A Word With You with Ron Hutchcraft on MOR Music Podcasts

March 27, 2025 Flexible Doesn't Break - #9969

If we did a word association game with the words "San Francisco," well, two things that might come up very quickly would be Golden Gate Bridge and earthquakes. Actually, both of those subjects came up a lot when we were in San Francisco for some youth outreaches and to tape some special editions of a youth broadcast. We didn't arrange for a quake while we were there, but we did do a program based on them. And we actually did originate parts of other programs from near the Golden Gate Bridge and even on it. According to some local friends of mine there, and they could just be Californians pulling the leg of an East Coast boy, but they said that the bridge might be one of the safer places to be during an earthquake. No, it's not the one that folded during the last big quake, you might have seen pictures of that. They say one reason the Golden Gate could withstand a quake is this surprising fact - it's built in such a way, that it's flexible. In other words, when the earth under it starts moving, it doesn't just stand there rigid and break. It's built to flex when things are shaking. So, apparently a quake might shake it, but probably not break it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Flexible Doesn't Break."
The question is how do you react when things start shaking all around you? The answer may be the difference between cracking under the stress and holding together through it. There's a synergy between the plans we make and God's plans that calls for some of that Golden Gate flexibility.
Our word for today from the Word of God, Proverbs 16:9 - "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." The Bible acknowledges that we will make plans, the question is whether those plans are rigid - if we're rigid about having it our way. That "but" after the part about our plans tells me that God has the right to pre-empt my plan, or delay my plan, or redirect my plan. After all, that's what "Lord" means. Often He leads us toward a certain outcome, only to surprise us with an interruption, or with the realization that He did want us on this road, but for a destination other than the one we expected. But God's idea is always a better idea. What looks like Plan B to me may well have been God's Plan A all along. "But the Lord determines his steps."
Notice how James teaches us to make our plans. James 4:15 - "You ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" See I'm a planner by nature. I work hard on those plans, I pray about those plans. I seek God's direction. But once the plan is set, whether it's for the next few hours or the next few years, I don't like change. But change is built into the system, folks, and those who meet changes with rigidity will eventually crack like an unmoving structure in an earthquake.
This recovering "rigidaholic," is that a word?, is slowly but surely learning to enjoy the surprises of God even when they don't appear to be, at least at first, pleasant surprises. And even if it's something Satan has thrown in, my Bible tells me that even that had to be cleared first with my Heavenly Father. If God said it was OK for me, why don't I just try to roll with the quake? For the sooner I embrace His purpose for what's happening, the sooner I'll experience His peace.
I should point out that the Golden Gate Bridge, while flexible, is not made out of Play-Doh. It has solid structure and so should your life and your days. This is no excuse for laziness or lack of planning. But it is an encouragement to folks who like control to loosen up a little bit and make room for God to do His very dynamic thing. It's the ones who are flexible that survive the shaking.

March 26, 2025 The Rescue Window - #9968

I was speaking in Mobile, Alabama when I heard about this amazing phenomenon that occasionally takes place there. It's along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. They call it Jubilee. It happens on a summer night sometime between midnight and six, and the fish, and the crab, and all the other sea critters suddenly move in very close to the shore. It's like they get so close that many of them are right up on the beach. The locals just walk along and they scoop up the fish and the crab, and they gather as much seafood as they want. Imagine what an opportunity it is for the fishermen! I mean, they can grab anything they want without going out in a boat.
Now, this is believed to be caused by the sudden release of this cold, fresh water into the warm water of the bay. I've never been able to tell whether or not that's true. I've never interviewed the crab. That's what people think happens anyway. Whatever the reason, it is a great day for fishermen. It's a great day for everybody along that shore. In fact, in years past, the first one who saw it happening would holler, "Jubilee!" And then you could hear that good news being yelled from one door to another all along the shore. If I were there I would want to know too.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Rescue Window."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 9, beginning at verse 36. It says, "When Jesus saw the crowd He had compassion because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into His harvest fields.'" Sometimes I've asked farmers in kind of a word association what would they come up with, you know when I say the word "harvest." And they usually say, "Ready." In other words, there's a lot of people ready for Jesus. And in many ways that might be never more true than it is today. Because we're living in a painful world, an uncertain world, a lonely world that in many ways has made people more ready for Jesus than ever.
Now, watch my lips. "Jubilee!" When it's Jubilee time on Mobile Bay, the fish are desperately searching for oxygen and it brings them all within reach more than at any other time. Their need makes them reachable. This is a Jubilee moment now for reaching the lost people around you with the Good News about Jesus Christ.
On the one hand they're more lost than they've ever been. They know less about the Bible and about Jesus. They don't have much sense of right or wrong. They don't go to religious meetings. But the very things that have made them lost have made them ready. Relationships are disappointing, love is hard to come by, parenting is frightening, marriage is overwhelming, stress is out-of-control, the future unpredictable, and hope is evasive. The need for real love and real peace and real security and real answers has never been more intense. People are literally gasping for emotional and spiritual oxygen.
When it's Jubilee time, people know what to do. You don't sleep through it. It's a moment when there's a short time and then it's gone, like harvest. Everyone is on the beach for a catch, and that's where we as believers belong right now. This is no time for you or your group or your church to be inside doing Christian business as usual. It's time for everyone who names the name of Christ to be actively, boldly telling the people around them about your Jesus. It's a "drop everything" time to do what Jesus came here to do - to seek and to save those who are lost. If we do, we will be God's instruments to deliver dying people the life they are gasping for.
Remember, the people around you are ready. They're reachable right now. So, get out where the lost people are and bring them home to Jesus. Bring them home to heaven. Send the wakeup call all along the shore line, "It's Jubilee!"

