an adjustable truth. There are a lot of examples of that if it's out-of-step with what's culturally cool or personally convenient. God's truth has always been out-of-step with the culture. Like Peter, we must go to the Bible alone for our view, not to what makes sense to us or to say, "Well, now this is affecting someone I know, or maybe I could change my view." I always say, "When the verse gets a face, the verse is going out the window." See, the Bible clearly tells us what fulfilling womanhood is, no matter what sociology says. It tells us what manhood is; it tells us that marriage is forever. It talks about sex that is meant to be between one man and one woman within a lifetime, permanent commitment. Anything else is outside of God's boundaries. It certainly shows us that politics are not the focus of a Christian's energies. No, it's the Kingdom of God that we're supposed to seek first. It's time that we returned, I think, with humility to an open Bible and say, "God, how do You feel about this? Whatever You say, that's it! I'll do it." Now, we have to always speak with love and with humility, but always with His authority too. We, who love the Bible, are the only ones with the whole story; we've got God's truth. And those things? They're just not adjustable. They are not negotiable.

Some friends said, "How would you like to use our condominium down by the ocean in Florida?" Oh, it was a very hard decision, took about ten seconds. I'll tell you what, it was really a great place. I never thought I'd stay in a place like that. It had some very distinctive furnishings. Well, yeah, the mirrors! They were everywhere. And they were very strategically placed so you could see the ocean from almost any spot in the house. Cool! I was the first one up that first morning. I'm not familiar with this place, right? So, I'm puttering around in the kitchen for breakfast. I went over to the kitchen table. I leaned over to get something and suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw this hand reaching for me. Scared me to death! Of course I spun around to see who was sneaking up on me. It was me. I hadn't realized that there was a mirror on the wall right next to me reflecting everything I did. Everywhere I went in this place I kept running into me. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Our Inescapable Dark Side." One of the writers of the Bible kept running into himself everywhere, and he didn't like what he saw. He wrote words that people have been able to identify with very closely for a long time. His name is Paul. He wrote much of the New Testament. So our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 7, beginning with verse 18. "I have the desire to do what is good, but I can't carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do. No, the evil I do not want to do. This I keep on doing." Oh for goodness sake, who can't relate to that, in our marriage, with our kids, with our friends? Then he says in verse 21, "I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me." And finally he's desperate. In verse 24 he says, "What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death?" Then he's got an answer. He says, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." In spite of being a very religious man, Paul kept running into this dark side of himself that was selfish and sinful. Is that unique to him? No! Like that condo we were in, we've got a lot of mirrors that show us some things that scare us. If you're married, your spouse is probably a mirror for you, showing you things that you may not like about yourself; you may not like to hear. Our children - man, are they our mirrors! They reflect our inadequacies, our weaknesses, our baggage, our mistakes, and our pain. And a crisis where things are coming apart, that's when you see the real you. Now, when our dark side is suddenly staring us in the face, we try to run from it, we try to rationalize it, blame someone else. Until one day we finally get honest and say, "You know what? There is a darkness inside of me that scares me. I can't change the ugly parts of me. If I could, I would've." And that's where Paul was here, "Who will rescue me?" And then there's the answer: God would through Jesus Christ. See, life's mirrors all seem to say the same thing, "You need a Savior." That's why the Bible says in Romans 5:8, "While we were still sinners (that means running our own lives that God was supposed to run) God proved His love for us by Christ dying for us." We have this killer disease called sin, and God's Son came to break its power, to die for your sin and to be our Rescuer. And then He showed His power over the most powerful force on earth, which is death. He conquered it on Easter morning. Couldn't you use that power in your life? There's a new beginning that comes when you get every sin and every mistake forgiven by God. This all happens when you go to the cross of Jesus in your heart and you surrender to this wonderful Savior. Have you ever started your relationship with Him? If you haven't and you want to, can I ask you to take the next step on that journey and go to our website? It's ANewStory.com. I want to help you get this going. Maybe you are even running into yourself in life's mirrors recently and you don't like what you see. Look again. Right behind you, just over your shoulder, there's someone there. That's Jesus. He's helped you run into yourself so you'll run to Him.

A few months earlier it had been "Wild Winter." And then it came into spring, what they called "Soggy Spring" that year - the sequel. Oh yeah, we might have thought that we had seen the last of those mountains of snow. Wrong again. In fact, the weather guys had predicted that all that snow would come floating in melted form down our rivers and streams. And there were the floods again! Listen, I lived a long time in a town who has one claim to fame in national newscasts - major flooding. They made it again that year. It's just a heartache that we knew all too well. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Temptation Wins." You know when it's flood season, the weather people all across the country issue their oft-repeated warning: "Turn around, don't drown." In a matter of minutes, an always-safe bridge or water crossing can suddenly become a torrent of racing flood water, and a death trap for those who think they can cross as usual. Cars, vans, trucks, and even there was even an Amish buggy a few months earlier. They can be swept away in a fatal current. So keep it coming, weather guys; tell us when we need to hear it, "Turn around, don't drown." Actually, that's advice that some folks wish that they had heeded much sooner. I mean morally and spiritually. Few people who have become addicted or adulterous ever expected to get carried away. No one thinks that today's deception, today's "little" compromise of integrity or purity will one day sweep them away in an inescapable flood. Who could guess that a click on a web page, a little flirtation, a lie to get out of a jam would lead to a torrent of expensive consequences? After national headlines exposed the unfaithfulness of her politician husband, his betrayed wife said this: "You can pick your sin. You can't pick your consequences." Boy, isn't that true! One TV meteorologist said that the reason people die crossing familiar bridges in flood times is a fatal miscalculation. He said, "They overestimate the power of their car, and they underestimate the power of the water." Let's tweak that just a little to identify what makes even spiritual giants fall farther than they ever dreamed: "They overestimate their power to resist, and they underestimate the power of sin." The inexorable progression of spiritual seduction and disaster goes like this in James 1:15, "Desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." And our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 10:12 sounds this alarm: "If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall." There's probably someone who's hearing this today, who's driving very close to the edge of the flood. Flirting with those famous last words, "I can handle it." No, you can't. Listen to these words from Genesis. Take it, if necessary, as a personal warning, "Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" (Genesis 4:7). Turn around. Don't drown. Please.

I met a man from St. Joseph, Missouri, and I surprised him with my trivia knowledge when I said, "Oh, Pony Express country, right?" He confirmed my recollection that his town was the beginning of the famous Pony Express. What guys those were! Man, they rode their way right into the history books. They're practically legends of the Old West. They rode endless hours through hostile territory, risked their lives to deliver the mail to the West Coast. You knew that part. What you may not know is how many guys we're talking about here in this legendary operation - just 80 riders, and only one mail delivery was ever lost. How long did the Pony Express run? Only 18 months! It only took a few people a short time to make a great impact! Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Mark You Will Leave." For most of us, our ride through this life will last, what do they say on average, 70 years or so? Some will get more, some a lot less. The question is how much of a mark will you leave in the years you have left? I think inside all of us is this deep desire to make our life count, to do something significant while we're here. Maybe you know that restlessness that says, "I want to make a much greater difference with the rest of my life than I have made up until now." Then you need to hear our word for today from the Word of God in Daniel 12:3. It's God's roadmap to making the greatest possible mark you can make with the one life you have. Here's what it says. "Those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever." Wow! God says the way to have a life that matters forever is to "lead many to righteousness." And this side of Jesus' cross, we know that means leading many people to Jesus. Now what immortalized those young men of the Pony Express? They were people with a message willing to risk whatever necessary to deliver that message. And they made a huge mark in a very short time. If you belong to Jesus, you've got to see your life-assignment like God does. You are a person trusted with a message to deliver. The significance of your life depends on how faithful you are in delivering it. In 2 Corinthians 5:19, the Bible says, "God has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us." The message: "Come to Jesus and get the relationship with God you were made for." The assignment: "ambassador" - Jesus' personal representative to the people where you work, or live, or go to school, or shop, or recreate. You're there by assignment from God to help some of those people be in heaven with you. How are you doing with that? Maybe you say, "Well, I'm afraid to tell them about what Jesus did on the cross for them. I might mess it up." Listen, God doesn't need your perfect presentation to reach the heart of the person you care about. He does need for you to tell them about your Jesus. The only way you can fail in your mission is to remain silent. Maybe you're not delivering your message because you fear the risks - the risk of building a relationship with someone who's lost, or getting started, of being rejected. But the Bible says, "God has not given us a spirit of fear." Please let God show you that the greatest risk of all is that you will lose this person forever because they never got the message about Jesus. Isn't that a greater fear, what might happen to them than what could happen to you if you do tell them? Like those heroic Pony Express riders, if you'll dedicate your life to delivering your life-giving message, if you'll risk whatever it takes to get that message through, then your heart-cry for a life that counts? Oh, it's going to be answered big-time. As you lead people to Jesus, you're riding to glory - eternal glory.

I'm one of those people with a wall-to-wall schedule I'm afraid. And maybe like you, there's just like no time in there for Murphy's Law - no time for anything to go wrong. Occasionally, Mr. Murphy does visit me. Some years ago I was on an overseas assignment for a youth ministry in New Zealand. You can't get much farther from home than that. And I had booked a lot of meetings for as soon as I returned; which is typical of my crazy schedule. "Oh boy, as soon as I get back we'll have this meeting and that meeting." The problem was that while I was in New Zealand (you ready?) all the DC10s in the world were grounded. Yeah, there was some kind of a flaw or defect, and they grounded all of those planes. And I was stuck with about 4,000 other Americans in New Zealand, because what flew out of New Zealand at that time was pretty much DC10s. Oh, I was frustrated! I wanted to get out of there; I needed to get back. I had a schedule!" Well, somebody offered me a home and they said, "Look, this home is vacant right now. Why don't you go in there and take it until you can get a plane?" So, the next morning I woke up all frustrated and anxious, but I went to sleep that night very excited and very much at peace. Now, you may be stuck in a situation right now, you're frustrated by a detour from the plan like I was. Well, like me, stranded 10,000 miles away from home, you may be about to learn a wonderful secret. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Detour is the Main Road." I had been asking God for some time prior to my New Zealand stranded experience, for some time just to stop and reflect. I said, "Lord, I just need to stop and get in a room somewhere for a day or two with just You and my Bible and a legal pad." Yep, so God took me 10,000 miles to stop me so I could have what I had been asking for. I woke up that morning in New Zealand saying, "Well, I'm not going anywhere." And when I realized that, then I realized I could meet with the Lord there! And boy did I ever! In fact, I couldn't write fast enough! After I spent some extended hours with Him, my legal pad was going. I thought I was going to overheat and melt down from the ideas He was giving me. I couldn't write them down fast enough. You know, He works that way with His kids. He has for a long time. Exodus 19:1-3, our word for today from the Word of God. It says, "In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt, they came to the Desert of Sinai. And they entered the Desert of Sinai and Israel camped there in the desert in front of a mountain. Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain." And verse 11 says, "On the third day the Lord will come down on Mt. Sinai in the sight of all the people." Now, Mt. Sinai wasn't on the way to the Promised Land. From where they were it was a detour; it was a southern detour. I'm sure I might have said, "Hey, wait! This isn't the way to Canaan." But God detoured them to meet them dramatically at Sinai and to give them the Ten Commandments and a historic revelation from Him. What appeared to be a detour was actually the main road. Now, God will often take you on a sudden detour from your course so you can see Him better. For a spirit-led follower of Christ, there is destiny in each detour. Something God wants to do in your life that can only be done by slowing you down, and stopping your relentless forward progress. Have you had any detours lately? Maybe your health, your finances, a dream that's on hold, a relationship that meant a lot is coming apart. Even daily detours when your schedule gets interrupted by someone or something that just drops in. Well, remember, when God directs you to a sidetrack, that's no accident. He wants to meet you there. God's sidetracks are often God's Sinais. Trust that today's unplanned diversions are really part of the plan. Remember, when God is leading His people, the detour is really the main road.

It was one of so many of these that happened more regularly than ever. And we may never know why this particular one happened. That's the usual reaction when another "senseless" shooting leaves its trail of death and heartbreak. This time, this vengeful gunman in the horrific rampage near Santa Barbara, California left this hate-filled, 141-page manifesto to explain it. As one student's self-described "day of retribution" he called it. "My Twisted World" his manifesto was called. And in part, it was a journal of growing romantic and sexual frustration. Girls went for other guys but not for him. Others were having sex while he was an unintentional virgin. Frustration morphed into loneliness, then into desperation, and then a hellish personal agenda of destroying what he thought had hurt him. In the midst of the subsequent discussions about gun control and mental illness, few were addressing his convoluted ideas about love and sex and women; they permeate our culture, our hopes, our expectations. They're lies I'm all too familiar with. From knowing so many who've bought these lies, who feel worthless, and feel rejected. Who often driven to withdrawal, bitterness, self-pity. Some lash out. Some just decide to die. They are wrong ideas that need to be exposed because they're hurting too many people. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Life-Twisting Lies About Love." Here's the first one: sex and love give you worth. That seems to be what the California mass shooter believed. Along with millions of people who've been bombarded with a Hollywood story line that holds up romantic love as the ultimate happy ending; the ultimate validation that, "Yes, you are worth something." But, as many can attest, they got used, not loved. Like the teenage girl who called for advice about whether to give in to her boyfriend's pressure to have sex. She hadn't dated much. She was a virgin. She really didn't want to lose this guy though. I told her she'd probably lose him anyway once she gave in and lose something she could never get back. But he made her feel valuable. She gave him what he wanted. He moved on. She said, "I thought I'd feel worth more if I did it. I don't. I feel more worth-less than ever." Secondly, a man proves his manhood by conquering a woman. Boy, there's another lie. The Bible says we're all "made in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27). It actually commands young men to "treat the younger women as sisters, with absolute purity" (1 Timothy 5:2). So using them for your pleasure diminishes both of you. A guy doesn't prove his manhood by conquering a woman. He proves it by being a man women are safe with, respected, protected, un-violated. He conquers himself. And then a third life-twisting idea out there is that love and sex will make you fulfilled. The most passionate love, the greatest sex still leave you with this haunting whisper in your soul, "Someone's missing." Yeah, well, Someone is. That's Someone with a capital S. A boyfriend, a girlfriend, a lover, a husband or wife; they don't fill that hole in your heart because they can't. God says He has "planted eternity in the human heart" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). And nobody on earth can fill that eternity vacuum. Which leads us to our word for today from the Word of God in Colossians 1:16 that talks about the relationship you were made for. It says, "All things were made by Him and for Him." It's talking about Jesus. He's the One who gave you your worth before you were born. He's the One who restored the worth that your sin had stolen by sending His Son, Jesus, to build a bridge to get to Him; a bridge in the shape of a cross. If you've never begun that ultimate relationship that you were made for and found the fulfillment and the love that only He can give, I invite you to go to our website and there you will find a simple explanation of how to be sure you have begun this life-changing relationship. The website is ANewStory.com. Today, the deep hunger of your restless heart can only be satisfied in one way. By the love that heart was made for.

If you're a sports spectator, it's the least exciting part of the event. If you're a player, it can really make an important difference. It's called a "time out." Now on TV, a time out is a good excuse for a commercial. Right? But some important things are sorted out during time outs. A coach can give you some perspective on what you're doing right or wrong, some suggestions on how to play better, to improve, to change the play, look at the weaknesses of the other team. You can catch your breath, you can recover, you can regroup. A time out wisely used can actually make a decisive difference in the game... in your game. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Always Time for a Time Out." Time outs are part of God's game plan for you and me. I know that because of our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 31. I'll begin reading in verse 13. "Say to the Israelites, you must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come." God goes on to say, "For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest." And then He says, "It will be a sign between Me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. And on the seventh day He abstained from work and rested." Well it's pretty obvious from what God is saying here that regular rest is built into our creation. The problem is this: nonstop running is built into our culture. No matter what we were created for, our culture has us running all the time. God says here, "You must. I insist you build a time out into every week. Not just a big annual vacation where you try to catch up for a whole year of not resting." In every week He says, "Time out - regular rest and recovery; time with Him." Work will take over your life. It is a slave master. You don't have responsibilities; responsibilities have you a lot of times. And God's saying here, "Don't let it take over." He puts a Sabbath in every week to break the dictatorial momentum of work. The rule of work: cross out two of the things that sustain your life. One, it doesn't allow any time for worship of the Lord. And number two, it does not allow any time for the restoration of the worker. That's what Sabbaths are all about. Get together with God and get yourself together. If you've allowed responsibility to cancel out the Sabbath thing in your life, you're flat out disobeying God's plan. The Lord's model was that He abstained from work and He rested. Resting is the easy part; abstaining from work, that's the hard part. I mean, here's a mountain of responsibility in front of you. It is an act of faith to say, "I believe I'll obey God and I believe God will do more with six days than my seven because I'm honoring Him." It's similar to what you believe about tithing, that God can do more with the 90 percent than with your 100 percent if you didn't tithe. When you exercise the faith to take your time out each week, your judgment improves, your energy goes up, your creativity is greater, your confidence is greater, your personality's better to be around, and you return to your responsibilities a better you. God insists on this practical step of sanity; rest whether you have time or not because you don't have time not to. God calls you to stop the clock each week and remember who you are and whose you are. A time out wisely used can make all the difference in the outcome of your game.

Sometimes it's just fun to surprise people. But not when you're trying to check into a hotel. It didn't work out so well for me in Houston. Chuck had contacted me on behalf of an organization to fly to Houston and film a training video. He told me what hotel to go to, and I strolled in with my suitcase. I was confident I'd be greeted with a room number and a key. Instead I was greeted with, "Uh, I never heard of you." They had no record of me! Well, finally, after some frustration I tried one more thing. I gave them Chuck's name. Bingo! The reservation was not in my name; it was in the name of the one who was paying for it. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Name on Your Heaven Reservation." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 4:12 - very important words. "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." And the name referred to two verses earlier is "the name of Jesus Christ, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead." The verse starts out with the word "salvation is found in no one else." What is this salvation thing? Well, obviously it implies that someone needs rescuing. Well, you and I do, because we have messed up the greatest life-or-death choice there is. We have decided the wrong person will run our lives. According to the Bible, the One who gave you your life is supposed to run your life. But, no, each of us has defied our Creator. We've have and I have. The Bible says, "All of us have sinned and come short of God's glorious ideal." We've chosen to do what we want to do with our body, our mind, our sexuality, our future, our money, etc. God's diagnostic name for that rebellion is sin. And it's terminal. We're away from God; we're separated by a wall of sin, which you can probably feel in your soul - that separation. If we die like this, we literally get the hell of never-ending separation from God and His love. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death." But then there's good news; the best news. "But the gift of God is eternal life." The Bible says there's only one name in which you can get that - the name of Jesus. See, you and I are going to keep our appointment with God someday. We all hope we're going to go to heaven. But if the reservation is in your name, you're not getting in. The reservation has to be in Jesus' name, because He paid for it. He paid for you to go there. There are going to be some tragic surprises on Judgment Day. Someone will walk up to God and give their name and say, "Hey, look at all the good things I've done, Lord. Here are my references; all the people who will vouch for me." That's not going to be enough to get you in. Or, "Maybe, Lord, it's in my church's name, or my husband's name, or my wife's name. They're real good Christians. My parent's name." And then will come the agony of realizing that we've been depending on a name that cannot get us into heaven. Only the name of Jesus Christ can get you in, because it took His death on the cross to do it. He's the only Savior there is. There are other religious teachers, there are religious systems. There are a lot of good works. None of which can satisfy a perfect God. Only Jesus paid the price with His life. And God says, "What will you do with Him? Salvation is in no other name." So we need to walk up to God and say, "Lord, look under Jesus. I know that He died on that cross for me. I've accepted His death for me as my only hope. I've made Him my Savior and my Lord. My reservation is in Jesus' name." If you've been depending on anything else to get you to heaven, this is your day to pin all your hopes on the only one who can take you there. That is God's Son, Jesus. Get this settled. Tomorrow is never guaranteed. I'd love to help you get this settled. Would you go to our website, it's what it's there. It's ANewStory.com. I'll tell you, if your heaven reservation is in Jesus' name, I'll tell you what you're going to hear from God, "Welcome home!"

If you've driven across America much, you might have seen a sign at one point that says "Wall Drug Store." It's in Wall, South Dakota. They advertise all over the country. I was even in Singapore years ago. I saw an arrow pointing West. It said something like "Wall Drug Store 10,000 miles." This once little drug store in an unknown town grew into a major tourist attraction. On some days I've heard they'll draw like 20,000 people! But it wasn't always that way. In 1931 a young pharmacist and his wife bought the drug store in Wall, a dusty little town on the edge of the Badlands. And for five years, they barely eked out a living. They were on the verge of giving up, and then the druggist's wife had an idea. Because of the new Mt. Rushmore attraction, lots of cars were going by but they weren't stopping. Her idea? Advertise the one thing those travelers needed after driving across that hot prairie in the 1930's - ice water. So they put out signs for free ice water and people began to stop. The rest is history. Here's what the couple said looking back over the years at the amazing things that had happened. No matter where you live; you can succeed because wherever you are, you can reach out to other people with something they need! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Why Customers Aren't Coming." People weren't coming when all the drug store did was sell their products. But people started pouring in when that store identified a need those people had and started doing something about it! Jesus was doing that with people 2,000 years ago. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 4:6. Jesus was giving the Samaritans a chance to know Him as their Savior. And believe me, it was going to be a hard sell. He's a Jew and the Samaritans don't like Jews. They're very into their religion. As Jesus enters the area, He meets a hardened Samaritan woman at a well where they both stop for a drink. Does He come up and say, "How do you do? I'm the Messiah." It says this: "When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Will you give me a drink?'" Verse 10: "Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water." He starts by talking about a need she has - water. That's why she's at the well. Not necessarily ice water in this case, but water. In verse 13 Jesus says, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst." Her reaction? "Sir, give me this water." Jesus ends up talking about eternal life and this woman's endless search for love in her relationships with men. Then He gently leads her to deal with the sin in those relationships. Eventually, this woman gets her whole village to come out and meet Jesus. How did it all start? By Jesus identifying a need that the woman cared about and using it to turn her attention to a Savior. Question: How can there be so many Christians and so few lost people coming to Christ or even coming to church or to Christian meetings? We're selling our product - the good news of Jesus. But they drive right on by. They don't care about sin so they don't care about what Jesus did for sin. But would they start coming if we identify the need they feel and started doing something about it? If we began helping them be a husband or a wife or a parent, offering services that would meet the needs of local teenagers. And in our personal witness, would more people listen if we took an interest in their felt needs? If we told them what a difference Jesus makes for our loneliness, our emptiness, our brokenness, the pain of our past? It's not about changing the Gospel. No, it's about changing our starting point to get to the Gospel. Jesus knew that closed hearts open when you start with a need that matters to people. When it comes to interesting people in the Savior who died for them, you really can succeed wherever you are - if you reach out to them with something they need!

Even the hard-core reporters were having a hard time talking about it. Apparently, that Ground Zero Museum where the Twin Towers once stood is one powerful experience. As you walk in, you hear the last "I love you" messages people sent from the towers or from the doomed planes. It's a heart-rending walk through this nation's darkest hour I guess, and the heroism and hope that lit up that darkness. Like the man President Obama spoke about at the dedication service. After the wingtip of a hijacked plane sliced through the 78th floor, a group of people were huddling together in the Elevator Sky Lobby, waiting for help. Then they heard the voice. "I found the stairs - follow me!" It was Welles Crowther, a 24-year-old equities trader, whose trademark was the red bandanna he had carried in his pocket since he was a boy. With a woman on his back and a red bandanna in his hand, he led the group to a stairwell. He gave one woman a fire extinguisher, told the group to stay together and go on down the stairs, and they made it out. But Welles didn't go with them. No, he went back upstairs to help others. That's when another woman, badly injured, saw this man with a red bandanna over his nose and mouth, running across the lobby. He led them to an obscure staircase and then went back for others. Then the tower came down. They found Welles Crowther's body six months later. His red bandanna is on display in the museum. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You about "Our Own Ground Zero." His father was there at the dedication, and his words actually touched a pretty deep chord in me. He said, "I don't think for a moment he was thinking about his own safety. He was thinking about the lives of all those people. Welles' last hour was his legacy." Just like my hero. His last hour was on a cross where He bled out His life to save people who otherwise would have died. I'm one of them. All of us whose sins were paid for on that day were His legacy. The Bible tells us in Revelation 1:5 that "Jesus loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood." And then in our word for today from the Word of God, in Galatians 1:4 it says, "He gave himself to rescue us." Jesus came where I was one day and He said, "Hey, I have the way out. Follow Me." Following Him saved my life and saved my soul. Me and the millions who have accepted His invitation, "Follow Me." There's one stop in the Ground Zero Museum that is reportedly one of the most moving. I know I'd be spending some time there. It's that cross. The construction worker who found those girders in the shape of a cross said, "My one goal was to find someone alive. I didn't. But I found the cross." The rubble cavern where it was found came to be known as "God's House" to those hope-starved workers at Ground Zero. It was a Ground Zero chaplain who brought the hope found there right into my hope-hungry life and yours. He said, "When the ground is shaking all around you, find your cross and your Ground Zero." I did. It's the ground that never moves. It's the Love I'll never lose. It's Jesus. Who you find when you go to the cross where He died for you and say, "Jesus, this is for me." If you never have, I invite you to find your way to the safe place, and I would love to help you do that. That's what our website is there for. Would you go there? It's ANewStory.com. It's time to say, "Jesus, I'm yours" and be welcomed into the safety of the Son of God, who died for you.

In many years of youth ministry I have learned that teenagers love to get mail, and if they get mail, whatever form it's in, they probably look at it. They don't actually get all that much sometimes. And then, oh yeah, well, we used to send out promotional pieces when, you know, there was snail mail. And there had to be a good attention-getter on it. One of my favorites that we used to send out, it took up most of the page, and it said this: If you have any complaints about our group, please explain them fully in the box provided below. The box was about the size of a dime. Yeah, we really want the complaints. Obviously, the complaint box isn't big enough. For most of us, when it comes to gripes, I'm not sure we could make a big enough box to put it in. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Grumblers Anonymous." Our word for today from the Word of God is from Exodus 15, 16 and 17. You'll be glad to know we won't be reading all of that, but you'll see a repeating pattern here. And it shows the major occupation of God's people in the wilderness and sometimes God's people today. They've not had water for a couple of days, and so it says in Exodus 15:25, "And the people grumbled against Moses." Now, they go a little further and they're a little hungry. And so it says in chapter 16, verses 2-3, "In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. But you've brought us out into this desert to starve us to death.'" And then in chapter 17, verse 3, "But the people were thirsty for water there and they (want to guess?) grumbled against Moses." They're like actors on cue. OK, we go through something we don't like, cue the grumbling. We always seem to have to talk about what isn't rather than what is. What we don't have rather than what we do have. About what's wrong rather than what's right. It seems as if we're never content just like those ancient children of Israel. You know, there are three mistakes grumblers make. Yeah. One, they blame men for what God is doing. Did you notice they blamed Moses and Aaron? We personalize it; we break down the relationship with those people and with God. We don't find any meaning in the situation until we go to God. Like Moses did, it says "He cried out to the Lord." You can either crab to other people, or you can cry to the Lord about it. Second mistake grumblers make is they deny the goodness of God. What you're really saying is, "God, you don't take very good care of us." Or maybe you're blaming it on some human situation, but you're really saying, "God, you haven't done a very good job." And it causes us to focus on the situation instead of on the Savior. The third mistake grumblers make is that they poison other people - people who have never even thought about the problem. We're really positive until somebody starts grumbling. The poison spreads and finally, they forget the big picture. These people had no gratitude for the waters that had been parted or the relief they found in the desert earlier. See, when you look at the big picture, it leads to gratitude. You see the whole thing God is doing. When you look at a close up of this hard moment, it leads to grumbling. Why don't you turn your grumbling to gratitude? There will always be full membership in Grumblers Anonymous. No more members needed there. So why don't you resign and join a better organization - The Builder Uppers.

Well, Spring is tornado time, and there were some Mississippi folks at the conference we were at getting some pretty scary reports from back home. There were friends in a ministry organization we know of who were deeply wounded by the death of a coworker and daughters in Arkansas. One of the daughters who survived that twister quoted the Book of Job, the biblical man who lost everything. Here's what she wrote: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Somehow, that girl's faith was sustaining her amid a horrific loss. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where's God in the Tornadoes?" There were some others during that outbreak who responded with tragedy's frequent heart cry. "Why, God?" We try to make sense of the shattered pieces of our life. We can't. We want answers from God. Sometimes "Why, God?" is a cry for help. But "Why, God?" might be the wrong question. I think most of the "why's" are hard to see in the middle of the pain. We're looking at the dark thread that we're living right now. Meanwhile God's working on this much larger tapestry that my thread is a part of. And the thread often cannot make sense without the big tapestry, which we won't see for a while. Maybe not until God shows it to us Himself some day. But there is a question I've resorted to in the dark valleys. A question that may have some answers - sooner rather than later. Here's the question: "How can God use this?" See, turning from God in our devastation erases any hope of the suffering having any meaning. That road takes us to dark places of bitterness and despair. Turning to God is the only road to hope when we have no answers. I saw my parents heartbroken when my baby brother died. But I saw their lives totally transformed when their grief actually drove them to the God who had been a stranger to my parents before. It was a tragedy that seemed initially to have no "why." But it was a tragedy that God used to give me a new mom and dad. See, I saw from a very early age, there was purpose in the pain. I know it's been grief and pain that have taught this spoiled only child right here the meaning of compassion. As it says in 2 Corinthians 1:4, "We comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." People who know what it is to be broken have the credentials to be healers in a hurting world. And, like my parents, our darkest hour may be when we find the Light as never before in the God who came from a perfect heaven to be broken by the people He had made. I can tell you this, He was and has been my anchor since the day my wife, the love of my life since I was nineteen, was suddenly gone. And I said later, "I will not waste this grief." And God has been the anchor through it all. In our word for today from the Word of God, in God's own words in Isaiah 53:3-5, speaking of Jesus, it says, "He was crushed...He was pierced...a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering." Paying my bill with God. That's what Jesus was doing so I wouldn't have to pay it forever; choosing to die so I could live. This is a God who's lived our grief, who carries us when we can't take another step. Who went through all of the pain, all of the hell that I deserve. All the payment of my sin, all of the guilt and shame for one simple purpose: so that I could be with Him forever and have the wall between me and God removed. Could it be the storm you're in right now has been to bring you to the place where you would grab the long-extended hand of Jesus, who's offered it for so many years? And now you grab Him and make Him your Savior from your sin and you will never face a storm alone again. If you want to get that done, would you go to our website? I think we could help you. It's ANewStory.com. When our shattered soul reaches in desperation for this God who hung on a cross for us, we find what that old song describes - grace... amazing grace.

A number of years ago I was driving for a pretty extended trip with my son. And in that relaxed moment I said, "Hey, there's something we need to talk about." He rolled his eyes, "Dad, is this 'the talk'?" Well, he must have read me pretty well. He was right. It was time for "the talk." Yeah, it was time to talk about sex. And so, feeling that he needed this information at this point in his life, I explained everything very clearly. I even used all the right words; we didn't talk about "oogie boogie wagga boogie" or something you know. We didn't use the crazy names that parents make up for body parts. No, we were very clear about everything. And he's usually pretty communicative, but he was strangely silent during this conversation. Finally when it was all over, I said, "Hey, what do you think?" He gave me his three-word reaction. He said, "Dad, that's gross!" Well, apparently he changed his mind. He later learned that it was beautiful. One of the truths in parenting is recognizing how much and how soon to tell our children all kinds of important life information. It's knowing when they need to know. Did you know you're being raised that way? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God of the Next Step." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 119:105. And there we have a very revealing look at how God likes to lead us into His will. "Your word," it says, "is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." I got a new appreciation of that verse when I was camping with my kids. You know, you get all settled into the tent in the middle of the night, and then they say, "I got to go potty." And so you untie the tent, and you get out, you go out with your Coleman lantern and start down the dark path. Did you know you can't see the whole path? You can't see the bathroom. All you can see is the next step. But then, how many steps can you take at one time? One at a time, and that's enough. You don't have to see the destination; you just have to see the path ahead of you and know you're on the path. That's how God leads us. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." That's one step at a time guidance. See, we want God to show us next month, the next year, the next five years. And He shows you all you can handle, because He's a good Father. He knows you only give what your son or daughter can handle at that time. And that is one step. On the day when the next step is a major decision, He'll tell you then. But He won't tell you early. Now why does God give it to you in daily instructions? Why doesn't He give us the bigger picture? Well, if He told us early, we'd probably make one of two mistakes. We'd either run ahead of Him to get to it because it looks so exciting, and thereby ruin it because we're not ready for it yet, or we'd run away from it like my son saying, "Oh, that's gross, Dad!" Well, he wasn't ready for the information. We'll run away from it. But you see, by God leading us a day at a time, when we get to it, it will seem like the most natural, exciting thing. But right now we're not ready for it. If you rush it, you'll ruin it. And if He told us early we would just take the plan, fold it up under our arms and walk away. I like the old hymn that says, "We cannot see what lies before, and so we cling to Him the more." Maybe you're frustrated because you want to know the future now. But maybe you're not ready for all of that yet. Can you focus on today - God's leading for this 24 hours? His macro will for your life is made up of a thousand micro wills - a day at a time. So you stay on the path that leads to God's ultimate best, the day-at-a-time path. Let God tell you His will in bite-sized chunks. Like any good Father, He won't dump the whole load on you before you're ready. He'll keep you on His need-to-know basis.

I've never really been addicted to TV game shows. But years ago, my son got me to kind of be interested in one. It's called Jeopardy. Three contestants, given several categories ranging from U.S. presidents to cat food, and the contestant picks a dollar value question. The host gives the answer to the question in that category. Then the three contestants vie to see who can get the right question, because the right answer is the question. Understand that. Some of them do very well and they win lots of money; others just kind of fold up. I said to my son, "Look at those people! They wind up in the hole with their money! How did they get on the show?" He reminded me, "Dad, it's hard to come up with right answers when you have all that pressure on you." (OK, I stand corrected.) I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Right Answers Under Pressure." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Nehemiah 2, beginning at verse 1. Now, we all know the feeling of those Jeopardy contestants. The pressure's on, the right answer is needed. Maybe you're in a conversation with your boss, or your parents, or you're dealing with one of your children on an important key issue, or you're trying to speak to a friend about the Lord. Well, Nehemiah knew that feeling. He is the king's cup bearer as a Jewish exile in Persia. He'd heard of the shape that his city - God's city, Jerusalem - was in, and he had a burden from the Lord to go and rebuild the city of Jerusalem. He knew he would need the king's help to do that. He knew he would need time off from his royal job. And he didn't quite know how he was going to bring all this up with the most powerful man in the world who was his boss - the King of Persia. He says, "I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, so the king asked me, 'Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This could be nothing but sadness of heart.' I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, 'May the king live forever!" Which is a good way to start with kings. "Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruin and its gates have been destroyed by fire?' The king said to me, 'What is it you want?'" Drum roll please! Man, everything hinges on this answer. Nehemiah: "Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king." From this point on the king becomes his ally in this great, historic cause. Now, this is a conversation you might say that changed the course of history, as the walls and the gates of Jerusalem do end up getting rebuilt. Maybe your issue isn't quite that cosmic, but you do need God's help for some important conversation. Here is how he displays his hand in important conversations. First, there's a divine nudge. See, Nehemiah had been praying about this situation for some time. So God said, "There's a need I want to address, and I want to address it through you, Nehemiah." See, God will put this burden on your heart; this divine nudge. Secondly, there's a natural opportunity. You'll think, "How in the world am I going to get into this conversation? How am I going to bring this up? How am I going to get started?" Listen, ask God for a natural opportunity. Nehemiah actually was asked the magic question by the king, "What is it you want?" Could you serve it up any better than that? Just ask God for an open door like that and then look for the opening when it comes. Thirdly, there is an inspired answer. Nehemiah gave a tremendous answer to the king's question, and it launched a whole change of events. The key is what Nehemiah did. "I prayed to the God of heaven and then I answered." Talk to the God of heaven before you talk to the person on earth, before you answer that call, before you answer that email, that text, before you respond, get all prayed up. And even if you're scared like Nehemiah was, go ahead to the opportunity when God opens the door. We're all playing Jeopardy and we're coming up with right answers under pressure. But it's because we have a direct pipeline to the One who has all the right answers. Hey, let God come up with your answer.

You know, I've been told so many times in my life, "Go take a hike," so I finally did. Yeah, this particular summer I was at a lovely Christian conference center in California. One day when I wasn't speaking, they had a nature hike. They had a fellow called Father Nature who took us out (you didn't know there was a Father Nature I'll bet) and he showed us the four different kinds of nature zones they had on their property. There was the river bed; the desert section, and so on. It's rather amazing from a scientific standpoint. And he showed us two kinds of trees: First, there were these beautiful White Alder trees. They grow lushly by the river and they wave their leaves. And he said they can evaporate up to 400 gallons of water a day! Now, the roots of the White Alder are very shallow apparently. They get plenty of water and therefore they have shallow roots. But when the floods come, oh boy, we've got a problem. He showed us the desert zone trees, and the ones in the desert survive on 40 gallons of water a year sometimes. How come? They use everything they get, and their roots are deep. Guess which one is still standing after a violent storm? Yep, the one with the roots. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Saturated But Not Strong." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is about those roots. Not so much the roots of trees in the desert or trees by the river bed, but God's trees - that would be you and me. Colossians 2:6-7, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." Now, this describes the point of entry into a relationship with Christ. It says, "just as you received Christ." Do you remember when you opened your life to Christ and how dependent you were on Him; how hungry you were to get into His Word; how boldly and frequently you prayed; how trusting you were? Well, you see, this verse is necessary to talk to us about our roots because we have a tendency to get lazy about those spiritual roots. See, in many ways, we American Christians, are the White Alder tree that I described earlier - the one that has all that nourishment that evaporates up to 400 gallons of water a day, lives by the river bed, saturated but with weak roots. See, we're saturated, too: Christian resources. We've got Christian radio, websites, books, TV, Bible studies, seminars, conferences, and we're waving and we're celebrating. But could it be we're depending on meetings and events, and feelings, and miracles, and experiences? We've got weak roots and we are vulnerable to the storm. Now, you talk to Christians in the desert places like China, and they know where their roots are: consistent, personal Bible study every day; fervent prayer; deep roots in the church; always learning... always growing. But we get lazy here in our spiritual rain forest. It takes a heavy hit to show us that what we have is broad but not very deep, and maybe then it is too late. You know, maybe it's time now for us to see that our roots need to be growing, not just our leaves. Do you know some things about the Lord that you didn't know a month ago? Have you given Him some new ground that He didn't have a month ago? Are you praying in fresh, new ways? Are you going by the book and not by your feelings? Is your relationship with God mostly vertical... not horizontal, like just when you're with His people? Well, you could be saturated but not strong. You've got to go to your roots. Then when the storm or the drought comes, you will stand tall through it all.

We had a few days off, and the phone rang in our little cabin in the woods. A family member was calling. She said, "You need to turn on the news. A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center." I watched the news for much of the next three days. I was trying to absorb a scene that I had no mental file folder for. I don't think any of us did. I felt sickened, I felt vulnerable and profoundly sad beyond words. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "September 11th and Its Haunting Question." Radio stations began calling and asking if I would do an interview the next day to talk about what had happened. How could I help thousands of listeners process this unprecedented trauma when I was still trying to sort my own thoughts and feelings? Then I just bowed my head and prayed: "God, would You please help me see what's happening today through Your eyes? What are You seeing here?" Suddenly, I wasn't just seeing collapsing towers or a terrorist attack. This was about thousands of people unexpectedly rushing into eternity at one place and one time, ready or not. Nothing can diminish the deep grief and the horror of that defining September morning. But looming above those images and memories is a deeply personal question for each of us, "Am I personally ready for eternity whenever it comes, however it comes?" That's why the Bible tells us in our word for today from the Word of God in Amos 4:12, "prepare to meet your God." See, you and I have an appointment with God that's long been scheduled in His calendar. But it's not in mine. It will come without warning, and only one thing will matter at that moment. Listen to this from the book of 1 John in the Bible, "God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:11-12 ). All that matters in a person's eternity moment is, "What did I do with Jesus?" Because it was only Jesus who did the dying that I deserve for the lifetime of the wrong things I've done against God. If a religion could have taken care of my sin or your sin, there's no way Jesus would have been butchered on a cross like that. But He loves me too much to lose me. He loves you too much to lose you. So He died for you; He died for me. One of God's greatest blessings to us is the stunning discovery that we actually can be sure - right here and now - that we will go to heaven when we die; never have to sweat that question again. Not because of how good we are, but because of how good God is. In the words of the Bible, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). From the moment you take that gift, it's yours and it's yours forever. Every day in America alone, it's like there are two September 11ths, at least in terms of lives lost. Six thousand Americans go into eternity each day and 150,000 in our world. One day that will be you. One day it will be me, and we don't know when that is. To be ready for eternity, to know you're going to heaven when you die, means to know that you have had every sin of your life - the sin that would keep any of us out of heaven - it has been erased from God's Book forever. Only one person can do that; the man who paid the penalty for it. That's Jesus. He did it when He died on the cross. But He's alive - resurrected - to give you life. He walked out of His grave. He's ready to walk into your life today, if you'll just open up your heart to Him. Put your life in His hands. Let me encourage you to join me at our website, and I can explain to you there exactly how to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. There's one final heartbeat, and then God, ready or not. It's life-or-death stuff to make sure you are ready for eternity.

Okay, for all too many of us the words diet and failure are synonyms. I guess that's why Weight Watchers was born and others like it. There were a lot of people who have never lost weight, or at least been able to keep it off, and suddenly the word diet became synonymous with success. What's the difference? Well, part of it is this. I guess once a week with Weight Watchers you get together with a group of people who are in this with you. If you lose, you lose in front of all of them. Yeah, and if you've gained, you've gained in front of all of them. I don't think they do that. You see, there's something about that... let's call it "with-ness" that makes it easier to get where you want to be. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Commitment Insurance." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in Acts 2. Listen for the key word that describes these powerful, first Christians. "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. All the believers were together and had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods; they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people." Now, listen to the power they had. "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Now you probably noticed the word that was repeated three times. It's the word "together." They were growing, serving, praying together, and it was powerful. Apparently it was magnetic! I believe the early Christians had learned the power of accountability... just like that Weight Watchers plan; people who are keeping me true to my commitment, cheering for my success, and caring when I fail. Except the issues here are much larger than weight could ever be; the issue is like will I keep the commitments I have made to my Lord, about getting into His Word, about conquering that enslaving sin? I want to beat it. The commitments I've made about reaching my friends, about praying more consistently and aggressively, about getting serious regarding sexual purity. What we need is commitment insurance. And accountability is commitment insurance. It could well be that right now you need to surround yourself with some people who will help you stay on course, who care if you do, and who will pray for you, who will pull you back to your commitment if you get very far astray. There is tremendous power in an accountability group. Maybe you've tried to do it alone in a corner before and you know it hasn't worked. Well, today is a call to do it together. In the words of Ecclesiastes, "Two are better than one. If one falls down, the other can help him up. If one can be overpowered, two can prevail." Look, it's just too easy to make a commitment and then just kind of drift off quietly, but not if you've got some "with" persons. It should probably be some peers of yours who are your "with" persons. And then there should be one person who's not a peer; who's a spiritual leader. And you tell them your commitments and you say, "Help me stay true to these." Box yourself in; put yourself on the line for your commitments to Christ - the ones you really do want to keep in your heart. If you're tired of the ups and downs of spiritual inconsistency, you're hungry for a Christian lifestyle instead of just Christian binges, well take out some commitment insurance; some brothers or sisters who will help you weigh in regularly.

This is probably going to take a little imagination; maybe a lot of imagination. Let's say you go to buy a new car and you're going to pay in cash. So, let's make up a number - $30,000 in cash. Now, the dealer stamps the invoice Paid In Full. He says it will be here in two weeks. You show up all excited about getting your new car and you say, "Here I am. Remember me?" He says, "Oh yeah! Sure!" And he gives you this gift-wrapped box, shakes your hand and walks away. You go, "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute!" He says, "No, open the box, I think you're going to like it." So you open it up and here's a new steering wheel, a new carburetor, and a new hub cap. You go, "Hey, wait, Buddy! These are just spare parts! I paid the full price! I should get the full product." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "'Spare Parts' Faith." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Revelation 5. I think in many ways this is one of the most incredible chapters in the Bible. It pulls the curtain on heaven in John's vision and it reveals Christ in all His majesty as we seldom see Him in the Bible. This is not the Jesus of Bethlehem or the cross. This is Jesus as He is now; as we're going to meet Him one day. In this vision there are 24 elders who represent the church - us believers. And in the middle of their praise and their amazement they say this to Jesus Christ in Revelation 5:9-10, "And they sang a new song. You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because You were slain and with Your blood You purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God. And they will reign on the earth." Man, in heaven they're celebrating nonstop the inconceivable price the Son of God paid for you and me, which brings us to that box of spare parts. How much of you have you given to this One who gave everything for you? This says that Jesus purchased men for God with His blood. A lot of us tend to divide our lives into compartments, and we've got a nice Jesus compartment. In that compartment we've got our Bible reading, our prayer, our church, our ministry work. And then there's all those other compartments; how we treat our family, how we treat our coworkers, here's what we do for fun, there's our music over there, here's our recreation, here's the websites we go to. And then there's the compartment for our business, our career, the sexuality of our life, our friends. Those are the things that really matter to us. When we heard the knock of Jesus on our heart, we said, "Come into my life, Lord." And maybe we gave Him a compartment. In essence, we brought Him a gift-wrapped box filled with spare parts; the things that didn't matter all that much to us. But this is Jesus. This is the King of kings. He's expecting to get what He paid so much for. Could it be Jesus is coming to you where you are right now and He's saying, "Please don't give Me the parts of your life you don't need anyway. I paid the whole price for you. I should get the whole product." He could have stopped in the garden when He wanted to, but He didn't. He could have stopped when they were torturing Him, but He didn't. He could have stopped when He was agonizing on that cross, but He went ahead and paid your death penalty instead. The old hymn writer said, "He could have called ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set Him free. But He died alone for you and me." Remember, you are very expensive. God's one and only Son paid for you with His life. By the way, have you ever embraced this man as your only hope of a relationship with God, of having your sins forgiven, of going to heaven? If you've never done that, you know one day God's going to ask you, "What did you do with My Son who died for you?" You need to be able to say, "I gave Him me." If you never have, well I'd love to introduce you to Him and show you how that could begin. Would you go to our website today - ANewStory.com. Give Jesus what He paid for. And that's all of you. He sure deserves more than your spare parts.