March 25, 2025 The Strongest Men in the World - #9967

When my son was 16 he was quite a "hunk"! I mean, we didn't tell him that, but I think he probably was. He didn't start out that way. But he began lifting weights and he did it regularly. And he loved to report his new "max" to us...you know, the maximum amount he was able to lift - his bench press. And occasionally he'd flex and have us see how particular muscles had grown. I guess I was supposed to go, "Oooo, Ahhhh!" I didn't exactly do that, but... Now, there are a number of factors that go into making a man achieve his full strength. Of course, lifting, lots of protein, certain vitamin supplements, sufficient rest, workouts, and a woman. Yeah! Yeah, he needs a woman to be really strong where it really counts.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Strongest Men in the World."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 31:23. It's in that famous passage where we meet what's called the Proverbs 31 woman - that's what a lot of people call it. It's about the virtuous woman, and it says, "Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land." Now, in those days, to be at the city gate was the equivalent to being kind of in the top management office today. It means that you're one of the leaders of the community, and that's where her husband is.
This guy is a strong man; he's a winner, but the rest of the passage is about his wife strangely enough. Here are some excerpts: "Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good not harm all the days of her life. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household." Verse 26 says, "She speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue." This is one strong woman!
Verse 28: "Her children arise and call her blessed. Her husband, he praises her. He says, 'Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.'" Okay, you get the distinct impression here that the reason this man is such a winner is because of the woman in his life. You know the old saying, "Behind every man is a great woman and an astonished mother-in-law."
Well, I don't know about that, but this man is smart enough to lean heavily on the woman in his life. It says, "He has full confidence in her." It says, "She speaks with wisdom." "He praises her for what she has done for him." How unlike many modern men and their attitude toward the women in their life.
I know men who just can't take advice from a woman. They think a woman's perspective isn't as strong as a man's; that they're weak if they listen to a woman. They kind of think women are superficial. We're logical, they just deal with feelings all the time. Actually truth is usually in the middle. We need the male logic and we need that unique feminine insight to get the real truth.
Sometimes because a man has felt dominated by a woman at some time in his life, he rejects any strength that a woman might offer him. Well, let me tell you, a truly strong man, like the man here in the Bible, is open to a strong, spiritual woman. Not being dominated by her, but being helped by her. I have to say over the years my wife's counsel was the best counsel I ever had in my life and it made me stronger. A wise man knows that we as men are incomplete. Our logic, our aggressiveness give us only half the story. We need the sensitivity, the radar, the attention to detail, the instinctive insight of a woman.
Listen to your mother, listen to your sister, listen to your wife...the women in your life. One measure of the strength of a man is his openness to the strength of a woman. The men who listen to and respect the women in their life? They're the strongest men in the world.

March 21, 2025 The "Busy" Club - #9965

When someone in our house felt overworked or unfairly overloaded, sometimes you'd hear them say, kiddingly I think, "Hey, I thought Lincoln freed the slaves!" Well, actually, I think the members of our family might have been right about all of us. We do need an update on that Emancipation Proclamation. In fact, you might be surprised who the slaves are today, and the slave master. Spiritually, that is. The slaves are nice people, successful people - maybe someone like you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 'Busy' Club."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in Deuteronomy 5. I'm going to read from verse 12. Now, this is the second time around to a new generation of Jews that the Ten Commandments are given. In the original Ten Commandments it said that you are to keep the Sabbath Day holy - a day of rest. But notice there is a new addition this time - I'll read it to you.
"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you." Now, that's pretty much the same as the first time around in Exodus 20. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant..."
Now, this sort of closes up the loophole, saying, "Okay, I won't work, I'll just get the other guys to do it." It goes on to say, "no, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals." Now, just in case you had a visitor in the house and you were going to have him mow the lawn for you, it says, "not the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day."
Now, get this command here. He talks about our working life, he acknowledges that we are going to be working much or most of the time, but then He says, "It is my commandment that you get regular rest and regular worship during that time. Then He goes back to the subject of slavery. He says, "There was a time, my people, when you had no choice about working all the time. You were slaves then. There was a time when you had to work without rest, but now you can choose, and I want you to choose regularly, on a weekly basis, to stop and rest and stop all the busyness around you and bring it to a halt.
Now He's saying, "Don't lose your priorities now that you can choose to rest." You know, in our world today we are like all accelerator and no brakes. We're living lives without Sabbaths. They're supposed to be part of the created order of God. Think about your own life - the rat race, the gerbil wheel you run on. Your times off maybe are getting farther apart, they're shorter. Your family is beginning to feel your absence because you've been running to work so much. You've piled one commitment on top of another, so you can't ever stop. And you've got so many competing commitments, there's just no time to rest. There's little time left just to crash, to play, to laugh, to think, to meet your Lord. You're not doing your work - you are your work.
Stand back, would you? There's a better way to live with regular rest as ordained by Almighty God. Otherwise, the implication is, you're a slave. You're a slave to your work. Don't live in violation of God's command to rest. The alternative is slavery. And remember, Jesus freed the slaves.