As a kid, I often rode my bike up to the old theater on 79th Street for the Saturday afternoon flick. But this day was different. They handed me this strange-looking pair of glasses made of cardboard with tinted plastic lenses. Those goofy-looking glasses opened up a whole new world where the events in a movie no longer just stayed flat on the screen. They leaped off the screen and right into my face. Hello, 3-D! I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "What You Can See With Eternity Eyes." Looking through three-dimensional glasses, we saw things we could never see without them. When Jesus summons someone to follow Him and be a part of what He's doing, He wants to outfit them with a new pair of spiritual glasses. Not 3-D glasses, no - 4-D glasses. They give you the ability to see a fourth dimension in the people around you, to see what Jesus sees, to see the lostness beneath what's on the surface of the people in your world. Looking through the eyes of Jesus, you see things you could never see without them. Like the "eternalness," the lostness of your co-workers, your fellow students, your neighbors, your teammates, the folks at the club, your friends at school, family members. You're driven to action to reach them for Jesus because now you see them as they really are - precious creations of God, but headed for an awful eternity without Him. In our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 24:11-12, God describes the real condition of people around us, no matter how religious, or how together, or how nice they seem to be. He calls to you and me, "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not He who weighs the heart perceive it?... Will He not repay each person according to what He has done?" Jesus came here on a mission to rescue spiritually dying people and now He's expecting you and me to join that mission, to be a rescuer for the people within your reach. But you'll just sit passively soaking up the blessings until you see the people around you as Jesus does. My friend Mike is a pastor. He was in his study the other day and his six-year-old daughter came in and she began to study the chart of end-times events that he has on his wall. The end of the chart shows one group of people going up to eternal life and another group of people going down to eternal punishment. Suddenly she blurted, "Daddy, look!" My friend said, "At what?" and he was shaken by her answer. "Daddy, can't you see all those people going to hell?" Mike said he hadn't seen all those people going to hell for a long time until his daughter helped him put on Jesus' glasses. Maybe you haven't seen them either and they're all around you. God describes the people you know who don't belong to Jesus with words like these out of the Bible: they are "being led away to death" (Proverbs 24:11)... they are "separated from God" (Isaiah 59:2)... they are "lost" (Luke 19:10)... they are, the Bible says, "condemned already"... they will be "punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). This isn't just some theological concept. This is someone you know, people Jesus died for so they could be rescued from all this; people who may never know Jesus unless you introduce them to Him. He has divinely positioned you in their life to be their rescuer, to be their chance at Jesus, to be their chance at heaven. Once you see what Jesus sees, you'll rescue the dying whatever it takes and whatever it costs! And you'll look in the mirror and say, "I am someone's chance."

We met this couple at a conference we were attending. They were telling us about how just the day before, a storm had blown in across the lake while they were down at the beach. All of a sudden they noticed all these Monarch butterflies that were unable to go against that wind. They'd been blown right onto the beach and right into the sand. So, there were stranded Monarch butterflies all over the beach. Their wings became coated with the sand. They were literally grounded. The lady tried to help them, but she didn't want to hold them. So she tried to balance them on a stick. And she hoped they would hold on while she cleaned their wings, but they were too weighed down with sand and they just fell off. Well, the man of the family kind of let them come up on his fingers, and he picked them up one by one and he just used his finger to gently clean the sand off these Monarchs. You know what? One by one they were able to fly again. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How You Can Fly Again." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 51 where King David is in recovery. Not from an operation or an illness, but from a terrible moral failure; his sin of adultery. Psalm 51:1 - "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquities and cleanse me from my sins." Later on in verse 10 he says, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will turn back to you." I think David must have felt like one of those butterflies on the beach - he's grounded. His security is gone. He's saying, "Give me back a steadfast spirit." His sense of God's presence seems to be gone. He says, "Don't cast me from your presence." His joy is gone. "Restore to me the joy of your salvation." He wants to reach out. He says, "I want to teach transgressors your ways." But he feels unworthy to do it. And the sand and dirt of sin have grounded him. Sin never advertises it's going to do this to you; this bill you're going to get. But the bill always comes. And you might know some of these feelings right now. Most of us do one time or another. Some people might be like that lady on the beach. You know, they'd like to help us get it back together, but they don't want to get too close. And then there's Jesus. He wants to pick you up out of the sand that you're stuck in, and if you've repented of that sin; if you've told Him you're so sorry for it and that you won't do it again, He's heard your cry and He is ready, willing and able to pick you up out of the sand. But before He could pick up your wings, He laid down His life. 1 Peter 2:24 says, "He carried our sins in His own body on the tree." That means that David had been forgiven; but he had to be restored. And that's what your Savior wants to do for you. If you surrender that part of you each day to Him, open up all the scars and the feelings to Him. And then make it right with anyone who maybe got wounded by that sin. Then you choose to believe His promise of forgiveness rather than your feelings of condemnation. What great news! Romans 8:1, "There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." Listen, the sooner you open up to Him, the sooner this healing can begin. Why don't you tell Him, "Lord, I've sinned. I know I've hurt You. I don't deserve your forgiveness. I'm thankful you don't work on the business of deserve. I'm grounded because of the weight of what I've done. Clean me up and help me fly again." If you've never been to the cross in your heart to have that lifetime of sin forgiven; the place where Jesus paid for it all, tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm pinning all my hopes on you." We'd love to help you do that. Go to our website today. It's ANewStory.com. He'll pick you up. He'll hold you close. He'll gently restore your beauty, your buoyancy. Sin takes its toll. It will leave scars, but with Jesus, failure is never final. You can fly again!

Now, the problem with professional football games is they keep slowing down for huddles and time outs; especially those commercials. I'll tell you when they don't slow down. It's near the end of the game where your team is behind, and with two minutes left, a team often skips the huddle, all the delays, and they just go right from one play to the next. They forget the game plan; there's two minutes left. They go for broke! Now, this is called the "hurry-up offense," and that's pretty literally named. Skip the huddle, skip all the game plan; let's win this game - do whatever it takes. You play differently when there isn't much time...or you should. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "End Times Praying End Times Loving." Which brings us to our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 4, beginning with verse 7, where he talks about "the end of all things is at hand." Now, all of us are living in a world that seems to be winding down, or maybe winding up to Christ's return. It's obvious even to unbelievers that we seem to be moving to some kind of dramatic climax. It's all bubbling up into something. And if you've read the final chapters of the Bible, you know what that climax is. So, how should we be playing in light of this what might be a two-minute warning from God so to speak? Well, there are two areas that are supposed to be affected the most: How we pray, because verse 7 in 1 Peter 4, talks about being clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. OK, the first area is we ought to be praying differently - open-mindedly, ready for whatever God might say to us in these urgent times. So, don't be surprised if God says to do something outside of your box. The second area that is affected is how we treat each other. Listen to this, coming off that statement, "the end of all things is near." It says, "Above all..." (okay, that's important) "...Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins." I love that phrase. It seems to be summed up in these two words, "covering love." Urgent times - times when you see climactic events taking place. Those are times in which our relationships should be described by those two words, "covering love." Love covers all kinds of wrongs that might be done to you. What's the opposite? Is it hate? Is it indifference? Well, let's call it un-love... if I'm giving you anything less than love, it's un-love. You know what it does? It uncovers every wrong that's done to you; it keeps score. "If I don't love you, I will maintain a list of grievances I'll never forget. But these are urgent times. There's no time to dissect every misunderstanding, every harsh word, every miscommunication, every hurt feeling. In sports they say, "Shake it off" when you get hurt. That's what you do with end-times loving. You "shake it off" if you've been hurt by somebody. You choose to move on. This isn't some passive little tame love. It's active loving, active forgiving. Actually it's the word in the Greek stretched out. That's what "love each other deeply" means. It's like a fully extended runner. It's fully extended love. That's the kind of offense that is worthy of the time that's on the clock. You pray ready for anything God might say, and you love ready to forgive anything, and to give anything. I think we may have heard God's two-minute warning. It's time for God's hurry-up offense. Hey, it's time to go for broke.

He was five years old, and his mommy wasn't feeling well. So she was taking a nap. His little two-year-old sister wanted an ice cream cone, so he did what Mommy would do. Yeah. He picked up the car keys Mommy had left on the kitchen table, took his little sister out to the car, put her in the back seat, turned on the car and somehow started driving (this is a true story). Then Mr. Five-Year-Old pulled out into the main thoroughfare at the corner. Thankfully, a police officer saw the car going by apparently without a driver from what he could see. That got his attention! He pursued the mystery car and managed to get the driver to pull over. Needless to say, there was one shocked policeman when he opened the door and saw a little boy at the wheel. I'd say it's a pretty good thing he stopped him. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Never Meant to Drive." That little guy was never meant to drive. Just like you and me - our life I mean. The One who gave you your life, that's the one who's supposed to be driving your life. In the words of the Bible, we were "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). There's a fundamental reason that we continue to wonder what the purpose of our life is and why it doesn't have the meaning we want it to have; a fundamental reason that no relationship, no accomplishment or experience, or even religion has filled the hole in our heart. It's the reason we continue to end up feeling lonely and lost. We insist on driving our life when God is supposed to. In our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah 53:6, the Bible says: "We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way." The result is described a little later in a subsequent chapter: "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). Here we are, cruising down the road without the One we were made by and made for. That explains so much of our frustration, and our hurt, and even the times we've crashed - all because we are obsessed with doing the driving. You may be, by nature, a self-reliant person. And that could be good. You've had to figure out things on your own. And maybe you've done a pretty good job of it. Then God comes along and says, "If you want your life to work, if you want to have a relationship with Me, you have to let go of the wheel." You'll go to some of God's meetings, you believe God's beliefs, maybe even contribute to some of God's causes, but you're not about to let go of the wheel. In the same verses that talk about us going our own way, God goes on to say, "The Lord has laid on Him (that's God's Son, Jesus) the iniquity (or the wrong doing) of us all... the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." Jesus actually went to a cross to absorb all the guilt of all our wrong doing so we could be forgiven, so we could be reunited with the God who made us; so we could make it into His heaven when we die. If there was something you or I could do to make it with God, there's no way He would have sent His Son to go through what He did when He died for us. It was the only way. It's your only way. But you have to let go of the wheel. You and I are dying spiritually, and Jesus is the Rescuer who's come to save us. You'll have to abandon trusting in yourself to let go and trust the Man who died and rose again for you. If you insist on hanging onto the wheel of your life, you will ultimately drive it over the cliff of an eternity away from God. And if you've got a family or people who follow you, you may even take others with you. Today, the God who made you, the God who gave His Son for you, is saying to you, "Let go of the wheel so I can take your life where I meant for it to go." The release of that wheel will result in the greatest peace you've ever experienced, because the One who was supposed to drive will finally be driving. Man, I would love for you to begin this life-changing relationship with Him. If you want that, go to our website and find there the information that will help you get this settled. It's ANewStory.com. The greatest tragedy in life would be if you go into eternity with your hands still stubbornly hanging onto the wheel. Because only Jesus can drive you where you want to end up.

Now if you've ever been a football widow, you understand how long those games seem to take. "I want my husband back. When is this thing going to be over?" Of course the commercials help it feel a lot longer, but you might ask yourself, "Well, what about all those huddles? I mean what a waste of time! Do they have to do that? There's a game to win. These guys are stopping after every play to get their heads together." Well, of course, it's not a waste of time at all. If they try to play without that regular huddle, they're going to all go off in all kinds of directions, all kinds of confusion. Oh, by the way, and so will we. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Huddle, Big Muddle." Our word for today from the Word of God is in Luke 10; we're beginning in verse 38. "As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, they came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to them. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me.' 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you're worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'" Okay, here's a brief description of what we just saw here: Mary, in the huddle, and Martha in a muddle. That would be my title for this passage today. Martha made a choice that I've made many times, and maybe you have too. Usually to my frustration and chagrin, "I've got so much to do! I just don't have time to sit down and be with Jesus right now!" That's where she was. She didn't have time for the huddle. Mary's over there in the huddle. Martha says, "That's a waste of time when there's so much to do. I've got to get all this done." Well, as you probably learned, it's because you have so much to do that you must meet with Jesus. That huddle with Him? That's what, as the kids would say, "gets your head together." As you spend quiet time in that huddle before you head into that overpowering schedule, you take a few moments to see your work as it looks through Jesus' eyes. You see the people in your world that are going to be pressing on you, and you see them through His eyes then. You begin to see what He sees, and they look different. You get some perspective. Often you'll even get a fresh idea in His presence as you listen to Him. That's happened to me so many times. And suddenly, something that was a log jam mentally becomes a breakthrough in His presence. Most importantly, you remember during those moments how powerful He is. How much bigger Jesus is than the list you face - than the pressure you face. And you remember how much He loves you. In those moments you find yourself off-loading your work to Him. And the result is a wonderful peace, a poise, a confidence that makes your work much less intimidating and much more manageable. Hey, maybe you've been running plays with no huddle in-between, thinking you don't have time for the huddle. It now needs to become a non-negotiable in your schedule. See, when you don't have the huddle, it would be like a football team not having one - stressed, confusion, broken plays. So, commit yourself to a regular scheduled huddle time with your Jesus, and make it the highest priority of your personal schedule with everything else revolving around your time with Him. Because remember, no huddle - big muddle.

I've lived in the city; I've lived in the country. And when I live in the country... there are a lot more farm animals, so I learn a lot. I've actually learned a lot about donkeys. It's kind of fun to hear their braying. I mean there's no other animal that sounds quite like a donkey. Now, the ones that I knew best, the gray one and the brown one, but they both have the same marking on their back. It's one long dark line along their spine and then there's a shorter dark line across their shoulders. It actually makes a cross. One old farmer told my wife that all donkeys have that cross, and that they have it because a donkey carried Jesus to His birth and on Palm Sunday. I don't know the reason, but there's no doubt that many donkeys carry the cross on their backs. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and want to have A Word With You today about "A Donkey Lesson In Humility." I have to tell you something, I saw myself when I looked at those donkeys. No, I don't have the ears. I don't bray. But in a lot of ways, I am sort of a donkey who carries the cross of Jesus. Jesus' great ambassador, Paul, knew that the message of the cross - the one that he carried everywhere he went - was all he really had to offer. In our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 6:14, he simply says, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Oh, Paul had a list of Christian accomplishments that would dwarf anything any of us could be proud of. But he knew who he was. In his own words, "less than the least of all the Lord's people" (Ephesians 3:8). Then He said, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst" (1 Timothy 1:15). Several years ago I was surprised at a large Christian event by the presentation of a wonderful award. In fact, I was almost in shock as I went up to accept the award. They wanted me to say something. Believe it or not, for once in my life, I literally did not know what I would say. And this verse, King James style, was all I could think of, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Look, I'm nothing without the cross. Paul was nothing without the cross. You are nothing without the cross. This isn't a matter of putting yourself down and insulting God by saying He created someone worthless. We are "His workmanship" the Bible says (Ephesians 2:10). But without the cross, we're stranded in an orbit away from the One who gave us our worth, and the death of Jesus on that brutal cross is the only way to connect with our Creator. If you've drifted into promoting yourself these days, if you've been trying to get attention or recognition or advancement for you, how about going out of the self-promoting business? God has you here to promote Jesus and to promote His cross. God doesn't really need you or me, but when we pick up our cross to follow Jesus, He appoints us to His service. And He gives us a simple mission. In a sense, the one He's given those donkeys, "Carry My cross wherever you go!" Are you? Your mission is to take as many people as you can by the hand and lead them up Skull Hill to the foot of Jesus' cross where you show them how much this Jesus loves them. Anyone who knows you for very long should be guided by you to the cross. I just pray you won't be ashamed of the cross of Jesus. Aren't you thankful that He wasn't ashamed of you when He died for you on a cross?

I'll bet you remember these familiar words, "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can." Sure you do. Well, I hope you do, or else you had a deprived childhood. Because most of us grew up on those words. It's that little book, The Little Engine That Could. I think Fred Flintstone must have read it to his kids. I mean it's that old. Remember, the little engine tries to make it up to the top of the mountain, with this train load of toys. It's a mountain no other train was able to navigate. And as he gets near the top, he says, "I think I can. I think I can (puff, puff, chug, chug)." Oh, I've read it so many times to my kids and my grandkids. Well, as you remember, of course, he makes it to the top of the mountain. It's a great book. It's got a great philosophy of life. It's a great confidence builder. But maybe right now you've hit a mountain that you really can't climb. Maybe you need to read that book again - or I've got an idea. How about a much better book. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Brink of 'I Think I Can't.'" Now, about that mountain that you're having a hard time getting to the top of. And I'll tell you, I know what it is to chug up mine and not be making it. Maybe you're there. There's just too much right now. Maybe it's one of those Morton salt times - they're the ones who have the commercial "when it rains it pours." It's gotten worse before it got better. It could be you're just too tired, you're too depleted. Maybe you have in front of you a responsibility or even a ministry that looks... well, just too big for you. And you are living on the brink of "I think I can't." Well, if it's any comfort to you, someone as strong as the great Apostle Paul was there. He recorded it in 2 Corinthians 1:8. He talks about pressure in his life. He says, "We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life." Paul literally, he's on the brink of "I think I can't." He talks about the responsibilities of his ministry. In chapter 2, verse 16, he says, "Who is equal to such a task?" He's just barely hanging on... maybe just like you. And then all of a sudden in chapter 3, verse 4, he talks about "such confidence is ours through Christ before God." Wait a minute! Where did this confidence come from? I thought you couldn't make it up the mountain, Paul. Well, our secret is our word for today from the Word of God from 2 Corinthians 3:5. He says this, "Our competence comes from God. Not that we are confident in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, He has made us competent." Now, there's a re-appearing Greek word here that means "adequate," "qualified for," "worthy," "large enough." It's the word that John the Baptist used when he said, "I'm not worthy... " I don't deserve to untie Jesus' sandals. Paul said, "I don't deserve to be an apostle," but now he's confident. Well, if you feel you're not adequate, you're right. If you feel like you don't deserve the position you have, right again. If you feel like you can't handle what you've got, you're right. God lets us get to those overload points so He can show us what we can't do and what He can do. The simple fact is whatever the gap between your strength and your challenge, God makes up the difference. He has made us competent. So, my friend, draw deeply on His strength. Be honest about how desperate you are. And then proceed as if God will get you to the top of the mountain. Because He will, if you are at the brink of "I think I can't." Because then, you're at the brink of God's miraculous enabling.

Raising children! You know, it's not easy to know what's best for those little lives that God entrusts to us is it? A lot of times we don't know until years later if we did too much or not enough, or just the right amount. We have choices to make about discipline, medical treatment, and education. We've got to decide where the boundaries are going to be; what happens if they go out-of-bounds. Some choices actually make the difference between life and death. It was exactly that for a couple who had Siamese twins. The girls were joined at the chest. They shared a common heart. The doctor said there was no way they both could live, but if they were separated, one would certainly die, but the other one had a chance of living. Those parents were faced with a choice for which there was no textbook. They had to decide whether they would let one die so the other child could live. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Expensive Choice." Our word for today from the Word of God - Romans 8:32. Here's what it says: "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" This is the most expensive choice God the Father ever had to make. The most expensive choice ever made in the history of this planet. Someone had to die for your sins and for mine or we would. According to Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." There is a death penalty for our sin, and it can only be paid one way; somebody's got to die. God loved us so much He sent His one and only Son to be your substitute and mine. But then came that heart-wrenching moment for a Father; that moment when the Son of God is on the cross. He actually carried all the guilt and all the hell of all my sin and your sin. If I were God, I think my fist would have come crashing down on that hill and said, "You can't do this to my Son!" There God is faced with that awful choice, "Who would die for your sins?" Look, I deserve to; you deserve to. Only one could live, and He chose you. That's why Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" God looked at His Son carrying all of my sins, all of your sins, and He turned His back on His Son so He would never have to turn His back on you. And that is what makes it so tragic and so unforgivable when you ignore that love. We try to make it to God with our pitiful good works; our religion. If that could do it, He never would have sacrificed His Son for our sins. So today, you and I stand confronted with this question, "What will you do with Jesus?" God's most expensive choice was to turn His back on His Son. Your most expensive choice will be if you turn your back on His Son. Because there goes forgiveness, there goes a relationship with God, there goes eternal life, there goes heaven. So, what will you do right now? Isn't it time you say to this God who paid this price, "Oh, God, thank You. I am so grateful You chose to have Your Son die so I can live. I am Yours." This is the price God paid so you could have a relationship with Him. Don't wait another day. Don't risk missing this relationship with God. It's time to open your heart to Him. Nobody loves you more. Are you ready to make that choice? You ready to open your heart to Jesus? I'd love to help you get this settled today, now. That's what our website's all about. Just go there - ANewStory.com. Please go there today. God made His most expensive choice at the cross when His Son died for you. You are now making your most important choice to give yourself to Him and to live.

Hey, I really like Florida. It's a great place, but I'll probably never live there. I enjoy going there, but my problem is I'm a four-seasons freak. I grew up with the four seasons. I enjoy the changes of season. I think I would miss that a lot. Of course, I grew up in the north and I probably got used to it. But, you know, it's kind of neat when the fall colors come in, and then a hundred bags of leaves that we used to take out of our yard every fall. And then when the fall changes to winter, and there's a whole new set of sports and activities and fun, and festivities. It goes a little long in some places; I could stand to cut a month or two off of that one. And then, all of a sudden you're driving along one day and you'll see this burst of yellow. When we lived in New Jersey it was the forsythia. Where we live now, you see the daffodils coming out... these beautiful flowers are exploding in color! It's spring; it feels so good to be warm again. And then you head into all the fun of summer and the relaxation and the things you can only do there. And, you know, you don't have to wear all those coats. Each season has its unique lifestyle, wardrobe, and equipment. There's sort of a cycle of putting away your boots, your coats, and your skis. And then you get out your shorts, and your lawn chairs, and your beach umbrella. Then you put them away and you get out your boots, your coats... Well, you know how all that goes. Well, God seems to be into seasons too. After all, He thought them up. Actually, it doesn't matter if you live at the North Pole or the Equator; you live in God's changing seasons, and your life? It's probably in one right now. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You about "How to Act When Your Seasons Change." God's people seem to live in three seasons. The reason I can tell that is I've been studying them in the book of Exodus, and that's where we're going to find our word for today from the Word of God. Now, as the children of Israel left Egypt and came to the Red Sea, and then after the Red Sea parted, and they went on through toward the Promised Land, it's evident in three kinds of water they found, that they lived in three seasons. And their seasons are the same as yours or mine. In fact, at any given point in your life, it's very possible you're in one of these three. That means right now you are. And each one, just like the meteorological seasons, has an appropriate way for you to live. Three waters that God's people encountered and they still do, and they represent a season and a way to live. In Exodus 14, for example, here's the first kind of water. They are up to the Red Sea. "As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them." It says, "Moses answered the people 'Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians (and I love this) you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.'" The first season is the season of barrier waters. Have you ever been there? There's the Red Sea ahead of you. There's nowhere to go. The chariots are coming at you; there's no exit. It's impossible. Well God's instructions during that period of time - that season - are to stay where you are and pray. God parts the waters. That's His job. You know what you do? You leave it to Him. You wait for Him to act. Then they went on. In Exodus 15 it says, "They came to Marah where they could not drink the water because it was bitter, until Moses cried to the Lord and the Lord showed him a piece of wood which he threw in the water and the water became sweet." OK, now there are the bitter waters. You've got the barrier waters, and God parts those; you leave that to Him. And then when you hit bitter waters, God sweetens the bitter water seasons in your life. Your job is to look for the sweetener. What can you throw into that situation that would sweeten it? And then finally it says, "They came to Elim and there were 12 springs and 79 palm trees." That's the bubbling waters. Maybe you're in that season now. God surprises us with bubbling waters. And you know what your job is? You soak it up; you store it up. You won't stay in any one season though. God will keep changing them. In a barrier time, you wait for Him to act supernaturally. In a bitter time, you seek the sweetener. In a bubbling time, you enjoy it. They're all designed to teach us to depend on Him. And you can be sure the seasons will change, but your Savior will not.

The real Noah stirred things up when he was here. Guess what? He did it again a few years ago. Yeah, on the big screen they did a Noah movie Noah and his ark. Yeah, the movie version; it had a big launch when it came out. And actually Captain Noah proved that he still has the ability to be controversial. Except this time, it was mostly among Bible people. There were some people objecting to all that the movie adds and subtracts from the original account. And then others expressed hope that it would interest some un-Bible people in the real Story. And, in fact, that is what happened. There was a sudden spike in Bible reading and Bible websites. That's a good thing. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Ready or Not, Here He Comes." What is interesting is that thousands of years later, Jesus was talking about Noah. And He actually was suggesting that when people are thinking about Noah, they should be looking for Jesus to come. Here's what He said in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Luke 17:26-27. "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." So what we've got here is Jesus establishing this linkage between Noah and the time Jesus is going to come back to earth. That's worth thinking about. Jesus used the story of Noah as a picture of what the world would look like on the eve of the climactic event of all human history - His return. When He said, "They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:30). Bottom line? The world isn't done with Jesus Christ. Jesus is our future. Actually, Jesus is your future. See, He will come to a world that, basically using the Noah example that He did, will be busy ignoring Him; too busy to have time for Him, living for their appetites, caught up in the gerbil wheel of their lives, spinning and spinning, doing whatever they feel like and oblivious to the flood of God's judgment that's coming. But at the same time, there will be an ark where they can be rescued. His name is Jesus. But see, nobody took Noah seriously. Nobody took his message seriously, so none of them were in the ark. So Jesus is going to write the final chapter of human history. It won't be some president or prime minister or powerful nation. No, it will be Jesus. By the way, Jesus will write the final chapter of your personal history. See, the Bible says, "How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" Salvation? That's a rescue word isn't it? Well, Jesus came here to pay the price for the sin that carries an awful death penalty. I was on death row spiritually, except for the fact that Jesus came and became my substitute for my penalty for my sin when He died on the cross. Then He walked out of His grave to prove that if I would let Him walk into my life He would give me the eternal life that only He has demonstrated He has on that first Easter morning. He said one thing about His return. He said, "You must be ready" (Matthew 24:44). I wonder, are you? Are you ready to meet Him, either when He comes back or when your last breath is taken? Because the Bible says, "It is appointed to man to die once, and after this the judgment." But see, that's the judgment that Jesus took on the cross; the judgment that you can have canceled by your decision this day to pin all your hopes on Jesus. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." Have you ever done that? I'd love to help you do it. Our website is there for that express purpose. I invite you to go to ANewStory.com right away today. Let's get this settled. See, Jesus isn't just the future of this world. He's my future. He's your future. Be ready.

The Kentucky Derby always has its share of drama. I remember the 2006 Kentucky Derby. That was a blowout! A horse named Barbaro took the lead in America's most famous race and left every other horse in the dust. Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby by an astounding 6 & 1/2 lengths! Many thought that horse could go on to be one of the few who has ever won the Triple Crown. Well, sadly, an injury ended that dream. But it didn't take away the glory of Barbaro's dramatic Kentucky Derby victory. The horse was only part of the story that day. In some ways, the bigger story was about Barbaro's trainer, Michael Matz. Eighteen years earlier, Michael Matz had been a passenger on an airplane flight that crashed in an Iowa cornfield. During the flight, he had struck up conversations with three young children who were traveling that day without their parents. Then came the crash. Many died that day as the plane caught fire. Survivors were struggling to find a way out of that burning wreckage, but all Michael Matz could do was think about those three children. He risked his life to find all of them and bring them out alive. And on that day, when the horse Michael trained crossed the finish line, there was jubilant celebration in the box where he was watching. Michael Matz, his wife, and the three (now grownup) children whose lives he had saved eighteen years before. Wow! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Legacy of Your Life." In our word for today from the Word of God, Paul's thinking ahead to the day when his race will be over; when he'll be in heaven celebrating the lasting legacy of his life. In 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, speaking to people he had introduced to Jesus Christ, Paul says: "What is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy." So, crossing the finish line to heaven - celebrating being there. First with Jesus, whose death and resurrection got you there, and then, with all those who are there (at least in part) because you helped to rescue them. You did what your Bible said to do: "Snatch others from the fire and save them" (Jude 23). You weren't content to just get you out of that burning wreckage of sin. No, you had to help those around you make it, too. That's going to make heaven even sweeter. Or is it? As you look at the legacy of your life so far, do you see many people you've pointed to Jesus? Can you see some folks who will be in heaven because you were part of helping them go there? How many people understand what Jesus did on the cross for them because you explained it to them? Have you been to some funerals, and looked into the casket and asked yourself, "Why didn't I tell them about Jesus while there was still time?" You can't have any of those days back. But you do have whatever days God still has ahead for you. And you can decide what kind of difference you want to make with the rest of your life. I hope it's to help as many people be in heaven with you as possible; to give as many people a chance at being rescued by Jesus as you can. Much of what we do and accomplish here won't mean anything, even one moment after our last breath. But there's one thing you can do that will last forever, and that's to help someone else live forever by showing them Jesus. The prophet Daniel described that day when "multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." Every person you know is headed for one of those two destinations. Then he describes ultimate legacy: "Those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:2-3). Why? Because they'll be celebrating forever with people whose lives they've rescued.

My wife and I had just visited her father and we were driving on this busy Interstate that's right near a large city. Suddenly everyone was coming to a complete stop, and we immediately thought, "Oh, there's got to be an accident, or maybe construction." Well, my wife was driving, and as we inch along we see that there is a roadblock ahead that was stopping everything. A man with a hard hat stuck his head in the window and began asking questions. "Where did you begin your journey today? How long have you been driving? Where are you headed?" My wife said, "What's this for?" He replied, "Oh, we're just taking a survey here to see if we need to widen the road." So, they are stopping the busiest highway in the area to do a survey as the traffic is backing up behind us? Really? My wife then notices this video camera filming the conversation with Mr. Hard Hat, and a woman with a microphone in her hand. And she saw the letters on the microphone. We've got a TV anchor woman here. And suddenly my wife began to think, what any of us would think if we suddenly saw a TV camera filming us, "Oh, what do I look like?" Well, that morning we had hurried to get started on a long drive, so no makeup, no hair grooming, kind of crummy travel clothes. As we pulled away, my wife pulled down the visor mirror and she said, "Is this what they saw?" Well, you never know when folks are going to be seeing you. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nothing to Hide." Here's our word for today from the Word of God from chapter 3 in John, beginning at verse 19. "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been through God." Now, this verse makes me think about people who have one of life's great freedoms - nothing to hide. "I'm living in the light. I don't care what's exposed. Roll the film, roll the tape. I don't fear discovery." Boy, that's a great way to live isn't it? I mean, you never know when someone will be watching, as my wife discovered on that busy Interstate that day. You can be sure that God's tape is rolling on every conversation you have, no matter how secret you might think it is. His camera is rolling on every activity, no matter how alone you may think you are, and usually people find that out too. The Bible says, "Be sure your sin will find you out." It's often not right away, but at a later time when the disclosure can do the greatest damage to your family, or your ministry, or to your representation of Christ. It's a good idea to never leave home without making sure you look okay inside. Each new day, why don't we deal with the attitudes that we don't want recorded that day, the compromises, the selfish way we get things done, the immoral thoughts. See, repentance is what makes you a camera-ready person who's got nothing to hide. "Hey, I've confessed it to Jesus. I've let Him clean me up today." And repentance honestly should be a regular part of getting dressed spiritually every morning. It just feels so good to know that you can welcome the light. You don't need to hide in a dark corner because somebody might find out. Maybe God's using our visit today to speak to you about that dark secret. Would you listen to His voice? It's not mine; it's His. By the way, the Bible says that when Jesus comes and when we stand before Him that "all men's secrets will be revealed." And we will be judged based on the things that were in the dark. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have all that erased from God's Book, forgiven so you would never meet them on Judgment Day? There's one man who can do that; the man who died to make it happen. That's Jesus. The day you say, "Jesus, I'm Yours" that's the day every sin of your life is forgiven forever. I'd love to help you know how to make that happen. Would you visit our website? It's ANewStory.com. The cameras are rolling in heaven and they're rolling on earth, in public and in private. So let Jesus give you a picture that you could be proud of.

Gross and net. Yeah, that's the words that you can use to describe what you really can use from your paycheck. Gross, of course, is the total amount you get in the paycheck. Then, of course, that's not what you can use, because net is the amount that's left after taxes, right? That's what you've still got in the net. You've never even seen the government's share... and that's what's gross. Well, they call what goes to the government withholding tax. Now, it's not just the government that's in the withholding business. No, you and I are too, and it's gross. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Price of Withholding." Our word for today from the Word of God is in Genesis 22; it's the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice the most precious thing in his life. It is a test to clarify Abraham's love for God. You may remember that there was a son for whom he waited many, many years and miraculously God gave him a son in Isaac; the son of his and Sarah's old age. And Isaac was to be the one through whom a whole nation would come - a nation that God had promised to Abraham. Now God says to him, "I want you to take him to the mountain and sacrifice him." Now, as I said, it was a test to clarify Abraham's love. You see, it's easy for one of God's gifts to become an idol that we love more than Him. And so here is the call to sacrifice his son. Of course, as you may remember, God provides a ram that he can sacrifice instead. But He calls on him to sacrifice his son, and it is a call that later God himself would respond to; only He would go all the way with the sacrifice, and sacrifice His Son on a cross for us. Now, we go to Genesis 22 and we learn about withholding. In fact, it's a key word of the passage. Genesis 22:12 - "'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' God says. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from Me your son... your only son.'" Verse 16: "I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you." Did you notice, "You have not withheld." Now we know that in our tax system, the money the government takes out of our paycheck is because they have prior claim to it. We don't even consider hanging onto that money. Now, with our most precious relationships and possessions, we have a choice. The government doesn't give us a choice, but we have a choice about withholding these precious things. But God has a prior claim to that loved one that you're holding onto so tightly. He made them. He paid for them. They're His. He has a prior claim to that house, that car, that possession you may have hung onto for yourself. He has a prior claim to the money you want to spend mostly on your kingdom instead of His. Yeah, God has prior claim to that position you hold or aspire to hold, to your gifts, to your talents, the opportunities He's entrusted to you. They're His! He has prior claim to your children. Could it be you're withholding them from God? Are you hanging onto something or someone you love? You have plans. You have dreams, and security riding on it as Abraham did. But God's hands are reaching your way saying, "Can you trust Me with what you love so much?" Two thousand years after this incident, God proved that He could be trusted by sacrificing His Son on that very mountain. And if you give what you love to Him, He will either improve it or replace it with something better. Can you hear God saying, "You have not withheld from Me what you love so much. Surely I will bless you." I hope so. After all, God has prior claim, so withholding from Him is stealing from God.

It was one of those scenes in the news that's hard to forget. It was the image of a Korean ferry just rolling into the sea with all the passengers disappearing with it beneath the waves. It was heartbreaking to look at all those loved ones on the dock grieving inconsolably over children who would never come home again. What was outrageous was that the captain was one of the first to abandon ship. They charged him with negligence of duty and abandoning people in need. Sadly, there are a lot of captains that can be charged with crimes like that. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How the Captain Can Sink a Family." See, I'm talking about being the captain of your family. The ship starts to drift...the crew gets confused...the vessel is in danger of a fatal turn when Dad keeps "abandoning the ship." When the cruise ship Costa Concordia shipwrecked off the coast of Italy, again it was the captain who was charged. A maritime lawyer said at that time: "The captain is the master of the vessel. Every crew member looks to the captain for guidance and leadership. It's the captain's responsibility to know the waters and avoid coming close to any shoals and reefs." Sad to say, I've sometimes gotten too busy to know the waters that our family ship was navigating; when this captain was "below decks" at a critical point. We know there's a devastating epidemic of fatherlessness in families these days. But it isn't just dads who are physically absent. You can be emotionally absent, and that may be even more damaging; around your family but not with your family. There, but not really there. "Abandoning people in need." A daughter, missing her father's love, ends up looking for that love in all the wrong places. A son who can't get his father's approval or attention, growing angrier by the day. A wife who's left to run things alone. In many ways, that ferry disaster mirrors the family disaster caused by a "captain's" three tragic mistakes. Number one - leaving the wheel. It appears that the ferry captain left the ship in the hands of a third mate at a decisive turning point. How many of us husbands have forfeited leadership when the going got rough, when finances were turbulent, when discipline was needed, when hard choices had to be made? Criminal negligence. Our word for today from the Word of God, Proverbs 27:23-24. Here's what they say: "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks." (May I say your family.) "Give careful attention to your herds. For riches do not endure forever and a crown is not secure for all generations." Translation: Take care of it or risk losing it all. There's a second way a captain can sink his family ship - looking out for me. Apparently, that ferry captain was so concerned about himself that he left his passengers to fend for themselves. "Me first" while those he was responsible for were going down. Consumed with our personal pursuits, our work, our recreation, our sports, our hobby, our toys; effectively oblivious to the leadership that we're abandoning. And then there's a third way that any captain can sink his ship. There are rocks to avoid. There are crises requiring direction. And a husband - a father - cannot be AWOL when a steady hand at the wheel is needed. Along with a wise, reassuring guide when the water is rising. I have to confess this to you. I don't know how in the world to be a dad today without the power of Jesus Christ. If I didn't have Jesus as my Savior, being a dad would have driven me to my knees to find Him. Being a dad is when you find out you are not enough by yourself. You're not in control. You're not in charge. You need a Savior. Today if you're a dad, and maybe the ship is not going the right direction, let this be the day your family gets a new dad, as you turn that dad over to Jesus Christ. Want to know how? Would you go to our website, and boy, we can help you know that - how you can be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. For the beginning of your new story could be the beginning of a new story for the people you love too.

Now, I haven't seen my son angry very often, but I remember one time. And I think it's safe to say that he was "fit to be tied." See, he had this elaborate race car set that his grandparents had given him, and it was all set up in the basement. Then the cars raced with each other and they did these loops, and went around these curves. He loved that! I mean, he loved this thing. And there were dump trucks that could be loaded and unloaded with gravel, and he had all kinds of lights and sounds, and bells and whistles. Well, one day we had some company over to our house and they had two sons. And they were getting a little bored just listening to adult conversation, so they went downstairs to play with my son's race car set. It was never the same; and I didn't think he would be. See, after they left, my son went down to the basement and he found that one of the race cars wouldn't work - which means there's not much of a race when you've only got one car. The gravel loader? That didn't work any more. Basically, the set was generally wrecked! And he could never really use it quite the same after that. Well, he wasn't angry, of course. No, he was righteously indignant. He said, "Dad, if they want to break their own toys, that's okay. But they have no business breaking what belongs to me." I agree with that. Wouldn't you? Well then, why do we do it so often? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It's Not Yours to Break." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Corinthians 6, and I'm going to be reading verses 19 and 20. "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you; whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body." In this passage before Paul writes these words, he's been discussing sex outside of God's fence of marriage. And basically what he's saying is, "What right do you have to use God's property for something He hates... for something that breaks His heart?" He says, "You are not your own; you've been bought and paid for." I saw my son's distress over someone misusing what he owned. And I know a little bit of how God feels when He sees what you and I do with these bodies of ours. It's a startling realization when you look in the mirror and say, "That's not your body. It has been bought and paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ." Years ago I remember when we closed on our house. And from that moment, the former owner had no say about where the furniture went, or how the rooms would be used, or what color the walls would be. It was mine by right of purchase. You are Jesus' property by right of purchase; a high price, an expensive price, an unthinkable price - His life on the cross for your body and for your soul so it could be restored to what it was made for - to glorify God. How are you taking care of God's blood-bought body? Have you been cheapening it by what you've been doing sexually? Has His body been over-eating and damaging itself that way, or overworking and not getting the rest that God asks us to get? How about the garbage you've been putting into His body; or the times, maybe, when you've turned it over to the control of a chemical or to alcohol? Hey, that's His body! Augustine was tempted to plunge back into his old life and he said, "Thou fool, doest thou not know that thou art carrying God around with thee?" This is His body. It's made by Him; paid for by Him. Cared for, like a temple where God himself lives, because it is. And honestly, it's just not yours to break.

Words fail at a time like this. I mean even words like "apocalyptic"... "war zone"... "total devastation." I mean those racing flames in the iconic Lahaina community of Maui just consumed everything in its path and left just ash where there had been a building there before. Fire doesn't care what it destroys. Even if it's centuries of royal and religious history, the lives and livelihoods of countless Hawaiians. The number of lives lost? We don't even know yet, maybe we never will. That charming tourist magnet and idyllic community has suddenly become a desolate landscape of loss. Except for the tree. The 150-year-old banyan tree that soars to 60 feet and covers an entire city block. It is badly charred and its future is uncertain. But today it stands as one surviving symbol of hope amidst all the sadness and ruin. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Maui fires - A Landscape of Loss...and One Symbol of Hope." One survivor said, "Everything is gone." But the tree is still standing. Which, I realized as I prayed for Lahaina, is just how I felt on that May day when my "everything" was gone. My Karen. The love of my life since I was 19. The only person on earth who had done my whole adult life with me. Our family treasure. Gone. Suddenly gone. But one thing was still standing. The Tree. The cross where Jesus died a death that has changed millions of lives ever since. I'm one of them. That cross became an anchor on the darkest day of my life. I know my days of life-altering loss certainly aren't unique to me. Some time or another, the fire comes for all of us. Maybe in the form of a devastating diagnosis, a disease, ora disaster that destroys our treasures. Maybe desertion or divorce that leaves us emotionally "homeless." And, of course, the ultimate hope-robber. Death. I've been to a lot of funerals. But the one at that windswept burial ground on a Native American reservation is one I'll never forget. Danny's brother had died suddenly and tragically. And Danny wasn't only grieving - he was broken. After we had all passed by the open grave and thrown in our handful of dirt, and as people were leaving, there was Danny at the head of his brother's grave. Hugging as he wept, the rugged wooden cross that had been placed there. It just seemed like that cross was literally holding him up that day. The "fire" that burned through his life must have seemed like everything was gone. But the Tree was still standing. As it has for millions of broken people for 2,000 years. People like me. Some stunning things happened on that grotesque day when the Son of God was nailed to a criminal's cross. From that cross, He declared, "It is finished!" The spiritual penalty for every sin of every person on this planet had been paid for by the only One who could. In the Bible's words: 'He personally carried our sins in His own body on the cross...He died for sinners to bring you safely home to God" (1 Peter 2:24, 3:18). Safely home. When it feels like I've lost everything, I'm still "safely home" in the unlosable love of God. I have an anchor relationship that is fireproof... disaster-proof... death-proof! Our word for today from the word of God - Romans 8:39 - assures us that, "Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That is God's personal guarantee to those who belong to Him. If you're not sure you do. If you've never given your life to this Jesus. If you've never experienced that unloseable love. Can I invite you to go to our website? Because there I've laid out how you can begin that relationship for a lifetime and a forever lifetime. It's ANewStory.com. As I stood by my Karen's fresh grave, I didn't stand alone. My Jesus was there. Lahaina's banyan tree has an uncertain future. But God's "safely home" Tree is there forever. It's Indestructible. That Tree says I am forever loved. I'm forever forgiven. I'm forever safe. I'm never alone. And no fire can take that away.

One sure way to finally be successful is to write a book about success. It doesn't have to be a book about your success. You can just study what made major corporations or some other leaders successful, and you can write about their success. It probably would be a bestseller. Everywhere you look today there are seminars, and workshops, and books, and websites, and all kinds of stuff; formulas about how to be a winner in what you do. But all the books and seminars are missing the major determining factor in personal success. Now I can't offer you what one book did. It was called The One Minute Manager. I can't do it quite that quickly; this will take just a little longer than that, but maybe it will be a little better too. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Prayer That Changes Things." Now, our word for today from the Word of God, Genesis 24. It's about Abraham's trusted servant Eliezer. Now he's gotten to be an old man, and so has Abraham. And he gets his biggest assignment, which is to go find Isaac (who in a sense is almost like the prince of what will one day be Israel. They've got this great family, and this great little empire they've built.) Well, the prince needs a princess; he needs a wife. And so Eliezer is sent to find the woman who will be in that first generation of Jews; in a sense to be the mother of that generation. And of course, Eliezer wants to succeed. So he goes back to the land from which Abraham came so he can get a believing wife for Isaac. And here's how the Bible describes his prayer. "Then he prayed, 'O Lord, God of my master Abraham, give me success today.'" Now we know that he really meant that prayer, because after he got the success and found Rebekah and did a bang-up job of getting his goal accomplished, here's what it says, "I bowed down and worshiped the Lord; I praised the Lord." You know, success is rooted in a prayer like this. Now, you may not find it in the books or the seminars or the workshops. But when you say, "Lord, give me success today," that's the key to getting it done. Three factors, I think, in that prayer. One is dailyness. Eliezer recognizes here that success happens in 24-hour periods; that you have to have a good day. "Lord, give me success in this 24-hour period. Not this month, not this year; not for the rest of my life. Help me to succeed today." It's a daily prayer. Secondly, there's a concept of destiny here. He's recognizing that there is someone already picked out for him to find - recognition that there is a plan. He's going to walk into a divine plan. See, success is fitting into God's plan. From God's perspective, it means being the right person at the right place at the right time, doing it the right way, and God will bring the goal to you. And then there's dependency here. Praying through your day; making your calls His calls; your exam, His exam; your appointments, His appointments; your contest, your challenges, your problems - they're His. And you can tell by Eliezer's response that he's not bragging; he's praising after he gets what he was after, because he knows (and this is important to remember) that success is ultimately not so much an achievement as it is a gift of God. You don't achieve it, you receive it. There's a much larger, more lasting success than you could possibly construct. Ultimately, your success is not the result of your degree, or your plan, or your intelligence, or your hard work. It's the result of the blessing of Almighty God - those few minutes in the morning when you say, "Oh Lord, give me success today."