March 19, 2025 The Power To Really Change Things - #9963

My friend was an executive at a Bible distribution society, and he told me about one of their workers in Zimbabwe. His name was Gabriel. What a great name for a man distributing Bibles, huh? Their policy was to sell their Bibles for a small price so people would value them. The problem they encountered was that some people were actually using the thin paper of those Bibles to make cigarettes! In fact, one potential customer actually said to Gabriel, "I'll take one of your Bibles, but if I do, I'll smoke it."
Gabriel gave an angelic response. He said, "That's OK, if you promise to read it before you smoke it." The man promised. When Gabriel saw the man several months later, he asked him about the Bible. The man said, "Well, I read Matthew, and I smoked it. I read Mark - smoked it. I read Luke, and I smoked it. And then I read John 3:16, and I haven't smoked since!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Power to Really Change Things."
John 3:16, of course, is that wonderful revelation that "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." And that simple Gospel of God's love and the sacrifice of His Son for our sins has transformed so many people's lives over the years, including mine; including that man in Africa.
You and I are living at a time and in a world where there are a lot of battles to fight: pornography, abortion, media violence, racism, false religions and spiritualities, things that threaten the family, all kinds of sinful lifestyles. The list goes on and on. And it's important to stand for God's standards, God's values, and God's boundaries no matter what the culture is saying. But it's important to do it lovingly.
We need to remember, though, that there is only one weapon that really changes things, that changes people, that changes a culture. God talks about it in our word for today from the Word of God from Romans 1, in some verses that begin in verse 9. Paul talks about "God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the Gospel of His Son... I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes... for in the Gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith. "
Now, God says His salvation, His righteousness - the only transformers that really change things - come through "the preaching of the Gospel." Just look at Gabriel's African friend. He didn't stop smoking because of a campaign against smoking; he was changed by coming face-to-face with Jesus Christ! That Gospel is still, along with prayer, the most powerful life-changing, family-changing, marriage-changing, world-changing force on earth! Because it changes people from the inside out!
The early Christians knew the power was in the Gospel. Their culture was more depraved than ours, and their weapon of choice was not politics or programs or protests. It was presenting Jesus' cross and His empty tomb! Dictators across the centuries have known the power that's in the Gospel. That's why they have done everything in their power to shut it down. They understand its power to undermine the most powerful forces of darkness on earth.
Now, complacency in an ever-darkening world is unacceptable. We need to take a stand in love. But we need to lead with the only weapon that really has the power to change things - the explosive story of Jesus Christ and His cross and His resurrection. That's where the power is. That's where the change will come from. It's the only weapon of which the Bible says, "It is the power of God." The Gospel of Jesus Christ! And it's yours to share with people you love.
Spend yourself - spend what you have to get that life-giving message into the hearts of the dying men and women that you know!

March 18, 2025 Your Light in a Dark Night - #9962

My wife was like a human camera. She was able to record in her mind life experiences in living color and in full detail. I wish I could do it! And growing up on a little farm in the hills gave her a childhood full of memorable memories.
For example, on wintry nights her parents would go out to the barn to milk the cows and they had a lantern in their hand because they didn't have any electricity. And their house was in a hollow in the woods where the darkness was really dark. So my wife kept watching the lantern. She remembers one time when she heard people talking about a panther in the area. That's what a little girl wants to hear, right? And the adult said that you would know the panther was around when you heard its sound, and it would be like the scream of a woman.
One particular night she stood there with one hand on the screen door of the house and the other hand on her tiny little sister waiting for her parents to come back from the barn, watching that lantern. That's when she heard it; the screams of the panther. Well, you can only imagine the rush of thoughts in a little girl's mind; the fears racing through her little mind. But my wife said, "I knew my parents were okay as long as that light was steady. I just kept watching that lantern for a steady light."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Light in a Dark Night."
Now, at one time or another in our life we have all been that little girl in the door of that farmhouse. It's dark; it's scary and something you fear seems close. It may be that kind of time in your life right now and you need a steady light to give you something you can count on in this darkness.
Well, there's our word for today from the Word of God, John 8:12. Listen to what Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life." So, Jesus said, "I am the light." And Jesus is a sure guarantee, "If I am your light, you will never walk in darkness." He said He's the steady light we're looking for.
Now, you've lived long enough to probably have other lights let you down. Right? The people who were going to be there for you? The light went out. A job you could count on is suddenly gone. A religion that maybe it met your needs but at the time when you needed answers the most, it just couldn't deliver. And now maybe in a dark place, Jesus - the light - stands before you and He's beckoning, He's extending His invitation, "Follow Me." "Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" He said.
See, those who commit their lives to Jesus Christ live under this wonderful promise, "I will never leave you or forsake you." When no one else can do it, Jesus is there. When the situation is bigger than you are, the Son of God is bigger than the situation is. When earth has no answers, Jesus will lead you through the confusion and the hurt. But you can't see it right now as long as there's a wall between you and Him. That wall separates you and it's what the Bible calls sin. You don't have any power to remove it.
But in the words of the Bible, "While we were still sinners..." In other words, while the wall was still there, "Christ died for us." He died so He could tear down your sin-wall by paying your death penalty for you running your own life. And now He waits for you to say, "Jesus, I'm putting my total trust in You to rescue me from my sin, from the penalty of my sin."
Have you ever reached out to Him in that way? Have you ever had a time when you grabbed Jesus like a drowning person would grab a lifeguard and say, "Jesus, you're my only hope"? If you've never done that, you want to be sure you belong to Him finally. Would you go to our website? It's ANewStory.com and right there I will show you how you can be sure you belong to Him.
And then you're not going to walk alone through the dark ever again. That dark and scary night on that little farm, that little girl found security because she could see a steady light out there. And there's one waiting for you. That security is Jesus Christ, our ever-living Savior. Follow His light and you will always be safe.

March 17, 2025 Bitterness vs. Blessing - #9961

I heard not long ago about a little boy who was trying to move this huge rock. He pulled, and he pushed, and grunted and strained, trying to move it with leverage from a board, but it was all to no avail. Finally his Dad said, "Son, have you used all your resources?" "Oh, yeah, Dad. I can't make it move! I've tried everything." And his Dad replied, "No, you haven't. You haven't asked me to help you yet."
Maybe you're at a point right now. Oh, you're not a little boy, but you've got a big rock that needs to move and you desperately need your father's help. But you're going it alone doing everything you can to move it. Well actually, there's something that keeps your Father right now from lifting that load of yours.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bitterness vs. Blessing."
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Hebrews 12:15. It starts out talking about a very sobering possibility. "See to it," the writer says, "that no one misses the grace of God." Man, there's a lot of things in your life that you could do without, but you cannot go without the grace of God. This says, "See that you don't miss God's grace."
Now, he's writing to believers here. This doesn't mean you don't become a Christian. It means that as a believer, you need God's grace but for some reason you don't have it. And maybe you're in a situation now like that little boy where you've got a big rock to move and the pressure is really heavy. And, well, maybe there's a family problem, or there's this financial boulder to move, you've got medical responsibilities, whatever is crushing you right now. But God's grace is supposed to be sufficient, right? What happened? Why is this so hard? Well, maybe you're missing the grace of God. How do you do that?
Well, listen to the second half of the verse: "and see to it that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." Wow! Think about what this verse is saying.
Bitterness blocks the grace of God. Your Father is not going to help you lift that rock if there is bitterness in your heart. Now, you may not realize it, you may not call it that, but bitterness has taken root. You've been under all this pressure, and maybe you're angry and you're resentful toward a family member because of their part in your frustration. Maybe you've got bad feelings that have grown toward a teacher, an employer, a coworker who is making your life miserable. Maybe you're even bitter toward God because you don't understand what He's doing or why He's waiting. There's somebody in your past, and they're just running your life basically because you can't stop thinking about what they did to you and how you feel toward them.
Somewhere, maybe, there's this boiling anger inside, and like a great cloud that suddenly blocks out the sun, your bitterness is blocking the grace of God just when you need it most. Ironically, you've never needed God's strength, and His closeness, and His peace more than you do now. This rock is too heavy for you, but your prayer seems hollow and you feel so alone, even at the breaking point. Maybe it's because you've got some forgiving to do, some letting go of a hurt, trusting God to meet out justice to make things right.
Your Father is standing there ready to help as only He can, but you've got to release that bitterness that's making your burden so much heavier. Why carry that load too? Your Father wants to trade your bitterness for His amazing grace.