Violence in a movie theater? That's not news. I mean, there's a lot of it on the screen. But, this time, there was violence in the seats of a Florida theater. A man actually killed a man in front of him. Shot him! Apparently because the victim was texting during the previews. Turns out he was texting daycare to check on his three-year-old daughter. It's a disturbing reminder of a troubling reality of our time. We're surrounded by angry people who are one provocation away from an explosion. I mean, you could tell by how they're enraged about seemingly small things. You know they already had to have a very full glass for it to take just a single drop to make them spill all over everybody. Our easily-triggered and quickly-provoked anger should scare us. Because rage crushes reason and makes us blind to the expensive of consequences of our eruption. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Volcano Called Anger." When I was in Quito, Ecuador, I was surprised to learn that the city is virtually ringed by volcanic mountains. Dormant, I hoped. The locals pointed out one in particular - Antisana. "It's 18,000 feet," they said, and I was impressed. "They believe it used to be 28,000 feet." I was curious. Turns out that it just blew its top one day. The eruption didn't really last all that long, but the damage was forever. What was lost was lost for good. Anger's like that. Just ask the spouses, the children who bear the permanent scars from a human volcano near them. Or the countless people who are forever diminished by the angry words, the names, the accusations heaped on them. Probably by someone who supposedly loves them. The "molten lava" of rage often comes from a lot of junk we stuffed inside: wounds, disappointments and perceived injustices. I've found you have just two choices with life's bad stuff. You can let it go or you'll let it grow. Bitterness, grudges, unforgiveness; they don't stay the same size. They morph from deal-withable grass fires into uncontrollable infernos unless you deal with them when they're small. I found this simple defusing technique in the ancient wisdom of the world's best-selling book. The Bible says, "Do not let the sun go down while you're angry." In other words, deal with it while it's small - manageable. Talk it through. Forgive, if necessary. Just don't stuff it. Our hair-trigger temper should scare us enough to seek out a place to dump the build-up of years. Someone we can pour it all out to. Someone who can help us work through it. Even to trace our rage back to those original wounds we never dealt with; wounds that became the foundation for what is now a volcanic backlog of angry "sundowns." Unconfronted anger? It's a ticking time bomb. And it's sure to explode, carrying us to consequences we could never imagine. If we're honest, we've all got a dark side. Some of us are better concealing it than others, but it's still a defining part of who we are. Rage, passion, greed, self-destruction, selfishness: they're all symptoms, the Bible explains, of a much deeper cancer. Our rebellion against God. We've left the Son that we were made for and drifted into ever-darker corners of ourselves. In our word for today from the Word of God, Romans 7 beginning with verse 24, one Bible writer describes himself as a "prisoner of sin," and he cried out, "Who will rescue me?" Then the answer. "Thank God! Jesus Christ our Lord!" The Bible reveals that Jesus turned the full wrath of the beast of sin on Himself when He absorbed all our darkness by dying on the cross. And the darkness doesn't have to win any more. There is a Liberator. There's a Savior I want you to know as I've come to know Him. So, would you go to our website and find there the road to begin a relationship with Him that is so transforming? Go to ANewStory.com. Because this could be the beginning of a new story for you.

In ongoing attempts to establish more regular exercise in our lives, my wife and I had moved into this walking kick. And, you know, that was a good idea. Actually, my wife took the research approach, including reading books on walking, which I wasn't sure was necessary since I've been walking since I was about a year old. One of those books was by a man who literally walked across America. I was hoping that was not one of my wife's goals for our exercise program. I was intrigued, though, by an observation made by this super-walker. When someone asked him what the greatest obstacle was in his long hike across the country, (You want to guess?) he gave a pretty surprising answer. He said, "The little pebbles I got in my shoes." I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "God of the Little Problems." It's interesting that the Bible actually describes our life-journey with Jesus as a walk. And some of us share with that man who hiked America the same obstacle in getting to our destination. In Song of Solomon 2:15, our word for today from the Word of God, we find an intriguing insight about our life journey. It says, "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom." It's the little foxes that ruin things; that spoil what could have been a good result. If it's a big fox, it's easy to shoot it. But it's harder to fight the little foxes that just kind of nibble away. Sounds like an animal kingdom equivalent of a hiker's "little pebbles in your shoes." And we all experience the aggravation of those little pebbles; the car trouble, the sick child, an inconvenient illness, the appliance on the blink, the banking problems, the office politics, those little injustices, or that unexpected expense. The peace of God is one of a child of God's greatest gifts, but often these little stresses do more to rob us of that peace than even the big crises. When a major crisis comes, we tend to run to God for His grace. We know we can't fight a giant by ourselves. But when we run into those little mini-headaches of everyday life, we often try to handle those on our own. We fight the big foxes with spiritual weapons and the little foxes with human weapons. So we lose, not to huge temptations or overwhelming problems, but to flat tires and the flu, to bills and bad traffic. Not because they're so big, but because we don't think to go to Jesus about them. I'm so glad that Jesus is a sparrow-counting, hair-counting, daily bread kind of Savior, aren't you? But I need to go to Him with the small frustrations! We could live much more victoriously if we would immediately go to Jesus for the grace He's promised us in the mini-messes - not just the big ones. Why let those "little foxes" create a negative, angry, stressed-out you? Turn them over to your Lord who told us He cares about those things. In 1 Peter 5:7 it says, "Casting all your care on Him because He cares for you." You'll walk much longer; you'll walk much lighter if your God is the God of the little pebbles - not just the big boulders.

It just sounds weird: "Mount Everest is closed." Well, at the time, that was the headline. No one was going to climb that most iconic of all mountaineering quests, because 16 Sherpa guides were lost on the mountain, as blocks of ice as big as automobiles cascaded down on them. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Climbing a Mountain to Nowhere." You don't venture onto that peak without a Sherpa guide. They are the legendary people of the mountain; the guides who take climbers there - climbers who pay up to $100,000 to the Nepalese government to go. And the Sherpas didn't want the mountain "open for business" the rest of the year because it had cost too much. Did you know getting to the top of a mountain often does. Our personal "Everest's"; that treasured goal that we're driven to achieve. "I'll be married no matter what." So many who conquered that slope now wish they had never dreamed the dream, because it turned into a nightmare. "I will get to the top in what I do, whatever it takes." Only to sacrifice a spouse, a marriage, a child, a good name to get there. A price too high to pay. "My kid's going to be a winner. I'll make sure of it." So he or she becomes more of a performer than a person. A creation of a parent's ego rather than the person God made them to be. A robot programmed to please, but dangerously lonely and stressed. Success. We each have our own definition don't we? And there's nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to climb our mountain. But in the words of Jesus, "Count the cost" in relationships, in integrity. What's it going to cost you in your health, in the lives of your children, in your reputation, in your personal peace? No conquest, no dream is worth ending up in the emergency room with a medical crisis of your own or the emotional meltdown of someone you love, leaving behind you a trail of people that you've wounded or crushed as you race to your finish line. That's a price too high to pay. I've seen it too many times. Driving for a goal - even a noble goal - can make you blind to the needs around you and deaf to their cries, and oblivious to the cost until the avalanche. Jesus asked a haunting question. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Mark 8:36. It is worth thinking about seriously. "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" And so many have. It's a price too high to pay. Isn't it amazing we keep climbing these mountains thinking that surely the peace I've been looking for, the significance I've been looking for, the meaning I've been looking for, the wholeness I've been looking for in my soul, it will be at the top of this mountain. You got to the top of the mountain and it wasn't there. Or you think it's going to be at the top of the mountain, but the people who've been there have found nothing there. There's a reason for that, because we were never meant ultimately to find our happiness, find our wholeness, find our identity in anything other than the person who gave us our life in the first place. And that is the God who put us here. It says in the Bible, "You were created by Him and for Him." And we've lived for everything else but Him. There's only one hill you can climb, only one mountain, where you're going to find what you're looking for. It's called Skull Hill in the Bible. There's a cross at the top, and that is where God's Son died to pay the price to reunite you and me with the God who fills the hole in our soul and who holds our eternity in His hands. Maybe you've been climbing the wrong hills. Maybe you've been climbing the wrong mountains. This may be your day to to find your way to where Jesus has died for you and say, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And to finally find what has eluded you for a lifetime that can only be found in Him. If you've never done that, and you say, "I wish I knew how to begin that personal relationship with Him." I invite you to our website where I'd love to show you how. It's ANewStory.com. Because there is no Everest that is worth giving up an irreplaceable eternal treasure.

I invented this little game years ago to play with our two young grandsons. I call it Bible Charades. We tried it one Sunday afternoon during a visit to our house, and then they wanted to do it every time. It's pretty simple. Just write a brief description of several Bible stories on cards, and then the boys would take turns drawing a card and acting out the story with either their Daddy or me as their teammate. Whoever isn't playing is supposed to be guessing. My favorite was when the younger boy - who was three years old - was David and his tall Daddy was Goliath. Yeah. The little guy pretended that this dishtowel was his slingshot, and he spun it around his head - followed by Daddy holding his forehead and crashing dramatically to the living room floor. No talking is allowed. You can only act it out. One problem: our five-year-old grandson knew a lot more Bible stories than his three-year-old brother, which made the game pretty challenging and sometimes kind of frustrating for the little guy. The story that we hoped that he'd guess by our actions might be a story he doesn't even know! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living It Won't Do It." Some of us have been playing Bible Charades for a long time - acting out a story we hope the people around us will guess by our actions but no words. If you've ever played real charades, you know there are some things people just aren't going to figure out without your putting it into words. Right? So it is with the most important story of all - the story of what Jesus did on the cross to pay for the sins of each person you know. The story of the spiritual Rescuer from heaven who not only died for them, but who's alive for them because He walked out of His grave three days later! Many followers of Jesus are committed to what some have called "lifestyle evangelism." And that's very important - demonstrating in your everyday life the difference that Jesus makes, creating curiosity about Him in the hearts of people who don't know Him. It's important, but it's not enough. See, they're not going to guess the Gospel. I mean, they could watch you for the next fifty years. They're not going to suddenly say, "You know Charlie is such a nice guy, I'll bet Jesus died on the cross for my sins!" They're not going to figure that out! You have to tell them. Gospel Charades will turn out to be fatal charades for them if you never tell them what Jesus did for them on the cross! Paul's prayer in our word for today from the Word of God needs to be your prayer and mine. In Ephesians 6:19-20, he says, "Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel." (By the way, it's going to be a mystery to the people around you until you tell them about it! Right?) He goes on to say, "Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should" (Ephesians 6:20). In Colossians 4:3-4, Paul asks for prayer that "God will open a door for us." Now, a door? That's a natural opportunity to bring up your relationship with Jesus and the difference He's making in your everyday life. I call this the "three-open prayer." Prayed each new day, it can give you some exciting opportunities to be a spiritual rescuer, maybe for some people who are spiritually dying around you. It goes like this: "Lord, open a door." See, you're trusting Him to open some natural opportunity and to help you see that opportunity when He does. Then, "Lord, open their heart." Get them ready, Lord, to hear about you before I ever speak to them. And finally, "Lord (this might be the toughest one!), open my mouth." Give me the courage, give me the words, give me the approach to use to point this person to you. Try it with me. "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." Don't just depend on your acting out Jesus - your Gospel charades - to give someone you care about the life-or-death information they've got to have to go to heaven. There's too much at stake for that. For you to remain silent about what you know about Jesus could be, in essence, a death sentence for them because of your silence.

If you want to make friends fast in an airport sometime and fast, just stand there with a big Welcome Home banner. Yeah, we were contacted by a young woman who had been part of our Native American work in the past. She was going through a time of severe struggle and she really wanted to turn things around. So she asked us if she could come and spend some recovery time with our team in New Jersey at that time. We'd been praying for her, so we were wide open to her coming. Well, we scrambled to find a way to get an airplane ticket for her, and we decided to try to let her know how special she was by giving her this special airport welcome. We got some colorful helium balloons, we got a bright Welcome Home banner, and five of us stationed ourselves at the end of the concourse that she was scheduled to come in on. It was really funny to watch the reactions of these expressionless arriving passengers. And suddenly they see that sign, and they're laughing, they're waving, they're thanking us as if the welcome party was for them. It was fun... until we saw the last flight attendant coming down the concourse with no other passengers coming behind her. See, the person we'd come to welcome? She never came. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No One to Welcome You." Even though she wasn't on the plane, of course we still prayed for that young woman to follow through and to leave the dark situation she was in. It's a pretty sad feeling when you prepare a big welcome and the one you did it for never comes. Boy, Jesus knows that feeling. He's prepared a Welcome Home, an expensive welcome for some people who've never come - maybe you. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 19:41. It says, "As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, 'If you'd only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it's hidden from your eyes. You did not recognize the time of God's coming.'" Wow! Now that scene, that feeling has been repeated many times since then as someone Jesus has been inviting to have a relationship with Him has been too busy or too disinterested to respond. He actually weeps over those who do not respond to His love, because of what He wants to do for them. He said, "If you had only known what would bring you peace." Could it be that the peace that's eluded you for so long is peace that only God's Son can give you? Could it be there's never been peace because there's never been room for Jesus? I know how sad I felt when the person we worked to bring home never came. Well, then, imagine how Jesus feels when someone He died for doesn't come. The Bible clearly spells out the uncomfortable fact that we are all on death row spiritually. We've sinned against the God who made us. We've insisted on living our way instead of His way. And the Bible says, "The soul that sins will die." Life here without God and His love, and then a life forever without God and His love and no pain relievers to cover the pain, except for the loving intervention of God's Son, Jesus. The Bible declares "Christ died for our sins." For your sins. We did the sinning, but Jesus did the dying. And having purchased your rescue with His blood, He holds up a banner for you - Welcome Home. He's been holding it for a long time, waiting for you to come to Him in faith. Listen, tell Him you're putting your total trust in Him for a relationship with God. That's what He's been waiting for, but you haven't come home. And someday you won't be able to. The banner will be gone; the open arms will be gone. But today you can still come. You want to come home to the One you were made for? If you want to begin that relationship with Him, would you go to our website? It's there for you today - ANewStory.com. Too many times the banner's been up and Jesus has been waiting for you and you didn't come. Would you please come today? Make this the day you finally experience the wonderful "Welcome Home" from Jesus Christ.

My wife always said I usually try to cram in one more thing before I leave for an appointment. No, she was right. Yeah, she'd say that I usually try to make it up on the road, and sometimes I do have to plead guilty I guess. And it usually works okay if the weather's on my side. And then there are those very rainy days when it's a little tougher to hurry. You know, you're zipping down the highway at top speed, and suddenly you feel yourself losing control of the rear wheels. You ever had that happen to you? Yeah, it's what they call hydroplaning. The water builds up under those tires so that well, you're suddenly skiing. You're skimming along on water rather than on the pavement and the rear of your car starts to go somewhere you don't want it to go. Now, if that's ever happened to you, you know it is a scary feeling to start hydroplaning because, well, you're going so fast and you're starting to start losing control. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Things Are Overwhelming." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 42. As we read this, the author is hydroplaning. Well, he didn't have a car, he had a chariot. And I don't know if chariots hydroplane or not, but things were moving so fast for him, he was beginning to lose control. In fact, listen to some of the descriptions he gives. He says, "My tears have been my food day and night." Then as you read on later in this very personal Psalm, he uses words like this: "Why are you so downcast oh my soul? Why are you so disturbed within me?" Then he says, "My soul is downcast within me. All Your waves and breakers, Lord, have swept over me." This guy's in bad shape! He says, "Man, things are just totally out of control." I was there not too long ago feeling this way. I think it was accumulated over a period of several weeks. Challenges had just been getting much bigger than my resources. Personally I felt like my faith was kind of like a fitted sheet on a king sized bed and I couldn't quite get it over that fourth corner. I couldn't get it to reach far enough to cover the particular challenges and the pressures that were accumulating. And I'll be honest with you, I was overwhelmed, I get there sometimes. I was pretty anxious, I was feeling like I would never catch up. And then I wandered into Psalm 42, where I was hit with a very probing question by a man who was feeling things out-of-control like I was. And as it turned out, that question turned out to be the answer. Here's our word for today from the Word of God. The question is in Psalm 42:2. It says this: "When can I go and meet with God?" So the writer says, "I'm losing control. It's bigger than I am. When can I go and meet with God?" You know, just like the writer of that Psalm, I needed to stop the world and get away for 24 hours with my Bible and a notepad and meet with God. And I did. That's been repeated many times. Maybe that's the prescription for you right now. You say, "Well, there's too much for me to stop right now." See, that's why you need to. Set a time to stop. Stand back, and listen to your Lord for an extended, unhurried chunk of time - for hours, not just minutes. Write down what you're feeling and what you're thinking as you're in His presence for that extended time. And ask Him for a fresh look at the people and the pressures so you can see the forest and not just the trees. Ask Him to help you see it through His eyes. Set some priorities while you're in that away spot. Make plans. Weed out things that can go. You can trust what you get from God when you're in an extended time in His presence. And those need to be scheduled on a pretty regular basis. So, if you're traveling at high speed, you feel yourself losing control, slow down, hit the brakes, carve out time away where your Lord can show you what He wants, and He can have your undivided attention. The number one question you have to answer right now is this: "When can I go and meet with God?"

Pete came to me with this very unusual request when we were freshmen in college together. He asked me who I thought were the five best girls to date in our class. (Just call me Dr. Love.) Well, I gave him my top five list; four of whom I had actually been out with on my mad "date them all" freshman rush. The one on the list that I hadn't dated was this beautiful perky brunette. Well, after I gave Pete that list, I began to ask myself an obvious question, "Why haven't I dated her?" So I did, and I did it again, and again. And I did pretty much my whole adult life. By the time we graduated, we were engaged to be married, my beautiful Karen. Now, Pete was a New Englander, so he was a man of few words. He wrote only six words next to his picture in my senior yearbook: You believe in your product... Pete. And yes I did! See, she and I got married one week after graduation. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Life or Death Verb." Now, my friend summed it up pretty well; I really believed in this girl. Not just intellectually. No, I believed in her with everything I had. Believe as in committing my whole life to her. When it comes to God and where we spend the next hundred billion years, believe is the decisive action word. It's the life-or-death verb. Not in the official or intellectual sense like, "Pete, I believe this girl is a great catch for somebody." No, no! "I'm trusting my life to her." That belief. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 16:30-31. A man is asking the great missionary, Paul, this timeless question, "What must I do to be saved?" Well, the answer is so clear and so unmistakable, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." Now obviously saved is a life-or-death word. Right? Just ask the people who were saved from the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, or someone who was saved by an emergency medical team. If the rescuer saved you, you lived. If he didn't, you died. Now, the kind of saving the Bible talks about is being rescued from the death penalty we are all under with God. Why? Well, the Bible says "all of us have wandered like sheep. We have turned each one to his own way." That's my way instead of God's way. And that is ultimate rebellion against the ultimate authority of the One who gave me my life to live for Him. The death we suffer in this life is a life of trying to make it without God's love, without God's peace, without God's purpose for our days. And if we die still away from Him, the penalty is what Jesus called hell. But that's where believing in Jesus comes in, because He's the only Rescuer, the only Savior that can keep you from dying spiritually. Because He died on the cross to bear all the guilt and all the penalty of the sins we've committed. That's how much He loves you. But you've got to believe in the Lord Jesus if you're going to be saved. You say, "Well, I believe in Jesus." But did you know you can have Him in your head but not in your heart? The Bible says in Romans 10:10, "It is with your heart that you believe and are justified." That means made right with God. Believe, like committing yourself in total trust to the One who died in your place. Now, here's a question on which your eternity could depend, "Has there ever been a time in your life when you've told Jesus, 'I'm pinning all my hopes on You, Jesus, and what You did on the cross to rescue me from my sin.'" If there's never been a time like that, my friend, you're not saved. You're in eternal danger. But that could change in the next few minutes if you just reach out to this Savior that you've known about but never really known. If you want to know Him for sure, listen, go to our website. That's what it's there for, to help you know you belong to Him. The website is ANewStory.com. One day I walked into a church not married. I walked out married, because I believed in someone. You need a day like that; a day to commit yourself to the One who loves you the most - Jesus Christ. A day like today.

For years, Haiti's had a special place in the hearts of my wife and myself. We've been there sometimes. My wife went down there on a photography mission. It's always touched our hearts. And when it's in the news, like earthquakes etc. it really gets to us. You know, I remember some years ago when my wife brought back a strange souvenir from her visit. She came home with I guess you'd call it a bacterial souvenir from a mission trip there. We got home from the airport, opened up the luggage, greeted our three children and started to hand out the little souvenirs that we got them. Well, meanwhile, my wife retreated to the bedroom and within an hour she was like in intestinal agony with gastroenteritis. I went to the doctor a couple of times and I tried to get her something to give her relief. When all else failed, they said, "Hey, you'd better get the emergency medical people over there and bring her to the hospital. That was a little scary. Here comes the EMS people barging in, they've got a stretcher, they've got the ambulance out in front, they're barking orders to each other. Our poor little boys just stood there wide-eyed trying to process it all, but not our 14-year-old daughter. No. No, she responded to this bad news situation differently. Suddenly she's in the kitchen doing dishes; cleaning madly; working frantically. First born! I guess she didn't want to deal directly with what was going on, so she just got busy. Yeah, it could be that first-born thing. That's not all bad unless it's God that you're avoiding dealing with. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Running Into Busyness." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Isaiah 30. I'll begin reading at verse 15. It's about people on the run. "This is what the sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says, 'In repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength.' But you would have none of it. You said, 'No, we will flee on horses.' Therefore you will flee! You said, 'We will ride off on swift horses.' Therefore, your pursuers will be swift." Now, notice here, God says to people, "I want you to repent; to rest, to trust." And they say, "Nope! I want to run. I want to run as fast as I can." You know, some of us are lifetime fugitives. Yep, we're running from something God is trying to get us to face. This says here that your pursuers will be swift; they will always catch up with you. Some escapes that we try are obviously destructive: like alcohol, drugs, or physically running away. But many Christians take the noble escape from facing issues. They just get busy in worthy causes, like my daughter bustling around in the kitchen. We get so busy, so we don't have to face the situation. Now, on the one hand, serving others; that's a positive way to find personal healing, but not if you're working as a substitute for dealing with the issue. Think about it. When you slow down, don't you start to see some things about yourself that you don't see any other time? Some of it, well, it might be hard to face: a deeply entrenched personal sin, maybe it's a deep wound that you've never dealt with. Something God wants you to do that you'd rather avoid. It's the still, small voice of God trying to get through. Now, either we face what He's saying, or we run like mad. If you run into busyness, even spiritual busyness, oh everyone will praise you for your dedication. But busyness that is running from the truth, is running from God, that's an escape as surely as drugs or alcohol. And it's just as addicting. Isn't it time to stop running finally and unload the stress of a neurotic, destructive busyness and just listen to God? "Be still and know that He is God." Deal with what he's been chasing you for all these years, and you won't have to run nearly so much. Wouldn't it be nice to live without always having to look over your shoulder?

I guess it might be nice to own a copy of the Declaration of Independence. It's not on my top ten list of things I'd like to have, but if it's cheap, why not? That's what Michael Sparks thought when he bought a copy of the Declaration in a thrift store. Yeah, he spent a whopping $2.48. What a deal! It turns out what he bought for $2.48 is one of the 200 "official copies" commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820. So, the man who bought it for $2.48, sold it for almost half a million dollars! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Undervalued." Somebody looked at an old copy of a document and made a serious mistake. They just really undervalued it big-time! Of course, we make that mistake too, with people. It's happened to someone who's listening right now. You've been undervalued many times, maybe by lots of people. It's to the point where you've come to believe yourself that you're not really worth that much. How could you be after the names you've been called, the rejection you've experienced, those failed relationships, and the ways you've been treated? I've got news for you. None of those people have any idea what you're really worth, anymore than some merchant knew what a rare Declaration of Independence was worth. But somebody knows, and they will pay a lot for it. Someone knows what you're really worth, and you can tell because of how much He paid for you. He is no one less than the Son of God. Here's how the Bible puts it: "You are not your own; you were bought at a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). See, the price that Jesus paid for you is spelled out graphically in our word for today from the Word of God in Revelation 5:9. The inhabitants of heaven are saying, "You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased men for God." Jesus thought you were worth the shedding of His blood; the blood of the one and only Son of God. Think about that cross where Jesus hung with nails in His hands and feet, and a crown of thorns jammed on His head, a spear driven into His side, and say these two words, "For me." That's how bad your sin was. That's what it took to pay for your sin and mine. And that's how big God's love is for you. He did that so He would not lose you. Sin is serious business. It's living the way you want to live instead of the way your Creator put you here to live. It's the spiritual hijacking of your life from the One who gave it to you in the first place. And hijacking is punishable by a death penalty. I deserved that penalty. But Jesus stepped in and said, "Take me instead." In the words of the Bible, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). He really, really loves you. He's the One who gave you your worth when He made you. You are His one-of-a-kind original. He wants to restore the worth that sin has taken from you. But you have to choose Him. He won't force His way into your life. You have to invite Him in. That invitation involves a lifetime choice to turn from running your own life and putting your life in His hands, where it's belonged all along. It's a step of total trust in Jesus as being the only hope of having your sins forgiven, your only hope of going to heaven, of experiencing the love you were made for. He's waiting for you to tell Him with all your heart, "Jesus, I am Yours." After all He's paid for you, is there any reason not to trust Him? On our website, I've laid out a simple explanation of just how you can be sure you belong to Him. I encourage you to go there right away today. Check it out for yourself. It's ANewStory.com. You'll find a lot of hope there. His love will show you how very much you're worth, because honestly, nobody loves you like Jesus.

Now, look, if we get together regularly by radio, we kind of have sort of a strange relationship. I mean you know me by radio, but maybe only by radio. Some people might think that gives you a break because they'd say, "Yeah, that's probably better we just know him by radio." You just know my voice, right; sort of a one-dimensional relationship. It's pretty amusing when people find out how I look. Yeah, they get this mental image of what they think I look like. One lady said "You don't look like yourself." What? I've never looked like anybody else. I'll be somewhere I'm speaking, they'll say, "Oh, we thought you looked different. This is it?" Yeah, this is it. Now, occasionally I've had an opportunity to be on television. And maybe when I did a guest appearance on Wild Kingdom maybe that was it; you might have seen me there - Animal World. But, when I am on television, and if you were to see me there, you'd know me two dimensionally. You'd be able to see me and hear me. Frankly, what I enjoy most, I like meeting you in person, as I've had the opportunity maybe to be with you. And I do have that chance many times. We can shake hands, we can look each other in the eye, we can interact with each other instead of just being in a one-way conversation like today. And when you meet someone that you've only seen or heard before, you've got a 3-D, a three-dimensional relationship. And that's the best kind. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "3 Dimensions of Knowing Jesus." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in John 12. I'll begin reading in verse 1. "Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." Did you notice there are three levels in this passage of being around Jesus? See, we have a Savior who can only be really known three-dimensionally. The problem is that usually maybe at least one of these dimensions is missing in a Christian's life. And following and knowing Christ is like a three-legged stool. You take one leg away, the stool keeps falling over. Now, the Christian life keeps falling over I guess you might say. Because maybe we're missing one of the parts of the relationship. First it says here Martha served. Now, that's the first dimension of knowing Jesus - working... busy for the Lord. It's important to be sure that it's Him you're busy for; not the church, not some human leader. The question is, "Are you actively serving your Lord in some capacity?" There are things you can only know about Him that way. As you work for Jesus, you find out how much you need Him. Because you say, "Boy, I've got to have some resources beyond mine to serve Him with." And then you really really reach out for Him. You download Him. Now, Lazarus, well he isn't working. He demonstrates what I call "withness." He's spending time with Jesus listening to Him. The way you listen to Him today is through what He wrote - the Bible. So are you regularly meeting with Jesus around His Word? Often the people who are working hard for the Lord, neglect their "with Him" time. And the "with" people who are spending time with Jesus maybe often aren't busy enough for the Lord. As you're consciously with Jesus, you find out what He wants you to do. Now, Mary? She's the worshiper. She worships with lavish worship; extravagant appreciation, sincere humility, time to just stand back and see how big and loving and how in control your Lord is. Now, are you allowing regular time just to worship His majesty... to be awed by who He is? As you worship Jesus, you find out how awesome He really is. Some who have work time and with time are just cranking it out because they're missing time just to worship Him. Those are three dimensions of knowing Jesus. The problem might be that one dimension is maybe out of focus for you, or maybe not even in the picture. So why not go for it all? Work for Him. Be with Him. Worship Him.

Oh I've come a long way for a technically challenged person. Well, there was a time I'd never used a computer - wasn't planning to. Somebody bought me one, said, "You're gonna." I didn't understand all about it, but I did learn how to use it. I remember back before the days of autosave, you know? There were some lessons I learned the hard way: I'd type in part of a book or a magazine article or notes of some kind, and then type in a password to save it. But I'd make one fatal mistake. See, you were supposed to hit this little key that said Enter or you wouldn't be seeing that material again. Just because it appeared on the screen didn't mean I had it. You had to save it by pressing the Enter command. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How God's Words Become Yours." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from James 1, beginning at verse 22. God says, "Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does." Now, these verses are about people who read and hear the Bible a lot. Is that you? Oh, it appears on their mental screen often, but it's people who don't really have it. They read it and then it disappears. See, there's no autosave here. Just hearing and knowing the Word of God does not a Christian make. Just because it appeared on your screen doesn't make it yours. You've got to hit Enter. How do you do that? Well, the passage talks about not forgetting what you've read. So, first of all, you need to memorize it. You've got to know it isn't enough to just to have God's Words in your Bible. They've got to be in your heart so you can bring them up on your screen when the pressure's on. Your intuitive response. And that happens when you memorize a verse or a promise or a challenge and you enter it as yours. I think you are also better able to remember when you write it down. That's my experience. Have you tried keeping a Jesus Journal with your Bible? It's the greatest thing I've ever done in terms of my growth in Christ to journal my Jesus time. After you've read, then you write what God has said to you in your own words and then you write what you're going to do differently that day because of what He said. See, you're processing it. Now it's autosaving because you're saving it when you write it. God's words become yours when you use them too, not just when you write them. During the day, tell someone else the words God has spoken to you. Share them. That enters it into your heart more. And most of all, you enter the truths of God's Word when you apply what appeared on your Bible screen. In other words you ask yourself, "Lord, what application can I make to something I'm going to face today?" And then that means that day you do something that is a specific "that day" obedience to what you read in God's Word that morning. Have you ever wondered how you could have heard so much Bible in your life and still be so far from your spiritual goals? Maybe you've not entered God's words by writing them down, by memorizing them, by telling somebody about them, applying it to your life. Churches are filled with people who have heard God's Word about what Christ did on the cross, coming out of His grave, our need to pin all our hopes on Jesus and yet those people will not be in heaven. Because they knew all about Jesus but they never pressed Enter, they never opened their heart to Jesus. Have you done that? If you're not sure you have, would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." Get to our website. I think you could come away from there knowing you belong to Him. That's ANewStory.com. When the message is important, which it always is when it comes from God, make sure it's not just good on the screen, but you've entered it in your life.

Some years ago, I took my second trip on behalf of a youth ministry to South Africa. On the first trip, I remember how very lost I felt when I got to the airport. I'd been on an airplane for 18 wonderful hours. I got there late at night, I had no car, no directions. I didn't know anything about anywhere in the nation of South Africa. Well, I'm glad to report to you that someone met me there at the airport. They didn't just leave me saying, "Hey, listen, if you can get out to where we are we'll take care of you once you get there." That's a good thing. They'd have never seen me. I went as far as I could go, and they met me there. I know someone who does that for people all the time. And if you understand how He works, well you might just be willing to risk the trip. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Failure Doesn't Have to Be Final." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in John 21, and I'll begin reading at verse 15. Let me put this in context: Jesus has risen from the dead. Not long before, Peter had said to Him, "Lord, I will follow you to prison and to the death." You remember that Jesus said, "No, you'll betray Me three times." And sure enough he did. He denied the Lord three times. He even said, "I never knew Him." What an embarrassment now. He's about to face the Lord, knowing he has failed Him. Well, Jesus meets Peter as he's out on a fishing trip. It looks like Peter's about to go back to that same old mediocrity. He's returning to fishing, it appears, but Jesus says, "I want to meet you privately." And you can imagine Peter. I don't know, maybe he thinks, "Oh-oh. Are we going to talk about that night?" Here's what Jesus said, "When they finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of John, do you truly love Me more than these?' 'Yes, Lord, he said, You know that I love You.' Jesus said, 'Feed my lambs.' Again Jesus said, 'Simon, son of John, do you truly love me?' He answered, 'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.' Jesus said, 'Take care of my sheep.' The third time He said to him, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me?' Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, 'Do you love me?' But he said, 'Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.'" Now, with the backdrop of a major failure, all Jesus wants to know is, "Peter, do you love me?" Maybe you have failed Him recently. Do you know what He wants to know? "Do you love me?" Now, there are two very different love words used here. Phileo, which is a friendship kind of love, and agapao which is "I will love you, no strings attached." The first two times Jesus says, "Do you love me, no strings attached?" Peter says, "Yes, Lord, I phileo - I friendship love you." Finally Jesus says, "Okay, Peter, do you phileo - do you friendship love me?" And Peter says, "I do love you." Do you know what's interesting here? Jesus meets Peter where he is. He wants to do the same with you. He says, "Let's start with the little love that you have - let's start with the little faith that you have. You can get back to Me. You can begin again." And one day Peter will die for Christ. But right now He's just got that little, but growing love. So, would you bring Jesus the little love you have, but would you bring Him all you have? You can begin again. You don't have to get all the way there, because Jesus...He's the Savior who's waiting to meet you where you are.

If you want to ask me the five greatest victories in my life, I'm not sure I can tell you what two, three, four or five would be. But I could sure tell you what number one would be - my wife! She was not an easy conquest, man. She was dating this other guy. I was after her long before she had any romantic thoughts about me. So I really had to work on this one. So I plotted ways to be with her, I plotted ways to impress her. I plotted ways to try to help her. Is this stalking? I'm not sure. But this is all under the heading "Oh, we have a brother and sister relationship." That's what it was. After several months of this brother/sister thing, I blurted out to her one night, standing by a water fountain - I remember it. We were in college. I said, "I'm sick and tired of this brother/sister thing. I want to have more than that." See, I loved her before she loved me and I pursued her. Oh, p.s., and I got her. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love That Pursues You." Our word for today from the Word of God, John 1 beginning at verse 45. It's actually loaded with some revealing information about what Jesus might be doing in your life right now. Philip has just come to Christ. And it says, 'Philip found Nathanael and told him, 'We have found the One Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.'" Here's what Nathanael says. "'Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?' 'Come and see' said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, 'Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.' 'How do you know me?' Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, 'I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.' Then Nathanael declared, 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.'" You notice Nathanael's not initially interested in Jesus. But then Jesus says, "I saw you long before you saw me." Well that melted Nathanael's heart and it ultimately made him one of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Actually, Jesus has had His eye on you for a long time. Here's what the Bible says in Ephesians 1:4, "He chose us in Christ before the creation of the world." God has had His eye on you since before there was a world. And over the years of your life He has been pursuing you with His love whether you were paying any attention to Him or not. Like this guy I know who pursued this girl, and she was beautiful and attractive. The Bible says we're not beautiful and attractive to God. In fact it says, "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). God's love for you and me? It's not romantic love. It isn't because we're lovable. In fact, we're sinners. We've hijacked our life from our Creator - the life that He gave us. Listen to this description of God's love for you. "This is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (John 4:10). Now, I know on a finite level what it means to love someone before that person responds, to pursue the one you love. Well, the God of the universe has been doing that with you. He's been waiting for you while you've been checking out all those other options for your heart. Today, again, He's knocking on the door of your heart saying, "Isn't it time you opened your heart and your life to Me?" He won't wait forever. That's why the Bible says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near." Today's really the only day you can be sure He'll still be found. You need to respond to God's love by committing yourself to Jesus Christ with all your heart. How? I would be honored to help you get that settled this very day. So, would you go to the website to help you begin with Jesus? It's ANewStory.com. Christ has loved you enough to sacrifice His life for yours. And today, where you are, He is pursuing you with His love. And He's been waiting patiently for you to respond. Please, my friend, don't risk losing the love that your heart was made for.

Because I lived in the New York area for so many years, went to the World Trade Center so many times, even knew people in the building, the events of September 11th always come back to me. And part of the incredible impact of the attacks on the World Trade Center was that everyday people suddenly became national heroes. Fire trucks would roll through New York City with weary firefighters on board. Can't you picture it? Maybe you saw that stuff on the news. And New Yorkers would erupt in spontaneous cheers - scenes that I would never forget. Ground Zero, that devastated area at and around the site of the collapsed towers, became known as Ground Hero. Professional athletes, who are supposedly our nation's heroes in less turbulent times, kept saying, "We're not the heroes - they're the heroes." Americans will not soon forget those firefighters, the police, the medical personnel, and those countless volunteers who gave everything they had to try to rescue those who were caught in those collapsing towers. I'll tell you what. For me, the word "hero" was never the same again. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Heaven's Heroes." We know what a hero is. Ultimately, it is someone who does whatever it takes to rescue someone who will die if they don't. Apparently, that's God's definition of a "hero" too. Consider this exciting promise from Daniel 12:3. I love this verse. It's our word for today from the Word of God. "Those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever." Wow! God seems to be reserving special reward, special recognition, and special significance for those who lead people into a right relationship with Him. And heaven's applause will last "forever and ever." In other words, heaven's heroes are those who help other people get to heaven. Proverbs 24:11 underscores, I guess I call it the "life-or-deathness" of our spiritual rescue mission. God says, "Rescue those being led away to death." Ezekiel puts it in the context of a watchman on the city wall helping people know when there's approaching danger. "If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood." Now, that's a sobering verse. If you belong to Jesus Christ, you have a life-or-death responsibility for the folks in your world who don't belong to Jesus. You have the information. You know what they need to know about what Jesus did for them on the cross and how they can have a relationship with Him - and that message that you know is their only hope of heaven. You can't keep it to yourself. Your silence is like giving them a silent death sentence. So you are uniquely positioned to be the spiritual rescuer of the people you know, the people you care about. You are where you are to give the people there a chance to go to heaven. That's why God put you there. Don't let them down. This isn't about rescuing someone so they can have 30 or 40 more years to live on earth. This is about whether they live or die for all eternity! I know it feels risky to tell them about Jesus. "Oh, I might lose this. This might happen." All the yeah, buts. But then rescue is always risky. The reason you take the risks is because you can't stand the thought of that person dying without a chance to live. So you go where they are. You pray with a desperate urgency for God's open doors and God's words, and you give whatever you have to give to bring them out. Saving lives makes a person a hero. When you lead someone to the Man who died for them, you are saving a life forever my friend. And you just became one of heaven's heroes.

For many years now I've spent most of my summer working with Native American young people. So I was especially interested when I heard the touching story of an Indian chief who was chief during the time when tribes were still wandering tribes. He had a reputation for being a really great leader. In fact it was said that he was always just, but he was always loving. That was about to be severely tested, though, in a way he could have never dreamed. There had been some theft in his tribe and he needed to get to the bottom of it. So he actually set a trap with some goods that were left out, and he hoped that those would trap the thief. He only told two braves, and then those two braves waited. At dawn they came to the chief's teepee. One brave entered, and he said, "We have caught the thief." The chief said, "Good! We will sentence him to 20 lashes with the whip. Bring him in." And they did to the shock and horror of the chief. The hours that followed would never be forgotten by that tribe. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Chief and the Thief." When those braves brought in the thief who had been caught in the act, they brought in the chief's mother. Well, word spread very quickly through the tribe, because there was to be a punishment of 20 lashes with the whip. And the people began to say, "Well, now we'll find out which is greater, his justice or his love." At noon his mother was tied to a stake in the middle of the encampment, her garment was loosened to expose her back, and a warrior drew back his arm with the whip. And suddenly there was an order that came from the chief, "Stop!" The people began to talk to each other and say, "You know, he's setting aside his justice for his love isn't he? His love's greater than his justice." And that's when something happened that no one there would ever forget. The chief took off his robe so that his back was exposed, placed his body between his mother and the whip and gave a two-word order, "The whip!" And that day the punishment fell - 20 lashes, not on the one who deserved it, but on one who loved her enough to take the punishment that she deserved. That is what God's one and only Son did for you and for me. Our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Peter 2:24, "He carried our sins in His own body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed." The penalty for sinning had been set from the beginning of time, from the Garden of Eden, "You will surely die." We've all broken God's laws; we've all broken God's heart by running the life He gave us to live for Him. There's a death penalty for that. I deserve the whip of God and so do you. But He said, "Take Me instead." When Jesus went to that cross, the punishment of God fell not on the one who deserved it (that's me), but on the one who loved you and loved me enough to take the punishment we deserved. God's love sent His one and only Son to die in your place. If you thought your good deeds or your religion could pay your bill with God, look at that cross. It takes someone dying to pay a death penalty. But that sacrifice only rescues you if you put your total trust in what Jesus did and embrace Him as the Rescuer from your sin. John 3:16 says, "Whoever believes in Him will not die but will have everlasting life." Have you ever done that? Have you ever believed in the sense of like grabbing Jesus consciously like a drowning person would grab a lifeguard? If you're not sure you've done that with Jesus, make sure today. Tell Him, "Lord, I believe some of those sins you died for were mine. I'm putting all my trust in You today. I'd love to help you get started with Him. So I want to invite you to our website where there's a lot of information that will help you get started with Him. ANewStory.com. That's the website. It could be the beginning of your new story. The Son of God has stood between you and the punishment of God. Now He stands in front of you with outstretched hands, nail-pierced hands. He's waiting for you to respond to His love. Please don't wait another day.

When you've been sick in bed for six weeks, you are pretty desperate for things to do. That's probably why my wife spent so long just watching a frustrated lady bug one day during an illness. My wife had been sick long enough to be almost at that point of desperation. The kids and I were at a conference where I was speaking. I had booked it two years in advance and my wife insisted that we still should do it. It just so happened, unbeknownst to all of us, that all of my wife's closest friends were out of town that same weekend - nobody knew that was going to happen. So, she was struggling a little bit with her situation. And then along came the lady bug. Yeh, the lady bug was trying to climb up our bedroom window, and she came to this little metal strip. And my wife was watching this little drama play itself out. The lady bug tried to come at it from every direction. She couldn't get over that little tiny obstacle - even the most heroic efforts no matter how she approached it didn't work. And my wife kept thinking, "Why can't you get over this little thing?" And then she told me how she began to see herself through God's eyes in a lady bug perspective. And then she told me about the wonderful moments that followed. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Powerful Prayer You'll Ever Pray." Our word for today from the Word of God - Mark 5, and we'll get to it in just a moment. I told you about my wife watching that lady bug, and she was struggling with her attitude on that lonely, bedridden weekend. And she saw herself in that frustrated lady bug. It was as if God was saying to her what she was saying to that insect, "Why can't you get over this little thing?" At least that's how my wife told it to me. And at that moment, she said, she just gave up the fight to the Lord. And minutes later, a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses arrived at the door. It was like God delivered them. Okay, now our word for today from the Word of God - Mark 5, begins at verse 24, "And Jesus had a large crowd following Him, and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind Him in a crowd and touched His cloak. Because she thought, 'If I could just touch His clothes I'll be healed.' And immediately her bleeding stopped." Well she was healed that day. She'd tried everything she knew. She'd given up on the doctors. She gave up on buying a cure. She was desperate. All she could do was lunge for Jesus. Do you know it's that desperation that gives birth to a miracle, which leads us to the most powerful prayer you can ever pray: Three little words, "I give up." I talked to a girl whose depression had led to a suicide attempt, and now she was finally enjoying a whole new peace she found in Christ. I said, "What turned the tide?" She said, "Well I finally just said, 'Lord, I give up.'" It could be those three words are all that's keeping you from a supernatural answer. The Lord says, "You've tried everything my child. None of your schemes, none of your dreams, have done it. You've got your fingerprints all over everything from trying to make it happen. Now you're tired and frustrated and you're out of options. Are you ready for Me to take over?" Yeah you've been praying about it, but maybe not the prayer of desperation - not the prayer of total surrender. Desperation: that's the heart condition with which God can do the most. So get out of the way of what God wants to do through you and for you. Sample His greatest power. You know where it comes from? Yeah, right after "I give up." That could turn out to very well be the most powerful prayer you will ever pray.