March 14, 2025 The Most Sinful Part of Your Body - #9960

I used to sing this little song in Sunday school. Actually, all of the kids sang it: "Be careful little eyes what you see." That was the first verse. And then we went on to "Be careful little ears what you hear." And then "Be careful little hands what you do." Of course, "Be careful little feet where you go," and so on. Actually, there is a practical truth hidden in that little song. It's about this thing called sin, which isn't just a church word or a preacher's word. I mean, it's real. I mean, your hands sin, your eyes sin, your ears sin; it's not just a concept.
I've always found it convenient to think of sin in terms of things that someone else is doing, right? Well, when I make a list of the worst sins there are, it's usually things that I don't do. Maybe you do. Then I realize the body part that should be voted most likely to sin. Suddenly I'm on the list.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Sinful Part of Your Body."
Here's our word for today from the Word of God. We're in the third chapter of the book of Romans. It's a very interesting passage because it's like a spiritual X-ray, and the doctor, if you want to put it that way, gives the conclusion of this X-ray and what he has discovered in chapter 3 verse 12 and then again in verse 23. In verse 12 he says, "All have turned away, all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one." Then in verse 23 it's reiterated when he says, "For all have sinned..." I mean, there is no exception here. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The spiritual X-ray shows that we all have cancer - spiritual cancer.
Then he goes into more detail between verses 12 and 23 with how that sinful cancer shows up. Listen to these statements, "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Did you notice there are six statements here that show the kind of spiritual cancer we have, and they all are really like biological; they involve parts of the body? One had to do with the eyes; one had to do with our feet. The other four had to do with the same area of the body: the tongue, lips, mouth and throat. So it would appear that most sinning is done with your mouth. Isn't that interesting? The most spiritually infected part of your body - the cancer comes out through our mouth more often than anywhere else.
The Bible says, "No human being can tame the tongue." That's in James 3:8. We tend to think of sin in terms of adultery, abortion, murder, abuse, drugs, stealing. But this brings it right down to where I live, because the greatest sins - the most frequent sins - are sins of the tongue. Think about it, the hurt that you and I inflict on people, the things we say in anger, the putdowns, the lies, the criticism, the negative comments, the gossip. They all come through our mouth.
This indictment tells me two things. Number one: I really need a Savior because if sin is mostly sin done with my mouth and my tongue, I really need a Savior. And you may have never experienced what it is to have the man who died for you on a cross forgive you of every wrong thing, every hurting thing, every angry thing, every dirty thing you've ever said or done. It's so wonderful to be clean. He can do that for you!
Secondly, I must focus the lordship of Christ on my mouth and say, "Jesus, be Lord of what I say; how I talk. The cancer of sin has poisoned our daily speech, but David said, "The Lord put a new song in my mouth."
Don't you want this transforming relationship with Jesus Christ? He'll make you a whole new creation, the Bible says. Let me show you how at our website. Check out ANewStory.com because maybe this is the first day of your new story.

March 13, 2025 The Answer Under Your Nose - #9959

There are those moments when I make life much harder than it has to be, and in fact sometimes I wonder if I'm slipping. There was a time not too long ago when I looked frantically for my house keys. And, of course, I mobilized the whole family and said, "I've got to get out of here! I'm running late! Everybody go on a search mission; we've got to find my keys." I found them in the door right where I'd left them. I've been doing that since I was about 20.
Did you ever find your car keys missing and you run all over the place, and you find them in your own hand? Oh, you say, "Oops!" Or your glasses and they're on your face. It happens more often than you might think. The answer you've been looking for frantically might be right there in front of you. You might be surprised how close the answer is to what you've been looking for.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Answer Under Your Nose."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God about the answer under your nose is in John 14, beginning at verse 6. "Jesus answered, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.' Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and that would be enough for us.' Jesus answered, 'Don't you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, "Show us the Father"?'"
This passage introduces us to what I call the Philip Syndrome. Philip has this problem - we read about it in the New Testament. He seems to have the tendency to miss an answer that is right in front of him. And who knows, you might be suffering from the Philip Syndrome. Remember back to the feeding of the five thousand? Philip said, "Lord, what are we going to do? We don't have near enough money, even if we go to a bank and get a loan. How are we ever going to feed all these people?" And Jesus said, "Why don't you go look for a lunch? The answer's right here. All we need's a lunch - go find a lunch."
Here He's looking for some special event. He says, "Lord, we want to see the Father. We want to have a big, spiritual event here." And Jesus said, "Look at Me! I'm right in front of you." The answer in John 14 was right in front of Philip. I wonder if the answer you've been waiting for, straining for, praying for could be right in front of you. For example, maybe you've been waiting for just the right person to come along to fill a very important slot. Why don't you look around at the people you already have right now instead of pinning all your hopes on somebody that Scotty's going to beam down from the Enterprise? Maybe the person you need has been right under your nose all along, and you haven't seen what they could do.
Or maybe you need to look again at your money and your resources, and find if there's a creative way to use what you already have instead of waiting for more. Maybe the answer you've been looking for, praying for is right there in the resources you already have if you just used them differently. Or look at yourself. Maybe you're the answer to your prayer. Maybe God wants you to do what you've been praying for somebody else to do.
Our ministry started in New York years ago when a young woman came up to me and said, "Ron, I've been praying for a year for somebody to be the first Youth For Christ staff worker." She said, "You know what? I think it's me." The answer was right under her nose.
Yeah, maybe you're the answer to your own prayer. Maybe God is leading you to stop doing something or to start doing something. You're just not obeying, you're hoping for something easy. Quit running around looking for an answer. Stand back! Maybe you've got it. Maybe the answer is right in front of you.

March 12, 2025 Getting Passengers Off the Fatal Flight - #9958

Back when I was flying a great deal, people would often ask me where I lived, and I would frequently answer with the name of the airline I flew on the most. Now, when I hear of airplane crashes and disasters, it kind of hits me personally. I think it does anybody who has been a frequent flyer. Whether you're a flyer or not, though, there are images of certain airline tragedies that kind of forever imprint on your memory. One of those for me was the ValuJet crash in the everglades. It's been a number of years now, but the entire plane and all its passengers just vanished in the swamp.
But to one man, there's another image related to that crash. According to one news report, he used his I.D. to help his friend purchase his ticket for that flight. That friend didn't have sufficient I.D. with him at the time. And the man who bought the ticket watched his friend and all those other passengers boarding. The man who bought the ticket simply said, "I cannot forget their faces." And then he was quoted as saying, "If only there had been some signs of what was going to happen. If only I had known to warn them."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Getting Passengers Off the Fatal Flight."
Now, if anyone had a warning of what would have happened to that fatal flight, you know they would have done everything possible to keep the passengers from going. But seldom do we have such a warning. When it comes to when the people around us will go into eternity, we have all the signs, all the warning we need. God tells us in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, "Those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord."
Without the Savior, no one we know is going to be able to get to heaven. That means hell. Now, our word for today from the Word of God, Proverbs 24:11 - "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?"
See, if you know people on a flight that leads to death, your responsibility is obvious. Rescue them! But if you look around at most of Jesus' followers today, we're not in a rescue mode. There's little sense of the life-or-death urgency about introducing those around us to Jesus. We need to ask, "Do we really believe the people we know will be lost forever if they don't know Christ? Do we really believe they're spiritually dying?"
Someone suggested to me recently, they called Christians practical Universalists. Now, in theological circles, a Universalist basically is someone who believes that everyone will eventually make it with Christ or not. Practical Universalists probably don't believe that, they believe, as the Bible teaches, that people must have the Savior to go to heaven; they just don't act like it. They act like the people who think that folks are going to make it without Jesus. Yet the Bible says, "There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Without the man who died to pay for our sins, we'll have to pay for them.
What about the people you live with, you live close to, the people you work with, you go to school with? You see some of those faces? The Bible clearly teaches that sin has an eternal death penalty and that Jesus and only Jesus died to pay that death penalty. And that we will pay that death penalty for our sins if we don't accept the payment Jesus made because of His love for us.
The people around you are on a flight that ends in eternal death and you and I have the information that can save them. Pretty clear, our responsibility, huh? "Rescue those who are being led away to death." Begin to pray daily by name with life-or-death passion for the people around you. Ask God for the words and the opportunity to tell them about your Jesus.
You know what God's Word says, and He's the final word. You know where the Christ-less flight is headed. You can see their faces. Be the one who gets them off that fatal flight and onto the one that will take them to eternal life.

March 10, 2025 Never Meant To Drive - #9956

It was quite a few years ago when I heard about this young man on Long Island who took his sister for a ride in the family car. You say, "Oh, big deal." Well, it's no big deal except that the boy was five years old. Yes, it's true! His mother was sick in bed and his little sister said, "I want to go to New York City." So he crawled up on top of the refrigerator, got his mother's car keys out of her purse, took his sister out, belted her in, put on his seat belt, and turned on the car. It's crazy but it's true! He drove to a stop light and stopped. Then he moved forward when he was supposed to.
Finally a policeman became involved. He had just seen a driverless car go by! So, he drove up behind it and turned on the siren. As soon as the young boy heard the siren he pulled the car over very neatly, got out and talked to the officer. It was pretty incredible. And fortunately, he didn't go very far.
This little amusing incident could have turned into a horrible tragedy. A five-year-old child has no business driving, and neither do you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Never Meant To Drive."
The Apostle Paul's lifelong struggle finally led him through some of the most intense pressure of his life. And then he let go, and he learned a liberating lesson. It's recorded for us in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 1. I'll begin reading at verse 8. He talks about "the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia." "We were under great pressure..." Maybe you can relate to some of this. "...far beyond our ability to endure, so we despaired even of life. Indeed in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened..." Now, he's found out the reason for it all, "...this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God."
Paul says, "I finally turned over the wheel to Jesus." You and I were never meant to drive just like that little five-year-old boy. Oh, we'll give God a lot. We'll give Him time, we'll give Him money, we'll give Him our talents, we'll give Him attendance at His meetings, we'll give Him service, and we'll hold offices. We'll give Him everything but control; that's the last bastion. Who's really in charge? For Paul there had to be some dents, some damage, some crashes until he finally relinquished control; until he said, "I quit relying on me, it is totally up to You, Lord."
We keep trying to negotiate a partnership with God, and God insists on nothing less than ownership. If you could see your life as God sees it, you might see this little guy or girl (that's you or me) trying to see over the steering wheel of your life, doing your best to drive. You can pull it off for a little while, but you know ultimately you're going to crash. In fact, maybe things are even swerving a little bit right now. Maybe you can hear the siren behind you. Maybe you're busy serving the Lord. Paul was. Maybe you know God's Word. Paul sure did. Maybe you've really proclaimed Christ as your Lord. Well, Paul had. But Paul also was still relying on his own strength, and education, and gifts, and brilliance. Thirty years in, he finally learned to really turn over the wheel fully to the Lord Jesus.
How many crashes will it take before you realize you really are doing the driving and that you were never meant to? He's calling you to a deeper "yieldedness" than you've ever allowed before. And it could be that you have never even considered giving Jesus the wheel of your life. The Bible says that sin really is us running our life instead of God running it; hijacking it from the One who gave it to us. Jesus went to a cross to make it possible for you to have every sin of your life forgiven and for Him to take your life where it was created to go.
Maybe you've never surrendered the wheel to Him. Why try to drive any longer? Tell Him today, "I'm not driving any more, Jesus. You are. From now on, I am Yours." Our website will help you know you belong to Him, finally. Go to ANewStory.com.
Life becomes a whole lot safer when you relinquish that steering wheel that you've been clenching so tightly and so long. You're a whole lot safer when you're the passenger and Jesus is driving.