It seems to happen so many nights on the news, the anchorman or anchorwoman telling us there's been another school shooting. I remember the time it wasn't even a shooting. It was knives. A student rampaged through the halls of Franklin Regional High School. Two long knives left a trail of blood and 22 wounded victims - Murrysville, Pennsylvania. Yeah, another one they added to the list of schools nobody wants to be on. We know the names: Parkland, Newtown, and Fort Hood. And on and on it goes. Of course, starting with Columbine. Places where one angry person changes lives and families forever. And quite often anger is a big part of it. In fact, anger's at the root of most of the explosions we hear about in the headlines. And lots more that never make it into the headlines. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stabbings, Shootings and Three Ways to Defuse Our Time Bomb." Rage that detonates every day: homes, work, school, sporting events, traffic. And the trigger for that rage turns out to be usually something relatively small. It's like the final drop that made this glass full of anger overflow. And there are always victims, occasionally bleeding on the outside, almost always bleeding on the inside. The world's best-seller, the Bible, says this about the power of our angry words. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 12:18 and then Proverbs 18:21. "Reckless words pierce like a sword" and "the tongue has the power of life and death." But behind the guns and the knives, that verbal sword. That's the deeper issue, the ticking time bomb of seething anger inside us that seems more widespread than ever. Making places we once thought were "safe" increasingly more dangerous. The problem is we've got this bomb inside. How do we defuse it? Well, first, you've got to unload your pain before you explode your pain. Behind our anger is almost always hurt, over mistreatment, or failure, or frustration over a relationship, or feeling attacked, excluded. See, stored-up hurt morphs into the ticking time bomb of rage. Unless you unload it, not in a blast of anger that scars often innocent victims, but by facing your deepest hurts with someone you can trust: a family member, a friend, a counselor or pastor. But say it. Don't stuff it. That just feeds that ugly anger monster. Secondly, reach out to the people in the shadows - those shy ones - the people who seem to be saying, "Leave me alone." That person who's negative or mean or left out. It's the people who feel isolated - sometimes by their own actions - who need us the most. Most importantly, let God into the darkness. There's only so much people can do to heal our wounds and to defuse the ticking time bomb inside us. I know it's risky to let someone into that room in our soul where the hurt and the anger are stored. But it's a whole lot more risky not to. I think everyone needs a place to go with the wounds and the feelings that have no words. I found that place in the God who "gets" me because He's been here as a victim of the worst of human injustice and brutality on that first Good Friday. Jesus. He's the God who understands. Who loves me enough to die for every wrong thing, every hurting thing, every angry thing I've ever done. He's my one safe place. He's your one safe place. If you've never begun a relationship with Him and you'd like to, let Him into the darkest corners of your soul to do what only a Savior like Jesus can do. Make this the day you give you to Him. Go to our website and find out there how to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. Today, experience for yourself the love of Jesus that has liberated so many people. Come to the one safe place.

I was blessed one time by an observation made by a three-year-old granddaughter. A friend asked her, "What's your granddad up to these days?" To which she simply replied: "Oh, he's getting taller." I am? I'd like to think she's right. I think I'll go measure. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Bigger God Than Ever." I actually wish my granddaughter had been right. Unfortunately, I am, in spite of whatever she have thought by that wonderful observation, just as vertically challenged as I've ever been. But her comment brought to mind a memorable conversation from C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. Narnia is this magical land where the animals talk and where a majestic lion named Aslan is the ultimate king. Those stories offer some powerful analogies of our experience with Jesus, the One the Bible calls "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah." In one story, Lucy, one of the children, has not seen Aslan for a long time. When she does, there's a really tender reunion. And Lucy asks, "Aslan, have you gotten bigger?" To which Aslan replies, "Oh, no my child, you have. And the more you grow, the bigger I will seem." Wow! That's exactly how God intends for it to be as we grow in our relationship with Him. Our God seems to get bigger and bigger as we grow. My granddaughter might have thought I was getting taller. I'm wasn't. And God, of course, doesn't get bigger, but He wants us to see more and more how big He really is. The bigger your God is, the bigger things you'll believe Him for, the bigger your life can be. We have, for too long, allowed our problems and our pain to loom so large that they have obscured the greatness of our God who is so much bigger than the things that are bigger than we are. They're like my thumb blocking the view of the sun, this little thing blocking my view of something massive. In fact, God plans our life-journey in such a way that we'll see more and more of what an awesome God He is. Let's look at a memorable example in Exodus 14, beginning with verse 13. Happens to be our word for today from the Word of God. God's people have the Red Sea in front of them and the mightiest army on earth behind them. Well, facing one of history's greatest "Mission Impossible" moments, Moses tells the people: "Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Lord will fight for you...the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." So, God parted the waters, His people walked through on dry land, and waters came together again and drowned the entire Egyptian army. And the Bible says, "Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: 'The Lord is highly exalted...the Lord is my strength and my song...the Lord is a warrior; the Lord is His name...Who among the gods is like You, O Lord?...majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders." How did they discover the majesty of the God they belonged to? Through something so big that only God could do it. How will you discover what an awesome God you have? The same way. And that may explain some of the "why" of what you're facing right now. It's God's plan to grow your view of Him through challenges that are bigger than your resources but not bigger than His. He may be putting you through something that's stretching your faith, but it's all part of the plan to give you a front row seat on the greatness of your God, to blow the lid off your relationship with Him, and to teach you the unshakeable peace of being able to say, "God's God and I'm not." You haven't even begun to see the glory and power of the God you belong to. You need some very big mountains to see what a very big God you have. So don't be frustrated over the challenge you're facing. Celebrate it as your ticket to a front row seat on the glory of God. Because the more you grow, the bigger He will be.

It was one of those many nights with our team of young Native Americans when God had dramatically shown His power. We were in the middle of a major outreach on a reservation basketball court and these huge storms started to surround us. There were predictions of severe thunderstorms, and it appeared they were bearing right down on us. Two hours later, when we had had the time to help many Native young people there begin a relationship with Jesus, the storms roared through. By then we were having our team debriefing in a church fellowship hall. Suddenly, in the middle of our sharing time, all the lights went out. We were in total darkness. And in a matter of moments, someone had found some candles, and as soon as we lit a candle, things changed in the room. We could see each other again, even if it was a little dim. It was just one light, but it wasn't totally dark anymore. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Power of One Lonely Light." That lonely light in a dark place might be you. Maybe you're in a place where dishonesty is like the norm, or talking dirty, or talking trash against other people. Where sin is a laughing matter and a way of life people don't even give much thought to. And then there's you. You are the living proof there's another way to be, that there's hope, not just despair. There's looking out for others, not just looking out for yourself. There's joy, not being negative all the time. You're not self-righteous. But you are the light. That's exactly what our Lord said we were supposed to be. In Matthew 5, beginning with verse 14, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." You certainly are meant to be the light at least for your little corner of the world. "A city on a hill..." He said, "...cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." One thing I saw that night when we were in total darkness is this: it only takes a little light to make a big difference. You may not feel like you're making much of a difference, but take you out of that place, and it's totally dark. You are the conscience there. You are the face, you are the voice, you are the hands of Jesus there. You are the hope of something better. And you can be sure Satan is doing everything possible to blow out your light, isn't he? He's pushing all your buttons to discourage you, to get you to compromise, or even to bail out. But you can't let your light flicker. You can't let your light go dim or go out. When our daughter-in-law was expecting our grandchild, she suddenly gave up something we've kiddingly said she's addicted to - a certain soft drink. Why should she suddenly change her behavior like that? Because she knew that now another life was being affected by her choices. That's how it is where Jesus has placed you as His light. If you flicker, if you go out, it's going to make other lives darker. Whether you realize it or not, whether they realize it or not, you are their best hope. Some Christians just try to put all the lights together and withdraw the light from dark places. Can you imagine a dark house where you put all the light fixtures in one room and leave the rest of the house dark? No, you need to spread the light into all the dark places. And if your Savior has placed you in one of those dark places, you know what that means? He's trusting you to be His light there. Don't fail them. Don't fail Him by letting your light flicker or go out. In a totally dark place one night, I saw the power of one lonely light - it was a very different place because of that one little light. You may be that one lonely light. Burn brightly, my friend, because without you it's just all darkness.

When you use our kitchen sink, you notice this little contraption attached to the faucet. It's one of those sophisticated water filters. Before the water arrives in your glass or container, it passes through that filter. Now, I don't know about you, but I hate surprises in my water. How about you? I mean, I was amazed the first time that we took that filter off to clean it. Oh, it needed lots of cleaning! It had screened out of our drinking water this layer of dirty stuff. I didn't even want to think about that going into my body. Let's hear it for the filter! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Soul Dirt." That's actually what a lot of people are doing - drinking dirt. Mentally, that is, just getting a lot of things that are spiritually and morally impure poured right into your soul - unfiltered input. And if you belong to Jesus Christ, the dirt is rushing into what the Bible describes as the "temple of the Holy Spirit." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) God literally lives in you through His Holy Spirit. That's Holy Spirit. Dirty stuff should never defile His temple. In fact, in our word for today from the Word of God, God clearly commands us to filter what's coming in. 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, "Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." A lot of times we don't have a spiritual filter for what we see and what we hear. Or we have a pretty wide screen on that filter - one porous enough to let in a lot that has no place in a heart or a mind that's owned by Jesus and inhabited by the Holy Spirit of God. Sometimes it takes a child to show us "sophisticated" adults how we should be living. The teacher was a five-year-old, our grandson, who was watching a new crop of kids' shows some years ago. Captain Kangaroo and Mister Rogers (some of you are going, "What?") are long gone, and yes, I think Big Bird might still be flying around Sesame Street. But then there was Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder, a tomato named Bob. Our grandson, well, he had a few favorites he liked to watch. But then one day he walked over to the television and did something he did not do with this program that he liked a lot. He turned it off in the middle of the show. The story was starting to involve some ghost and witch stuff. When Daddy asked our grandson why he had turned off one of his favorites, he just said, "It was a bad one, Daddy." The radar of a five-year-old boy in whom Jesus lives. He knew that no matter how much he liked the show, no matter how many shows they have where there's nothing bad, when it is bad, it isn't for him. You know what? That's a model for a Jesus-follower of any age. But all too often, we watch portrayed, or we read about, or we listen to something that is part of the very sin that Jesus died for. The Bible says He carried our sins in His body on the tree, "that we might die to sins" (1 Peter 2:24). So what business do we have letting in things that portray premarital sex, or nudity, or adultery, or occult practices that the Bible calls an "abomination." You can't turn on the TV or radio or go to a website and then turn off being a temple of the Holy Spirit. We're most likely to let in the garbage when it's wrapped in a package that's funny, or entertaining, or has a great beat, or is clever, or popular. Satan's no dummy! He comes in under the radar, like a Stealth Bomber, when your guard's down. It's not to be taken lightly when God gives a command that says, "Above all else..." And He does that in Proverbs 4:23. "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Guard your heart as the spiritual reservoir from which you drink all day long. If it's a "bad one," you've got to turn it off if you're serious about really being His man or woman. If you don't want to let dirt into the Holy Spirit's house, filter what you let come in. You wouldn't knowingly let your mouth drink dirt. Well, then, don't let your soul do it!

Every once in a while Hollywood will get your hopes up, and then... you know. Yeah, like a few years ago they were going to make a movie about Noah and Noah's Ark. Yeah, Noah's Ark Rides Again! They were hoping it would bring in a flood of money. Well, the word was that the telling of this iconic story started with the Bible account, and then it added a very heavy dose of Hollywood imagination with great special effects. Probably no match, though, for the original. Now, with Noah showing up in TV ads, it kind of made me go back to the non-fiction, original narrative - I mean Bible-style. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A 21st Century Ark" I found more than a story. I found insights as current as today's news. If old Noah showed up today, he'd be blown away by all that's changed. And all that hasn't. Like the five game-changers I found for any generation. 1. God still has His Noahs. The original Story says, "Noah was a righteous man...and he walked in close fellowship with God." The moral heroes in any generation are the ones who stand for what's right when no one else is, even when they stand alone. They're rare, but they're like uncommon collectibles, they're really valuable. And "Noah (maybe like you if you're standing for the right thing), found favor in the eyes of the Lord." 2. God still has boundaries. In the Bible's words, "The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth...that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence." He'd set boundaries. They didn't care. Sounds familiar. The culture doesn't decide what's right. Polls or politicians may tell us what's politically correct, but not what's wrong. That's up to the One who put us here. Like Noah's contemporaries, we can always find a way to justify our "I don't care what You say, God." But His boundaries don't move. He's God. And I'm pretty sure He reacts to our rebellion the same way He did in Noah's time. The Bible says, "It broke His heart." 3. God still has penalties for going out of bounds. God promised Noah He wouldn't do the flood thing again. But there must be a Judgment Day. The Bible says, "It is appointed to man to die once, and after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27). I'll bet the Noah Gen folks told Noah, "We're getting away with it, old man." They were wrong. 4. God still has an Ark. A safe place. Noah and his family, it says, "went on board the boat to escape the flood." Like countless people over 2,000 years, I ran to the haven that God has provided from His judgment. It's not a ship. It's a Savior. The Bible says in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 8:1, "There is now no condemnation (that means I'm safe!) for those who are in Christ Jesus." How can God say that when I've rebelled against Him? I've done a lot of wrong things. I've broken His laws. I've defied His rulership of my life. There's a death penalty for that. How can He say there's no condemnation? Because Christ Jesus, His Son, paid the penalty that I deserve. And when you open up your life to Him and put your life in His hands, you are in essence entering the ark of safety where you will be eternally safe with Him forever. If you've never opened your heart to Him, do it today. I'd love to help you be sure you belong to Him. And we'll do that at our website. Just check it out. It's ANewStory.com. By the way, one other factor: 5. God still has a "rainbow." In the biblical account, God says, "The rainbow is a sign...Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life." That's a guaranteed future anchored to a promise. I know that feeling. The Bible says, "Anyone who believes in God's Son has eternal life" (John 3:36). It doesn't get any better than that. Check out that original story of Noah. It's a mirror to see our time - to see ourselves. And to see only hope is God's safe place.

You know, some people who financially support Christian ministry also like to play golf. I don't happen to be one of them. If you'd seen the one time I did play golf, when I hit my partner in the head with a club, you would understand why I've been banned from golf courses. But there are those who get together to play golf in a benefit tournament on behalf of the cause they support. In one major city they asked the local NFL quarterback, probably the best known guy in town, to be the chairman. Well, actually, they asked him to be the honorary chairman. They put his name on the invitation, on the letterhead, and that was pretty impressive. It made the event feel more important. But don't kid yourself. That quarterback had absolutely no say in how that day was organized. See, he was the honorary chairman. Translation: Big title - no authority. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Myth of the Honorary Chairman." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 6, and I'll begin reading in verse 46. Jesus is describing here a relationship that seems to be alright with Him, but it has a major problem. He says, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice. He's like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. And when a flood came, a torrent struck that house but could not shake it because it was well built. But the one who hears My words and does not put them into practice, is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house (you guessed the outcome) it collapsed, and its destruction was complete." So, Jesus is describing in this passage a man headed for a collapse, someone who calls Jesus "Lord, Lord," but doesn't do what He says. In other words, Jesus has become that man's honorary chairman. See, that happens to us. Oh we still have Jesus' name on the letterhead, He's still got top billing, He's got the title. He's still got our official allegiance, but He doesn't have any real authority over the choices that really matter to us, that make up our days. It's easy for that to happen after you've followed Christ for a while. Oh, there was a time when you gave Him everything about you. You knew how much you needed Him. But see, there's a lot more in your life now. I mean, you've got business decisions, you've got a much larger life, relationships that weren't there before. You've got a reputation maybe you didn't have before, needs that weren't there when you gave Him all of you. Your family is different, your financial position is different. It could be that His lordship may not have grown with your life - maybe it hasn't expanded daily as each day's new experiences have emerged. It could be that you're depending on a commitment that was deep and meaningful at one time and it was difficult to make then, because you were giving it your all. But now what was once passion has sort of become professional - what was alive has become official. What was warm...it's gotten cold. It could be it's time to return to that altar where you totally surrendered. Oh, it will be harder this time because you've got more to give. But Jesus paid with His life, not to have the title of Lord, but to have the authority. Authority that is daily expanded through you giving Him new ground from that 24-hour period of your life. You make Him Lord of the stuff of that day and then again tomorrow He'd do it again. Why don't you light the fire again - the fire that's kindled not when Jesus is honorary chairman, but when He is the hands-on Lord of every choice you make.

So, as you get close to the time of the wedding, you know, you've got to make the list of who you're going to invite and who you're not going to invite. So, almost every bride and groom with a lot of counsel from the parents, end up with two lists. Here's the people that make the cut and they're going to get invited, and these people...what they don't know won't hurt them probably. Then, oh, there of course were my friends at school. We had a missionary aviation course. It was very challenging. And for two years, the guys had to take all the base curriculum not knowing if they would make the cut to be able to go into the airport and then begin to really get the flight training. And many of my friends were standing there on the day they posted the list. Boy, I'll tell you what, that was a big day to find out which list you were on. I had a lot of friends that were crushed, and a lot of friends who were celebrating the rest of the day. It's amazing how many times life comes down to which list you're on. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Two Lists." For some reason, the examples I just mentioned, take me back to a real disaster that riveted the world over a century ago. An unspeakable tragedy, out of the blue. It was a ship that disappeared. Yeah, you know. It was the Titanic with 2,200 people aboard. The scope of the loss defied anything anyone could conceive. And there, in Liverpool, families were waiting to learn the fate of someone they loved. As news filtered back from the disaster, White Star Lines notified the next of kin by posting the name of each identified passenger on a board outside their office with two lists: "Those known to be saved" and "Those known to be lost." Two groups. Only two. When they had set sail, they were first class, second class, third class and crew. Now they were saved or lost. As I've been exposed to God's heart as expressed in the Bible, I've realized that's how He views all of us. Whatever group we're in - ethnically, politically, religiously, socially - He sees each of us being in one of two groups: saved or lost. Here's how the Bible says it. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 John 5:11-12. "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Now, it's not in Christianity. It's not in any religion. It's in His Son, Jesus. It goes on to say, "And he who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life." That's because His Son did what had to be done for a sinner like me to ever go to God's heaven. God's really clear about the penalty for my cosmic defiance of my Creator's rule of my life. It says, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). That's not your heart stopping. No, that's eternal separation from the source of all life, all love, and everything good in the universe - eternal separation from God - lost forever. Except for the hope in that statement, "God has given us eternal life." And that's in the person of His Son, Jesus, who, again according to God's Book, "carried our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). So what was happening on that cross was the payment for your sin and mine - the only One God could ever accept. Why did He do that? Because it says, "He came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15) like me. Like you. I was once "known to be lost." But the greatest miracle of my life is that I'm now "known to be saved" because God sent a Rescuer, and I grabbed His outstretched hand. Which may be reaching out to where you are right now. Grab His hand and say, "Jesus, you're my only hope. I'm yours." If you want to know how to do that and make sure you belong to Him? Would you go to our website? That is what it's there for. It's ANewStory.com. Check it out. This could be your day to be rescued by the Savior who gave His life to save you so you would be known to be saved.

It was a spiritual, well, "golden moment." The closing night of our Warrior Leadership Summit. And it was our privilege, as it is every summer, to bring together Native American young people, representing scores of Indian nations across North America. I mean, we realize that only an estimated 4% of Native people know Christ after some 400 years of mission work, this conference is almost historic. The mission each year is to help Native young people choose Christ, follow Christ and be a warrior for Christ in some very difficult places. That moment, that golden moment, came when 20 young people, representing some 20 Indian nations, each stood to declare their commitment to go back to reach their people for Christ. Then they bowed at the foot of the old rugged cross at the front of the auditorium. Then, as hundreds of Native young people began to sing "Our God Is an Awesome God," those 20 young warriors lifted the cross above their heads. They reverently carried it through the audience and out the door to a world whose only hope is that cross. It was a powerful moment. A few minutes after the meeting ended, a leader came to me and said, "Ron, there's something beautiful going on out in front of the auditorium. Those young warriors? They don't want to leave the cross." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Staying Close To the Cross." I haven't been able to get those words out of my mind, "They don't want to leave the cross." What a powerful way to prioritize your life - staying close to the cross where Jesus gave His life to save yours. That cross should be the centerpiece of what matters to me, what I love, what I hate, what I spend on, what I do with my life. It's the centerpiece of the plan of God for this whole planet and for your life. The sacrifice of countless lambs to atone for the sins of God's people pointed to the one ultimate sin sacrifice - God's Lamb, on the cross. Jesus continually called His death on that cross "the hour for which I have come." And the constant song of heaven for all eternity is, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." They're always celebrating the cross. Shouldn't we be doing the same thing on this side of heaven? Without that cross, we have no life; we have no hope. A few years ago, I was stunned when my name was announced at a conference as the winner of an alumni award. When they asked me to say something, and you're going to find this hard to believe, I was speechless. All I could finally say was a Bible verse, and it's our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 6:14. In the New Living Translation it says, "May I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in the world has been crucified, and the world's interest in me has also died." Let the price that Jesus paid for you define your priorities. Live for the One who loves you the most, who gave His life for you. Let the cross inspire your humility, no matter how smart you are, how applauded and how appreciated you may be. Don't ever forget you're nothing except for that cross. Let the cross help you say no to sin. Jesus died for that sin! And let the cross be your message. Don't just talk generally about God or "your faith." Talk about that cross. Charles Spurgeon said that whenever he preached he made "a straight pathway to the cross." He called the cross "God's magnificent magnet." Whenever you have an opportunity to say something about your Lord, don't be ashamed of the cross. Show them how much Jesus loves them. The old hymn says it pretty well: "Jesus, keep me near the cross." Carry His cross to a world around you whose only hope is what Jesus did there. Begin your days remembering that cross. May it be said of you, "He/she doesn't want to leave that cross."

It's a pretty good guess that a woman wrote this famous line "The only difference between men and boys is the size of their toys." Actually, I think there is a little boy that does live inside of most men. By the way, I think there's a little girl who lives inside of most women. It doesn't come out too often, but it comes out at certain times like when it snows. There's just this urge to throw a snowball. Right? Or when you go to an amusement park with your kids. And Christmas. Oh Christmas! That brings out the child inside. I think that the more adult responsibilities we get, the more sophisticated we become, the harder it is for that little boy or that little girl to get out. But you need that kid! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Choice and the Child in You." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 18, beginning at verse 2. Jesus was conducting a very memorable object lesson, and it says this: "He called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said: (Now, He's talking to all these sophisticated adults.) 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.'" Well look, obviously Jesus is saying here, "You've got to become childlike." Not childish. But you've got to become childlike again if you're going to get eternal life. Wow! What's He saying here? That you've got to be like a little child to get to heaven? Well, the Bible says "Without faith it is impossible to please God." And in John 1:12, the Bible says, "To all those who received Him, to as many as believed in His name, He gave the right to become the children of God." In other words, if you put all your trust in Jesus, you get into God's family. It's not religion, it's not giving, and it's not correct doctrine. You trust Jesus and what He did when He died for you. See, the older we get the harder that is. But how about with a child? Well, a child gets hurt, runs to the parent and trusts the parent's treatment. A little child has a question, they ask Mommy or Daddy. A little child is scared? Look to Mom and Dad. The older we get, the more we do for ourselves and the less we put our hope in our parents. That's okay in our families here on earth. But let's talk about God's family, because that's a sure way to miss God. Maybe you've gotten pretty far on your own and you pride yourself. You're self-reliant. You say, "Hey, I can handle it." Well, you can't handle the gap between you and God. Every culture in the world knows there's something between us and our Creator. And I believe your own heart tells you that. The Bible confirms that in Isaiah 59:2, "Your sin has separated you from your God." The Bible says in Romans 3:10, "There's no one righteous, no not one." Not compared to a perfect God. But Romans 5:6 says, "When we were totally powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." Now, maybe you're a believer and you've even told that to others. But you could have missed the one thing that will give you that relationship with God. You've never really surrendered yourself to Him and fallen on your knees at the cross where Jesus died for you and said, "Lord, I'm powerless." And like a little child, putting all their trust in the parent who can do it for them, what they can never do for themselves, you say, "I give myself to You. I put my total trust in You, Jesus, what You died to give me. You're all I've got. You're my only hope." Have you ever done that? Well, this might be the time. This could change everything: your life and your eternity. You say, "Ron, I don't know how to do that." Well, let me encourage you to go to our website as soon as you can today. We'll walk you through it. Go to ANewStory.com. Maybe you've tried to know God with a smart, sophisticated, self-trusting, adult reasoning. You can't get to heaven that way my friend. The kids sing it "Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so." It's time to say, "I'm not going to be able to walk to heaven on my own, Lord. Please carry me, Jesus."

When we moved to New York City many years ago, one of the first landmarks I wanted to see was the Statue of Liberty. And when we went out there on our first weekend, the guide told us an amazing fact I never realized. He said, "From the day in the late 1800's when her light was first lit up right here on that island, to the moment we are looking at right now, the lamp of Liberty has never gone out." Wow! Now, everybody else's lights in New York go off and on, especially in the daytime. You turn them off, right? "Lady Liberty's," he said, "was always on." During World War II when they blacked out New York City because of the threat of bombings, they put a little 60-watt light bulb in her so she could continue to have the lamp of Liberty lit. And then during the great northeast blackout some years ago when everybody else's power was out, her light continued to shine because she was connected to electricity on the New Jersey shore. So, as wave after wave of our forefathers sailed into New York harbor as immigrants, they would strain for a first look at that statue, the symbol of the freedom they had risked everything to find. And whenever they arrived, they saw the Light of Liberty. It was always on, and by the way, you should be too. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Days Full of God-Sightings." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 4. It's an account that includes those fascinating little details that reveal so much. I'll begin in verse 4: "Now Jesus had to go through Samaria. In Samaria he came to a town called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son, Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Will you give me a drink?'" Okay, now if you're familiar with this story, it starts a chain reaction that actually ends up in a revival in this whole Samaritan community. It happens as this woman, known for her immoral lifestyle, is changed by the Messiah at the well. Now, notice here Jesus was tired, He's resting, He's thirsty. Wouldn't you say He could be off duty for at least a little while? He's really fatigued, sort of like one of those buses with an Out of Service sign on it, "I'm not working right now." But then along comes a woman who needs Him, and He opens up her life to His claims. See, Jesus was "on" at a well, thirsty, tired, worn out, just as much as He was with a crowd on a sunny hillside. In fact, it is Jesus' fatigue that puts Him at the right place at the right time. See, God wants to use the everyday events of your life to position you to affect someone else, if you're willing to be stuck in the "on" position and never go off duty spiritually. Maybe tired, thirsty, hungry, not feeling good...still on duty. You never know how God will get you to be at the right place for someone who needs you. You need to be "on" for Him with your radar on when you go to lunch, when you go to Wal-Mart, when you go to the water fountain, when you're in a cab, when you're waiting in line. Don't put your service for Him into some little compartment: Okay, now I work for Him, now it's time for me, now it's time for ministry. Wait a minute! When isn't it time for ministry? Life really becomes an adventure when you open up your day to God's sovereign matching of you with people. You pray, "Lord, use my everyday activities to put me in the path of someone who needs me and who needs You. Just like that Lady in New York Harbor, you never know when you will hold the light that someone's looking for. Just be sure that your light's always "on."

Okay, babies don't always know what's good for them. That may be why some prehistoric parents invented the airplane idea. A baby should eat the food that he has in his bowl, but he doesn't want to. So, you put the food on the spoon, and you make like an airplane. "See the airplane (airplane sound)! Now your mouth is the hangar! Open the hangar so the airplane can go in!" I always hated it when the mouth opened, the plane approached, and suddenly the hangar door closed, leaving the airplane's cargo all over the baby's face. "Hey baby! I have what you need. But you won't open your mouth." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Get God's Best." Our word for today from the Word of God. We're in Psalm 81:10. Here's what God says: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. 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 Israel would follow my ways, how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." God seems to be saying here to His people in olden times in the Old Testament, and to us today, "You are under-living. There's so much more I want to give you. There's much more I want to do for you." I think there's a voice inside a lot of us that might be saying, "There's got to be something more in this relationship with Christ, in this Christianity stuff." Well, this isn't necessarily to make you materially prosperous, but He does have a lot more power, a lot more peace, a lot more love to put into your life, a lot more significance to open up your life to really making a difference. The problem is you can't get your mouth open. Made me think about a baby being fed. God wants you to have His best for your life. That's opening your mouth. He wants you to expect the supernatural, to act as if the supernatural is coming. See, you've got this awesomely big God! Remember it says in the Bible, "In His own hometown, Nazareth, Jesus could do no mighty work because of their unbelief." He did miracles everywhere but there, and the people who knew the most about Jesus saw the least supernatural because they weren't expecting anything. They didn't open their mouths. Faith is acting as if God will keep His promise, as if He will do something God-sized. God says here, "I tried to and they wouldn't listen. They wouldn't follow my ways." Is there a part of your life where you've been doing your own thing and going your own way? Maybe it's at home, at work, at church. How about your finances, your relationships? You're missing God's best because you're going your own way. He says, "I've let them follow their own devices." Well, you're on your own in that part of your life. You're settling for crumbs when He wants to serve you a banquet. In fact Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). There's so much Jesus wants to do for you. But maybe you have never opened up your life to this Savior, the One who gave His life on a cross for you. And everything He wants to bring into your life includes the love you were made for. He wants to bring eternal life that only He can bring, because only He conquered death. And above all, He wants to erase every sin of your life from God's book. And the only reason you will miss Him in all of this is because you didn't open up to Him. He says, "If you will open the door, I will come in" (Revelation 3:20). I hope you will say to Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." I think we can help you know you belong to Him for sure. Would you go to our website? It's what it's there for. It's ANewStory.com. He's holding out His hand with the supernatural stuff that you need right now. Like He said, "Open your mouth" and let Him fill it.

We know some folks who own one of those convenience stores. The ones you can go to any time of the night or day - the ones that are open on the days when you can't get into anybody else's store. We've all been there. Went and checked them out on those days. And there's a time you've needed them. Maybe time and again. And they work very long hours to make a living, but we do tease them. See, I know that will come as a surprise that I tease my friends. But yes, I have to confess, I occasionally do. I know it's hard to imagine, but we tease these guys about a lot of the prices in their store. Yeah, we kid them about this exorbitant half gallon of milk,or you know, the multi-dollar boxes of cookies, and the several dollar candy bars. Of course it's not really that bad, but you do pay noticeably more at their store. Well, that's what the profit factor is all about. They're open at times and on the days when other stores are closed. Now our friends, the store owners, they're kind of quick to defend their prices. They give me a very simple fact of life. They just look me in the eye and they say, "Ron, convenience costs more." They're right! They're very right. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why the Easy Road is So Hard." Now, our word for today from the Word of God, Matthew 7:13-14. This was before convenience stores, but I think it adds up the expense of convenience pretty well. Here we go, "Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it." Now, that's a pretty simple equation isn't it? There's an easy road that leads to destruction. There's a narrow road - a little tougher - that leads to life. Translation: convenience costs more. If you make your choices based on what will be the most convenient, what will take the least time, what will be the easiest, oh, it will cost you more. That's a life principle. That's one of the laws of the universe - convenience costs more. Now, if you goof off in school and say, "I'm not gonna do my homework." Fine! That will give you a good time today, but it's ultimately sure going to limit your future. And that's been true from school on. We want to do, no matter what age we are, whatever's easiest, and whatever's fastest. Now, right now, my guess is that you're facing some choices...oh, I don't know, maybe about a relationship, or about your future, even your marriage, maybe about a financial situation. And you've got a choice that would be easy and a choice that could be tough and hard. Maybe you're tempted to give up right now, because that would be the easy thing to do. Maybe there's a temptation in front of you - it's tugging and it would be real easy to go for it wouldn't it? Maybe you need money, and it would be easy to go for quick money or a dishonest means of getting it, or just sink into debt to get it. But convenience always costs. It's like a funnel. It's kind of easy up front at the wide end, but slowly it leads to this big, painful squeeze. Now, you could choose the road that will take longer, that requires more discipline. more sacrifice, and maybe it would cost you something in the short run. But it will open up like that funnel on the other end into something broad and it will give you more choices and it will give you long-range happiness, and it will not lead to destruction. It's the no regrets choice. The least-expensive choice is almost surely the one that will take longer, require more risks and more faith. Don't fall for the lure of what's easy right now. It's probably pulling real hard, but you can't afford the price tag. The narrow road leads to life. The destination is what counts. Remember, in all the things that really matter in life. Yep, convenience costs more.

When our sons were playing high school football, their job was to run their body into other guys' bodies. Yeah, they were linemen - they blocked. Of course, one of their great rewards for all this body slamming was when they could stop or deflect an opposing lineman - thus opening up a hole through which their teammate could run with the ball. And the good ball carriers knew what they had to do: spot the opening and go through it as fast as they could! I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Prayer That Can Change an Eternity." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 2:2-4. There are four guys, and they're here with a friend who needed to get to Jesus. They looked for an opening to get this friend to Jesus, and they actually created an opening to do it. Here's what it says: "So many gathered (to hear Jesus) that there was no room left, not even outside the door. Some men came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven." Well, later Jesus healed him and gave him the power to walk. These four 'find an opening' men not only got their friend to Jesus, but a lot more than they could have ever imagined. In your life, there is probably someone you would like to get to Jesus - someone who needs what only the Savior can do for them - someone you want to take to heaven with you. The stakes are a lot higher than any football game. We're talking eternity here, life or death. But like a player trying to get to the goal, you have to be determined to find an opening - to look for some natural opportunity to bring up Jesus. Most of us miss those openings because we're not consciously praying for them, looking for them, and hoping for them. Paul gives us what I call the three-open prayer. You can't be around me too long and not heat this. It's a prayer you should be praying daily about the people you want to bring to Jesus. It's in Colossians 4:3-4 - "Pray for us, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ...Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should." The three-open prayer, pray with the name of a lost person you care about, "Lord, please open a door." What's a door? Well, that's a natural opportunity to tell him or her about You, Jesus. Secondly, "Open their heart." In other words, "Lord make them ready to hear about You." And then the third open, "Open my mouth when You open the door." Good news here, you don't have to add to your prayer, "if it be Your will." It is. You won't find many openings to just dump your beliefs about Jesus on your friend. No. What you need to do is to be ready to share the difference Jesus makes in real life for you. That's what they want to know. Your "hope story." They don't necessarily want to know what all the beliefs are, what meetings you go to. They want to know, "What does Jesus change? What difference does having a Savior make for you in your lonely times, or your depressing times? How are you different as a parent or a husband or a wife? How about when there's not enough money? Or how does Jesus affect meeting the challenges of being single, or tragedy, or pain, in times of big decisions? What difference does He make at the funeral? Those kinds of things come up all the time. Are you ready to tell how Jesus has made the difference for you in times like these? And then to move from that into how the sin-wall comes down so you can have this kind of a life-changing relationship with Jesus. Is there someone you want to take to heaven with you? pray for an opening to bring up Jesus, look for an opening, or like those determined friends tearing up the roof - make an opening! "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." Do you follow the blocking of the Holy Spirit of God? You go through that opening with the life-saving news of a personal relationship with the Son of God.

It was a cold November night. The weather wasn't the greatest in Colorado. But Dick Ebersol's pilot felt they were good to take off. As head of NBC Sports at the time, Dick Ebersol was known as one of the most powerful men in the sporting world. But that night, he was just a dad who lost his son. The plane crashed on takeoff. Dick's older son literally pulled him from the wreckage. But his 14-year-old son Teddy didn't make it out. A few days later, Dick's wife and Teddy's mom, retired actress Susan St. James, were interviewed on NBC's "Today" show. She spoke with amazing poise. At one point, she talked about trying to help the surviving kids know how to handle some of the feelings that might come up - including what she referred to as "resentment." Out of her pain, she made a statement filled with so much insight I hope I'll never forget it. She said, "I've always told my kids, having resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Bitterness Backfires." Poison. It's a strong word to describe bitterness and resentment in your heart. But experience proves, as the Bible clearly confirms, that poison is the right word. And it's a poison that affects the person who's hurt you only a little, if at all. But for you, it's a poison in your soul that eats at you from the inside out most of the time. One of the Bible's warnings about bitterness begins with this sobering possibility: "See to it that no one misses the grace of God." Wow! That's in Hebrews 12:15, and that's our word for today from the Word of God. If you're wounded and if you're hurt, that's no time to be missing the grace of God - not when you need it the most. So how do you miss God's grace? Well, read on. "See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." God's grace and our bitterness apparently cannot coexist in the same heart. Either God's grace will push out your bitterness, or your bitterness will push out God's grace. In reality, you don't hold a grudge - a grudge holds you. It's like you can't stop thinking about the very person you wish you could forget. But a grudge shackles you to that person emotionally. The poison in your soul isn't hurting them, but it's killing you inside. It's a huge, heavy backpack you carry with you everywhere you go. And hard or bitter feelings toward someone don't just hurt you. That negativity spills out on other people - people who don't deserve it. A darkness emanates from your personality, and it poisons other close relationships - sometimes ruining friendships, marriages, children, churches. There's only one antidote for the poison - forgiving. Ephesians 4 says "get rid of all bitterness...be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other..." Now comes the zinger. "...just as in Christ God forgave you." The person who hurt you may not deserve to be forgiven, but then we didn't deserve God's forgiveness. To forgive them is not to pretend there was nothing wrong with what they did, but it's releasing them completely to God for Him to deal with them. With God's strength, base your treatment of them, not on how they treated you, but on how Jesus treated you! And, by the way, if you've never been to the cross of Jesus in your heart, to have the sins of your life erased from God's book, that's why He died. And this may be your best opportunity in your life to go from dirty inside to clean. And from the death penalty that sin carries to the eternal life that Jesus gives. You tell Him, "Jesus, I know I've sinned. You died for that sin. You love me and I am pinning all my hopes on you today." You want to know more about this? Go to our website. It's ANewStory.com. And then you've been the forgivee - and you can become the forgiver. Or you store poison in your soul that will cripple or destroy. It's time for the antidote. It's time to be free. It's time to forgive.

I guess every athlete would like to do something immortal - you know, something that will be remembered for a long time. Well, Roy Riegels did it - in a way. He played center in the 1929 Rose Bowl game. I don't remember it, but it was in Pasadena, California. I was not there. But, the game was almost over, the score was really close, and both teams knew any score could well decide the game. And then on one play, Roy Riegels suddenly found himself with a ball in his hands. Now, centers only know what to do with the ball when they're snapping it to the quarterback. But Roy Riegels had it whether he liked it or not. So he started running as fast as he could, or at least as fast as a center can go, right for the goal line. He glanced back over his shoulder. There was something very strange going on . He was being frantically pursued by his own teammates. See, his instincts told him to just keep running, and he did till he was tackled just short of the goal by one of his own teammates. See, Roy Riegels was running toward the other team's goal! Yeah, and shortly the other team went on to score and win the game. And he did achieve athletic immortality. He went down in football history as Wrong Way Riegels. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Running Hard In the Wrong Direction." That was the center's mistake. He was running as hard as he could - it just didn't count. Someone listening right now might be making that same mistake. Our word for today from the Word of God is from Matthew 6:32-33. Jesus has just been talking about a lot of the concerns that occupy our everyday lives - having enough for our basic necessities, for our body, for our appearance, all the earth stuff. You know? And then He says, "The pagans run after all these things." Well, see, that's those who think that earth is all there is. Well, of course, they're chasing after all the earth stuff they can get. Right? But He goes on to say, "And your Heavenly Father knows that you need them." Message: You don't need to pursue those things. You need to trust your Heavenly Father for them, because He'll take care of them. Then Jesus goes on to say, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you as well." Message: Put your best energy into the things that matter to God and the things that will matter in eternity - the interests, the agenda of the work of God on earth, a lifestyle that majors on doing the right thing. Now, we're wired to be runners. We're wired to be people who run hard toward a goal, but it's supposed to be an eternal goal. The problem is some of us are running hard, but we're running in the wrong direction. After all our hard running is done, it will turn out to be for a goal that just didn't count. It may be you've been running so hard that you haven't thought about whether the goal was really worth it. Maybe the goal that gets the most of you is job advancement, or more money, or it could be that you're running very hard to please a certain group of people, or to have some security, or to get a boyfriend or get a girlfriend, get a husband or get a wife, or maybe to own something you really want. But after all is said and done, it's earth stuff isn't it - stuff the Lord wants to give you if and when it's best for you. But could it be that some earth stuff has become the central pursuit of your life? See, that's not what you were created to pursue. This might be a good gut-check time. You know? If, in fact, you're running for the things that will last. Right now Jesus is pursuing you. He's trying to intercept you maybe as you're running toward a goal that doesn't count. He's trying to get you turned around and running in the right direction to "seek first His kingdom." He doesn't want the epitaph that goes with your name to be those two hollow words - wrong way.

Okay, we're going to do a little experiment right now. If you're near something printed - and you're not driving - let's say a book, a newspaper, a magazine - would you just hold it in front of your eyes? Okay, now wait, if you're driving, remember you're excused from this. But otherwise, you got that in front of your eyes. Okay? Now, hold it a foot or so from your eyes. Now, depending on what kind of shape your eyesight is in, it should be fairly clear what it says. Now, would you hold that printed piece so it's touching the end of your nose? I know you're feeling really stupid now. Blame it on me. Now, hopefully that's not a foot from your eyes. Okay. You got it up there? Well, how's the print look now? Blurry? Sort of running together? Unfocused? Things always look that way when you're too close. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Nearsightedness of Pain." You're in a pressure situation right now, let's say, maybe a depressing situation, and you've been in it for a while. You think about it a lot, and maybe you spend a lot of time trying to analyze it, and you re-analyze it, and you think of possibilities, and you plan various responses. You remember that book against your nose thing? You can get so close that you can lose your perspective. In order to see that situation clearly, you need some distance. Well, now, how do you get some distance from a situation that you're totally immersed in? Our word for today from the Word of God, Genesis 40, it tells a story of Joseph being in prison. He's in a bad situation. He's there and comes upon two former servants of the king, who've had dreams. Joseph has the gift of interrupting dreams. And it says in verse 6, "When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So, he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with them in his master's house, 'Why are your faces so sad today?"' Now, notice. Look, Joseph's life appears to be falling apart. Everything that looked like it was going his way have now collapsed. He's lost his job, he's in prison. But he's still unsinkable. How's he doing this? Well, he took responsibility and he's looking for people who need him. He says, "I see some people who are down today. 'Can I help you?' I see some people who need me here." I talked not too long ago to a man whose wife had left him quite a while ago. She refuses to divorce him; she refuses to reconcile. And he's thought about that day and night for four years. Well, I listened, and then I gave him some unexpected advice. I said, "Mark, you need to get a place where you can serve the Lord and help some people. This has so occupied you, and understandably so. You haven't had time to serve. Find some boys you can work with at church, or something you can do with the teenagers at church, or a Bible study you can lead, or volunteer for something. Because as you serve, you'll be able to see this situation better, and you'll know what God wants." Mark said, "You know you're right. I've not served the Lord for a while because I've been so involved in this. I need to get busy for others and get some distance." Well, that's what Joseph did. That's what you need to do. You see, pain tends to make us very self-focused and self-absorbed. Our eyes start to cross, and the situation starts to blur, and we start thinking in circles. Serving restores your perspective. Now, when you feel the least like doing it, is probably when you most need to do it, to get your perspective back. Maybe your problem is too close to the end of your nose, and it's getting blurrier all the time. Listen, take a step back, think about others. You'll see it better.

I used to think I didn't dream much. But I guess that's scientifically inaccurate. I guess we all dream a lot, but some of us like me don't remember them. Now, my wife? Oh, she dreamed in these Technicolor epics! I mean, I'm lucky if I remember a black and white short subject. Once in a while, though, I do remember a bad dream I've had. Not usually about monsters or murderers. I think you're going to laugh when I tell you what a lot of my nightmares are about. Not being ready. Yeah, you know, stepping up to a microphone totally unprepared; having a huge audience waiting for me to speak in an auditorium. I'm being introduced. I have nothing to say. Some women have told me they've had nightmares about not being ready for a date. Others have told me about their nightmare about not being ready for a meeting, or a board of directors where they have to give an important report. You know what? If our dreams reflect our fears, then there must be this fear deep down inside of many of us that we won't be ready when an important moment comes. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 'Not Ready' Nightmare." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the Old Testament prophet Amos. It's pretty simple, straightforward. Amos 4:12 - "Prepare to meet your God." Wow! Now, if not being ready is nightmare stuff, then not being ready to meet God must be the ultimate nightmare. I mean, meeting Him is the surest date you have. Hebrews 9:27 in the Bible says, "It is appointed to man once to die, and after this the judgment." So, the moment you take your last breath, there's God. Earth appointments? They can be postponed. They can be canceled, but God has this one in indelible ink in His calendar. The One who gave you your life is the One you will meet at the end of your life. The question the Bible raises is, "Are you prepared?" You say, "Well, yeah, I'm a good person." Unfortunately, that doesn't answer the question. Romans 3:20 says this, no one will be justified by observing the law. "No one will be declared righteous in God's sight by observing the law." Not protestant good things, not Catholic good things, not Jewish good things. Unfortunately no one is ready to meet God as long as he or she is still carrying around their sin. You say, "Well, we've all got sin we're carrying around." Yes, that's what Romans 3:23 says in that same chapter. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." If sin were something you could repay, maybe you could work it off with a lifetime of good deeds. But it can't be repaid. It's got to be removed! The penalty for sin is a death penalty; separation from God eternally. And it cannot be paid in good deeds. Somebody's got to die for a death penalty, and I deserve to. But the same place where it says "all of us have fallen short of the glory of God" says, "And we are justified (that means made right) with God, freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Somebody did die for your sins and mine; the One who didn't deserve to. The only One who could - God's Son. Now, how do you prepare to meet your God? Romans 3:25 says, "He was a sacrifice of atonement (that is to pay for your sin; to cover our sin) through faith in His blood." Faith in Jesus' dying for us. See, you open your heart to the One who paid your bill with God. Like this, "Lord, I put all my hope in Jesus Christ's work on the cross." And once you've told God that, that you're totally trusting in what Christ did, your nightmare is over. With your sins erased, you're ready. If you say, "Well, I'm not sure I am. How do I get started with this relationship with Jesus? How can I have my sins forgiven?" You tell Jesus, "I'm yours" today. Would you go to our website? I'll do my best there to help you know you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. You've got an appointment with God. You ready? Going into eternity without Christ? That's the ultimate nightmare. If you're not sure, please don't risk another day without Jesus.