March 7, 2025 Fortifying Your Weak Spot - #9955

When our kids were growing up we occasionally had our own personal emergency room at our house! Our youngest son dislocated his ankle in football, so the doctor put an air cast on his ankle for about six weeks for support. Oh, and then the oldest son, yeah he had surgery for a knee injury that he got in sports. So they recommended that he wear a knee brace whenever he played a game where he had to pivot much. So, let's see. You've got your ankle cast; you've got your knee brace. It's all based on a simple principle that prevents further injury.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fortifying Your Weak Spot."
Okay, our word for today from the Word of God is from Luke 4 where Jesus is in the desert. "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 on bread alone.'" And at that point He is quoting a Scripture that He has obviously memorized from Deuteronomy 8:3.
Okay, where was Jesus' weak spot there in the wilderness? Well, obviously after 40 days, it was His need for food. Where did the Devil aim his temptation? Well, at Jesus' need for food, of course. And you notice Jesus' response - a verse that directly addresses the point where He was vulnerable. It's about bread. It's about food. Basically a verse that says, "Life is bigger than food." Okay, I've got a feeling that wasn't the first time Jesus said that verse. I have a feeling that during those days of fasting, He'd been drawing strength from that verse frequently. It's like a brace on a weakened knee - He applied Scripture to the area where He would tend to be weak.
Now, unlike what the four spiritual laws say about God, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," the Devil hates you and has a terrible plan for your life. He's sized up that vulnerable spot, and he's going to try to bring you down with that. So it's pretty important that you size it up, or you're going to be easy prey. Jesus knew his vulnerable spot, and He braced it with Scripture; specific Scripture that dealt with that specific issue. If the Devil is going to bring you down, what weakness do you think he'll use? Oh, you probably know. He's pushed that button many times. It's worked all too often. See, it's important for you to find Scripture that gives you God's view on your weak spot. Memorize it; repeat it to yourself frequently, not just when you're under attack. I think that's what Jesus did.
Re-program yourself by thinking Scripture where you usually think sin, and then hammer the Devil with God's Word and a response that is biblical whenever temptation comes. Temptation comes to the door, God's Word answers it. The Devil can't stand a biblical response.
So, where is the hole in your armor; that weak spot? Is it an old bitterness, maybe the tendency to think you're worthless, your sexual desires, maybe your thought life, tending to worry a lot, tending to run ahead of God. The need to be in control all the time. You know what it is. You've lived with that weakness for a long time; now it's time to cover it, fortify it with Scripture.
You're ready for the Devil when you keep covering your weak spot with God's Word about it. That's a strong spiritual brace that will help you avoid any further injury. So, support that weak spot with the strength of words from God.