Anne had ridden her mountain bike through a California wilderness park a lot of times before, but the ride this day would change her life. She was attacked by a mountain lion that hours earlier had actually killed another biker. As the cat literally held her in his jaws by the back of her neck, all she could do was pray. Humanly speaking, her friend Debbie was her only hope. Debbie jumped off her bike, grabbed Anne's leg, and screamed for help just kicking at the mountain lion. Imagine that!!! Thankfully, Debbie's screams finally brought the help of some men who had been biking with them. Debbie continued to hang on as the men pelted that lion with rocks. Suddenly the animal released his victim, and Anne's life was saved. Debbie just gave everything she had to keep the promise she had made to her friend in the middle of that struggle. She had just screamed, "I'll never let go of you!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fighting for The Person You Love." There are people you know whose lives depend on you being a friend like that - a friend who loves them enough to fight the lion for them - whatever it takes. In the Bible, God calls the devil "a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). The lion's ultimate goal is to take people you work with, people you go to school with, people in your personal world, to hell. If he can just keep them from ever putting their trust in the Savior who died to save them. If he can just keep them from ever really understanding what Jesus did for them. If he can just keep you from telling them. Humanly speaking, their only hope may be someone who will fight for their life, and since you know Jesus and you know them, that someone is probably you. The command of Proverbs 24:11 is our very important word for today from the Word of God. "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not he who weighs the heart perceive it...Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?" The Bible makes it plain. It says, "He that does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:12). I'm sure you know some folks who don't have the Son of God in their heart. Which means no real life here and no eternal life when they die. Don't just let the lion have them right before your very eyes. Fight for them! Jude 23 commands us, "Snatch others from the fire and save them." Put the name of someone you know in that verse, "Snatch (there's the name) from the fire and save that person." Someone you want to have in Heaven with you who probably isn't headed there right now. How can you fight for their eternal soul? First, you show love to them in ways that will mean something to them, that displays God's love but in a way that communicates it in their language of love. Show them the difference Jesus makes by being like Jesus in ways that will stand out to them in contrast to the other people that they know in that same environment. The real fight for them, though, is in the Throne Room of Almighty God. Keep storming heaven, praying for their rescue every day. Pray for them by name. Don't let them go. Ask God to open a door, which is a natural opportunity for you to explain your relationship with Jesus and the difference He makes. Pray that He will open their heart to Him and to you, and pray He'll open your mouth to tell them about Him. I call it the 3-open prayer. "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." Saving them is going to take a friend who will take the risks, pay the price, and make the changes necessary to rescue them, and to never, never let go. As long as there's breath, there is hope! And for your friend, this fight is life or death!

It's a big deal when a child can finally start buying gifts with his or her own money. I remember one of the first gifts I was able to buy for my mom. It was a corsage for Mother's Day. I was doing this all on my own. I was so proud. I saved up my allowances, and I rode my bike about six blocks to the florist. I picked out these two carnations. I still remember - one was pink, one was white. Then I got on my bike and I held the white box on my handlebars. I was so proud of this gift, and then I hit a bump. In one very depressing moment, that white box went flying off the handlebars in front of my bike and I ran over it. So there I was, this forlorn little guy, bike on the ground, looking very sadly at my gift with a tire mark right down the middle. Sniff... I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Irreplaceable Gift." Our word for today from the Word of God is from 1 Thessalonians 4. I'll begin reading at verse 3. It says, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified;..." That means kept special, reserved for special purposes. "It is God's will that you should be sanctified; that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable." Now notice the sequence here. Stay special. You do that by avoiding sexual immorality - sexual sin - and you do that by controlling your passions. See, God's given this unique gift to you to give to the person that you commit your love to for a lifetime - your husband or wife. And there's no greater joy than to present that gift to your permanent lifetime partner. Take it from the boy who ran over the gift that he wanted to be special. It really hurts when you ruin it. If you're in a position to influence young people about sexual purity, would you use the approach God uses - a positive morality. Not a negative, not a condemning one. It's all about the beauty of the gift of sex, not the dirtiness of it. It's too good to ruin. And you ruin it when you open it early or you run over it. The best of sex and the best of love are reserved for those who keep it special. And if you're single and you're facing the pressure to have sex outside of marriage, assume God had you tune in today. He's whispering two words in your heart to build your morality on, "No regrets." What might give you some short-term sense of relief or closeness or even love will give you a very long-term sense of guilt and loss. See, you can only give your purity for the first time - one time. You say, "Well, Ron, I've already run over the gift." Don't believe the lie that it doesn't matter what you do now. It does. Here's great news. First John 1:7, "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, purifies us from all sin." In Joel 2:25 He says, "He will restore the years the locusts have eaten." Bring your sexuality; bring your sexual sin to the Lord, and let Him purify you and let Him begin to restore your spiritual and emotional virginity. See, when you understand what a priceless, irreplaceable gift God gave you in the gift of sex, you commit yourself to keep it special. And if you've never experienced the wonderful, spiritual shower of knowing you've been forgiven by God for every wrong thing, every dirty thing, every sinful thing you have ever done, the place that happens is at the cross where Jesus paid for what you wish you had not done; for every sin of your life. Today you say, "Jesus I'm Yours." And He comes into your life and erases every sin of your life from God's Book. Let it happen today, my friend. I think our website can help you get started with Him. It's ANewStory.com. Go there today. It hurts a lot to ruin a valuable gift, so hold it close. It will be worth the wait when you present that unspoiled gift to your lifetime love. But if you need to be forgiven for what you've already done, this is your day to meet Jesus, who says He will make you "a new creation in Christ" - a new beginning.

I love those old westerns! Things were so simple then. You know, the good guys were good, and the bad guys were bad. The hero only kissed his horse. And the most he did with a girl was probably sing some trail song to her. And there was always a predictable showdown with the head good guy and the head bad guy. One of the classic lines usually came as the Marshal stared down Bad Bart. And he said something like this, "I want you out of town by sundown." Great line. By the way, it's a great way to keep peace in town - or anywhere for that matter. I don't mean asking people to leave, but setting a deadline like that. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Have a Peaceful Relationship." Now, our word for today from the Word of God is from Ephesians 4:26, one of my favorites. "In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry." I've often thought, "Boy, that would be a great sign to put over every married couple's bed." Huh? It's talking here about how to have peace and keep peace in a relationship. It has to be anchored to this determination not to let any conflict last until tomorrow. "Get out of here by sundown!" Yep, that's the message! It takes work to keep peace in a marriage, or a family, or in a friendship, or a group of people who are working together, or in a ministry, or in a church. Earlier in this chapter, in chapter 4 verse 3, it says, "Make every effort..." Okay, that means work hard. "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." What kind of effort? Well, there are three efforts that keep peace in a relationship. Number one, deal with the conflict quickly. If you've ever been to Disney World, you may know it's a very clean amusement park in spite of the millions of people who go there. You get the feeling that if you drop something, they're going to pick it up before it hits the ground. They're going to catch it. And you know what happens? Clean breeds clean. They pick something up immediately. Their theory is, "Don't let a mess get started, and there won't be a big one." That's a pretty good idea for keeping relationships clean. Don't wait until it's built into a crisis. Deal with the first strain, the first miscommunication, or misunderstanding, or hurt. Deal with conflict quickly. The second effort to keep the peace is, "Tell how you feel." For example, I never knew I had been hurting my wife. I had inadvertently been interrupting and correcting her in public conversation some years ago. I didn't know until she told me. Well, don't just expect people will know. And you can say, "Well, they ought to know." Well, tell them how you feel. Express it as a feeling - not an accusation. Tell them how you feel! And the third effort to keep the peace is to admit being wrong. That might be the toughest one of all for some of us. Be willing to apologize. Powerful words, "I was wrong." Some of us are like Fonzi, we can't get those words out. "I was wro..wro..wrong." We just can't say it. But those are three of the most healing words in the English language. James 5:16, "Confess your faults to one another, that you may be healed." When we let conflict and hurt stay overnight in town - maybe many overnights - we destroy peace, we erode love, we create resentment. we erode trust. Unresolved anger is always a bad guy in town. And you know what to tell a bad guy, right? "I want you out of here by sundown."

I think there's like this five-year-old kid that comes out in everybody when they get to Disney World. I'm going to have to confess that the little boy inside of me is still alive and even though it's been awhile since I've been like in Disney World, I mean, we did enjoy the times when our family visited the Magic Kingdom some years ago. It's a wild ride through this outer space environment, in total darkness. So, you look at the line, and you see it's one of the longest lines in the park. At least it was then. And you go, "How long is this wait?" They say, "About an hour." No! Are we going to wait an hour? We did, and we even went back other times. It was great! It was worth it! You've got to wait for the best that they have. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Worth the Wait." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk. There are only a few chapters, but there's a lot in it. He told God's children back in that day that he was actually struggling with God's calling. He wanted justice. He's going, "God, why don't you stop the sin in our nation? How come it's taking so long?" And God says, "I'm going to answer your prayer in My time." Then the dreaded word in chapter 2, verse 3, "For the revelation awaits an appointed time." There's that word! Well, Habakkuk learns a beautiful lesson, because He says near the end of the book in chapter 3, verse 16, "I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my Savior." Habakkuk has learned a solid gold lesson about following the Lord. Doing God's best is a lot like riding the best ride in a place like Disney World. You have to wait to get the best. The Bible is full of instances where people couldn't wait for God's answer. Like Abraham. He goes with Hagar, his wife's handmaid. He cannot wait for the promised son to come through him and Sarah, and he causes a horrible situation. Ishmael comes along, and today the descendants of Isaac, who would later come as the son of Abraham and Sarah, and Ishmael the descendant of Abraham and Hagar are still today fighting it out in the Middle East because Abraham couldn't wait. Moses tried to deliver the Jews by killing an Egyptian. He had the right idea, "My people should go free." God agreed, but not that way. He had to wander in the wilderness for forty years because he acted too soon. He acted his way... tried it his way. Created a forty year mess. See, God's best always comes after a wait. Look, a baby takes nine months. Suppose you need an answer, but you can't wait for it. How different the result could be if you could get an instant answer. Wait! You don't want a premature answer. You want God's full term. Maybe you're tired of waiting, but God's answer is worth the wait; it's the best. You may have spent a whole life waiting for a love you couldn't lose. You've been waiting for a peace that would sustain you in every storm. You've been waiting for the assurance that when you die you will be in heaven. Well, today God is coming your way with the offer of Jesus, His Son, who died to make all that happen. Who walked out of His grace to prove He can. Maybe you've never had a day when you've made Jesus your Savior. Maybe you've never opened your heart to Him. If you want to and you need to know how, would you come to our website and find that out? It's ANewStory.com. It could all begin there. A lifetime of waiting for the love that will fill your heart could be over now and that love could begin today.

Well, first we had these Super 8 films of our kids when they were little. And then they became, of course, videos for modern times and then DVDs. And, you know, it's really kind of fun to flash back, especially to when they were babies and just like toddlers. For example, our oldest son, we have got an old movie of his first birthday. And we managed to keep this on film for better or worse. In this picture he is is seated in this highchair, he's dressed in brand new birthday clothes it looks like, and he's surrounded by relatives who are probably saying lots of dumb things to him. And Mom comes along and there she sets in front of him on his highchair a big, beautiful, fudgy, chocolatey birthday cake (you know where I'm going) with one candle in it. Well, he blew out the candle, of course. Now the movie continues. My son is simply staring at the cake, trying to figure out what you're supposed to do with it. By the end of the movie he is wearing the cake, because he did try to feed it to himself. It was pretty messy, but at least he was feeding himself. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Who's Feeding You?" Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 5. I'll begin reading at verse 12. The writer says, "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." In essence, the writer here is saying, "You know, you've been around a while, guys. You should be into some serious spiritual issues. What are you doing still playing with entry level basics? You should be teaching others, but you still need someone to hold your hand." Now, we fed our son when he was first born, and that's pretty natural. But pretty soon he began to feed himself. In fact, we would have had cause to worry about him if he didn't feed himself. See, God has a lot of underdeveloped kids who are still depending on someone else to feed them. You see, maturity means you feed yourself. So, who's spiritually feeding you most of the time? Now, we have a lot of folks giving us food: you know, radio programs, church services, websites, Bible studies, youth leaders, TV shows, and that's great. But it's all supposed to be supplemental. It's easy to be lazy about feeding yourself. The foundation of a relationship with Jesus Christ comes down to you and Jesus, alone in a room. You with a Bible in your hands digging out your personal word for today from the Word of God. If that's not the center of your spiritual growth, you might be one of God's overgrown babies. It's what you discover first hand that really changes you inside. Isn't it time you set a regular time to feed yourself, to make that time with Jesus non-negotiable? Read it, and read it again to find something to do today because you read it. Write down what you're going to do and what you read. Get a journal going. And then, tell someone about what you got out of the Bible today. You say, "Well, I'm not really very good at feeding myself. I need professional feeders." Well, my son wasn't very good at it either at first. He made a mess! He missed his mouth, but he was trying. He was growing. He got better as he did it more, and so will you. The important thing is that you are daily allowing time with Jesus where you can learn to feed yourself. When you're doing that, well congratulations, you're beyond spiritual Pampers and you're on the road to really growing up!

I'm so glad we have lots of things around our house that bloom when spring pushes out Old Man Winter. Now, if you have allergies, you probably don't look forward to Spring, but I hope you can at least enjoy some of its extravagant beauty. And it isn't just things to see. Every year, as I was rushing around the yard doing my chores, I would catch this beautiful scent every time I went past this one flowering bush. It's actually not far from our trash cans; not the most fragrant item in our yard. But, you know, I actually loved to catch the aroma of those flowers. I love it when the iris and the peonies start to bloom (I would have no idea what they were if my wife hadn't told me). They give off this inviting fragrance, like this fantastic yard perfume! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unforgettable You." A dear friend of ours wore this distinctive perfume for all the years we knew her - it was her trademark scent really. You could close your eyes and you knew it was her. At her funeral, our pastor talked about that perfume and the fragrant trail she always left wherever she went with the life she lived. She touched ours and so many others with the fragrance of her life. That's how it's supposed to be for anyone who belongs to Jesus Christ; leaving a trail of fragrant blessing wherever you go, with whomever you meet. How are you doing on that? Like those flowers in our yard, there should be this compelling beauty about your life that brings beauty into theirs. Even if there's a lot of trash in their life right now. The fact is, we all give off some kind of fragrance with the way we treat people, and the way we handle stress, and whether we make people feel more or less important, whether we bring sunshine into a situation or clouds. This would be a good day for you to evaluate: what kind of trail, what kind of life-fragrance do I leave? One man who shows us the kind of trail we're supposed to leave is written about in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Acts 4:36-37. At a time when the just-birthed Christian community had a lot of needs it says, "Joseph...whom the disciples called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet." This man had left such a trail of encouragement the apostles actually changed his name to fit the impact he made. They called him "Mr. Encouragement." Listen, if people were to change your name to something that describes the effect you have on them, what would they call you? That name should reflect at least one of the qualities of what the Bible calls the "fruit of the Spirit"; that is, the kind of person the Holy Spirit makes you. According to Galatians 5:22-23, you should be giving off a fragrance of "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." So how are you doing with that? Do people feel that you care about their need? Do you stop to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice? Are you calm in the midst of the frenzy or are you just another stress-carrier? Do people feel important when they're with you because you listen to them and focus on them? Do they feel lifted up or put down by being around you? People are so starved for praise, for appreciation. If you give it, you'll be a magnet. And all this is so they will want to know why you're so different from everybody else in their busy, self-centered, self-promoting universe. A life with a beautiful fragrance gives you the opportunity to point them to the One who makes you that way because of how He has treated you, and that of course is Jesus. In the words of Matthew 5:16, they will "See your good works" and ultimately then they will "praise your Father in heaven." Your fragrant life can help lead them to eternal life. When people pass your way, would you let them catch a whiff of Jesus so they, too, can experience His love.

My friend was telling me about the investment he'd bailed out of just before it really took off. He said, "I have a habit of doing that." I said, "Why?" He said, "Well, it kind of runs in the family." And then he told me an unforgettable story. He said, "My dad was approached by the founders of ServiceMaster, which is, of course, this huge multi-million dollar corporation in America. And they were neighbors, and they came to him when they were just starting and they said, 'Hey, would you like to get in on the ground floor and help us get started?' He said, 'Well, guys, why don't you just go clean your carpets. No thanks.'" Well, that wasn't all. Another one of their neighbors was a man named Ray Croc. You might recognize that name; he was the founder of McDonald's! He came to this same man and said, "Would you be interested? We're opening our fourth little hamburger thing called McDonald's Golden Arches. Would you like to get in on the fourth store?" "No, I'm not into hamburgers." He came back to him another time and said, "Hey, it's going pretty well. You know we're opening our seventh one. Would you like to get in on it?" "No, I'm not interested." How many times do you think he asked, "What did I miss?" I guess you just add those to the list of life's "if only's," huh? Of course, you've got your own list. Maybe not opportunities to make a million, but a lot of missed opportunities. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Life's Most Expensive Regrets." Our word for today from the Word of God is from Ephesians 5, and I'm going to read verse 15. "Be very careful about how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil." I like those words, "making the most of every opportunity." Those turn out to be if you don't take them, life's "'if onlys' ... if only I had." It's interesting that this challenge to not miss opportunities is followed by a description of a spirit-filled family life: husbanding, wifeing, parenting, childing. And those are the "if only's" that you can't afford to miss. How many times have I had a parent say to me, "Ron, what can I do to get my rebellious son or daughter back?" Maybe they've been rushed to the hospital with a suicide attempt, they're actively rebelling; breaking their parent's heart. Well, for me to give them the really honest answer, I might have to say, "What I'm going to tell you is something that needed to be done years ago." Remember? There was a song year's ago, Cat's In the Cradle and the Silver Spoon. Dad was too busy, and then when he had time later, the son was too busy for his Dad? See, each day is filled with opportunities to listen, to hug, to debrief, to teach, and they'll never come again. It's true in marriage, too. Days without being close become weeks, and months, and years. And one day you wish you could have those days back. They're gone forever. The Bible says, "Make the most of every opportunity." Your son or daughter is feeling feelings now that really need your perspective. But this will pass and become a part of who they are, whether they get to share it or not. They're making choices, they're making friends, they're developing a sense of humor. They're trying to find out where God fits in everyday life. They need you there. There'll be many things more urgent but none more important. Everyone else will scream for your attention; they'll just whisper. My friend watched his father miss some golden opportunities with golden arches. But that was only to make money. We're talking here about the opportunity to mark lives. And it happens in the little golden moments that don't seem that important at the time. "If only I had taken the time." When it comes to your marriage partner, your children, your parents, those are life's most expensive "if onlys."

It was several years ago, and this particular Super Bowl Sunday there was kind of a dark cloud over it because there had come some news that had rocked Hollywood. It rocked Broadway, and then countless everyday folks who could not forget the compelling characters that this actor had created on the screen. Academy Award-winning actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman had been found dead in his apartment of a drug overdose at the age of 46. Hoffman was considered one of the most gifted, most admired actors in show business. The sadness was compounded by a lot of reminders that he was so talented, so young, and the circumstances of his death were so wrenchingly tragic. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope in the Darkest Hour." The autopsy revealed the exact cause of death. But there is no autopsy for a human soul to find out what went wrong there. Yes, this actor had admitted his addictions. Those close to him said he had beaten those problems in rehab. But on that Sunday, drugs allegedly killed him. Comedian and actor, Jim Carrey - who is no stranger to success - in his response to Seymore's death, he said, "Dear Philip, a beautiful, beautiful soul. For the most sensitive among us the noise can be too much." I guess you don't have to be a star to know what he's talking about. So many people live in quiet desperation, closer to the edge than anybody knows. Actor Val Kilmer suggested in his reaction that "addiction comes from trying to escape the pain of living. We all struggle with this" he said. The escapes are many: drugs or alcohol, or some have an affair, some have pornography, some are just running into a relentless schedule or a consuming workload. But that "pain of living" afflicts virtually all of us humans. Sadly, escape is never an answer. Escape always seems to ultimately run into a wall. And wherever you go, you take you with you. But there was insight in Philip Seymour Hoffman's own words. He told the New York Times: "I try to live my life in such a way that I don't have profound regrets. That's probably why I work too much. I don't want to feel like I missed something important." Look how many people slip away from this life, knowing they've missed something important and never knowing what it was. Like a source of untouchable peace that would sustain me when that "noise" becomes "too much." Or a source of strength that enables me to overcome "that pain of living." Rather than escaping into something that solves nothing, just creates more pain. Or a hope so strong that not even the darkest of days can erase it. Where can I find the power to conquer my inner darkness when there's no script writer who's going to write a happy ending? I'm not going to find it in me. It's not going to be in my greatest achievements. It's not going to be my personal strength; even my deepest relationships. Life's too hard, my resources are too finite to find ultimate answers by looking in myself. Or around the people close to me. Okay, now, our word for today from the Word of God, where the answer really is, where the hope is, Ephesians 2, beginning with verse 12 that describes people being "without hope and without God in the world." If I do not have a personal relationship with the God I was made by and made for, I'm without hope. But then it says, "In Christ Jesus, you who were once far away..." See, we've got a wall between us and God. "...you've been brought near through the blood of Christ." Jesus Christ died to tear down that wall. And then it says, "He Himself is our peace." Peace isn't a pill. Peace is not an escape. Peace is a person. His name is Jesus. And the question I ask you today, "In the midst of the storm in your life is, do you know Him? Do you belong to Him?" If there's never been a day when you've begun a relationship with Jesus, would you make this that day? You say, "Well, I need to know how." Go to our website and let me help you know how? It's ANewStory.com. The darkness has won long enough. It doesn't have to win any more. Not with this light that nothing can extinguish.

Okay, I don't remember a lot of content from my science classes in school, but I remember some of the experiments. Remember the one with the hand generator? They connect it to this light bulb, and the harder you crank, the brighter the light gets? If you're gonna try and run your stove, your lights, your air conditioner, your TV with a little hand crank generator, now you've got a power shortage. We have just outside our window on the street on this pole, this big transformer. And fortunately, that's the power we've plugged into to run all the things we need to run. I'm glad we've got that transformer voltage to depend on. Depending on the power that I could crank, it would never do the job. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Cranking Isn't Enough." Now, our word for today from the Word of God. We're in Acts 12 and I'll begin reading at verse 4. The scene is that King Herod has just arrested Peter, feeling that by arresting the key leader of the church in Jerusalem, he will break the back of the Christian movement. The scripture says, "After arresting Peter, Herod put him in prison; handed him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each." This is one guy, right? "Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. So, Peter was kept in prison..." (Now, there's not a period there, there is a comma. Listen to this.) "...but, the church was earnestly praying to God for him." You probably remember that during the night an angel came and took care of the guards, took care of the soldiers, took care of the chains, took care of the locked gates, and delivered Peter much to his amazement and the amazement of the very people who were praying for him. I think this prison situation goes beyond just Peter's own incident here. It's one of those situations where an answer is totally beyond your reach. I mean, that's where Peter was. He was totally beyond the reach of the church. They could not in any way affect this situation. They had no power to reach where he was. But they had a prayer meeting. Maybe you're in one of those "beyond your reach" situations, and you're still cranking your little hand generator saying, "I've got to come up with more power! I've got to fix this. I've got to come up with an answer." The Bible says their response was to be earnestly praying. And earnest praying reached where no man could, did what no man could do, opened doors no man could open. God is still in the business of opening doors on prisons around people the same way. Now, when we have unmoving mountains, we tend to have all kinds of meetings. "We need to have a planning meeting." "We need to have a committee meeting." "We need to have a finance meeting." "We need to have an emergency meeting." The power is in the prayer meeting, folks, and usually that's the shortest meeting we have. We have a four-hour committee meeting. We're lucky if we have a half-hour prayer meeting. Guess which will do more. The great Christian leader of another generation, Dr. Bob Cook taught me this. He said, "Prayer is a method of getting things done. It's not something that helps your methods; it's the way to get it done." We usually open our meetings with prayer; close our meetings with prayer, right? But do we stake everything on prayer? And when we pray, do we pray expecting the supernatural? D. L. Moody said that when he was asked the secret of his power, he said, "For fifty years I have had access to the Throne of Grace." A person, a situation, a need. it's beyond your reach. Well, don't keep trying to crank out a man-powered answer. Plug into the awesome generator of God's power. Make the prayer meeting your first stop.

Remember some years ago when the Olympics were in Russia? I liked that news a whole lot better than more recent news about Russia. Yeah, they had fireworks that ended the Russian Olympics. And now the fireworks are in Ukraine. And suddenly part of Ukraine was part of Russia. Hello? Russia flexing its expansionist muscles on the world's stage, I'm hearing those two words again that I haven't heard for a long time - Cold War. See, that standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine, well that could just be a beginning. It's starting to feel pretty familiar and potentially explosive. It doesn't help that a Russian anchorman (who reportedly is called President Putin's "favorite") was a while back on State-controlled TV with a mushroom cloud as his backdrop. He was announcing, literally, Russia is the only country capable of turning the U.S. into (his words) "radioactive ash." And we've heard a lot more saber rattling from them haven't we? That's not what you want to watch right before bedtime. I'm Ron Hutchraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Things Seem Out of Control." Some of this feels like the opening act of a world that's growing even more unstable and more dangerous as time goes by. It's just a disturbing time in the world with almost every night's headline.You know, there's talk about a Cold War standoff with a resurgent Russia; fears of a growing and powerful China. Rekindled fears of terrorism. And then the growing prospect of weapons of mass destruction in some pretty scary hands. It just feels like one little spark sometimes could send things spinning out of control. Well, that's our control. I turn off the news and I reach for my Bible. Then I read where David, the revered Jewish king, asked this question, "What can we do when the foundations are being destroyed?" Well I'll tell you, with so many "foundations" shaking these days, that's a good question today. Here's our word for today from the Word of God. The answer in Psalm 11:3-4 - "The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on His heavenly throne." At first, that didn't sound like it answered the questions. But then I realized I was reading about the one unmoving anchor when everything else in the world is up for grabs. Things might be out of our control. and they are. But they're never out of God's control. Nations may fall. Evil men can plot and even succeed. The doctor may stun us with bad news. The finances may seem impossible. The funeral seems like the end. Our family may look hopeless. But God has not vacated the throne from which the universe is governed. Proverbs 19:21 says, "It is the Lord's purpose that prevails" You know, I was scared to death when I was on my first big roller coaster as a kid; pretty sure I was going to die at the age of nine. I was jerking every which-way. We were defying gravity. It seemed like we were out of control. But not out of control, because the whole time that car was flying all over, it was attached to the tracks and headed for a safe destination. I'm not at the mercy of a roller coaster world. I am loved by the God who rules the galaxies; whose plans can't be derailed. I'm not afraid. However wild the ride, things are still on track. The Bible says in the greatest insurance policy in the universe, "Who will ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Which causes me to ask you to consider today what unloseable source of security do you have that is divorce-proof, terror-proof, recession-proof, unemployment-proof, death-proof? The Bible says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." And this man who loved you enough to die for your sins was powerful enough to walk out of His grave. He's the one sure thing in a rapidly changing world. If you don't belong to Him...if you're not sure you do, get that settled today. Anchor your life! Go to our website and find out how to begin with Him. It's ANewStory.com. Because, like the song says, "He's got the whole world in His hands."

Part of our ministry team has worked on a remote Native American reservation in the Southwest. In fact, our sons launched this ground-breaking outreach to Native young people many years ago there. The ministry at that reservation is part of our bigger initiative, "On Eagles' Wings." Several years ago, God helped them launch a low-power FM radio station on that reservation. I mean, this was a reservation pretty spiritually hard and geographically hard to reach. But for several years, the light of Christ was going out via the airwaves 24 hours a day across that reservation in a very original format, and it really made a difference. Part of the adventure was just getting the station on the air - including setting up the tower. That required some special climbing abilities. And one of the Native young men who God sent to help with the station just happened to have that experience - illegally, in the years before he was following Christ. He used to love to climb towers that the law actually forbade people to climb. Now, all of a sudden, those abilities - that he had practiced in a way that did not honor God - were suddenly being used by God to glorify Him. Don't you just love it! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Turning Yesterday's Shame Into Something Beautiful." This is one of the amazing ways of God - taking what we did against Jesus before we knew Jesus and turning it into something Jesus can use for His glory. That aspect of God's amazing grace may help shed some hope-giving light on some of the very things you're most sorry for; the things you're even most ashamed of in your past. In 1 Timothy 1:12-18, our word for today from the Word of God, Paul tells us how this miracle of spiritual recycling worked in his life: "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service. Even though I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Then he says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life." Basically Paul says, "The worst things I ever did have been transformed by God's grace into credentials to show people what He can do." Man! That's part of the grace miracle described in Romans 5:20, "Where sin increased, grace increased all the more." Wow! God always has more grace than we've got sin. Grace always triumphs over sin. Hallelujah! Never is that more dramatic than when God takes the sinning you've done or the sinning that was done against you, and makes it into a boomerang to hit the very devil who once used that stuff to bring you down. Now all that ugly becomes something beautiful in Jesus' hands, because it causes people to listen to you when you talk about Jesus. You're providing living proof of His power - and maybe even helping you climb a tower for His sake. That's why you need to bring all that sin, and all that shame, and all those awful memories, and all the things you wish you hadn't done to the foot of Jesus' cross. Accept the forgiveness He made possible by the shedding of His blood for that very garbage. And ask Him to redeem those regrets and those lost years by somehow using them for His glory and to help others come to know Him. There's a world of people out there who are where you were before you met Jesus and, under His leadership, you are uniquely equipped to work with Him in rescuing them. They'll listen to someone like you. You've been there. That's one of God's great grace miracles, and it's waiting for you. Yesterday's shame, touched by the Master, can become today's life-saving victory!

Well, in the summer it's nice to think about winter Olympics. Well, you know what? I'm not like most people who watch the Olympics. You know, like the winter Olympics, the women's Olympic figure skating? Well, a lot of people just enjoy the grace of the "twizzles" and the "triple lutzes" (whatever those are). Not me. No, I love the stories. I'm a story guy. So I'm sitting there mulling the stories of those skaters. And thinking, "We've got something to learn from her." It happened. I remember one time, when Italy's finalist, Carolina Kostner skated her long program. It was in the Sochi Olympics. Before she began, they showed her disastrous skate in Vancouver four years ago. She left the ice with her face buried in her hands. It was sad. I mean, in her own words, "It was breaking my heart." And that was going to be the end of her skating career. She didn't want to go through this again. But she did. And on the ice in Sochi, she skated a nearly flawless program and captured Olympic bronze. Look, I don't ice skate. But I know what it is to fall and come back again. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Coming Back From Falling." I've set personal goals and I've blown it - losing weight, getting to a better place financially, conquering a personal weakness. And like all of us who have tried and failed, I know the temptation to forget it and just say, "I'm not going to get on the ice" again. But then I considered these Olympic lessons that can turn a sad chapter into a comeback victory. Number one, when you go down, don't stay down. The Bible says in Proverbs 24:16, "A righteous man falls seven times, and he rises again." I've watched three children and now our grandchildren learn to walk. They all have the same M.O. Try to walk? Fall down. The fallen baby, of course, has two choices. One, "That's it. I tried my best. I failed. I tried to walk. I can't do it. I give up." Well, that didn't happen! Every child got back up and started walking again. I've decided that the only people who haven't fallen are people who never tried to walk. I watched an Olympic skater whose falls were seen by millions. Who was devastated by the scope of her failure, but she came back with the greatest victory of her life because she didn't stay down. Oh, here's the other lesson: Do it for the joy, not for the result. That's actually what Carolina Kostner's mother told her after the debacle in Vancouver. That's good advice. Stop thinking about how you'll perform. In her words, "I had to skate for the passion and the pleasure." And that changed everything. Way back in the 2002 Olympics, U.S. skater Sarah Hughes surprised everyone - including herself. She went into the finals in fourth place; she didn't have much to lose. So, as the top three contenders competed, you could feel the tension. Every jump. Every landing. Each precision movement potentially could mean victory or defeat. Then Sarah skated. She was just fun to watch, because she was clearly having fun. Skating with reckless abandon. And that freedom liberated her to give the best performance of her life; a gold medal performance. You know, as we look back on our life and we think of the places where we blew it or we failed, especially those we love, I begin to turn to the pages of God's Word to find hope for our falls. And I find it in Micah 7:8 that says, "Do not gloat over me my enemy. Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light." You know how that could happen? Because it says later in the chapter, "Who is a God like you who pardons sins, forgives the transgressions?" And then it says, "You hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." To know that every mistake, every fall, every wrong thing, every hurting thing I've ever done has been erased because God's Son died for it on a cross. That is the ultimate freedom for a new beginning. This might be your day for that new beginning. I'd love to help you get started with Jesus. That's why our website's there - ANewStory.com. Check it out. I saw one skater come back with Olympic redemption, because she knew that coming back was getting back up, no matter how ugly the fall. So in a way, you win when you just put your skates back on.

The man who first climbed Mt. Everest said his reason for risking it was simply "because it was there." That's how it was with that monster sand dune near a Bible conference where I was speaking. Now, it wasn't exactly Mt. Everest, but it was a pretty daunting mountain of sand. The reward for reaching the top? A scenic view of a nearby lake and the satisfaction that you did it. I convinced two of our team members to climb that dune with me. Climbing sand is kind of like, you know, "much effort, little progress," as your shoes start filling with sand and your legs start yelling "Stop this!" We were about halfway to the top when my younger colleagues said, "Is this far enough?" They were ready to quit. We stopped to catch our breath and I pointed to the bottom of the dune and I said, "Hey, look at how far we've already come! Let's not turn back now!" They rolled their eyes and grudgingly agreed to follow the old guy all the way to the top. We were really hot. We were really tired. But I'll tell you what, the view at the top and the joy of conquest made it worth it! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You Feel Like Giving Up." We were halfway there and we were tempted to turn back. You might be at that point today. It's been an exhausting climb hasn't it? You don't have much left, and there are reasons to be discouraged. There are reasons to wonder if you'll ever make it the rest of the way. And God's showing up today to say, "Don't give up now!" His message to you might come from our word for today from the Word of God in Nehemiah 4. It's a story of one of the most amazing victories in the Bible. Against all odds, God's people, under Nehemiah's leadership, rebuild the devastated walls and gates of Jerusalem in just 52 days. Like you, they had plenty of reasons to quit when they "rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height." They were at that dangerous point of being halfway there; maybe kind of like you are. Their reasons for giving up are pretty familiar. Their responsibilities had exhausted them so much, the Bible says, "the strength of the laborers (was) giving out." Then there was all that rubble that discouraged them. Some were saying, "There is so much rubble here we cannot rebuild the wall." The other factor that can tempt you to turn back is resistance that unnerves you. They were surrounded by enemies who literally were ready to attack them to stop them. I can guarantee you that if you're doing something God wants you to do, the devil is throwing attacks at you to stop you. But Nehemiah 4 shows us the three energizers that will keep you in the game. First, Nehemiah "stationed...people...at the exposed places." So you fight back by fixing the leaks, and strengthening those gaps in your life or your work where Satan could get in. Secondly, you focus on the Lord. Nehemiah told the people, "Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome." You focus on the great Lord who brought you this far rather than the great load that's been weighing you down. The third energizer when you're staggering at that "halfway there" point is to fight for lives. Nehemiah reminded his workers of what was really at stake in their finishing, "Fight for your brothers," he said, "your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes." See, you've got to remember, in any work for the Lord, it's not about tasks to accomplish. It's about lives at stake! Fix the leaks that could sink you, focus on the Lord who brought you this far, and fight for the lives that need for you to finish what you've started. Jesus didn't bring you this far so you could quit. He's counting on you, not just to start this race, but to finish your race like He did for you.

Okay, I guess I'm a typical American, because I like football, baseball, and basketball. Now, luge, bobsled, slopestyle, halfpipe - not as much. But, like millions of others, there's something about the winter Olympics that drew me in to watch sports that I know little about. It's because of the drama; the world's best on the world stage, with much of their life invested in what will be only minutes of their life, giving it all for the glory of winning or the agony of losing. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Winning Way to Handle Losing." That's part of what I saw, and I specifically remember it from the Games in Russia at Sochi; stinging setbacks, bitter disappointments. But there were examples of how to handle it. Number one, know the difference between what you do and who you are. No one was the face of Team USA in those Olympics more than snowboarder Shaun White. He had two gold medals in the halfpipe, a third win and he'd have made history. He didn't win anything. No gold, no silver, no bronze. But in the midst of what had to be a crushing disappointment, he did have some helpful perspective for all of us who'd watched the dream slip away. He said, "This is just one part of who I am - a big part - but I want to be more than just that." There's all the difference in the world between, "I failed" and "I'm a failure." Yes, you see, you may have fallen short athletically, academically, at work, or even more significantly, in a major life relationship. But "I've failed" doesn't mean "I'm a failure." You aren't what you do. You are your character, you are your God-given worth - which has nothing to do with your performance. No setback, no broken dream can rob you of you unless you let it. Here's another lesson. Look for the lesson and move on. Skier Bode Miller knew that glory - a five-time Olympic gold medalist. But in Sochi, he finished eighth in the men's downhill. In the midst of disappointment, one reporter said, "He painfully dissected what went wrong." Ecclesiastes 7:14 in the Bible says, "When times are good, be happy. But when things are bad, consider." Yeah, that's pretty good. I'll tell you, when I've messed up, there are always lessons to learn. Those lessons can, if I'll man up to the responsibility, keep me from messing up again. Learn the lesson. Don't dwell on failure. One woman's cross country star, who was expected to medal for the USA, said this after finishing as an also-ran: "So I'm just going to put today in a box and move on to the next one." Number three lesson, look where you're going and not where you've been. Erin Hamlin had just won the Olympic gold medal at Sochi in singles luge. She had been a favorite to do that in Vancouver before. She was out of medal contention after the first heat unfortunately. But after her most recent appearance in the Olympics she said, "I was really disappointed, and I knew that's not how I wanted to end my Olympic legacy. It was super-motivating." I like that. See, dwelling on the past can be futile. It can't be changed. But the future is yet to be written. And now our word for today from the Word of God that nails that down. Here's how God wants us to look at our life. "Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:18-19). See, God's in the business of erasing the sins and failures and the mistakes of our past. He's the Lord of new beginnings. We know that, because in this same chapter He says, "I am He who blots out your transgressions and remembers your sins no more." Do you know how that miracle happens in a human life? It happens because Jesus Christ died for those very sins so that they could be forgiven. Then He walked out of his grave so He can walk into our lives today and change what only He can. He's there to begin a life-changing relationship with you today. We'll show you how if you'll go to our website. It's ANewStory.com. It's a big deal when a child or grandchild gets to the weight where they can turn their seat around in the car. They don't have to look where they've been. They can look where they're going. That's what Jesus does for a life. He'll be all eyes on where you're going, because He's forgiven that past. That's a great, great way to live!

I had 18 hours in the city of Rome. That's how long it was between my flight connections to Africa. I decided not to waste that time sleeping in the airport when I could be seeing one of the world's great cities. Right? And, my missionary friend, Dave, was kind enough to be my chauffeur and guide. With his help, I got a whirlwind tour that included the Coliseum, the Sistine Chapel, and some beautiful piazzas. But the highlight of my day in Rome was my visit to the Catacombs, those ancient caverns that wind beneath the streets of Rome. Dave's been there many times so he said he'd wait while I went in. Well, here were the caverns where some of the first Christians hid from the Roman soldiers who would take them to their execution for believing in Christ. And here's where they carved in the walls the ancient symbols of their faith - like the cross and the sign of the fish. Those symbols are still there as a silent testimony to their faithfulness. And here in the walls, they buried countless loved ones who'd been torn to pieces by lions in the Coliseum all because they would not renounce Christ for Caesar. As I emerged from those Catacombs, Dave said, "Well, what did you think?" All I could say was, "Our faith is very, very expensive." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Discount Disciples." The way of Jesus that we claim to walk today was, indeed, very expensive for those first Christians; for millions who have suffered or died for the name of Jesus in every generation as well, including our own. And it cost Jesus everything. So who am I - who are we - that we should get off so cheap? Jesus made it clear that there would be no discount disciples; those who could request a commitment to Him that didn't cost too much. What an insult to the man for whom it cost everything! Or to our brothers and sisters across the generations who've paid such a high price for following this same Savior. Jesus put the cost of following Him right up front in Luke 14:27, our word for today from the Word of God: "Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple." In Luke 9:23, He made clear that joining Jesus in carrying your cross was not a once-for-all decision, but one that has to be renewed every day. He said, "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me." Notice, He didn't say, "Take up your couch and follow Me." Somewhere we've gotten the twisted idea that following Jesus just means going to some of His meetings, believing His beliefs, throwing a little money His way, maybe taking on a couple of jobs for Him, and maybe even being called a couple of names because of Him. If the price tag gets much higher, we start to complain, to feel sorry for ourselves, to think about quitting. We are here today because of some real disciples who refused to quit, no matter what the cost. Because of a Savior who refused to quit, even when it meant the agony and humiliation of a cross. Those who have experienced Jesus most deeply, most sweetly, are those who walk the way of the cross with Him. Don't be afraid to make the choices for Him that may cost you something. That's what taking up a cross means - expensive choices. That's what taking up a cross meant for Jesus. He is worth any price you pay for following Him, because as much as it may cost to follow Him, it costs a whole lot more not to follow Him. After the Allied forces stormed ashore at Normandy on D-Day, charging into deadly German fire and land mines, General Eisenhower said, "There are no victories at discount prices." It was true at Normandy, and It's true in following Jesus. Beginning at the cross, it's always been expensive and victorious. The hymn writer nailed it when he said: "Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, when others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?"

Jenny was a counselor with a student group we had taken to a youth organization conference at the New Jersey Shore. She was walking along the Boardwalk enjoying all the attractions, and suddenly she heard what she thought was a scream. It seemed to be coming from the ocean. Now, it was night and it was, of course, too dark to see out there. So Jenny ran down the steps, across the beach, and to the water's edge. This time it was clear that the screams were coming from somewhere out there in the water. Of course, Jenny paused for a moment, because she said, "There are few things more frightening than going into the ocean in pitch darkness." That's true. But Jenny's hesitation was only for a moment. She forgot about her own safety, she threw off her shoes, and she plunged in to save what turned out to be a drowning girl. Moments later, others jumped in to help too. Later, Jenny said, "I had to do it. Someone was dying out there!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why You Are Where You Are." A life was saved that night because of the courageous, selfless choice of a young woman who was in the position to make a difference. She was scared, she knew it was risky, but she was the one who was there. She was the one who could do something and she did. Someone's dying condition became more important to Jenny than her own comfort and safety. But then that's how it always is when there's a rescue. A drowning person; a person trapped in a burning building or the unstable rubble of an earthquake. There's no such thing as rescuing someone while staying in your comfortable spot. There's no rescue without risk. And that includes the most critical rescue of all: the rescue of someone who is dying spiritually because they don't know Jesus - the only One who can rescue a person from the eternal death penalty of their sin. Jesus knows there's no rescue without risk. Boy, does He know it! He said in Mark 10:45 that He came "to give His life as a ransom for many." Later He said to His followers, "As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you" (John 20:21). Jesus was sent to lay down His life so others could live. And now He's sending you and me, on the same rescue mission He died for, to do whatever it takes to try and bring some people we know to heaven with us. Jesus left His comfortable spot; I mean, the most comfortable spot in the universe to rescue you and me. He's asking you now to leave your comfort zone to rescue someone you care about. Your mission is graphically portrayed in our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 24:11, "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter." Telling people about your Savior? It's life-or-death business! Like Jenny on the beach that dark, dangerous night. You won't take the risks unless you realize that if you don't do it, that person may very well die without hope. God's Word says that the people you know are without Christ "will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Not because Jesus wants that. He died so they don't have to, but because they haven't reached for the rescuer. And maybe they don't know what He did for them. They need to hear about Him from someone who knew! It's time for you to do what you need to do to build a relationship with that lost person you know. Spend some time with them. Write a letter about Jesus to them. Pray for some natural opportunities to share life's most important relationship. Share your hope story with them. Win the right to be heard and then take them to the cross where God loved them enough to pour out His love by dying for them. Don't wait for a professional lifeguard to come along. Like that woman on the beach, you're the one who's there. You're the one that's in the position to be their rescuer. If you know it's life-or-death, and it is, you'll know what you have to do. You can't just stand on the beach and let them die.

Recently, a friend of mine had a ringside seat on a family of birds. They actually decided to nest under the roof on the porch. The fun part was watching the birth and development of those baby birds. My friend actually got to see them hatching out and then settling down into their nest. They all fit in there so nicely - at first. See, Mama kept filling their open mouths with more and more food, and the little birdies didn't stay little! They grew and the nest seemed to shrink. As it got more and more crowded, each baby did more and more wiggling around to kind of keep his position in the nest. Then they feathered out and they forgot about all of them sitting in the nest ever again! Well, they began to perch on the edges of the nest until they were pushed off the edge by their siblings in a battle for whatever food Mama brought. One by one, as crowding pushed those little birds to the edge - and then over the edge - they were forced to fly or die. They decided to fly. The last nester stayed in the nest for actually another full week, being fed as an only child by Mama Bird. Finally, Mama must have gotten disgusted with her nest-addicted child. She quit feeding him. First, there was a lot of squawking and fussing, and then even he abandoned the nest to finally touch the sky. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Your Nest Doesn't Feel Right." We all know what those baby birds have to discover - that they weren't made to just hunker down in their comfortable nest. Neither are we. Those birds are destined to leave where it's safe so they can finally fly, and so are we. In fact, God uses an example just like this to describe His loving plan for our lives. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Deuteronomy 32:10-11. It says of a child of God, "He shielded him and cared for him; He guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions." The mother eagle actually removes all the cushioning in her nest, and that leaves her eaglets living on just the rocks and the sticks underneath. Ultimately, the stirring of that nest leads to their willingness to leave the nest where they had been so comfortable and then they ultimately take to the sky. Maybe your nest isn't quite as comfy as it once was. Things are stirring - they're changing. In your environment and in your heart there's this gnawing restlessness that seems to say, "God's got more for you than this." He does, and He's making you restless for it because restlessness almost always precedes a great work of God. Your Lord's trying to move you into a new season of your life where you can make a far greater difference than you have ever made before. But you'll miss it if you insist on staying where it's safe; financially safe, geographically safe, occupationally safe, where it's methodologically safe, socially safe. Abraham would never have discovered God's amazing plans for his life unless he was first willing to leave the safety and prosperity of a familiar and secure place. The disciples would have always been just another bunch of fishermen unless they had been willing to abandon the security of their career for the call of Jesus. Peter could have never known what it was to walk on water if he hadn't gotten out of the boat. Neither will you. God has much more of Him that He wants you to experience, but it will only happen as you move beyond all your usual security blankets and you abandon yourself to total trust in Him. He has so much more He wants to do with your life, but it's beyond your comfort zone. Like those baby birds, you weren't created to just hunker down in your safe, secure little nest - a nest that's becoming increasingly unsatisfying isn't it? You see, that's because you're destined to fly!

All of a sudden The Son of God was in theaters all over the place. Actually, a movie by that name - Son of God. And based on its opening weekend, it was drawing a crowd. Of course that was not the first time something like that had happened. "The Passion of the Christ" turned out to be a blockbuster, too. Who would have guessed that? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Jesus - More Than You Ever Imagined." When I was growing up, a movie about Jesus' life wouldn't have shown folks much they didn't know. People knew a lot about Jesus. Not now. Lots of people need an introduction. A lot of this movie was included in the highly successful TV mini-series called "The Bible." And when it portrayed the torture and the crucifixion of Jesus, the Twittersphere lit up with astonished comments. People were saying, in essence, "I had no idea Jesus went through all of this." I have a good friend who ministers among his Native American people. He says, "My people consider Jesus an enemy." But he did manage to get a few of them to go with him to see "The Passion of the Christ" which vividly, of course, portrays the unspeakable ordeal that Jesus went through. Afterwards, there was an interesting comment from those folks. They said, "Now we know why you follow Him." Wow! I can tell you this, it sure is why I follow Him. They didn't take His life. He's the Son of God. He'd have to give it. After all, He made the tree they nailed Him to. He made the men who nailed Him there. In His own words, "I lay down my life...no one takes it from Me" (John 10:17-18). And all the evidence says that He is, in fact, exactly who He claimed to be - the Son of God. Perfect life, incredible miracles, scores of centuries-old Messianic prophecies fulfilled by His life, and an empty tomb. No religious leader can come back from the grave. That's got to be God. So it really is the Son of God hanging on that cross. And if the Son of God is going to give His life, it's going to be for something really important. That's where it gets emotional for me, because one of the reasons He went through all that was me. Along with every other person who has done life their way instead of God's way, which, according to the Bible, is every one of us. The Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of God's glory" (Romans 3:23). But sadly, even with the visual of a movie, it's still easy to miss the "personal-ness" of what Jesus came to do. You can look at Jesus and just see a historical figure - which He clearly is. Or you can see Him as a religious figure, starting a religion to follow, and beliefs to believe. But He's so much more. What happened on that cross was intensely personal for each of us. Again, in the Bible's words, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20); my personal Rescuer from the penalty of my personal sin. And He insists on a verdict from each of us about His death for our sins as that being the only hope of being forgiven and of ever entering God's heaven. One day Jesus did a little "focus group" research with His disciples. He asked, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They gave Him the results of their latest poll. "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Nice answer, guys. But then Jesus drills down to what may be the most important question any of us could ever answer. It is our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 16, verses 15 and 16, "'But what about you? Who do you say I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" My friend, the question has not changed. Jesus still moves in close and says- "What about you? Who do you say I am?" And He extends His nail-pierced hand and He waits for your answer, on which your eternity rests. When you feel the tug of Jesus in your heart, He's come close to offer you the life that only He can give you. It's wise to grab Him while He's close. This might be that time for you. Would you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours." I hope you'll visit our website soon and let me show you the rest of the way to begin your personal relationship with Him. It's ANewStory.com. It's time to get this settled.

Our local high school band worked hard to put on some great performances at our football games. I know. Our daughter was one of the trumpet players. I also remember going to band competitions at different schools. We have some precious memories of sitting on the top bleacher with a wind chill that would have made a polar bear go inside. My teeth were chattering loud enough to be in the percussion section! Our band also got to perform in several local parades. But, there's just a handful of high school bands that get invited to play in one of America's really big parades. You know, like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. You know, the Mountain Home, Arkansas, band - not too far from us - they had that thrill. Inside this exciting adventure for a small town band was a wonderful true story. The band had a tuba player that you might never expect to be in a marching band. He's blind. As you think about that, it raises a lot of questions, doesn't it - about how he could possibly participate in a marching band's maneuvers. The answer is a young woman who dedicated herself to being his guide. She doesn't play an instrument. But anytime that band makes a move, she slips her arm in David's arm and directs him wherever he needs to go. And on Thanksgiving Day, there they were, doing their band routine in the middle of Manhattan's Herald Square - the blind tuba player and the one who guided him there. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You Can't See the Way To Go." Some might have thought there was no way that a blind tuba player could ever march with the band. But that would not take into account the one who made it possible - one person always there to guide him. You have a person like that for the many times when you can't see the way to go. The sightless band member was able to go places he could otherwise never go, and do things he otherwise could never do because of the one who directed him. That's your story, too. It's my story. Because, if you belong to Christ, God's promised that you will never be left in the dark, and never be left clueless. If you're at one of those anxious, confusing times when the road ahead isn't clear, have I got a promise for you! Oh yeah, it's one of my favorites. It's recorded in Isaiah 42:16. It's our word for today from the Word of God. It happens to be an anchor verse for me. Your Lord says: "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." Wow! See. this is your promise to claim! You have nothing to fear from the unknown because you belong to the One who can see it all. And how will He show you the way? First, He'll use personalized Scriptures; verses that He will, upon request, guide you to. Verses that will seem like they have your name on them, or in them, and that will be that "light for your path" that the Bible talks about (Psalm 119:105). Secondly, He'll guide you through what I call prayer-time peace. Trust what you feel most consistently in the times when you are alone with God, when other voices are not there to confuse you. God says to "let the peace of Christ rule in your heart" (Colossians 3:15). And thirdly, God will show you the way to go through confirming circumstances - open doors, recurring counsel from godly people, events that echo the Scriptures that He's been giving you. The "don't know" times are God's instrument to drive you deeper into Him, to surrender any self-reliance for a desperate dependency on your God. You may not know which way to go, but you don't have to stand there fearful, paralyzed or marching in circles. Your Lord, your Shepherd is placing His arm inside yours to lead you where you could never go without Him.

It was one of those years when my New York Giants decided they didn't want to show up for the playoffs that year. Oh, the Super Bowl was always in their stadium, but sadly no blue and white on the field. The odds makers had been predicting that Denver was going to win by one point. They lost 43-8. Denver Broncos defensive end Shaun Phillips managed to emerge from that blowout a winner still, where it really counts. See, Shaun texted his son Jaylen and said, "Sorry I let you down." His son's answer changed everything. "It's OK Daddy. You are still my hero." Wow! That's perspective. Playing in the Super Bowl - big accomplishment. Being a super dad - that's the biggest victory a man can win. And suddenly, Shaun was reminded of where putting points on the board matters most. He told his son, "Well, at least we get to hang out now." That little exchange on Super Bowl Sunday was a message for every one of us that someone calls "Dad." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hero on the Field, But Hero At Home?" You can be a hero "on the field" - whatever your field is - and be a zero at home. But if you're a hero at home, you can weather the blowouts in all the other parts of your life. My son tells me, "Dad, it doesn't matter how crazy my workday has been, I'll walk in the door of my house and five minutes with my kids reminds me of what really matters." It's true! I smiled when he said that. He and his siblings did that for me more times than I can count. Of course, some dads come home to just another battlefield. But the man of the house has more effect on the climate of that house than anybody else. Beginning in the Garden of Eden, God has held the man ultimately responsible for what happens in his family. It's a classic case of "a man reaps what he sows." That's our word for today from the Word of God, Galatians 6:7, "A man reaps what he sows." So, if you sow unselfishness, you'll start to reap unselfishness. If you sow "I come first," you'll reap a family of people who are all about themselves. So much of that depends on the seed sown by dad. That's why the Bible warns fathers to "not embitter your children or they will become discouraged" (Colossians 3:21). And it says, "fathers do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). I came to realize that I was the thermostat in my family, setting the temperature; my wife was the thermometer, reflecting the temperature I set; and my children were the seismograph, registering every disturbance. Clearly, the central arena of a man's best efforts is to be in his home. And the weight of that life-shaping assignment - with so much potential for being life-scarring instead - has driven me to seek outside help from the God who told us to call Him "our Father." It was being a husband and being a dad that showed me that I am not enough. My family had needs I couldn't meet because I hadn't figured out how to meet those needs in me. That the things that troubled me in my kids mirrored my own weaknesses. My own baggage. My own sin. That's when the word "Savior" becomes intensely personal. I need a Rescuer from the dark side of me that God calls sin. A dark side that becomes a spreading infection when you have a wife and children. So I reached out to Jesus. I grabbed Him like a drowning man would grab a rescuer, because, as the Bible says, "the Lord Jesus Christ...gave Himself for our sins to rescue us" (Galatians 1:3). And there I found that this self-centered sinner of a dad could become what the Bible calls "a new creation in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:17). With God's power, anyone can win the game that matters more than any other - winning the hearts of the children that He gave you. If you've never begun your relationship with this life-changing Savior, for your sake, for your family's sake would you open your heart to Him today? Go to our website. I think I can help you get started in that relationship. Go to ANewStory.com. It could be the beginning of a new story for you and for those you love.

I remember speaking at a baseball chapel years ago, and our boys were actually blown away. I mean, it's a while back, but they got to go with me to the Yankees chapel. And they said, "Oh, there's Don Mattingly!" Yeah, we're talking Hall of Fame here. He was a hero around our house since our kids were little. He was a Yankees first baseman. His home runs and batting average and consistent fielding made him possibly one of baseball's all time greats. Interestingly enough, we were impressed at our house, not just by his baseball ability. But to this day, our guys talk about his attitude, which was a pretty refreshing one. See, he always, even though he was a well paid star, he didn't seem to fall prey to that well paid star attitude. He always seemed to be amazed and appreciative that he was where he was. You'd hear Don Mattingly being interviewed and he would say something like this, "I just love baseball. I still love it like when I was a kid. I feel so lucky to be wearing this uniform." He'd get to spring training early. He'd take extra batting practice. See, there's something really special about a seasoned veteran's ability that is coupled with kind of a positive rookie attitude, but it's hard to have both of those. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Spiritual Veterans, Danger Zone." Our word for today from the Word of God, John 9:16. It's about the man who was blind from birth. He's been healed by Jesus; the Pharisees are more interested though in analyzing the miracle. "Some of the Pharisees said, 'This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.'" Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. Verse 24: "A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. 'Give glory to God,' they said. 'We know this man (speaking of Jesus) is a sinner.'" Well, the conversation continues and they say, "'We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where He comes from.'" The man answered, 'Now that is remarkable! You don't know where He comes from, yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does His will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.'" You know what you've got here? A clash between spiritual veterans - the Pharisees - and a spiritual rookie. The Pharisees are Bible experts - religious professionals. But they are confronted with an amazing supernatural intervention. Are they excited? Are they celebrating? Are they seeking the Lord who did it? No, they're analyzing, debating, they're trying to protect their position. See, that's the danger of being around Jesus for a while, being professional where you used to be passionate in your faith. It happens to athletes. After a while their youthful enthusiasm fades, and they become hard and cynical and calculating sometimes, all about themselves. And they lose the wonder of the rookie. The blind man here? He's a rookie. He's fresh from being touched by Jesus. He's excited, he's expectant. But the veterans...they just make it all complicated. It's simple for a rookie. "I was changed, and Jesus did it." Sometimes the rookie who has just experienced Christ knows more instinctively than the veterans who are analyzing Christ. And it could be that for all your years of being around Christian things you've missed Jesus. You've missed Christ, because it's all been a head trip. He's in your head, but He's not in your heart, because you've never moved Him from your head to your heart. Let this be the day He becomes your Savior from your sins. Now, here's a question: Have you gone from experiencing God's working to just analyzing it? Maybe what used to be the simplicity of a warm give-and-take love with Jesus has become the complexity of rules and organization and politics and theological hairsplitting. A veteran should be the most excited of all. They've had the most years to have it all happen to them. There's something very special about someone who's got that seasoned veteran ability and a positive rookie attitude. Listen, don't ever lose the wonder.

There's reality TV. And then there's the real reality TV called the Olympics. And, you know, when you watch that, you see the real deal. I mean, you've got the triple axles on the ice, you've got amazing jumps on the ski slopes, you've got those gravity-defying flights of the snowboarders. Oh, yeah, and the falls and the crashes. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Replaying Your Falls." I'm fine with showing the good stuff again and again. It's the replays of what they did wrong that bother me. Probably because I've been working with young people and their families for so long. And, over and over, I've seen the damage that's done when parents keep replaying their children's mistakes. Sometimes too seldom replaying what their son or daughter did right. Consequently, there are a lot of young people who know very well what's wrong with them. But they have a hard time thinking what's right with them, so they don't feel like they're worth much. They act like they're not worth much. You can see it in the friends they choose, the music they listen to, the way they retreat into themselves. The things they'll do for attention. For just a few minutes of feeling better about themselves. Oh, there's a lot that goes into our feelings of value or worthlessness. But we moms and dads, we have life-shaping power like nobody else. Our son or daughter's perception of how much we think they're worth is a huge factor in how much they think they're worth. Too often, we use the replays of our kids' shortcomings to somehow get them to change, to do better just to vent our frustrations. And yet, how many of us still carry in our head those critical, negative words that our parents said over and over to us? They still hurt. They're still part of our adult struggle to feel right about ourselves. What was constantly replayed by our parents has shaped our life. And so it is with our children. It's part of the legacy we leave them, and it's one that it's never too late to change. That's why this one statement from the Bible went deep into my soul as a parent. It says in Ephesians 4:29, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths" - that would be words that tear them down - "but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs." So you've got construction and you've got demolition. My words to my children are one or the other. I don't need much help seeing where I've blown it. I'm painfully aware of how I've failed. What saves me, literally, is that my Father, my Heavenly Father, does not replay all the dark episodes of my life. Of all the people who could nail me for my many sins, God has that undisputed right. He gave me this life. So often, I've dissed the One who made me and I've done what I want to do. I've defied this sinless, totally holy God. I would run from Him, except for one thing. What the Bible tells me about Him. It'sI our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 130:3, "If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness." What a word! Forgiveness. What an expensive word. Not for me, but for the God I've sinned against, because of what His Son did so I would never meet my sins on Judgment Day. The Bible says, "He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5-6). My sins removed, never again to be replayed, by a God who loved me so much He would do whatever it took not to lose me. And it took His very best. It took His Son. This full pardon from an all-perfect God is within anyone's reach. It's within your reach if you'll take for yourself what Jesus died to give you. That's what our website's about. I would encourage you to go there. It's ANewStory.com. Today could be the day that all the falls, all the mistakes, all the regrets, all the sins are erased from God's Book forever. And you'll never meet your sins when you stand before God. Because Jesus paid it all for you on the cross.

Hooper Bay, Alaska! It's not the first remote place we went with the outreach teams of Native young people that we go with, but it's a tough one. Each Summer of Hope, it's our privilege to take these teams of Indian and Native Alaskan spiritual warriors to the reservations and the villages where America's most devastated young people live and die too young. The suicide rate among young Native Americans is something like three or four times that of the rest of America's young. And in some places in Alaska, it's twenty times greater. Hooper Bay, Alaska, is one of the hardest places in this country to grow up. We had to take our team there. But getting there the first time was a real adventure. My wife was on the first plane into this village 400 miles from the nearest road. Sitting in the co-pilot's seat, she should have had a great view as they approached over the Bering Sea. But there was no view. It was like zero visibility. But those missionary pilots - they are amazing! My wife watched him with his flight plan on his knee, constantly comparing it to the readings on his instruments. Looking out the window sure wasn't going to help find this flight, I'll tell you. That ain't going to help you find a landing strip. Ultimately, they were so close to the ocean their propellers were whipping up the ocean around them. A Native Alaskan in the back just kept praying over and over, "Oh, Jesus, Jesus, help us!" Suddenly, right below my wife's window, she saw the landing strip, and they landed right where they were supposed to land! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Know Where You're Going When You Can't See a Thing." Maybe that's how you feel right now, like, about the flight of your life; you're flying blind. There's no clear path ahead. Visibility is close to zero, and it's scary. It would be easy to make a big mistake right now and you can't afford one. I'm happy to report there is a flight plan, laid out by the God who says in the Bible, "I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). You don't want to miss that. But your feelings are all over the map, your circumstances are up for grabs, and you could crash if you don't know where you're supposed to go. Take a lesson from the pilot in the fog over that Native Alaskan village. He knew he couldn't trust his feelings. He couldn't trust His surroundings. He could trust only one thing - what His instruments were saying. He kept checking his course by the unfailing accuracy of the one thing that was not affected by the environment - his instruments. For you, that's the Bible, the unchanging Word of God. Here's His promise in Psalm 119:105, our word for today from the Word of God, His Word is "a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." And that psalm says, "Your Word, O Lord...stands firm in the heavens." It won't change if the earth melts away. And you're going to make it if you risk everything, if you base everything on what God's Word, His unchanging, eternal Word says to you, each new day. No matter what your feelings are saying; no matter what your surroundings are saying to you. Through His forever trustworthy words, God will keep His promise for the days when you can't see where you're going. You can stake everything on this promise: Isaiah 42:16 - you're going to love this: "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." That, my brother, my sister, is all you need to know to land exactly where you're supposed to land!

There's almost nothing more chaotic than moving. Some years ago we moved our office to something more suitable that God had wonderfully provided. The result was terrific! The process - horrendous. Unfortunately, the work didn't stop just because it was time to move. We had to press on and not let all the inconveniences stop our work. I had some real deadlines to meet. So as the files and the furniture were flying, I just retreated to my office. Pretty soon my office started to go. I moved my little computer to a small tray in the corner, and I just kept typing, like Schroeder on his piano. I had to! At one point, someone literally carried my desk away while I was typing away on my little tray. In the midst of this growing chaos, I actually managed to carve out my own little peaceful corner. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Peace In the Chaos." Our word for today from the Word of God, right from the lips of Jesus Christ, John 14:27 - "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." Boy, I've got to tell you, this was not spoken at some quiet, spiritual retreat in the mountains. The soldiers were on their way to arrest Jesus; His cross was coming. And yet in the middle of this chaos, Jesus is talking about peace. "I will give you peace; an island of sanity in an otherwise insane situation." But He's saying that this peace won't come from what's going on around you; that's the kind the world gives. This island of sanity will be in you; deeply anchored in your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which nothing can touch. I was on a plane some years ago, and they announced that we were suddenly being re-routed; flying from Chicago to Newark. Suddenly we were headed to Detroit, because we had hydraulic problems. The guy two seats over went, "That's it! That's it! That's the landing gear." That really helped. "Thank you, sir." Next to me was this little grandma. She was terrified. I mean, this was really scary to her. And the flight attendants? They're running back and forth saying, "Seat belts. Seat belts. Seat belts." I just kept working, because I really didn't feel any particular panic. I kind of tried to calm down this grandma next to me. I said, "Hey, we're going to Detroit and they're not charging anything extra." She laughed. I kept trying to provide some calm for her. Well, it ended up we landed amid this fleet of emergency vehicles, but we were safe. After it was all over she said, "How can you stay so calm?" I said, "Well, I have to tell you, it's because of a personal relationship that I have with Jesus. See, when you have that - the peace doesn't come from what is going on around you, but the peace comes from what's going on inside you...actually who's going on inside you." When you have this all-knowing, all-powerful Savior you've got nothing to fear. The Bible says this of Jesus, "He Himself is our peace." I've tested that peace over and over: when we've been very concerned about a child, when the finances have been impossible, the day my wife was suddenly gone. Jesus has been that peaceful corner, like that chaotic moving day. He wants to be your island of sanity. If you're not sure you belong to this one the Bible calls the Prince of Peace, would you open your heart to Him today. The Bible says until we have our sin forgiven, there is "no peace." But when you put your total trust in this man who died for your sin, that wall between you and God comes down and you have what you've chased all these years - real peace. If you want to belong to Him, would you go to our website. It's all about how to begin a relationship with Him. Would you check it out? It's ANewStory.com. In our stressful world, it's like moving day every day. There's no peace except in a heart where Jesus has come to live at your invitation, because beyond the chaos, there will always be His peace.

Several years ago, there was a blockbuster movie called "Independence Day." You can catch it occasionally on TV now. From what I heard, it wasn't about Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. No, it was about an alien invasion of Planet Earth. A unique concept. As this alien force moves across the world, the American military throws its most sophisticated weapons at it. They can't stop it. Even the White House gets destroyed and the President barely escapes with his life. Other countries try to resist with their military. No one's even close to a match for this invading force. Well, something very interesting happens. The world's leaders begin to wake up to the fact that suddenly they all have a common enemy and it isn't each other anymore. Allies and enemies begin to work together to defeat their enemy, and they win big! Yea! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Our Enemy Wins." If that movie had a moral, it had something to do with uniting to beat an enemy that threatened them all; an enemy that no one could have ever beaten alone. Now, our enemy - the enemy of every believer in Jesus, every Christian church, every Christian family - has his way all too often. Not so much because he's so strong, but because he exploits our tendency to fight each other and to forget the real enemy that threatens us all. Someone said, "Christians are the only soldiers who form their firing squads in a circle." Isn't it true! We shoot at each other so much; wasting our ammunition that should only be aimed one direction - at Satan and his forces. Okay, our word for today from the Word of God - Ephesians 6:11-12. It's a clarion call to fight the right enemy. "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood." Woah, let's stop there. I want you to think of someone in your family that maybe there's conflict with right now, or in your church or your ministry; someone who's driving you crazy. Put their name in that verse. "My struggle is not against ______." Fill in the blank with another Christian group or denomination you don't agree with. Your struggle is not ultimately against them! It says it's "against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." The one to shoot at is the devil. And the one who is trying to drive a wedge between you and that family member or that fellow believer is none other than the prince of darkness himself. But he wants you to think that they're the problem. He's the problem! We play right into his hands when we allow ourselves to focus on our differences, on our wounded feelings, on our turf, on our frustrations. We're doing what Paul calls two chapters earlier giving "the devil a foothold." My guess is that somewhere in your life right now, your enemy is trying to divide you from another believer or believers so he can divide and conquer. The question is, are you falling for it? In that movie, until the forces of earth realized they were up against a common enemy, they fought separately and they lost. God is calling us to wake up to our common enemy and to do whatever we have to do to remove the walls and fight together. To, as it says in Philippians 1, "stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed." We've battled the enemy separately long enough haven't we? It's time we come together to win what we could never win alone.

It was enough to make a girl stop talking for years to come. That is, about her relationship with Jesus. One day in high school, God laid it on my wife's heart, (of course she wasn't my wife yet), to share Christ with one of her fellow band members. Ricky was a drummer. In my experience, drummers are usually cut from a little different piece of cloth than everybody else, and Ricky was no exception. He was a wild and crazy guy with a mouth to match. But one day my wife got up the courage to rise above her shyness and tell him about her Savior. Ricky didn't exactly fall to his knees in the band room and repent. In fact, he said, "Well, if you're going to heaven, I want to go to the other place!" Ouch! Okay, fast forward. Years later, my wife and I were visiting a church where the pastor introduced us during the service. Afterwards, the man who had been sitting behind us said to my honey, "I've been hoping for years I'd get to see you and tell you what happened." It was Ricky and his wife. He said, "I know I blew you off that day you tried to tell me about Jesus. Later a couple of others did the same thing. I just wanted you to know I finally gave my heart to Christ." Wow! Ricky went on to tell about working on a Christian radio station and how he had even pastored a church. Ricky - the one who nuked the girl who tried to tell him about Jesus - ended up actually working on our team early on, helping us tell the world about Jesus. Wow! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Part in the Rescue." Ricky's story is the story of so many who have changed their eternal address from hell to heaven. They didn't find Christ through one exposure to Him, but through a string of faithful witnesses who sowed the seed of the Gospel in their heart. One day, the harvest came because of those who sowed the Gospel, those who watered the Gospel, and then someone who recognized that it was time to harvest the Gospel. God has placed you as His designated ambassador in the lives of the people in your personal world. Here's how the great rescue plan of God works, as revealed in 1 Corinthians 3, beginning with verse 5, which is our word for today from the Word of God. "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe - as the Lord assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow...The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers..." Do you realize how important you are in the life-saving plan of God? He's invited you to work side by side with Him in His harvesting of lives for heaven! In one life, you may be the one who sows the first thoughts a person ever has about Jesus - as my wife did in Ricky's life. For another person, you might be the one who unknowingly builds on seed someone else sowed to bring them a step closer to Jesus. For someone else, you'll be the one God puts there when the other seed sown in their life is ready to be harvested and they're ready for Jesus. As you ask the Holy Spirit to show you what part He wants you to play and where that person is in the process of coming to Him, He'll give you the courage and the words if you ask Him to. You can never judge the final result of your witness by the immediate response. It is God who provides the seed, it's God who miraculously grows that seed into a heart that's ready for Jesus. But He's counting on you to sow His seed, water His seed, or harvest His seed. There's only one way you can fail in sharing Christ - you don't do it! Your mission is to leave each lost person God leads you to closer to Jesus than they were before; knowing more about Jesus and what He did for them than they knew before. God has an amazing plan for the spiritual rescue of every lost person you know and He's asking you to join Him in the rescue. Don't miss the most important thing you will ever do in your life!

God has the most amazing ways of getting our attention. My friend, Brian, had been involved in evangelism for many years. Which of course, means he spends a lot of time on the road. Which, in his case, meant a lot of opportunities to mess up in an area where he has struggled for many years; a weakness for pornography. Now, Brian was determined to get the victory over that slave master, so he took some very bold defensive action. He actually stayed away from places where he might encounter pornography. He asked those who invited him to speak to put him in private homes rather than motels. But one college he was invited to insisted on lodging him in a motel. So, he's driving through Iowa on his way to this school, and he stops at a gas station in the middle of nowhere for a cold drink. When he walked in the store, there was a whole wall covered with pornographic magazines. After just a moment, the old Brian thought, "Nobody knows I'm a minister here. I could get a couple magazines and take them to my motel room." Right then, someone came running in the store and asked, "Does anyone here have a gray Firebird?" Brian knew that was his car. "It's sitting out in the middle of the highway." Brian raced outside to find his car had somehow, inexplicably, rolled into the highway in the flats of Iowa! Needless to say, he didn't go back inside that store. And he's been winning that battle for a long time now. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Battle Plan for Big Temptation." Isn't it great to know that God is in the temptation rescue business? I mean, I can't hear Brian's story without thinking of that classic request in the Lord's Prayer, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13). Even if you find your car in the middle of the highway. God knows our sinful tendencies. So, He knows. He knows the areas where we're most prone to mess up again, and He will go to great lengths to deliver you from that evil. But He expects you to take strong evasive action against your temptation. Our word for today from the word of God comes from 1 Corinthians 10:13. "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear." Okay, so God knows your limits, He says, "stop!" when it's a sinful opportunity you can't handle. There simply is no such thing as an irresistible temptation. If you can't walk away from it, God won't let it in your life. Here's how God very practically intervenes so you don't ever have to be that way again. "But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." There's the key to beating the temptation that's beaten you so many times - God's temptation exit, "The way out." The King James Version calls it "the way of escape." You know why I think God intervened so dramatically for my friend Brian when he was teetering on the edge of backsliding? Because Brian had been setting up his life to avoid that temptation in every possible way, and God honors that. He'll do that for you, too. Your job? Analyze the situations and relationships where you're most vulnerable to your entangling sins. Think about what your evasive action could be when the opportunity to do that sin again comes up. Where's your way of escape? There are people that you can't afford to be with. There are shows you can't afford to watch, there's music you can't afford to listen to, there are websites you can't afford to even get near, there are situations you can't afford to get into - not if you really want to change. Not if you want to be free, and I think you really do. For every sinful choice, there are other choices you can make, usually pre-make, that will take you out the exit that God's provided. If you'll do your part to seriously battle that sin, believe me, God will do His part to "deliver you from evil." Just ask that guy with his car in the middle of the road!

When I was growing up, it was just a picture on a T-shirt. Then one day I finally got to see Niagara Falls for real. Wow! It's one of this continent's great wonders. Many miles before you get to those roaring falls you start to see all these power lines. It's Niagara's generated electricity of course, and then as you get near the falls, you see this big, ground-level cloud rising up. It's this massive mist that's billowing up from the river below Niagara. It's impressive! Let me tell you what we didn't do. We didn't stop before we got to the falls and say, "Man, look at that mist! Quick, get the camera! What an incredible mist!" And then deeply impressed by that cloud of spray, turn around and head home, never going the rest of the way to see the falls that produced the mist. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Loving Creation, Missing the Creator." Our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah 40:12. "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?" What a tribute that is to God's power. "Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?" Verse 15 says, "Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust." Then it says, "He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in." Finally, verse 26, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." When you look at creation, it should lead you to the Creator. I mean, if you think what He made is awesome, wait till you meet the One who made it. But the Bible describes a tragic mistake that's made in many cultures, over many years, and increasingly made by people in our sophisticated culture. Romans 1:25...here's the mistake, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised." Worshiping the creation rather than the Creator? Which brings us back to Niagara. It's okay to be impressed by the great Niagara mist, but the real marvel is the falls; the source that creates the mist. The mist is only a reflection of the source that creates it. Don't miss the source. Unfortunately a lot of people are doing just that. There's all kinds of talk today about Mother Earth and all the spiritual energy you can tap by getting in touch with the cosmos. People are on a very real spiritual search. But those who focus on the power of creation miss the real power - the Creator. Jesus Christ, God's Son, entered His creation to re-connect us human beings, His masterpieces back to Himself. The God who holds an endless ocean in the palm of His hand, weighs the Rocky Mountains on a little scale, stretches out the heavens like I would set up a tent. He loves you. He gave His Son for you to have a relationship with Him. Don't miss Him! Don't let anyone you care about miss Him by falling for the lie that creation is the end of our search for our Creator. Don't get hooked on the mist. Go to the source. You will be overwhelmed by the power of the One who created you and all you see. Have you ever experienced His love? Have you ever experienced His power for yourself? It's my prayer that this day you might say, "Jesus, you loved me enough to die for me. You were powerful enough to walk out of your grave. I ask you to walk into my life. I'm pinning all my hopes on You." I think our website would help you get there. Check it out, will you - ANewStory.com. Because today could be the beginning of your new story.

It's been a fun assignment over the years to speak for some professional football chapels, especially my old hometown team, the New York Giants. Of course it's pretty funny seeing me in a room with them. "Here's the New York Giants with special guest, "the little guy." But on several occasions I have been able to go to the game that same day with the team chaplain. In one game he leaned over to me and he said, "Now I want you to see one of the most powerful men in this stadium." There were 70,000 people there and I knew how powerful some of the men on the field were. And I wondered maybe if it was an owner or an executive. Nope! The chaplain pointed to this little man with a big bright orange glove on one hand. "Him?" "Yeah." He said, "Just watch." And after a play, that man stepped out on the field, put his orange-gloved hand on his chest and the game totally stopped. Now that is power! Who is that man? He represents the TV producers who are broadcasting this game all over the country. And when it's time to stop everything for the next commercial, He just steps out and shows his magic glove. Nothing resumes until he puts down that glove and steps back off the field. One guy - power over lots of big people! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Disproportionate Power for Your Disproportionate Challenge." That's what you have to call this kind of match up, or the kind talked about in our word for today from the Word of God. Joshua 23:10 - exciting words: "One of you routs a thousand because the Lord your God fights for you" just as He promised. Let's say you're a battlefield reporter. On one side you have a force of 1,000 people. On the other side, one little guy. Who's going to win this? Well, if the Lord God is fighting for that one guy, you will see the thousand running for their lives. That is disproportionate power. A biblical principle that opens up otherwise unthinkable possibilities for you, your family, your ministry, your church. The numbers are only slightly less lopsided when God says in Leviticus 26:8, "Five of you will chase a hundred and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand and your enemies will fall by the sword before you." When we were launching much of this ministry that our team is involved with today, we looked at the incredible work God has given us and then the comparatively small size of our team and we said, "How?" Then God gave us this verse. To this day it's still like five of us chasing a hundred because of the difference that a mighty God can make when He's fully trusted. In the unforgettable words of the invincible Apostle Paul in Romans 8:31, "If God is for us, who can be against us." Right now you may be facing some overwhelming odds, or obstacles, or needs. They look very big and honestly you look very small beside them. But, that's where God's miracle math comes in. You plus God equals a majority, but if you try to anticipate the outcome based on earth math, you'll probably hold back, you'll probably miss the amazing thing God wants to do. His ancient people looked at the walls and the giants in the Promised Land and they said, "We feel like grasshoppers" (Numbers 13:33) so they gave up. But, two spies out of all those spies, Joshua and Caleb, looked at those same walls and giants and compared them to the size of their God rather than the size of themselves, and they were ready to go for it. But because earth math and earth odds prevailed, people who could have been living in the Promised Land ended up just surviving in the wilderness for forty years. Remember this disproportionate power and you'll be more likely to make God's will choices. Because the less there's going to be of you, and the more there's going to be of God, you know what that means. The greater the victory is going to be.

Three days before our vacation, my wife and I had no idea where we were going to be able to go! We'd been too busy to think about it and too broke to pay for it. And then some friends supplied a beautiful spot in the Rocky Mountains. You know, God is really a great vacation planner. We had the joy of looking out a window each morning at the majesty of Buffalo Mountain, all 12,000 plus feet of her. One night the temperature dropped to some winter lows, even though it was just early fall. My wife had gotten up before sunrise that morning and she said, "Honey, get up! You've got to see this!" The mountain was covered with a beautiful blanket of new-fallen snow. And then just above the mountain was this crown of puffy, white clouds. Directly over all of that was a full moon that was softly lighting the whole thing. I mean, it was awesome! And then there were the two early risers in the parking lot. One guy came out on his way to work, saw that magical scene and just stood there frozen, gazing at it for the longest time. He was awed by it as we were. Then guy number two came running out on his way to work. He's got his lunch box in his hands, his eyes are looking straight ahead, he hustles right to his car, speeds away. What a contrast between the two men. One stood amazed and one was too busy to even notice. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Racing Past the Glory." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 2:3. God asks an unsettling question here: "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" See, God's offering us a gift that cost Him a lot, and some people are running right past it. God's most glorious work is not a moonlit, snow-crest mountain or a sunset, or even the amazing universe out there. No, it's what happened on a Roman cross, and three days later at a garden tomb. It's wrapped up in these seven words, "if we ignore such a great salvation." Obviously salvation means someone's in trouble, right, and needs deliverance...needs a rescue. You and I are in big trouble with God according to the Bible. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of our sin is death." And as good as we might be religious, we like to think we're okay. But the judge before whom we must stand says, "for all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Spiritually, we're on death row. That's where this salvation comes in. God sent His one and only Son to die our death penalty because of His awesome love for us. Then three days later, Jesus wielded the knockout punch on death. He proved that He alone can deliver eternal life. He did it by rising from the dead. Who else did that? Jesus loves you enough to die in your place. He's powerful enough to blow the doors off of death. And all that to give you a way to belong to God. Such a great salvation! But you might be missing it, like that man who raced past the glory of the scene on that mountain, maybe you've been running right past the glory of what happened on a hill where Jesus died for you. You've been busy working, caring for your family, pursuing your pleasure, and running right past the one thing you cannot afford to miss. Isn't it time you stopped running and stood amazed at the cross of Jesus Christ? Isn't it time to say, "Lord, I've ignored the glory of what You did for me, but no more. I'm Yours." Don't you want to belong to Him? Are you ready to experience this love, this power that has changed lives for 2,000 years? This could be your day to begin with Him. Go to our website will you? It will take a very few minutes there for you to see how you can be sure you belong to Jesus. Go to ANewStory.com. Okay, a person is drowning, a rescuer throws him a rope. He ignores it and he dies. Not because there was no salvation, but because he ignored it. Jesus has thrown you a rope that's anchored to His cross. Please don't ignore it! Don't miss it!

Are you sure you want to turn on the news tonight? Yeah, it will cheer you up. Right. We need a few laughs. That's unlikely. It has been pretty ugly. Things are happening environmentally that are difficult, the weather is kinda going crazy. You've got headlines about growing crime and financial turmoil, and gun violence. Boy, you know all those headlines. Yeah, there's a lot of grim stuff. But for us who belong to Jesus, you know what we should be hearing? We should be hearing our spiritual phone ringing. It's a wakeup call from God. And this is no time to let it go into voicemail, because God's calling us. And He's saying "If you're ever going to do something about the people who don't know Jesus, do it now!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Disturbing Headlines, A Message from God." Number one, it's time to live for what others are dying for. You can go online and you will graphically see the price that our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world are paying for their allegiance to Jesus. Torture. Rape. Even crucifixion. We have a faith that is paid for in blood. First by Jesus. Then by countless Jesus-followers, from the first-century Coliseum to crosses today. So I should be intimidated into silence because of what talking about Jesus might cost me? "I might be called a name, marginalized, rejected, disrespected." If I won't pay that puny price, I should be ashamed. The old hymn asks - "Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, or blush to speak His name? Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease? While others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?" Yeah, spiritual silence. Not an option any longer, because it can cost someone Jesus. It can cost someone heaven. The second message in the headlines: hearts are open because the world is crazy. Yeah. God calls us to make "the most of every opportunity because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16). This is opportunity time. Hearts that are usually looking inward are suddenly open to looking upward. So many things they have looked to are letting them down. With storm clouds coming in from every direction, people feel vulnerable, they feel unsafe. In the Bible's words, "like the tossing sea, which cannot rest... there is no peace" (Isaiah 57:20-21). These are Jesus-times. Not to be missed. He's the One who speaks to the storm in the human heart and says, "Peace, be still!" And "do not let your hearts be troubled." There's one other lesson in those headlines: We have the hope people are starving for. Peter calls it, "The reason for the hope you have" (1 Peter 3:15). That's what God says will interest people in my Jesus. Especially now. But only if I tell them about His unloseable love that He proved on a cross. And there's never been a better time to tell your "hope story" than now. Our word for today from the Word of God: Hebrews 6:19. What a verse for unraveling times like ours! Speaking of Jesus it says, "we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." My friend Dave used to keep his sailboat in Stamford Harbor in Connecticut. They've got a hurricane gate that they close in the face of this approaching storm. To protect every craft that makes it into the harbor. Actually my friend rode out a hurricane on his boat! He was blown around but he was safe. Well, Jesus is the harbor where I'm safe in a Category 5 world. How can I know where the peace is, where the anchor is, and not tell the people in my personal world? No more silence. No more letting fear win. No more wimping out on sharing my Jesus. My brother, my sister, it's too late for that.

Sometimes you find something spiritually thought provoking in the strangest places. Like in a rerun of an old episode of that hit sitcom, "Everybody Loves Raymond." Ray was trying to have that most dreaded conversation of all for many parents. You know, the one about where babies come from. Well, Ray is sitting on his daughter's bed, doing his best to get into the subject of s-e-x. At the foot of the bed he has four books open to the pages that he hopes will help. And then his daughter throws him a curve ball. She says, "Daddy, I don't care about how we got here." Ray looks surprised and very relieved. "I want to know why God put us here." Dad's expression is priceless. It's a combination of bewilderment and "let me out of here." She continues to press the question. Now, he's obviously wishing they could talk about the birds and the bees! He's stunned! He's stumped! Finally he fumbles his way into the only answer he can think of: "Well, honey, sometimes it gets... Well, really crowded in heaven, so God sends some down here." Well, his daughter's expression is a combination of bewilderment and "let me out of here." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Figuring Out the Meaning of It All." Raymond, the dad, mirrored a lot of us. We know a lot more about how we got here than why we were put here. "Why am I here?" That's the question that seems to dog us our whole life. We didn't know the answer when we were teenagers, and for all our experience, many of us still don't know the answer in life's home stretch. Just living more years doesn't answer the question of the meaning of your life. It just allows us to stay busy most of the time so we don't have to think about it. But it's still the fundamental question about our existence isn't it? It's the question that must be answered. Honestly, any ideas we have about our purpose on earth are not much more than guesses, because there's only one person who knows why we're here - the person who put us here. The Bible says that we are all "God's workmanship" and that we're created to "do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10). See, you're not random. God made you for a specific purpose. Our ultimate destiny is summed up in these words from God in Colossians 1:16, it's our word for today from the Word of God. Speaking of Jesus Christ, God says, "All things were created by Him and for Him." We can put your name in there. There's a blank. _________ is created by Christ and for Christ. The problem is we've left the orbit we were made for. That's called sin - our stubborn self-rule of a life God was supposed to run. Unless we can get back to the One we were made for, we will live our whole life without the answer to why I'm here, and we will die without hope. But the Bible gives us incredible hope with this announcement: "Christ suffered for our sins...to bring you safely home to God" (1 Peter 3:18). Wow! That means Jesus' death on a cross was a profoundly personal event for you and me. Because God's Son was paying the price for our sins. He wanted you to belong to Him, to be with Him forever. And so you could put your life in the hands of the One that can lead you into the destiny you were made for. But you have a choice. You can put your total trust in Jesus to forgive your sins and give you a personal love relationship with God. Or you can continue orbiting your life around yourself and miss the meaning of the only life you get. There's someone listening right now, I think, who's tired of living without that meaning; without the God who loves you beyond words. If you want to begin a personal relationship with Him, He's waiting for you now. Tell Him you want that relationship. Maybe it's just a simple heartfelt, "Jesus, I'm yours." He's the one who died to pay for your sins. He really is your only hope. Our website is set up to help you understand this relationship. Check it out please today will you? ANewStory.com is the website. Listen, haven't you lived long enough without knowing why you're here?

There's this little old camp song (maybe you've sung it), "Little cabin in the woods, little man by the window stood." I've sung it to my grandkids as they were growing up. Well, that was me sometimes. Yeah, some friends had given us this wonderful gift of vacationing in their mountain cabin, surrounded by woods. One morning we got a call from a neighbor notifying us of a visitor they had that morning - a mother bear and her cub. Since I was going out every day for a vigorous walk in the woods, I had mixed emotions, "I hope I get to see those bears. I hope I don't see those bears." I'd rather eat lunch than be lunch. You know, it's just a preference. I'm kind of funny that way. We never saw the bears. But it was interesting to see the pictures that our neighbor snapped of her furry visitors. There seems to be a special attraction for those bears - garbage. Yeah, when people have seen those bears, they're usually doing whatever it takes to get the lid off of a garbage can, including standing on top of the can, rocking back and forth on it, and trying with both paws to pry it open. They love garbage! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "An Appetite For Garbage." An appetite for garbage; I guess it's OK if you're a bear. It's not OK if you're a child of Almighty God. That's why God says in 2 Corinthians 7:1, our word for today from the Word of God, "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." In other words, stay away from any garbage that can contaminate a son or daughter of the holy God they belong to. The promises God says He's basing this challenge on, tell us that we are "the temple of the living God" and "sons and daughters" of "the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:16-18). Sadly, too many of His sons and daughters have allowed themselves to develop an appetite for garbage. TV shows, movies - they either glorify or minimize behaviors that break God's law and break God's heart. Or music, videos, whatever that's about doing some of the very things that Jesus died to deliver us from. Plenty of it on social media. Plenty of it on the Internet. Maybe you've wandered where you never should have gone on the Internet, or in a magazine, or things you've been reading. Boy, it's attractive, but the wrapping paper doesn't change the fact that there's garbage inside. Often the trash that pollutes our soul and lowers our guard comes wrapped in something that's very entertaining, very magnetic, very popular, very funny. But garbage comes in other forms, too. Like negative talk, gossip, or backstabbing that you allow yourself to soak up. Some of us just can't walk away from something juicy about another person. That is verbal garbage. If you're wondering why you feel defeated so many times, why you don't feel as close to Jesus as you used to, or why your dark side keeps winning and bringing you down, have you considered your diet: what you're watching, what you're listening to, who you're spending time with, or the things you laugh at. God tells us in Ephesians 5:11 to "have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness." And He says in Philippians 4:8 to think instead about things that are "noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise." Fill your mind, fill your heart with things that will build your soul, not poison it, not tear it down. Honestly, have you allowed yourself to gradually develop an appetite for what God would consider garbage? It has no place in a life that's been bought and paid for with the precious blood of the Son of God. Walk away from that garbage can. There's nothing in there that belongs in you.

There's nothing quite as boring as listening to information you've heard before, presented the same way you've heard it presented before. Since I used to fly quite a bit, I heard the flight attendant's announcements many, many times. To be honest, I got to the point where I didn't pay a lot of attention, because, you know, it was predictable...usually. But there was this one flight - we had a flight attendant who kept throwing in humorous surprises and fresh ways of saying things. Everyone was listening to him. Like he said, "Now, we're preparing for landing and you need to put your seats in the upright and most uncomfortable position." We all laughed. And then I liked the part where he said, "The captain has turned on the seat belt sign, which is an indication he has finally found the airport." I love it! It sounds unpredictable. You know? This man knew something about communication. If you have important information to communicate, don't be so predictable. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Parent's Best Classroom." God has given moms and dads some really important announcements for them to make to their children. He actually talks about them in Deuteronomy 6, and I'll begin reading at verse 5: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Then impress them on your children." Well, we try to do that. I mean, if you're a Christian parent, I'm sure you try to impress the ways of God; the teachings of God; the boundaries of God on your children. But sometimes our children respond with the same kind of, well, disinterest that I did to those predictable airline announcements. They know what you're going to say before you say it. So maybe it isn't enough that we teach our children about the Lord. We need to do it in ways and in places where it's not so predictable, so maybe we'll have their full attention. In the rest of Deuteronomy 6:7, Moses tells how to do that, "Talk about them (that's God's commandments) when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up." See, sometimes we get immune to hearing a Biblical truth the way it's always been presented; in a place we always hear it. We kind of have practiced responses to a sermon, or to family devotions. We know what to expect. We know how we're supposed to act. It's predictable. But there's something disarming about God-talk in the middle of everyday activity - the classroom of everyday life. See, the best place for your son, or daughter, or grandchild to see God at work might be on the baseball field. Or on the way to the store with you. Suddenly some question comes up that gives you a teachable moment. Grab that! Maybe it's debriefing their day over a Big Mac, or maybe it's in those mellow bedtime moments, or riding along with you at all the places you chauffeur them. That's the classroom of everyday life, the best place to learn about the God that I hope, as the Bible says, "you love with all your heart." Don't just depend on formal settings to get the job done; not when you want to introduce God to your child. They may shut down for the formal announcements. But look for God together in the ordinary, the relaxed, the everyday, "God sightings." As a parent, you have the blessed responsibility of passing on God's announcements to kids that He has trusted to you. "If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation." Listen, if you're a parent and you're doing it without that relationship with God, and you know your kids have shown you. You see enough of you in them to know that you need a Savior for your needs. Well, this might be what exactly your starting point is today. Say, "Jesus, I am yours. You died for my self-centeredness, my sin. I need You. My family needs me to know You." Tell Him today, "I'm yours." Check out our website today, would you - ANewStory.com. Jesus comes into you. And when He does, He comes into your family, and things are never the same.

I've stood on a lot of beaches in my lifetime. There's one beach I'll never forget. It wasn't at some exotic resort location believe me. It was in the middle of the jungle along the Curaray River in Ecuador. I'd been flown there by a missionary pilot to record an important radio program there - to tell a new generation perhaps the most amazing missionary story of the 20th Century. It's the story of the five gifted and successful young Americans on whose hearts God had laid a deep burden for an Indian tribe who lived in the jungles that I was now visiting. They were called the Aucas back then - today we know them by the name Waoranis. They were described as living like people might have lived in the Stone Age. Jim Elliott, pilot Nate Saint, and three other outstanding young men were determined that these people would have a chance to hear about Jesus for the very first time - even though the tribe was known as savage killers. After months of communication through gifts that they lowered by a cable from their plane, they finally landed on that beach to make that risky personal contact. With their American sense of humor, they called the desolate beach Palm Beach - although there was little about it that would make you think of a famous resort beach. Within days, all five of these brave ambassadors for Christ were dead with Auca lances in their bodies. The word of their deaths flashed around the world and reached even a boy like me. Poor Jim Elliott. Poor Jim Elliott and his friends. So much potential - and by most earth measures, they wasted their lives. Or did they? No, they invested their lives. Jim Elliott's widow and Nate Saint's sister went to those tribal people, lived among them, and gave them Jesus. Ten years later, Nate Saint, the pilot, his 16-year-old son wanted to be baptized - in the Curaray River where his Dad's body had been found. And he was baptized - by one of the men who had killed his father - a man who was now one of the pastors of the Waorani church. The killers came to Jesus. Much of the tribe came to Jesus. And as the example of those missionary martyrs reached a world of Christian young people, thousands surrendered their lives to the service of Jesus Christ. One was my wife. One was me. Today, their living legacy is telling about Jesus around the world. Which underscores in blazing color how Jim Elliott summed up his view of life. He said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.' I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living For Things You Cannot Lose." Years ago, through the example of a yielded life, God called me to give what I could not keep, to gain what I could not lose. Today, He may be calling you. Listen to this word for today from the Word of God in 1 John 2, beginning with verse 15, "Do not love the world or anything in the world...The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." Could it be it's time in your life for an honest evaluation of what you're really living for; what's getting the best of your energy, your abilities, your time? Is it something you can't lose - or something you will never lose? God's been stirring your heart before you heard this, hasn't He? And it's because He wants you to make a far greater difference with the rest of your life than you've made until now. It will probably require releasing some of the earth-stuff and the earth-plans that have filled so much of your life. That's called, in the Bible's words, loving this world. But this world is the Titanic. It's going down. But the person who devotes their life to the eternal things they were created for, they'll see their years on this planet count for all eternity. It's not cheap, but it's worth it. Just ask Jim Elliott. Just ask Jesus. Some will think what you're doing is foolish. But then, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.

A pastor I heard of was meeting one of the ladies from his large church one day, and he asked her, "What do you do?" Her answer was classic. She said, "Well, Pastor, I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ cleverly disguised as a machine operator!" I love that! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why You Are Where You Are." Now that lady is a Christian who knows who she is and why she is where she is. She's there to be Jesus' personal representative to other machine operators! I mean, who is a lost machine operator most likely to listen to about a relationship with Jesus? Right, another machine operator! A lost mom is most likely to listen to another mom, a student, well they'll listen to a student, a computer programmer to another computer programmer, a cancer survivor to a cancer survivor, a guy at the gym to another guy at the gym. Everybody's got a tribe. People listen to somebody from their tribe. This strategy of sending someone who lives where the unreached people live is at least 2,000 years old. In our word for today from the Word of God in John 4, Jesus is on a mission to reach the people of Samaria. So, how does He go about it? They didn't really like Jewish guys there; a lot of walls there to tear down. Well, He reaches one of their own. He reaches a Samaritan woman at the well, who is notorious in her village, apparently, for her promiscuity. By the end of Jesus' visit, the Bible says, "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him." Why? Ready for the answer? It says, "Because of the woman's testimony." (John 4:39). It doesn't say it was because of Jesus' sermon, but because of the testimony of a new disciple of Jesus Christ, cleverly disguised as their neighbor. It's one reason why Jesus came into your life one day; to send you back to your neighborhood, your workplace, your school, your tribe, to introduce people like you to Him. You're His chosen link between the people in your world and Him. So, how are you doing at bringing those folks together with Jesus? The best person to tell folks who do what you do, live where you live, and face what you face about Jesus is you. In a post-Christian culture like ours, most lost people don't ever plan to go to a religious meeting to hear a religious speaker talk on a religious subject in a religious place. They will probably only be rescued spiritually if someone takes the Good News about Jesus to where they are! And who is already where they are? You are. The woman Jesus sent back to her village could have said, as you may, "Oh, man! My past! I'm so messed up. I'm so far from perfect." Isn't it something that Jesus sends flawed ambassadors to be living examples of His great grace? This woman could have said, as you may, "Oh, but I'm not trained." Training is good. Our ministry is constantly in the business of equipping someone like you to represent Him. But your ultimate credentials are what Jesus has done in your life and your love for that lost person. Your message is the same as part of the Samaritan woman's. She simply said to her fellow villagers, "Come, see a Man!" (John 4:29). Not a religion - a man. Your message is a person; not your religion, not your church, not your beliefs, not your rules. It's all about Jesus! Aren't you glad? You're taking someone you know in one hand. You're taking Jesus in the other hand, and prayerfully you are bringing them together forever! What a place God has entrusted to you, divinely positioned so you can take someone to heaven with you. Where you live, what you do, well that's all just your clever disguise!

It was such a neat surprise to see our longtime friends, Bob and Marcy, at a conference where I was speaking. We hadn't seen them for several years, and we didn't know they were coming. After one session, my wife was talking with them in the hall outside the auditorium, and my observant honey noticed Bob's color suddenly turned pale. And within moments, he was crumpling to the floor. My first thought was, "Is that what my speaking does to people?" When Bob finally came around, he sat in a chair wondering what had hit him. His wife wanted to drive him six hours to their home, but others were really urging him to get to a local hospital...preferable in an ambulance. Men usually resist ideas like that, but Bob was wise enough, and maybe just concerned enough, to agree. And that was a good thing. His heart stopped once on the way to the hospital, and again in the emergency room. Within two days, he had a pacemaker implanted, and he left that hospital feeling great. Had he not had that scary incident in the lobby, he might not have made it. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Life-Saving Pain." Things going wrong can be your friend if they show you a problem that could really hurt you and if it gets you to the help that you need. Now, that just might be what's happening in your life right now, and it may explain the real reason for what's going wrong. In short, God wants you back before some really damaging things happen because you're not where you're supposed to be with Him. You'll better understand how He pursues those He loves when you hear our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Hosea 2, beginning with verse 5. God likens His spiritual wanderer to a woman loved by her husband who's been unfaithful to him. She says, "I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water." Okay, so when we get away from God when we turn to other people and other things to meet our needs. But God says, "I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, 'I will go back to my husband as at first, for I was better off than now.'" Then God says, "She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold." See, your best days were the days when you were closest to Jesus. But you've "pursued other lovers." You've forgotten He was the only one who ever loved you enough to die for you, and that sense of peace and worth you had when you were close to Him is not there now. God loves you too much to let you go, so He's been as the Bible says here, "blocking your path with thornbushes" and "walling you in." He's been making your sin more painful, more expensive, more disappointing. If that hasn't happened, it will. More and more you'll keep chasing what you're after, and you won't catch it because only God has it. If someone you love is the one who's away from the Lord, you can pray in accordance with God's recovery plan here in Hosea 2. Pray for the thorn bushes and the walls and the frustrating pursuits that can cause someone you love to think about what they're doing and to remember the better days...the Jesus-days. If you're the one who's away from Jesus right now, the one whose love you were made for, the one who died for you, and things are only going to get worse because He loves you. Things are going wrong, not to hurt you, not to destroy you, but to help you wake up to something far more serious that's going on in your soul. You've got a deadly heart condition, and you need to get to the doctor before it does serious damage. You need to get to Dr. Jesus. It stinks away from Him. The porch light is on, the door is open, and Jesus is coming down the road to welcome you home. And home? Home is where you belong.

It was a time I had the opportunity to be in London. I got to see some things that we don't see much of in America: the palace, the double-decker buses; buildings that represent up to 1,000 years of history. And there's one thing that was very new there for an American, and It could be dangerous. Yeah, the direction of traffic. Cars drive on the left side, and it really messes up American drivers and in this case an American pedestrian. You step off a curb, looking to the left of course. We've been conditioned for a lifetime - look left. You do that in London, and you may not be using your return ticket. As in any city, there's busy traffic. But the British must know there will be confused Yanks there like me. So they paint these signs and arrows on the pavement that say "Look Right." They saved my life! It's very important. If you're not looking the right way, you can get run over. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Which Way to Look When It's Overwhelming" Our word for today from the Word of God, Luke 9, and we're in the middle of that feeding of the 5,000 where the disciples have seen the size of the crowd and said, "Boy, they've got to eat, Jesus, and we'd better send them away." And Jesus said, "You give them something to eat." The disciples aren't quite sure what to do with that command. They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish - unless we go and buy food for all this crowd. But He said to His disciples, 'Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.' Taking the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied." Okay, Jesus and the disciples are facing an overwhelming need. Maybe like you are right now. Maybe you're looking at a financial need, or a family need, and it's like a Mission Impossible. See, that's when miracles happen. It's kind of like crossing streets in London. The outcome depends on which way you're looking. There are three ways you can look when you're facing an overwhelming situation. First, you can look out at the need. That's what the disciples did. It's a huge crowd; a huge need. Secondly, you can look down at your resources. In John 6 that's what the disciples did. Andrew said, "Here's a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" "Hey, our resources are no match for this need, Jesus!" Maybe that's how you feel right now. You just don't have the money, or the wisdom, the people, the strength, the help. Well, in both cases you're going to be paralyzed or you;re going to be panicky. There's a third way to look, and that's what Jesus did. It says, "And looking up to heaven He gave thanks for the loaves." Jesus chose to look in the Lord's direction, not out at the need, not down at the resources, but where the resources are unlimited. The Bible says in Philippians 4:19, "God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." So Jesus thanked God for what He did have, though it was nowhere near enough. And not enough was miraculously multiplied into more than enough. Do you know that's exactly what happens when somebody puts their life into Jesus' hands? Jesus said, "I've come that you may have life and have it to the full." And we do as much as we can do with our lives, until one day we say, "Jesus, You died on the cross to pay for my sin. You walked out of your grave under your own power. It's time I took this life that I have thwarted and put it in the hands of the One who was meant to be controlling it all along." That's your "Jesus day." It could be today. The One who loved you enough to die for you, You begin your relationship with Him. Say, "Jesus, I'm yours." You want to be sure you belong to Him, check out our website. It will help you. Go to ANewStory.com. You know, if we hadn't looked the right way in heavy traffic, we would have been run over. But God has written in this feeding of the 5,000, clear direction. Don't look out at the need. Don't look down at the resources. Look up to heaven where the riches in glory in Christ Jesus are.

They call it the "terrible twos" (remember?) because of the new challenges a toddler presents when they hit that two-year mark and they issue their first declarations of independence. Now, I remember when our granddaughter was two years old and doing human "terribles." Maybe because there were a lot more "terrific twos." Now, one exciting thing was an incredible word explosion she had. Sometimes, she seemed to not only know the words, but even some pretty important meaning behind the words. She's been known to sit down right next to her daddy as he was reading his Bible with her Bible open. Now, she knew what the book was called. She would say "Bible." But more and more, when she picked up her Bible, she said two words that she knew went together, "Bible...Jesus." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When The Bible Comes Alive." Those two words are always supposed to go together. Because ultimately our Bible reading isn't supposed to be about a book. It's about a person. It's about Jesus. Much like when I used to read love letters from my wife-to-be. I read those same words over and over again. There was no new information the second time, but see, I wasn't just with a letter. When I read what she wrote to me, I was with her; the person who wrote it until I could be "with" with her in person. That's how it's supposed to be when we pick up God's love letter to us - the Bible. We're not with a book. We're with the person who wrote it to us, and that changes everything. Sometimes we get into the rut of thinking, "It's my Bible reading time again." And frankly, maybe we're not all excited about it. It's like our Christian duty. And all too many times, the Bible just sits there as we run through all the "really important" other things we have to do. When you read God's Word, it should be something like the picture God gives us in Luke 10, beginning with verse 39. It's our word for today from the Word of God. Martha has invited Jesus to have dinner with her and her sister, Mary. The Bible says, "Mary...sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made." Martha pipes up and criticizes Mary for not running around like she is. But Jesus says, "Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her." Jesus, of course, wasn't condoning laziness. He was applauding the priority of loving Him over serving Him...of spending time with Him over doing things for Him. Yes, our love will result in serving and doing things for Him, but it has to be anchored in spending time with Him. Your Bible reading time needs to be the time each day that you, like it says here, "sit at the Lord's feet, listening to what He says." David called God's Word "the law from your mouth" and he said it was precious to him (Psalm 119:72). You read the words of the Bible as if Jesus is sitting across from you saying those words to you, because those are His words to you. So when you go through a day without time in God's Word, it's not the Bible that you're reading there - it's Jesus. The Bible doesn't care if you show up. Jesus does. That's why you need to make your time with Him and with His Word, the highest priority of your personal schedule - the sun around which all the other planets of your day must revolve. Jesus wept over His people one day and He expressed His sadness about the number of times He wanted to have time with them but, in His words, "you were not willing" (Matthew 23:37). I wonder if He's been saying that about you and me? It's time to recover your time with Jesus from the margins of your life and put it back in the center. Put Him back in the center. And when you pick up His Book, remember (like the little girl said) "Bible...Jesus."

We'll put up with a lot from our politicians, but not everything. See, we really don't like it when someone in power abuses that power for personal gain, to cover up wrongdoing, to exploit other people. I remember some years ago, there was a former governor allegedly using his position to feather his own financial nest. At least that's what he was accused of. And at the same time, there were accusations flying about another governor who some say had used his power to punish people and intimidate people. But accusations sometimes are all it takes to turn public opinion. Now on the other hand, the press can abuse its power, right? Slanting the news to serve their view of how the world, they think, should be. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Power is Abused." My first brush with the abuse of power was Boomer. Yeah, he was our neighborhood bully. I'm not sure if his mother predestined him to be a bully by naming him Boomer or if he just earned it. He was the biggest kid on the block. So he intimidated and threatened and ripped off all of us little kids; got away with it just because he was big. We hated it. We still do...all of us. I find it very easy to see power being abused when it's someone else, but not so much when it's me doing it. Because, in one way or another, most of us have some kind of position that gives us some kind of power in people's lives. You know, being a husband. Well, then I would have the power to elevate my wife or push her down. As a parent, well it gives me all kinds of power to make my children feel very special or very small. As an employer, well that puts me in a driver's seat where I can dominate or develop people. There are men who use their power to use and abuse and diminish women. Thus exposing what small men they are. There are women who use their power to manipulate and control, and therefore forfeiting the tenderness and the selflessness that makes a woman really beautiful. There are parents who use the incalculable power they have to crush, to criticize, to belittle their children. Or to use a son or daughter to fulfill what they once were or what they never were and want to be and birthing a robot or a rebel in the process. There are leaders who feel their position entitles them to ignore the rules, be entitled, and treat people as things. Thus failing as humans no matter how high they rise. Power is a trust, not a weapon, not a platform for your personal agenda, not a license to live for yourself. In my lifetime, there have been people I had to follow just because they were in the power position. Then there have been those that I wanted to follow whether they had the position or not because of their character; leading, not using. Leaving you encouraged, not diminished. Making other people feel important instead of acting like they were important. That's power. Not being a control freak, which is often why we covet power; to be in control. Tragically, that puts us in the danger zone with the very God who has all the power there is. See, we'd like to be God for us. We've decided we'll take charge of a life that God created. It's called sin. We hijack it from Him. But defying God has a high price tag. In our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah 59:2 it says, "Your sins have separated you from your God." Haven't you felt that wall between you and God? Living with that wall means never knowing the purpose and the love you were made for. Dying with it means it'll be there forever. Our power grab of our life would have cost us everything except for the amazing intervention of the very God we've rebelled against. The Bible says, "He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Picture that cross; Jesus dying there. And you could stand there and say, "For me, Jesus, this is for me." And once you have Him, you have the person who walked out of his grave under his own power, and He's bigger than any Boomer you'll ever face. Begin a relationship with Him. Go to our website and check out how to get that done. It's ANewStory.com. There's no reason to live one more day without the person who loves you the most.

Who would think you'd miss a fleet of big brown trucks? If they say UPS on the side, you'll miss them if you're off the streets for long! I mean, Americans found out a few years ago when the UPS drivers went on strike. Within hours in some cases, days in almost every case, thousands of UPS customers were in a crisis. At that time they said 80% of America's packages were carried by UPS! It's probably changed by now, but that's how it was then. Apparently, all the other guys were fighting it out for the other 20%. On the first day back after the strike, I'll bet some of those drivers were greeted with a standing ovation by some of their customers, "You're back! We're saved!" What a mess! I mean, businesses were almost on the ropes in a few days. They were manufacturing their product; the folks on the other end needed their product, but it wasn't happening. A sender and a receiver are not enough. Not if the person delivering it isn't doing their job! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important Mission You'll Ever Have." There's an ongoing strike that's affecting many lives, in fact, it's cost many lives. Some of the people are not getting their delivery. Might be folks you know, folks you love. Our word for today from the Word of God - 2 Kings 7 - God's people, the Jews, are under siege in their capital city of Samaria. Their food supplies have been cut off by an invading enemy and no one's coming in,and no one's going out. The siege got so long and the starvation in the city so desperate, people were spending big money for even a morsel of food. There had even been incidents of cannibalism. Enter the four lepers. Because of their disease, they are forced to live outside the city walls. So they are really starving. In one last act of desperation, they decide to walk over to the enemy camp, surrender, and throw themselves on the mercy of those soldiers. They figure they're going to die either way. But they don't know that God's carrying out this miraculous deliverance that scatters the enemy army and leaves their camp totally untended, food and all. It's almost amusing to think of these four lepers just expecting an arrow at any moment. Then they wander around this empty camp, looking for someone to surrender to, and realizing they are now the new owners of enough food to feed an army! That's when it stops being amusing. They're gorging themselves. They're totally forgetting about the people who are dying in their city. The package was there loaded with food, the people who needed the food were there, desperate for food, but they went on dying. Why? Because the people who should have been delivering it were on strike. 2 Kings 7:9, a word for those overstuffed lepers and for us overstuffed Christians, surrounded by people dying of spiritual starvation. The Bible says, "Then they said to each other, 'We're not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait, punishment will overtake us." Thankfully, the delivery guys finally woke up; they realized they couldn't wait any longer to bring life to the people who were dying without that food that they had so much of. You get the picture. Let me just say, it could be the place where you work, where you live, where you go to school, where you exercise. And at that place, there's no one delivering Jesus to them. God paid with the life of His only Son for the eternal life He really wants them to have. And the people you know are so in need of a Savior. Right? But none of that matters if the person assigned by God to be the one delivering Jesus to them is on strike. That could be you. This is a day of good news - we cannot keep this to ourselves. You are the precious link between your Savior and someone He died for. Please, be sure the delivery gets through, whatever it takes. Lives depend on it!

I've always been fascinated by eagles. I didn't get to see many of them around New York City. I mean, except for the ones that came from Philadelphia to play the Giants occasionally. But it's always been an exciting event for me to see an eagle. There's something very inspiring about them. When one of my Navajo friends and I were together, I asked him about eagles. And he sees a lot of them where he's from. And he told me about some amazing observations that he's made about them. He's watched an eagle leave their cliff-top nest and then begin to drop immediately into that valley below. Now you would expect them to start flapping their wings madly. Right? No, they don't do that, not even to stop their fall. In fact, the eagle is virtually powerless to help himself. So if the eagle can't do it, how does he fly? Wind currents from the valley below literally lift that eagle. His job isn't to flap his wings; it's to wait for the wind. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Power When You're Powerless." As my Navajo friend told me about where the power comes from for the eagle's flight, I couldn't stop thinking about one of my favorite passages in the Bible; maybe you're thinking of it too. Our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah 40, beginning at verse 28, "Do you know? Have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God? He's the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youth grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint." Wow! Now, here's a mighty God who is never tired, never weary and powerless people. Maybe that's where you get into the picture right now. Maybe weary is a good word for you. Maybe you're physically depleted or you're emotionally spent, or mentally shot. This is great news for people who don't have much left. Maybe you're weak like it says here. Your resources are just no match for the challenge. Your wisdom is not enough to figure this one out. Right? You can contribute little or nothing to an answer. Sounds like the eagle! This says you can soar on wings like eagles. The eagle virtually has nothing to do with his ability to fly. He is lifted by a force outside of himself to do things he could never do on his own. And God says He wants to do that for you. This is great! God says, "Your flight in these powerless times has nothing to do with your strength. So when you're in a time of weakness, or weariness, you have every reason to be expectant, not depressed. This is a time when there's not much of you, but when there's going to be a whole lot of God. Do you know, it's at the moments of powerlessness that we finally recognize, even the place where our relationship with God starts. Because that's when we realize we need someone else to lift us, even to ever get to heaven when we die, to ever have our sins forgiven, we can't do it. To ever have the emptiness in our heart filled, to find that love that's eluded us in every lifetime relationship. And when we realize we have nothing to contribute, we cannot possibly fly our way out of this flapping our wings, that's when we finally say, "Jesus, what you did on the cross is my hope, dying for my sins. And beginning today I am yours." You are that one step of surrender away from experiencing the greatest love and the greatest power in the universe. I don't know if you've ever begun a relationship with Jesus. If you never have, and you want to get that settled, would you go to our website today. I've tried to spell that out there as simply as possible with statements from God's Word how that relationship with Him can begin for you today. Here's the website - ANewStory.com. So those who hope in Him, the Bible says, will renew their strength. You fly on your own, you're going to crash. Maybe you're in a weak or weary time. Don't start flapping your wings madly. God says you're an eagle. You'll eventually soar if you do what you're supposed to do; trust your Creator's strength and ride on His wind.

Well, there's an early part of my life where I didn't even know the word. Now everybody knows it - cholesterol. You'll see it in about ten commercials tonight. It's one of the most talked about words in our health and fitness vocabulary. Of course, my doctor gave me the alphabet soup...a seminar on LDL, HDL. You know. LDL is your bad cholesterol that clogs your arteries. You want to be low in that. But then there's your good cholesterol. Here we go - good guys and bad guys! Just like the old Westerns. Your good cholesterol is called your HDL; maybe that's happy. I don't know. And you want lots of that HDL. That's the good stuff. Now, my doctor says, "I'm not just concerned when a patient's bad cholesterol is high. I get concerned when you don't have enough good cholesterol." I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stopping the Devil at the Door." So, we've got our word for today from the Word of God, and it's ultimately a battle plan for stepping on Satan. Sound like something you'd like to do? Well, then you might be interested in the two-step battle plan outlined in Romans 16:19-20. It's all about getting rid of what's damaging to your spiritual health and loading up on what builds up your spiritual health. Here's what God says: "Be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Stay away from the bad elements in your system. Be innocent about what's evil and get a lot of what's good. Just like your physical wellbeing, your health depends on your diet - your mental and spiritual diet in this case. So what are you filling up on? You do have to keep junk out of your heart or it's going to clog your heart. It will bring about spiritual heart trouble. The input you allow in creates the ideas you think about; and your ideas become your attitudes and your actions. So that means you've got to consciously and aggressively turn off the constant bombardment of impure ideas that are all around us. The videos, the movies, the Internet sites, the soap opera immorality, the music that makes you all too wise about what's evil. You've got to protect, you've got to restore your innocence. You can't afford even casual contact with the dark stuff. But just like cholesterol, you can't just be against the bad input. You need to be making a conscious, daily effort to load up on God's ideas and attitudes. Jesus said if you clean out one evil spirit and you just leave an empty space there, seven spirits worse will come back and fill that space. So, you have to fill the space in your thinking and your emotions that the dark stuff was occupying. For me, that means not just reading old news magazines but reading Christian magazines and books, making every effort to listen to Christian music and radio, and going to Christian websites. To make the last thing I read at night something about my Lord; to put the priority on reading things that have some eternal value. Be wise about what's good, and that means weaning yourself from a diet of mostly secular stuff to more things with spiritual value, with Christ at the center; using your wandering mind times to memorize or review some Scripture. As you start to load up on what's good, you start to become a more positive person, joyful, you become cleaner, you become lighter on the inside. Does that mean you never read or listen to anything that isn't Christian? No, but you give the priority, the majority of space in your mind to God's ideas and God's way of thinking. Crushing Satan under your feet; that's a war on two fronts. You have to be against what's bad getting into your system, but that isn't enough. You have to take daily opportunities to become smarter about what's innocent. Cut the damaging stuff out of your heart-diet and go heavy on the healthy stuff!

Some people seem to have a special gift for sleeping. So much so that waking them up is more like a resurrection. We had one of those gifted people staying at our house for a few weeks. Greg was a young intern helping out and training in our ministry. And he did a good job - once you got him out of bed. He stayed at our house - so I got the joy of figuring out how to get him up each morning in time to start his work day. I started with just an alarm clock. Forget about that - no alarm so much as phases this boy. I tried shaking him, and then I tried shaking him violently. I tried bells. I tried water. Yes. If he ever did wake up, he just went back to sleep until I landed on the Extreme Wakeup Option - the pan. I got the biggest metal pan we had. I got the biggest metal spoon we had and I marched into his room playing percussion. If standing at the door clanging that pan didn't do it, I just moved progressively closer until he was up and out of bed. Look, I was a desperate man. Look, I'm really sorry it had to go that far, but he had to wake up, and it wasn't easy. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why God Is Turning Up The Volume." Could it be you're one of God's hard-to-wake children? I think we all take our turn being spiritually asleep, oblivious to something He's trying to say or do in our life. And that may explain some of the pain, some of the struggle, some of the frustration that's been building lately. It's God trying to get your attention. And like me with our deep-sleeping friend, if one kind of wakeup call doesn't work, He will escalate His methods. He will not just let you sleep. God's been having to turn up the pressure to wake His children for a long time. That's why He told His people about His Extreme Wakeup Options way back at the dedication of the magnificent temple that Solomon built. It's recorded in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, our word for today from the Word of God. You might recognize 2 Chronicles 7:14. "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sins and will heal their land." So much they need done in their lives that only God coul do - just like us. But first they've got to wake up and deal with their pride, their self-reliance, their casual relationship with God, and the things that they're not doing God's way. So, what does God do to wake them up? His "banging pan" is spelled out in the previous verse: "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, if My people who are called by My name," and so on. See, it's going to take serious pain to wake them up to what God wants them to do. Unfortunately, it's often that way with us, too. As you're searching for answers and reasons for some of the painful or difficult things going on lately, consider the possibility this is God's tool to wake you up for what He wants to do. Not because He doesn't love you, but because He does. Hebrews 12 tells us, "Do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you...Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness." So, if you're going to get the pain, get the point. And sooner rather than later. If God's been turning up the volume, don't just turn over and go back to sleep. The noise is only going to get louder. Because God loves you too much to stop trying to get your attention; to stop working on you to live the way He created you to live. The sooner you wake up, the sooner it will let up.

Yeah, I have a lot in common with a guy from the first century B.C. Actually he was a Roman officer, leading his men on a mission that took them into uncharted territory. Back then, mapmakers drew dragons beyond the line of what was known and explored. So, from "dragon land," the commander dispatched a courier back to headquarters with an urgent message. This is where I cross paths with this ancient warrior. He said, "We have just marched off the map. Please send new orders." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "New Territory, No Map." I get that! I mean, doesn't it sometimes feel like we've marched off the map. It's crazy politically. It's hard to guess where our country might be headed, where the world might be headed. The economy seems to be an unexplored territory. It's hard to know how to plan for the future. And there are countries in the world that are like ticking time bombs in the nuclear way. Nature's been doing her fair share of wild things, rewriting life stories in her wake. And medical care in the future; we've seen what viruses can do. Places we've always considered "safe zones" have, at times, become killing zones: malls, theaters, schools, offices, airports and lone wolf terrorists. Our weather forecasts a few months ago warned of a "polar weather" system, and you could barely move at our local Wal-Mart. People didn't want to be caught unprepared for what was coming. Now, look, the weather's a whole lot easier to forecast than the world. It's increasingly hard to know what's coming and how to prepare, because there's so much we can't control or predict. But not everything. Years ago, my wife and I read a book called Future Shock. It was a landmark book at the time by Alvin Toffler. Maybe this "new territory, no map" isn't so new after all. He talked about the "death of permanence" and the importance of creating "stability zones" in the middle of constant change. I like to call it "an island of sanity in an insane world." My wife and I actually set out to create that "island" for us and our children. An environment where each family member could come each day to a place that they knew they were safe, not another battleground. Where you knew you'd be heard. You knew you'd be hugged. You knew you could talk about things without fear of rejection or condemnation. Traditions help; predictable rhythms in a crazy world: dinnertime, family night, bedtime off-to-school rituals, family meetings to talk about family issues. It's a map to go by. And while there are lots of unknowns, maybe about the economy, about the world, about government, we can try to make our personal finances a "stability zone" by putting away or throwing away our credit cards; sacrificing to get out of debt. It's cutting cords that tie us to a system that puts outside forces in control of our life. Sanity factors: setting up boundaries so I won't be controlled by social media that intrudes or not over-committing. Leaving room for "Murphy." You know, knowing what can go wrong might go wrong. New orders for uncharted territory. Or maybe just rediscovering some old orders we've lost in the shuffle. Old orders like our word for today from the Word of God, the 23rd Psalm. "The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want." A Shepherd to follow in uncharted territory. Even "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" it says, "I will fear no evil because You are with me" (Psalm 23:4). I remember how safe I felt when I heard that as a kid. And how much my dad wanted me to read it for him just before he went into the surgery he would never recover from. The Shepherd, Jesus, said, "I am the good shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep" (John 10:11). Jesus did that for you, because we've all got this sin issue that separates us from God and keeps us from heaven. But for Jesus, there's no uncharted territory. He's been to the grave and back. And He's ready to lead you the rest of your life if you'll put your trust in Him. I've never gone wrong by following the Shepherd who knows every corner of the future. If you don't have that anchor, would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours from this day on." Go to our website to find out how to know you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. Jesus is the one who has the map for your uncharted territory.

Our ministry was being honored with a gracious award from a Christian foundation, and it was named in honor of a visionary pastor in a major American city. Before his death some years ago, he'd been a powerful spiritual force in that city. But he didn't start out as a pastor. First, he was known and loved as a news anchorman for a major network station. On the night that changed his life forever, he went to cover a gang shooting. He reported at the spot where the killing had taken place. The chalk outline of the victim on the street was still behind him. He interviewed a gang member from the neighborhood and he asked him, "Have you ever thought about living another way; getting out of this cycle of violence?" It was this young man's answer that rocked him: "How can you think about another way to live when you've never seen another way to live?" It was a question that ultimately caused that anchorman to change the whole direction of his life. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope With Skin On." I wonder how many people are living the way they are because they've never seen another way to live. Everyone they know is living the same way, so how could they think about another way? That's where you come in if you belong to Jesus Christ. He put you where you are to be a living alternative; a flesh-and-blood demonstration of another way to treat people, another way to handle stress, a way to be happy without having scars and regrets. Our word for today from the Word of God explains how important you are (or you could be) to people you work with, or play with, or live near. Philippians 2:15 - "Become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life." For centuries, men have charted their course through the darkness by the light of the stars. The stars have shown them the way to go. Well, you're God's guiding star for some people in your personal world. Our children all went to public school in an area where they were often the only Jesus-follower in their class. But we didn't send them to school every day playing defense, just trying to "survive." We wanted them to understand that God wanted them playing offense - aggressively showing others a different way to be. It started when our daughter came home from an early grade talking about all the bad things the kids at school said and did. That's when I began to give our kids two send-off words every day as they left for school, "Go mad!" Now hold on! That meant "Go Make a Difference!" I told our kids that in a class where everyone lies, you need to show them that not "everyone" does, because you always tell the truth. In a class where everyone talks dirty, show them not "everyone" does because you keep it clean. Show them someone who thinks sex is too special to ruin, that your body's too important to trash, and that other people are too important to cut down. In a world where it's "all about me," you live as if it's all about them. If you become like the people around you, the light goes out and then everyone really is living in total darkness. So don't let the darkness around you dim your light; don't let it extinguish your light. They may try to put it out sometimes or they may attack you because you're not like them, but believe me, they desperately need for you to be different. Because you're the only Jesus they can see; you're their only hope of another way to live. And either your life is a reason to come to Jesus or a reason to reject Him. Don't condemn them - love them. Show them the better life you can live with Jesus in your heart. Without you, they can't see any hope of a better way. But you are their hope with skin on!

It had been a rough year for the flu. Yeah, it was nasty, and it was dangerous. Early in the season, my doctor told me he was already concerned about how high the death toll was in our state. And then a friend texted me and said, "It's time for me to descend into the nightly coughing abyss." She had the flu. We've had some family members spend some time in that abyss - so we knew what they were talking about. One thing that was unusual that year was the number of younger people who were dying from the flu. One reason, they said, could be that only about 30% of those in the 25-50 age group got a flu shot. And I know that vaccinations can be controversial. But I can speak for me and the scientists as an example. Go with the illustration. But the theory of a flu shot - or vaccination is give you a small dose of the disease to immunize you against a big dose of it. I used to tell my kids, "the good soldiers will come out and fight the bad soldiers in your blood." But I got to thinking as I rolled up my sleeve for my shot. For me, immunizing, I guess, is a good thing when it comes to germs. But listen, when it comes to Jesus, it's a bad thing. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The High Price of Spiritual Immunity." There are some troubling verses in the Bible, because they suggest that a lot of church folks may be in serious danger of dying from spiritual immunity. They've been inoculated with a mild dose of the Gospel - just enough to immunize them against really knowing Jesus; just enough to sit there when the need to trust Jesus is being preached and to think, "Hey, I'm OK. I sure hope the folks who need this are listening." Could this be you? Our word for today from the Word of God, Matthew 7:21-22. Now, I personally find Jesus' words here to be some of the most disturbing things He ever said. Listen, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' (they've got the language) will enter the kingdom of heaven..." Really? Verse 22: "Many will say to Me on the day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'" Then these chilling words: "I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you.'" Wow! All that Christianity - and they missed Christ. It's just so easy to know the words and think you know the Lord; to have Jesus in your head but not in your heart; to mistake agreeing with Jesus for commitment to Jesus. You say, "What mades me married to my wife wasn't agreeing with her. It was that moment when I committed my life to her." Well, it's the same with Jesus. So like a ball player hitting a home run but failing to touch first base, you'd be out at Home. You played a good game, but you missed first base. You missed walking up to that cross where Jesus paid for your sins and saying, "For me, Jesus. This was for me!" And then consciously giving yourself to the One who gave His life for you. So the Bible solemnly warns us church folks in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to "examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" Apparently you can be into Jesus but not have Jesus in you. But the good news is He's still knocking. That's the tug you feel in your heart. You've not hardened your heart to the point yet that you can't hear the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, "This is for you church person, religious person; know the verses, give to all the right offerings, but you don't know Jesus." This is your day to move Him 18 inches; from your head to your heart. That 18 inches is the difference between heaven and hell. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours. Finally, I'm going to get this settled. I'm Yours." I think a visit to our website might help you get this nailed down - It's ANewStory.com - and be sure you belong to Him. The Bible says, "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." Let this be the day that you will always know you've got it done. Get this settled today...once and for all.

Driving in major urban areas of America can be a challenge - especially if you haven't done much of it. But my ministry team member was doing a good job of navigating the Chicago area, driving me to a number of locations where I was speaking. In one case, he was following our local host who was leading us to a place where we had never been. Honestly, we had no clue where we were going without him. I got to telling my driver one of my many stories, and he even seemed to be enjoying it. We were in the left lane, and suddenly a car came up behind us in the right lane, flashing his lights. Then he pulled up next to us, waving his arm out the window. It was our host. Apparently, we hadn't been following him for quite a while. So he led us in a daring - maybe scary is the word - U-turn to try to get us where we were supposed to be. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Reason You May Be Lost." I can tell you why we were lost. We were running ahead of the one we were supposed to be following. That may be why you're not ending up where you're supposed to go. You're running ahead of God - who you're supposed to be following. Obviously, you can't be following Him if you're getting ahead of Him. Right? By the way, we didn't even realize we were headed the wrong direction. We would have eventually, but we would have been farther off course and it would have been a lot harder to get back on track. You may not even realize that you've left your leader, that you're proceeding on your own right now - in the wrong direction. You will eventually, when it's even harder to get back to where you're supposed to be. Sadly, running ahead of God and ending up in a very wrong place is nothing new. The Bible gives us one revealing picture of it in Acts 7, beginning with verse 23. It's our word for today from the Word of God. The Bible says, "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites." Now, Moses is a Jewish boy who was providentially raised in the home of the Egyptian Pharaoh as part of the royal family. The Bible continues, "He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not." Instead, this attempt to be a leader for his people actually costs Moses their respect and forces him to flee Egypt for forty years in the wilderness. Actually, Moses had the right idea - he was supposed to be the deliverer for his people. But not yet. It wasn't God's time; it wasn't God's way. Moses was running ahead of the One he should have been following - and the result - disastrous. That might be where you're heading because you have not waited for your leader. Abraham and Sarah couldn't wait for God to give them their promised son in old age, so they figured out their own plan and started so much heartache. Over and over, God's children try to make it happen, and instead they just make a mess. Could it be you haven't been keeping your eyes on the One that you're supposed to be following? Are you maybe running ahead of Jesus, trying to hurry things up - trying to make things happen? Maybe you didn't mean to run ahead of your Lord, but you have - and you're lost and you're getting "loster," whether you realize it or not. But right now, He's pulling up beside you. He's waving you away from the wrong away you're going; waving you back to going where He's going. Keep your eyes on your leader, not your goal. Stay close to Jesus. Be patient and go at His pace, in His time. It's actually the fastest way to get where your life is meant to be.

On our list of holidays that we all celebrate each year, I have a sneaking suspicion there might be at least one of them that was invented by greeting card companies and florists. In America we call it Valentine's Day! Florists freak out and then they count their shekels the next day. And, of course, I even did my part by helping some struggling greeting card company. Yeah, I would do that. I had to of course. I wanted to get one for the woman I love. And I get to celebrate on that day a lifetime love that God had given me in my amazing wife. But occasionally Valentine's Day would give me a flashback of a not-so-happy romantic memory; back in the day when I was 13 and I knew I was in love. Right! Let's call this junior high heartthrob "Cindy." I remember combing the stores on our little town's main street for the perfect gift for Cindy - something to let her know I had feelings for her. Well, I bought the nicest necklace that a few weeks' allowance could afford. It was a heart-shaped necklace. I wrapped it in this mushy note I wrote, put it in an envelope and I left it on her desk in study hall. The next day she passed by my desk and, as my heart beat loud enough to dance to, she silently left an envelope on my desk. There was a brief moment of excited anticipation, followed by one massive letdown. It was the envelope I'd given her with my note and my necklace inside. Uh-huh, I was crushed. She had rejected the love gift I'd spent everything on. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love That Won't Let You Down." You know, God knows how that feels, because He's spent everything on His love gift for you and me. In our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 8:32, it says, "He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all." And then in John 3:16 it says, "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." You know, you can put your name in that verse. That's how deeply personal this love is. For example, for me it goes, "God so loved Ron (or put your name in there) that He gave His one and only Son that if (there's your name) will believe in Him, then (there's your name again) will not perish but have eternal life." God knows the feeling of pouring out His love for us and having us just hand it back to Him. "Thanks, God, but no thanks. I'm not interested or I'm not ready." It's not a necklace we're rejecting. It's what the Bible calls "the gift of God (which) is eternal life" (Romans 6:23). In short, we are rejecting heaven. Because there's no way to get there except to have every wrong thing we've ever done forgiven. And there's no one who could do that but the man who died to pay for our sins. Jesus did the dying for the sinning we've done. Look what He spent on this gift! Now, for too many, Valentine's Day and anniversaries are just reminders of how disappointing human love has been. Even a great love fails to fill that gaping hole in our heart. It's too big for any human to fill. The hole in our heart has Jesus' name on it. Here's what the Bible says, "we were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). And only He has the unloseable love that will anchor us and finally complete us. It must hurt God a lot to have spent so much and then have us care so little. But He's a stubborn lover. He's back again today. He's offering His love to someone who's listening right now. Won't you respond to His love? Accept the gift He died to give you. Open your heart. Tell Him right where you are today, "Dear Jesus, thank you for the price you paid for me; for my sin. Today I give me to You." Let me encourage you to go to our website if you're wanting to be sure you belong to Jesus. Because that's what that website's all about. That's ANewStory.com. This could be the day that you find the love that you've been looking for your whole life!

If you watch sports very much, you've no doubt seen some great plays that ended up not counting, because they made that great play out of bounds. Oh, I've seen many arguments over whether or not they actually were out of bounds at the time; many of them have been resolved by video replay. But you don't see arguments over where the boundaries are. No, everybody knows that when they go out on the field, right, or the court, and they know exactly what the penalties are going to be for breaking the rules. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Raise Kids Who Stay In Bounds." If you don't have clear boundaries and clear penalties, you can't have a game. If children don't have clear boundaries and clear penalties, they can't have a life! Everywhere you look these days, you see kids who are out of control, as if there's no such thing as out of bounds. Guess where they learned that? From parents who never taught or never consistently enforced boundaries. Disciplining your child? It's not an option; it's a Biblical mandate for moms and dads. Our word for today from the Word of God, Proverbs 29:17, says, "Discipline your son and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul." How to have a child who gives you peace and makes you happy: discipline them. Discipline is one of the highest forms of love for your child. It's a love that cares how far they get, and it does something to bring them back when they've gone too far. Proverbs 13:24 says, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." This would be a good time to make the all-important distinction between discipline and punishment. When you discipline your child, you respond thoughtfully in the way from which they will learn the most. When you punish, you're just dumping your anger on them. All they learn from that is you're out of control. Here's how seriously Scripture takes our responsibility to help our children learn that "what you sow, you reap." It says, "Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be (this is strong) a willing party to his death" (Galatians 6:7). So how do we help our kids learn to stay in bounds and live under control? Well, it's just like sports: clear boundaries, clear penalties, consistently and quickly enforced. There need to be clear, unmoving boundaries in your home, stopping them before they go too far but allowing them enough room to make some choices. And there need to be clear penalties that define exactly what will happen if they do go out of bounds. Too many parents either decide the boundary or the penalty in the heat of a confrontation ("OK, you're grounded for a year!") or they just keep changing the boundaries or the penalties. Can you imagine the chaos that would cause in a sporting event? It causes that kind of confusion in the life of your child. The boundaries, the penalties, they need to be discussed in advance; not in the middle of some tense situation. As kids get older, they should even have some input; not the deciding vote, but input into the final decision. Family sanity is based on clear boundaries and clear penalties, decided and discussed in advance, and then quickly and consistently enforced. The refs don't blow the whistle when the player is running through the bleachers with the ball. Right? They blow the whistle the second his or her foot touches the line. Take the time to enforce the boundaries early, and ultimately, you'll reap a more peaceful home. One more thing: the refs need to agree on where the boundaries and penalties are and what calls that are made. Mom and Dad can disagree in private about disciplinary decisions, but please never in front of the kids. Not if you want your children to respect your authority. If you've been lax or inconsistent in helping your children understand the boundaries and penalties, actually ask them to forgive you. Let them know that, before God, you owe it to them to do a better job of "ref-ing" the game of their life. Clarity, consistency, mutual trust and walking your talk: those are building blocks in authority that a child can respect and build a life on.

Once you've tasted Vermont maple syrup, all the store brands taste like goo! So my ears picked up one night when NBC Nightly News started talking about the troubles that Vermont maple farmers were having that year. They focused on one farmer who lived on a farm where they've been mapling for eight generations! This farmer had known that the maple trees were ready to be tapped for their valuable sap during the first week of March. But recent weather changes had suddenly thrown that predictable harvest schedule into total confusion. The previous year, he and his son nearly lost a third of their normal maple sap because it was either too soon or too late to capture it. For all those eight generations, this family had used one time-honored method of tapping their maple trees; a spout on the tree and a bucket underneath. But there's this new technology, I guess, that enables a farmer to know when the sap is ready and to capture it in that brief window. But tubes and vacuums seemed pretty foreign to a man who'd known one way that worked all his life and for generations. But after all they lost that previous year, his son finally convinced him. His son's comment was, "It takes some coercion to get him to go along with new ideas, for sure." But the veteran farmer did it. The NBC News reporter identified why. He would do anything to keep the farm for his son. In the reporter's words, "Even if it means doing what he hates the most - changing his old ways." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Cost of Not Changing." When the method you know, and the method you're comfortable with is costing you the harvest, you change or you lose the harvest. How can that lesson be lost on those of us who have joined Jesus in what He came to earth to do - seeking and saving the lost? Jesus actually called the work of bringing people to Him harvest. And honestly, there's a harvest many believers and many ministries may be losing because we hate to change. While North American Christians have built this massive Christian subculture, we've been losing our culture. And the lost people around us have changed dramatically. They don't know God's rules; they don't know God's Book; they don't know the religious words we use; they don't ever plan to go to any of our religious meetings. But in many cases, we're deciding what we'll do to reach them based on what we're comfortable doing; what we're used to. But since when does a rescuer decide what he's going to do based on what's comfortable for him? He does whatever he has to do to save that dying person, and it's seldom comfortable! Listen to God's greatest harvester, the Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:22, our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "I have become all things to all men that by all possible means I might save some." Just before this, he's told us that when he's with the Jews, he comes in a Jewish package; when he's with the Gentiles, he's as Gentile as God will allow him to be; when he's with those who need an uncomplicated presentation of Christ, he becomes what they need. All the time making sure he is never "ashamed of the Gospel of Christ" (Romans 1:16) as he said. And Paul followed a Savior who constantly changed the package and the presentation to break through to changing audiences. But Paul and His Savior never changed the product! They never compromised their message! Like that Vermont farmer, we're harvesting the same product, but we've got to be willing to change the way we get it as much as the harvest requires. So are you willing to change so we can bring in the harvest of lost lives? Will you, for example, learn to tell them about Jesus in their words like a missionary does in a foreign culture, and not just speak our Christianese? Are you willing to use the kind of program, the kind of music, the kind of package that speaks the language of the person you're trying to reach? Are you willing to reach them in locations where they're comfortable and maybe you're not? Are you willing to introduce the Gospel by starting with needs they care about? We might be talking change here; it's what we hate to do the most. But the cost of not changing is much higher than the cost of changing. Because that might be souls lost forever, maybe because we wouldn't change.

If you travel America's interstate highways much, you've seen lots of cars, lots of scenery, and lots of road kills. Yes, many animals still think they can beat the cars that are storming down the highway - and they're wrong. They end up as those carcasses we see by the edge of the road. It must be a full-time job just picking up all those road kills. At one spot on an interstate in Pennsylvania, they didn't pick up one of them. No, the news reported that a paving crew found a dead deer in their path and they didn't remove it. They just paved right over it! Great! No one could see it now, but they felt it! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Paved-Over Problems." It may seem unbelievable that people actually paved over an obstacle in the road. But don't be surprised, it happens all the time - in human relationships. Instead of dealing with a conflict or a problem, we just pave over it. But everyone's still going to keep hitting that bump in the road. And it's going to keep causing problems until you get it out in the open and get rid of it. God has never been a fan of paving over problems. Throughout the Bible, He consistently tells us to do quick repairs, to deal with things while they're small, to face issues rather than burying them. For example, in Ephesians 4, beginning with verse 26, our word for today from the Word of God, He says: "In your anger do not sin." Notice - God recognizes there will be times when we get angry, but there's a way to keep that from becoming a hurtful sin. "Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry." Don't pave over the disagreement. Don't pave over the hurt. Deal with it right away while it's small, before you stuff it and give the devil something he can turn into bitterness and resentment. In fact, the very next verse says: "And do not give the devil a foothold." A few verses later, God commands us to deal aggressively with any "road kill" that we might be tempted to just pave over. He says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." I know of no way to get rid of hard feelings and hurts and conflicts without getting them out in the open where you can face them, where you can deal with them. Sometimes that means taking the risk of confronting; "speaking the truth in love," as the Bible says. Even here, we're told in Ephesians how to - and not to - do it: "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up." So, you confront in a building up way; not a tearing down way. First, you gently explain how you feel, recognizing that your feelings might be wrong. Let them explain what they meant to say or do - often understanding eliminates the issue. Extend to that person who hurt you the same undeserved forgiveness that Jesus extended to you. Then work together on steps that can help you walk together in harmony from here. The things you've tried to bury are like ticking time bombs or toxic waste dumps. The longer you wait to deal with them, the bigger, the deeper they will grow. Peace at any price usually means just war postponed...and bigger than it would have been if you had dealt with it sooner. How many marriages could have been saved, how many family relationships could have been saved, how many friendships, how many ministries, churches could have been spared devastating hurts and divisions if only someone had refused to pave over what should have been confronted and removed. Allow me to suggest a good time to do that in your life - today!

The headlines that day were about a movie star dying. But Paul Walker had been a lot more. For those familiar with the "Fast and Furious" movies that he was famous for, his death was especially jarring. Because of the way he died - a high-speed accident, the exotic race car that he was in exploding in flames; eerily reminiscent of the movies that made him famous. But in the days that followed that initial shock, people were actually focusing on Paul Walker the man, not just the movie star. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What You'll Have to Show for the Life You Live." Well, Paul was remembered as a humanitarian. I guess he used his wealth to start a charity that provided disaster relief around the world: in tornado-ravaged Alabama, in Indonesia after that great tsunami. He was on the ground personally right after the Haiti earthquake. When he died, he was returning from his charity's fundraiser to help victims of a Filipino typhoon. And since his then 15-year-old daughter came to live with him, he was learning to love what was becoming the best role of his life - Dad. I was reminded of what it says on my own dad's grave, actually, by this. To most, my dad was known for the leadership positions that he rose to in his life. But his headstone only has two words on it besides his name - "Husband," "Father." After all is said and done, that's what lasted. Other people could have held the positions he had, but no one else could have been my Dad, and he was a good one. Soon after Paul Walker's death, I watched a wife and three sons pay tribute to their husband and father who had just died in another high-speed crash. This time it was a speeding train in New York City. They said, "We just wanted everyone to know what a great husband and dad and person he was." It's all made me think again about what really matters. And it's underscored what may be the two greatest issues in our life. Which, strangely, we seldom think about: legacy and eternity. The Lakota Sioux have a proverb that's tattooed in my mind: "We will be known forever by the tracks we leave behind." For the most part, those tracks won't be accomplishments. It will be people. Like Paul Walker's daughter and those three sons of the man in the train wreck. The seeds we plant in the souls of our family will blossom long after we're gone; seeds of love and integrity and character, or seeds of selfishness, anger, and hardness too. As philosopher William James said, "The purpose of life is to live it for something that will outlast it." That's the lives we invest in, not the loot we accumulate or the lists of our achievements. And then there's that issue of eternity. See, often, death comes suddenly without time to prepare. And the Bible reveals what's on the other side. Hebrews 9:27, our word for today from the Word of God puts it this way, "People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment." Some of my worst nightmares have taken me into important situations where I was caught unprepared. A test, a speech, a major event; those were dreams. What's far more significant is the reality of being prepared for whatever's on the other side of my last heartbeat, because that's going to last forever. Legacy. Eternity. The things that will matter after we're gone should be what matters while we're here. How do we prepare for judgment on the other side of our last breath? Well, the Bible says that we all face the judgment; the death penalty we've earned for running our lives and hijacking our life and doing it our way instead of our Creator's way. But then, that's why Jesus came. Because the Bible says, "He carried our sins in His own body on the tree." He went there to die my death penalty; to take my hell so I could go to His heaven. The only way to be prepared for the final exam before God is to ask this Jesus to be your rescuer from your sin and to put all your trust in Him. If you've never done that, would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." Please go to our website. It's ANewStory.com, and you'll see there how you can get this settled this very day. There is no greater peace than knowing that you are ready for eternity however it comes and whenever it comes.

There are many kinds of artists. My friend, Martha, she made her masterpieces out of thread. She lived in a tiny, sparsely furnished house in a remote corner of the Navajo reservation. It hadn't been an easy life with 11 children and a husband who blew most of his meager income on alcohol. But she found a way to provide at least enough money for her family to eat. She wove Navajo rugs. Now, I've had the privilege actually of being there when she was working on one. She had a loom in her living room where she worked for hours on end, pulling thread from one side to the other. In some ways, it didn't look like it had much promise; no pattern could be seen anywhere. It was all in her mind. But there was something beautiful in her mind that only she could see as she patiently wove those threads back and forth. And when she was finished, she'd produced a masterpiece for which a tourist would pay thousands of dollars in a nearby store. She'd only get a fraction of that, but shame on anyone who ever questioned what she was doing on that loom. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Tapestry of Your Life." When I watched that Navajo woman weaving something beautiful from those seemingly random threads, I was looking at a picture of the ways of God, because He's the original Artist, and He only does masterpieces. He is, in a sense, the Master Weaver on the loom of your life. You can't see what He's making from the threads in front of you, but He can. And it's something beautiful. It's something valuable. His working is powerfully described in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 1:11. As you listen, take this as a guarantee about your life. Speaking of those who belong to Jesus Christ, it says, "In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will." God's saying here that He has had a plan for your life since before there was a you. Like someone watching that Navajo mother weaving her rug, you can't see the plan. It's in the mind of the artist. But you can be sure that He is weaving the tapestry you were made for. He's weaving it today - and every day. The threads you can see right now? They may be dark. Some of the threads don't seem to fit. But God is still at the loom. He's still going somewhere. He's making something in your life. And no matter how random, even how senseless it all seems right now, you have this promise: "'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" And He's bringing into your life those people, those experiences that will help accomplish His grand design for you - to be like His Son, Jesus. The Bible says He is working everything together for you who were "predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son" (Romans 8:29). Many times when I couldn't see the plan, and only what seemed to be tangled threads, I have found myself saying, "Father, I don't understand You, but I always trust You." After all, would someone who gave His Son to die for you ever do you wrong? The Bible says, "He spared not His own Son, but offered Him up for us all. Will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32) You can trust the weaver who's at that heavenly loom right now. He knows exactly what He's doing. Trust the plan, even though you can't see it. He is making your life into something very beautiful and very valuable.

I've lost count of how many times I have landed in an airplane. But who would care? For the most part - routine landings - except for the ones that were unusually soft or unusually hard. In fact I experienced one of those hard landings a while back. We hit the runway, well, let's say with authority. Now, my neighbor in the seat next to me commented very matter-of-factly, "Navy pilot." When I asked him what he meant by that, he said, "Well, I've observed this over the years. The guys who are former Air Force pilots glide in because they're used to landing on big runways at big airports. But the former Navy pilots, they land hard. They're used to landing on a small speck - the ship in the middle of the ocean." And that started me thinking, "Man, if all I had to land on was this little speck in a big ocean called a carrier, I'd land hard too." That's the smart thing to do when there's only one spot to land on. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Place to Land With Your Pain." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 1, and I'm going to be reading verses 8 and 9. As I read, would you see if any of these phrases might sound familiar in your life? Here's what Paul says, "We do not want you to be uninformed about the hardships we suffered in the Province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." Any of those phrases sound like anything you've been going through, like hardships, under great pressure, beyond your ability to endure? He said, "In our hearts, man, we felt like we were dying this death sentence." A dark time! In a sense, Paul's saying he has no place to land with his pain but one place, and that's why God allowed all the pain so his options would be limited to one. With only one place to land, Paul landed hard in the arms of God and he traded in self-reliance for God-reliance. This talented, competent, successful, driven, well-educated man had to reach the end of himself to find out what God's power was like. And when he had only God to turn to, he said, "Man, that's when I learned who I was supposed to rely on." He traded in human strength for heaven's strength. You can learn a lot from studying the people who got a miracle in Jesus' day. The Bible says in Mark 1, "A man with leprosy came to Him and begged Him on his knees, 'If you are willing, you can make me clean.'" And Mark 5, one of the synagogue rulers came. "Seeing Jesus, he fell at His feet and pleaded earnestly with Him." Now, this guy was a "big shot"; he was an official. And yet you see him pleading earnestly and falling at Jesus' feet. And it says of the woman then who came to Jesus with a hemorrhaging problem that she'd had for 12 years, "When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind Him in the crowd, because she thought, 'If I just touch His clothes I would be healed.'" You could just see her desperately pushing through the crowd. See, people who got a miracle landed hard at Jesus' feet; totally powerless, grabbing Him as if He was their only hope. And their desperate faith released the power of God to change their situation. This is faith that doesn't just pray, "Dear God..." No, it prays "Oh, Lord." And it lands hard. Well, maybe you're running out of fuel and you're running out of places to land. There's one place left. You could land hard at the feet of Jesus Christ. You know, that's how you even begin a relationship with God. That's how you get your sins forgiven. That's how you trade hell for heaven, as you realize there's nothing you can do to contribute to you getting to heaven; that would give you a relationship with God. And so, that's when you grab Jesus. You land hard in His arms and you say, "Jesus, you died for my sins. Rescue me." Maybe you've never done that. Maybe you'd like to. You want to know you belong to Him. That's exactly why our website is there. Would you go there today? It's ANewStory.com. Jesus is waiting for you to pin all your hopes on Him. And when you do, you'll be ready to fly again.

Two words that will inevitably cause a lot of excitement to appear on any face in our family - Ocean City. That's the name of this charming town on the Jersey shore where our family has got a lot of memories over the years. There was this one trip where several of us rendezvoused there for a couple of days making a few more memories. I was riding my bike along the boardwalk there, and I passed some Herculean young men jogging the boards. Their shirts had four letters on them: OCBP. That's Ocean City Beach Patrol. Over a century ago, as Ocean City was becoming a tourist mecca, the number of drownings began to increase. So, the Beach Patrol was formed. As of the last time I was there, they had a record to be proud of. In 100 years, they had never lost anyone at a guarded beach. I remember a time some years ago when a young Amish woman drowned in the Atlantic Ocean, but that was on an unguarded beach. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Stretch of the Beach." I've seen those lifeguards in action. They concentrate on their stretch of the water and the people that are in it almost as if it's a life-or-death matter. Because it is! Just like the rescue responsibility God has entrusted to you. Our word for today from the Word of God; Proverbs 24:11-12. As you listen, would you try to picture some of the people on the stretch of beach God has given you to guard. He says, "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?" God's saying here, "If you have a rescue responsibility, there is no excuse for you letting people die without your trying to do something about it." The awful tragedy is that so many Christless lives are being lost forever because one of God's spiritual lifeguards is leaving their beach unguarded. Your beach? It's that circle of influence God has given you - the people you work with, live near, go to school with or recreate with. But too many of us lifeguards, we stay in the lifeguard station, enjoying the fellowship of the other lifeguards, singing our lifeguard songs, planning our lifeguard meetings while people are dying in the surf. Maybe we leave our stretch of the beach unguarded because we forget that telling people about Jesus really is life-or-death. The people around you may not look or sound like they're dying spiritually, but listen to a few of the words God uses in the Bible to describe the lost people around you. They are called in the Bible, "Those being led away to death" (Proverbs 24:11). They're called "lost" in Luke 19:10. In Ephesians 2:12, they are "without God, without hope." In John 3:36, "Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." Second Thessalonians 1:9 says those who don't know God "will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord." And in Revelation 20:15, God says, "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." These are people you know, or ought to know. And you carry in your heart the one message that can change all this; the message of a Savior who loved them enough to die so they don't have to. Your job isn't to persuade them to come to Jesus, but it is to present Jesus. If you haven't done that, then they don't know they're dying and they don't know who to grab to rescue them. You may think there's someone better to rescue the people around you, but it's you that God put in the middle of them. This is your stretch of the beach. The people there are your responsibility. Please don't leave your beach unguarded. Too many people are dying on unguarded beaches.

I would call home to my wife, and I'd get a serenade. No, not from her. From our canary. We had only had him about a couple of weeks, and man, I found out he could sing up a storm! The whole time I was talking to my wife, the yellow bird symphony was going on in the background. It was hard to hear that canary sing and stay gloomy very long let me tell you. Every night we would put this cloth over Cherokee's cage - that was his name. And all the singing stopped. The next morning I would go into the living room and there wasn't a sound coming from under that cloth. But as soon as I took the cover off, the canary started jumping all over the cage and singing his wakeup song. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Getting the Cover Off Your Cage." Each day with that canary was like life began when the cover came off that cage. In a way, that's like you and me. Your cage? That might be some painful memories, or a broken heart, or maybe a broken dream. Maybe you're caged in by some addiction or a habit, or anger that's eating you up inside. For some of us it's depression or even suicidal thoughts that have held us in. There's a cover on that cage, whatever it is. And as you listen today, it's dark in there isn't it? And maybe there's nothing to sing about. Well, good news for you in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 40. King David said, "The Lord turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth." King David's imagery is a little different, but in canary terms, the cover came off his dark cage and gave him a reason to sing. The same Lord that did that for King David wants to do that for you. In fact, that's why Jesus Christ came. He says in the Bible, "The Lord has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners." Did you notice that, "release from darkness?" Now, that little bird of ours was stuck in a dark world that he couldn't change until someone bigger and more powerful came along to remove that cover and release him from his darkness. The Savior, Jesus, came to do that for you and me. He came to die for our darkness, our sin, to remove the death sentence you and I have on our head because of our sins. And when you tell Jesus that you're trusting Him completely for a relationship with God, the cover finally comes off. All the guilt, all the shame, all of that stuff in the past is gone; it's forgiven. So many people have told me right after they've reached out and put their trust in Christ, and they've said, "I feel like 100 pounds has just been lifted off my shoulders." And the pain is suddenly lightened because God himself is picking it up for you. The dark feelings and the power that may have kept you in darkness? All of that is replaced by this unexplainable personal peace. Now, our canary? He had no choice when the cover came off his cage, but you do. Your release from darkness comes when you open your heart to Jesus Christ, and that could be today. You tired of the darkness? Well, you might be ready for Jesus to come in. And if you are, I want to encourage you to go to our website today. Because basically what it's there for is to explain how you can begin that relationship with Jesus. Just go there. Just spend a few minutes there. It's ANewStory.com. Got nothing for you to join. There's no religion to be a part of here. It's all about you reaching out and embracing the love of the man who died for you. There is light to replace your darkness. There's a song that can replace your sin the day you let Jesus lift the cover off of your life.

Many years ago, one of the 20th Century's great Christian leaders, Peter Deyneka, was immigrating to America on a long Atlantic voyage with only a few coins in his pocket. When he got hungry, he reached into this little bag he'd brought with him to eat the same thing every meal - a few dry crusts of bread and some water. He was pretty hungry when his ship finally docked in New York; not to mention pretty sick of bread crusts. That's when he realized something that he'd wished he had understood at the beginning of the voyage - three full meals a day were included in his fare. They were all included in the price of his ticket! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "All The Good Stuff You're Missing." That young traveler had been living at a much lower level than he needed to live! He had no idea all the good things he'd gotten when he got his ticket. Well, when God looks at His children, sailing through life, He sees a lot of us living the same way - under-living. Not realizing how we could be living and all the good stuff we got when we opened our lives to Jesus Christ. Biblical passages like Ephesians 3, beginning with verse 12, our word for today from the Word of God, they spell out what's included in your ticket. Paul writes: "In Him (that's in Jesus) and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence...I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Holy Spirit in your inner being." Okay, so there's supernatural inner strength that comes when Jesus comes in. Let me go on. "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power...to know this love that surpasses knowledge" - okay, so you got this indescribable love and security when you got Jesus. Then He goes on to say, "that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Imagine all the resources of God Himself downloadable by you - His wisdom for your questions, His power for your difficulties, His love for your lonely times, His peace for your troubled times. We don't have to live like these stressed out, strung out, weighed down people we often are! Dry bread crusts when we've got all the resources of God at our disposal! Wow! Those resources are accessed through serious prayer. And we under-live because we under-pray. We over-worry, we overwork and we get overwhelmed because we under-pray. I mean really pray. One model of prayer that moves heaven to your need is found in Acts 4, where the apostles have been threatened by the same Jewish leaders who engineered the death of Jesus. The apostle's response? They gather the believers together and they "raised their voices together in prayer to God. 'Sovereign Lord,' they said, 'You made the heaven and the earth and the sea." Then they go on to celebrate the fact that all that's happening is under God's sovereign power and will. Finally, after they focused only on the greatness of their God, they ask Him for boldness and supernatural power. The place where they prayed was shaken, the Holy Spirit showed up big-time, and then they told everybody about Jesus. Now, there's the pattern for aiming all of God's power at your situation; at your need. First, you focus on your big, big God, not your big, big problem. Then, you trust Him for the big, big things you need. But always put your praise before your please, your worship before your request. When you take a little time to celebrate the awesomeness of the God you belong to, the God you're trusting in, you start to access all those great resources that came with your ticket. You don't have to live the way you've been living! You've got so much to draw on since the day you let Jesus in! So, don't wait until you reach your heavenly destination to realize how you could have been living all along!

Abraham Lincoln was kind of a hero of my boyhood. No, not because I knew him personally, not because I was alive when he was alive. But I'll tell you what, I did study a lot about him. He died on Good Friday. Yeah, he did. And until recently, I didn't know his final wish. He actually whispered it to his wife just before the fatal shot at Ford's Theatre, and it's pretty moving. Abe Lincoln grew up with a God-loving mother and a religious father. But he was demanding and his dad was distant. Abe's mom died when he was a boy. And as Lincoln grew, he went from a spiritual skeptic to actually a Bible-bashing unbeliever. But somewhere along the way, he began to realize his deep need for God. I guess losing a son and carrying the weight of a bleeding nation can do that for a man. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Lincoln's Good Friday Wish." The Civil War ended five days before that fateful Good Friday. On what would be the Great Emancipator's last day on earth, he and his wife went for a carriage ride. And, with the war over, they kind of dreamed together about the months and the years ahead. Then at the theater that night - literally as the assassin crept into the President's box - Abraham Lincoln uttered his final wish to his wife, Mary. "We will visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior. There is no place I so much desire to see as Jerusalem." And then he was gone. In his last moments, he was thinking about Jesus. "The Savior," he called Him. The journey Abe Lincoln wished for is actually a journey I have made, because ultimately it's a journey of the heart: Walking with Jesus, through the cheering multitudes of that Palm Sunday, through the jeering crowd of Good Friday, and then following the trail of blood to that place of death called Skull Hill. The crown made of thorns jammed into the forehead of the King of Kings. The merciless mockers, blaspheming the One that angels worship. The spikes pounded into the hands that shaped the universe. The "God, why have You forsaken Me?" cry of God's one and only Son. My heart's screaming, "Why?" The Bible answers in our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 2:20. "The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me." Did you get that? For me - that's what levels me. Jesus chose to go through that hell for me. And hell it was, because the Bible says, "He personally carried our sins in His own body on the cross" (1 Peter 2:24) - the pain, the guilt, the eternal separation from God for all the sinning of my life. Jesus took my hell so I could go to His heaven. Yes, my heart has been to His cross. I went there with my sin and I left forgiven. I went there dirty and I came away clean. I went there without Him in my life and I left there with the promise I'll never be without Him again. Because I got what He died for when those two words captured my heart. "For me." He did this for me. I embraced Him as the Savior for me, for my sin. And I flung open the door of my heart to this One who has loved me like no other. He said, "If you open the door, I will come in" (Revelation 3:20). He kept His promise. He's done that for everyone who's ever opened that door, and He will for you if you'll make your way to that cross in your heart and tell Him, "For me, Jesus. For me." If you've never told the man who died for you that you're pinning all your hopes on Him, would you do that today on this Good Friday? Go to our website. It's ANewStory.com, because I've laid out there for you how you can be sure you belong to Him, making this your personal "Jesus day." So He walked out of His grave that Easter morning so He could walk into your life today.

A close friend of ours was in China on family business. In the process, he had a wonderful opportunity to worship with some Chinese believers in a Sunday church service. It was a not-to-be-forgotten experience. They pointed him to something he didn't know existed in China - a Christian bookstore. It was the only one in this large city, and it's hard to find. It's stuffed into this very small space on the fourth floor of a nondescript building - but it's a Christian bookstore in China. Our friend commented in an email about the small number of Christian books that were available there in Chinese. In addition to books, they also had a small selection of Christian bookmarks and refrigerator magnets with verses or inspirational thoughts on them. And there was one fridge magnet that our friend absolutely could not, and cannot, get out of his mind. Here in the midst of this great city in this great land where Christians have paid such a price to follow Jesus was a magnet that simply said, "Pray for America." The only comment our friend had was this: "How humbling." I guess. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "So Rich, So Needy." If you're an American Christian, you probably think of China as a place we need to pray for - and it is. But in China, apparently they think they need to pray for us, and indeed they do. Their faith is passionate there; ours is often so casual, so powerless. What for Chinese believers is a passion is for too many of us a profession, a bunch of religious activities or a religious business. We have so much, and yet in terms of spiritual power and passion, some think we seem to have so little. They have so little and yet, in many ways, they have so much. I'm glad and I'm humbled that they're praying for us. If you're an American Christian, I hope you're praying for us, too. It's hard to read the description of the Laodicean church in Revelation 3 and not see us American believers in these words: "You are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm...I am about to spit you out of My mouth," Jesus said. "You say, 'I am rich'...but you do not realize you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." See, we live amid the greatest spiritual wealth in the history of the Christian church. We've got Christian everything. We've got Christian books, videos, conferences, websites, seminars, celebrities, and buildings. And yet with the largest Christian subculture in the history of the Church, we have lost our culture for Christ. And we are the "12:48 People" who live under the judgment of our Master's words in Luke 12:48, "To whom much is given, much is required." So, the call of 2 Chronicles 7:14, our word for today from the Word of God, must be a call to you and me. "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." The destiny of a nation depends on what God's people do. Not the politicians, not the secular humanists or the abortionists. As we go, so goes our nation. And we need to be going to our knees for ourselves, repenting of our proud self-reliance, of our apathy; abandoning the faith we have in programs and depending on prayer instead; seeking to know God - to touch His face - not just to know more about God; and to admit our compromises and our sin and abandon it. From there, we have to realize the responsibility we each have as a Christian from the strongest, richest, most resourced Church in our world. For God has always judged the true righteousness of His people by their love and commitment to three groups of people: the poor, the victims, and the lost. Is that what we're about? Is that what you're about? Somewhere in China today, they're praying for us. Let's be part of the answer to their prayers!

It's the mission with the famous birds. During our ministry trip to California, I had a chance to visit one of the most charming of the old Spanish missions, San Juan Capistrano. If you've heard of it, it's because of the birds - the swallows. The swallows like to hang out at that mission until about October 23rd every year. And then like a lot of northerners they fly south for the winter. Oh, but they will return. In fact, lots of local folk and tourists will be at the mission on the day the birds are expected to return. The time might vary a little, but one thing you could be sure of when you see them leave, they'll be back. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope for the Prodigal." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 7 right out of the life of Jesus. Verse 12: "As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out - the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and He said, 'Don't cry.' Then He went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, 'Young man, I say to you, get up!' The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother." Here's a mother who was sure her son was gone until Jesus intervened. Then you have these tender words (I just love this!), "Jesus gave him back to his mother." He's still doing that with sons and daughters who look as if they're spiritually gone. Wandering from the Savior you love, the Savior you so want your child to love. Maybe you're listening right now with a heart that is literally aching for a son or daughter who is spiritually away. Their spiritual leaving has begun a season of winter in your heart, much like the winter that follows the departure of those San Juan Capistrano swallows. But don't give up on the spring of their return. Maybe it seems hopeless right now, but don't underestimate the power of your Savior to bring stray children home. Believe Jesus for the day when He will in a sense give you back the child you have prayed for so long. In the meantime, let the father and the prodigal son be your example. You know he didn't chase after that boy nagging him about why he shouldn't go. So many of us as parents make the mistake of expressing our deep concern by nagging and pushing our kids to be right with God, to stop making those unrighteous choices. But when you push on someone, don't they end up farther away from you? They need space to have the dignity to let this be a personal choice not a surrender to your viewpoint. And like the father of the prodigal, always let your son or daughter know you love them unconditionally. And when sin lets them down, and it will, they will return to the place where they know they have been loved through it all. We accomplish more by talking to God about our kids than talking to our kids about God. Don't give up. Please don't give up. Claim the promise of Galatians 6:9, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Your prayers focus all the power of Almighty God on that son or that daughter wherever they are no matter how far they are. And remember, Jesus is a shepherd; he persistently and skillfully goes after lost sheep, including that one you love and who He loves even more. In fact, at this very moment I believe the Good Shepherd is pursuing your wandering loved one. You may not know the way to soften their heart, but Jesus does. Trust that same God who brings those swallows back faithfully every year to one day bring back the one you love; to bring him or her back to Him, to you. And you know what? It will be spring again.

Beep ball. Yep, I'd never heard of it until I received an email from a listener who told me she's blind. Beep ball sounds like fun, unless you're sighted like I am. Apparently, beep ball is a lot like softball except the bases beep. That helps the player know where the bases are or where the ball is coming from, if you have good ears; which, of course, blind people develop. The sighted people have to play blindfolded, and they just can't process the beeps like the blind players can. They're used to hearing more than a sound. They hear the direction of the sound. So the sighted people don't stand a chance playing beep ball! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What You Gain From Your Loss." No one would question, obviously, that you miss an awful lot if you can't see. But you also gain some things that other people don't have�like an amazing sense of hearing and the sharpening of your other senses. Just ask those sighted people who keep losing to blind people in beep ball! See, God has a wonderful way of adding or deepening some precious qualities through our times of loss and limitation and pain. Some of the most unforgettable people I've ever met have been people who've suffered much more than I have, and they will tell you it was their struggle that made them strong. You may not like the process; probably don't. But you'll like the beautiful results that can come from the process, if you choose to let it make you better instead of making you bitter. There's a wonderful statement of how we gain from what we lose in our word for today from the Word of God. It sheds light on those suffering times when we're asking that perplexing question, "Why?" 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 tell us this: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." If you never go through a hurting time, you'll never experience that special compassion and comfort of Almighty God. If you've never experienced that compassion and comfort, you don't have much to give to hurting people around you. If you'll seek God in your suffering, He'll pour those caring qualities into you when you're feeling crushed, overwhelmed, agonizing. But they're not just to get you through. No, He fills you up with resources you never had before, resources to make you a well of compassion and comfort for a world of broken people, people in pain; resources that can only be developed through hard times...through hurting times. What senses does God want to deepen through your pain? Incredible qualities like radar for the deep needs behind people's deeds. A sense of compassion, which literally means the ability to "feel with" someone. God can use your pain to cultivate a wonderful tenderness in your heart and in your responses. People who have been through the valley with Jesus emerge with this amazing ability to care, to wait, and to trust God. And there's this sense of quiet confidence and deep peace in someone who has been kept afloat by the total sufficiency of Christ when there was nothing else to hang onto. They have this "nothing can sink me" poise of a person who's found out when Jesus was all they had that Jesus is all you need. Honestly, having those kind of hardship-sharpened senses gives you an edge in the game of life. God wants you to use what you're going through to give you the emotional equipment to make you a powerful "make a difference" person; one of God's wounded healers. This painful process that you're going through? It can give you a powerful tool kit from which to be one of God's wounded healers in a hurting world.

I've got to confess; sometimes the Bible actually makes me laugh out loud. I mean, I was reading the Easter Story, and it happened again. They're about to bury Jesus in a borrowed tomb. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, issues this command to his soldiers: "Make it as secure as you know how" (Matthew 27:65). This has to be - at least in retrospect - maybe the dumbest order in history. "Use a really big rock, guys. Put on a really strong seal, and post some really intimidating guards." Sure, Pilate was probably concerned about, you know, keeping thieves out and that kind of thing. Well, Governor, that's not your problem. Your problem is keeping Jesus in! That's Mission Impossible! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Easter and the Dumbest Order In History." No man, no plan, no empire can stand in the way of Jesus. The stone? Rolled away. The seal? Easily broken. The soldiers? Here's what the Bible says: "So afraid...that they shook and became like dead men" (Matthew 28:4). And Jesus? Well, our word for today from the Word of God is Luke 24:5. Here's what it says, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!" (Luke 24:5). Our precious granddaughter said it this way as she was waking up, "It's Easter morning. And Jesus is alive again!" He's not "entombed" in some dusty old history book or in some religious institution or religious observance. No! He's the all-powerful, death-reversing, game-changing Savior who's proven there's nothing He can't beat. Unleashed that Easter morning, Jesus is this very day, healing families that nothing else can heal. He's crushing Satan. He's lifting up the oppressed. He's protecting the vulnerable. He's reshaping nations, steering history. This living Christ is shattering addictions, He's defying disease. He's making sinners like me into living proof that He's alive. And He's fighting for you if you belong to Him. Maybe you're not sure you do. Well, this living Savior is knocking on the door of your heart this very season. He's seeking to do for you what He has done for millions of people who've let Him in. He walked out of His grave so He could walk into your life. He died on a cross so you could be forgiven of the sin that will forever keep you out of heaven and condemn you to an unthinkable eternity. But he already died that death penalty. He died to pay for it. He's offering - yes, this season - to forgive every sin of your life, because He died for every sin of your life. He's standing ready to unleash that resurrection power on the things you can't fix, and the things you can't change, the things you can't control. You see, they found out two thousand years ago what we've been finding out ever since that. Nothing... nothing can stop this Jesus. And today He stands at the door of your life. He's ready to come in. He's ready to bring all that love and all that power into your life. If you have never begun a personal relationship with this living Savior named Jesus, couldn't be a better time of year than this to let Him come into the life that He paid for on that cross. You say, "Ron, how do I do that?" Listen, tell Him, "Jesus I'm yours." And let me invite you to join me at our website. It's ANewStory.com. And let me explain to you there how to be sure you belong to Him. And then for you this will be the Easter like no other.

Before videos and DVDs there was a primitive form of media known as Super 8 movies. And that was the medium on which we were able to capture many memories as our kids were growing up, which was a great improvement over what my parents had to record memories when I was growing up. They had a chisel and a stone tablet. Well, our three children all enjoyed being in the movies, but one of them enjoyed it a little too much. And, no, I'm not about to tell you which one. But this child loved the camera, so much that it didn't matter whose birthday we were filming or what activity, this same little face kept popping up right in front of the camera, effectively blocking out anyone else that might be in the picture. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Deadly Cost of 'Me First'" If it's Louie's birthday - that's not the name of anyone in our family, OK - then Max shouldn't be pushing himself in front and making himself the self-appointed star of a movie that's supposed to be about someone else. It's really not cute and it really messes up the picture. Just ask God. People have been doing that to Him for a long time. At least as long ago as the infamous Tower of Babel, where we find our word for today from the Word of God, it's in Genesis 11, beginning with verse 4 where "They said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves..." A name for ourselves - one of our favorite things to make, isn't it? The Bible goes on to say, "But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world." The tower might as well have been in the shape of a raised, clenched fist. They were saying, "We're going to be the stars here. We want to be important. So we're going to build something that will show everybody, even God, how really important we are." And God responded with serious judgment. There's a vivid picture here of a lesson we all need to remember - the deadly sin of self-importance. It was the beginning of the end for Saul, the Jewish king who started with such promise and a desire to put God out in front. The Bible puts it this way: "He has set up a monument in his own honor" (1 Samuel 15:12). That's a sin many of us could be guilty of. Honestly, could it be you've been spending a lot of energy promoting yourself? Pushing to be in front? Trying to make a name for yourself, and maybe even using the work of Christ to do it? Could it be that you've really been building your own kingdom more than His kingdom? That's pretty dangerous ground. Just ask the people at the Tower of Babel. The word "sin" and the word "pride" have that same middle letter, don't they - "I." Pride cost Lucifer his place in heaven. Pride is always expensive. and God won't tolerate it. He hates pride and self-promotion. There's only one name we should be drawing attention to. It is the name of Jesus. There's only one Star in God's constellation, and His name is Jesus. And there's only one kingdom to be building with our time and our money, and it is the kingdom of Jesus. It's natural to push ourselves to the front, but it's wrong. And maybe, without realizing it, that's what you've started to do. From Babel to your life and mine, self-importance and self-promotion are sins God just will not tolerate. John said, "He must increase; I must decrease" (John 3:30). If the wrong person's out in front, it's time to rearrange the picture. You and I are the background for an awesome Savior. He's the foreground! He is the only star!

I've been to South Africa multiple times, and so when I heard about the death of Nelson Mandela, it caught my attention. He, of course, was the first black President in South Africa, where the 90% black majority had never had the right to vote. Or many other basic human rights for that matter. Four American Presidents, the head of the United Nations, the leaders of scores of nations; they all attended the memorial service to honor him. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Be Free From the Invisible Prison." Beyond all the tributes of those powerful people, Nelson Mandela actually had a message that I took personally, and it might be good for you to hear about how to be truly free. Because what changed his nation can help change ours. It can change our family. It could change a feud; a fractured relationship. I remember when Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by our government. But now, he's lauded as one of the great, and maybe the greatest leaders of our time. He was imprisoned when he finally resorted to violence to end apartheid; a policy that empowered 10% of the population to suppress the 90%. I visited South Africa during that time, and I'll tell you, it felt like a nation at war. And I was there after a worldwide outcry brought about Nelson Mandela's release after 27 years of crippling imprisonment. Within four years, the walls of apartheid came crashing down. And stunningly, Nelson Mandela had been elected the leader of his nation. But the Mandela that came out of prison wasn't the same one who went in. The younger Mandela was full of hate and bitterness for what had been done to his people. But something happened; something that changed him - and ultimately saved a nation. He forgave. He said, "As I walked out the door toward that gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison." Wow! That's powerful! See, unforgiveness means the very person who hurt us, in a sense, controls us with our permission. We continually replay what they did to us, and then we insure that it will poison our present and our future. But forgiving cuts the rope that ties us to the hurts and the hurters of the past. As President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela was suddenly in the power position. He had the power to get even and to punish. But instead, he reached out to those who had been his "enemies," speaking their language, including them in his government, embracing one of the most despised symbols of the white-dominated past - the national rugby team. And the nation that was poised to explode into a race war became a beacon of reconciliation. Nelson Mandela's journey to forgiveness was played out on a global stage. Mine isn't. But the stakes for me and my little personal world are just as high. Will I keep letting unforgiveness make me a prisoner of the pain of my past? Will I let the healing begin by trying to build a bridge where there's been a wall for a long time? Poet Maya Angelou said in an interview, "It is a gift to yourself to forgive and I would say that Nelson Mandela's gift to the world was his ability to forgive." That's a gift we need to reach out for, and we need to start giving it. One man's forgiving had saved a nation. It can help save a marriage, It can help save a relationship with a parent or child. Forgiving Is hard, but it sets people free. And I know the power of forgiveness, because I have been forgiven by someone I have sinned against over and over again. His name is Jesus. He paid a price for what I've done that went far beyond a prison sentence. He paid my death sentence. The Bible says "He was pierced...crushed...His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man" (Isaiah 53:5-6; 52:14). Beyond that what happened in His soul when He was cut off from God the Father so I would never have to be. And the Bible says, "everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name" (Acts 10:43). If you'd reach out and say, "Jesus, I claim you as my only possible rescuer from my sin. I need your forgiveness. Would you erase from God's book every wrong thing I've ever done?" See, that's the new beginning miracle Jesus does for anyone who takes for themselves what He did on the cross. And I'd love to help you meet the great Forgiver today. Join me at ANewStory.com and let your new story begin.

It's an English-speaking church. The visiting pastor was Hispanic. He spoke in Spanish, using an interpreter to help his audience understand. I've spoken through an interpreter. So, you either have to say half as much or it takes twice as long. Well. the pastor chose the latter. Yeah. It took quite a while to get through his message. And to be honest, I know some minds started to wander at times. Well, at the end of his message, the pastor surprised everybody. He spoke to them completely in English. And he made a promise - the next time he would definitely speak in English. Of course, some folks were just a little frustrated. He could have spoken in the language of the people he was talking to; he just chose to speak in his own. I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Obscure The Gospel." It doesn't matter how important your message is, how sincere it is if you deliver it in words the other person can't understand. And not all language problems are linguistic. Parents of teenagers know that. What their kids are saying may be some kind of "English," but who can understand what they mean? More importantly, when Christians tell about Jesus in church words, how many people without Christ can understand what they're saying? That's not just a casual question. It really matters, because the message of Jesus is life-or-death information - like the directions to get out of a burning building. Every missionary to another culture knows you can't just settle for the easy thing, which would be speaking in the language you're comfortable with. You don't just transmit the Gospel, you have to translate it. It's unacceptable that people might miss Jesus because I don't put it in words they can understand. American church folks speak a language I call Christianese. And sometimes I'm not sure we even understand what some of our words mean! But we tell people they need to be "born again," to "accept" or "receive Christ," to "become a Christian" or be "saved." And they have no idea what those words mean or they have the wrong idea. Those are Bible words, but they need to be explained in non-religious words. The same is true of important words like "sin" and "Savior" and "believe." We think we've told them about Jesus, but maybe they miss what we mean. Thus, our word for today from the Word of God. It's a great prayer request from the Apostle Paul himself in Colossians 4:3-4. He says, "Pray for us...that God may open a door for our message...Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should" Then he also asked people to pray that "whenever I speak, words may be given me" (Ephesians 6:19). The words you use matter. Proclaiming it clearly can make the difference. So ask the Lord to help you hear yourself using Christianese and to help you find non-religious words to explain what a person needs to know to come to Christ. For example, sin can be explained as "you running your life instead of God running it" or "hijacking your life from your Creator." In our time, a "Savior"? Well, that would be a rescuer; someone who rescues you from a deadly situation you can't get yourself out of. That's exactly what Jesus came to be for us. What does it mean to "believe" in Jesus? Most people would say they do, but not by the Bible's definition. The Bible's meaning is similar to what a drowning person would do when a lifeguard came; what a dying person would do when the rescuer comes. You hold onto Him as if He's your only hope. When did you do that with Jesus? That's what belief means. "Whoever believes in Him (grabs Him like He's their only hope) to have eternal life." The most urgent, the most important news in the world needs to be delivered in words that a lost person can understand - non-religious words! We can do it if we choose to do it. There's someone you know whose only hope is hearing about and understanding what Jesus did on that cross for them. Would you please put Jesus where they can reach Him.

French beaches! You say that and most people might think about like a vacation that would be nice. Well, not when the Western world remembered a major anniversary that happened on French beaches on D-Day. I remember, for example, the 50th anniversary. For several days American media bombarded us, and we couldn't forget it. Something else happened on French beaches - the heroic battle to establish an allied beachhead in France and to push back the darkness of Hitler's madness. I mean there's a whole generation who knew next to nothing about what might be the most significant military victory in the 20th century. And they don't know about it until there's an anniversary celebration of that event. But when we see some of the films - and we did then - boys barely out of high school storming the shore in the face of deadly German fire and many who died before they even hit the beach. We saw some of the veterans who survived. We heard their stories of buddies who are buried there. We saw the tears in the eyes of some pretty tough, old guys. And those of us who watched? Well, I think we were touched ourselves. It was President Clinton - when the 50th anniversary took place - where he spoke that day. And he, of course, part of a generation who knew relatively little about D-Day but whose freedom was in a sense really paid for there. And on that day, the President seemed almost to choke up sometimes when he spoke; especially when he spoke in the American cemetery near Omaha Beach. He was speaking to a lot of veterans of that bloody battle, and one phrase of that speech still sticks out in my mind. Looking at those who risked everything on D-Day, those who gave everything, the President said these words, "We are the children of your sacrifice." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Day You Know How Loved You Are." When you realize the high price paid on D-Day it's hard to remain unmoved. Did you know something similar happened 2,000 years ago on the day God's Son died on the cross? It happened to a soldier, a man in charge of the execution of Jesus Christ. We're about to hear remarkable words considering that they are coming from a hardened executioner. In Mark 15:19, the man in charge of the execution - Listen to what he says, "And when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus heard His cry and saw how He died, he said, 'Surely this man was the Son of God.'" This soldier was melted by the sacrifice of the Son of God. This was no ordinary man dying this criminal death. This was the only Son of God. This soldier had seen a lot of death, so what moved him? Crucifixion was nothing new to him. Let's stand for a moment and listen to what he heard Jesus saying at that cross. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Well, he'd heard everything from a cross: curses, and screams, complaining, but he had never heard the word "forgive." And Jesus was forgiving those responsible for His death. That centurion must have been thinking, "He's forgiving me." He was forgiving you and me too, because it was our sin that put Jesus there. Then he heard Jesus say, "Today you will be with Me in paradise." And here he realized that this was a man who cares about the person who needs Him, even in His own darkest hour. And he said, "This Jesus must have the power to take people to heaven." He does, including you. And then he heard Jesus cry, "It is finished!" He didn't lose! He won as He died. Mission accomplished! The death penalty for our sin fully paid in that moment; the hell we deserve can be traded for the heaven we don't deserve if we put our trust in this One and only Savior. We're the children of His sacrifice. If you know Jesus personally, you should have one objective with the people around you who don't know Him. And that is to bring them to this cross. And if you're not sure you know Christ, God's bringing you to the foot of His Son's cross right now. Will you put all your trust in Him, or are you going to ignore this love and this sacrifice? Are you ready to begin a relationship with Him? That's what our website's all about. Would you please go there? It's ANewStory.com. How can you say "no" to the One who loves you so very much?