March 6, 2025 Safe in Any Storm - #9954

I'll always remember, it was Friday in August. All of us who were landing at O'Hare Airport in Chicago that day had plans, and schedules, and things we had to do, and places we had to be. But as far as I know, none of us made it. That day Chicago had a record-breaking rain storm followed by massive flooding. And since there's only one viaduct that goes into O'Hare Airport and out, it had four feet of water. O'Hare became an island. Welcome to Camp O'Hare! It was flooded closed.
Well, many people spent the day trying to find either a way out, which didn't work very well, or a place to spend the night, but virtually no one did what they'd planned to do that day, including me, all because of one storm. No matter how rich you were or how poor, or how powerful or insignificant, how young, how old, suddenly your destiny was out of your control. You know, storms always have that effect.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Safe in Any Storm."
Our word for today from the Word of God is going to come from the sometimes obscure book of Nahum, one of those Minor Prophets in the Old Testament. Minor because the book is short, not because what they have to say is minor. Remember as we look at this verse that life's hard times are often portrayed in scripture as storms, and that's appropriate because it speaks of situations where you can no longer control your outcome.
That's what storms in our life - what they do to us. Medical storms, financial storms, family storms; maybe that's the kind of situation you're in right now. Maybe in your business, it's an out-of-control time. Maybe your marriage, maybe it's one of your children, maybe medically. Well, listen to our word for today from the Word of God. Nahum 1:3 - "The Lord is great in power. He has His way in the whirlwind and the storm."
Wow! It seems like the storm is having its way. It seems like everything's out-of-control. But God reassures us here that even when it appears that things are out-of-control, God is having His way. Paul experienced that in the incident recorded in Acts 27. As a prisoner on a ship that was taking him to Rome where he was to witness for Christ, for two weeks they sailed from Israel and they were in this violent storm, they couldn't see the sun, the moon, the stars. They didn't know where they were. They were blown way off course, they thought, and finally they went aground two weeks later. And much to their surprise, they landed on the Island of Malta, very close to Italy - their destination.
In other words, all the time they had apparently been out-of-control, they were actually right on course. So are you. See, that's what the Old Testament prophet meant. The storm may have made things out of your control, but they're in God's control. He often teaches us through those storms how much we need Him; how much we can rely on Him.
Maybe right now the winds in your life are intensifying, storm warnings are up, the flood of your frustration is rising. You're powerless to do anything about it. Let me assure you because of what God has said about storms, everything is under control. "The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and the storm." And it is often the storm that He uses to blow us home to the harbor we were made for.
The Bible says in Hebrews 6:19, speaking of Jesus, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul firm and secure." And it often is not until things are out of our control that we understand we were never meant to run our lives. We were created by Jesus, for Jesus. He died to bring us back to Him, and maybe He is right now using your storm to blow you right into His loving arms.
If you want to begin a relationship with Him, if you never have, and find the one safe place there really is, will you go to our website and let me show you, there, how you can begin your relationship with Him. That's ANewStory.com.
See, if you let God navigate, you'll find that all the time you've been blown around, you were actually storming home.

March 5, 2025 The Surprising Simplicity of Serving Christ - #9953

I wonder if someday I'm going to be banned from restaurants. I've been known to give the help a hard time. Now, believe me, that's not what I'm trying to do. And if you're a waiter or a waitress, don't write a nasty letter to me. I just figure that it can get pretty boring to be a server at a restaurant. I mean sometimes people just start to treat them like they're part of the menu or like a vending machine. I decide that I think they're people and I think we can have fun.
So, I've been known to go out to lunch with somebody and I'll tell them, "Oh by the way, he just moved her from another country and doesn't speak English." And so we have a lot of fun! Of course they start ordering in English.
I love to tell the waitress or the waiter, "Hey, you're a great cook!" And they look at me and say, "uh, I...I didn't cook it." In fact I literally have been told, "I didn't cook it, I just serve it." Yeah, I knew that.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Surprising Simplicity of Serving Christ."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Corinthians 3:5. Here's what Paul says about himself and another great Christian leader of that time, Apollos. "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe - as the Lord has assigned to each his task." Now, I'm sure there were people who would have said, "Oh, Paul got me to Christ." "Apollos got me to Christ." Paul said, "No, I didn't. It wasn't from me. It was through me." That's the power of prepositions. "We are only servants through whom, not by whom, not from whom. Only through whom you came to believe."
What is it that qualifies me to visit with you daily by radio like this? These thoughts don't come from me; they come through me. That's all. It's like that server in the restaurant. It's not her recipe, it's not her effort. She just delivers what someone else has worked on; something that someone else has made possible.
That's what Jesus was saying when He said, "I am the vine. You are the branches." The branch doesn't produce the fruit. It looks like it's producing the fruit, but it comes from the vine through the branches. You know what that means to you? There are things that you can risk doing for your Lord that you thought you could not do, that were too much for you.
You can dare to open your mouth about Jesus. You can dare to step up to that leadership role He's calling you to. You could dare to start that Christian group or Bible study, or prayer fellowship. You could dare to say "yes" to an assignment for the Lord that you've been saying "no" to. Why? Because the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, "The One who calls you will do it." And then Philippians 2:13 - "It is God who works in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure." God will give you the words. God will give you the insight. God will give you the plan. He'll give you the message. He'll give you the strength.
See, any true work for Christ is Christ doing the work through you, not you doing the work for Him. Through - that's the preposition that opens up your life to all kinds of powerful new possibilities. It only comes through you. Just be available.
There are a lot of meals I would have never eaten in a restaurant if it had been up to the waiter or the waitress to grow the food and prepare the food. But there was something they could do. They could deliver it. That's what Paul says we are; we're just "servants." The ones who deliver what God has prepared. That's what God's asking you to do - to deliver to hungry lives what He has prepared for them. Look, you could serve it couldn't you?

March 4, 2025 Why Amazing Grace is Amazing - #9952

There are lots of people digging into their family tree these days. In fact, we've done some of our own. A lot of digging around to find out where your roots are. You know, where my grandfather came from and my great grandfather, and which king or famous person I'm descended from. Of course I would be descended from someone famous, right?
Some people do find out that they are related to royalty, and then other people find out some embarrassment in their family tree - the old horse thief, you know, that they'd rather not talk about. For 2,000 years God has been developing and protecting a line for His Son to come through, and there are in that family tree some eyebrow raisers.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Amazing Grace is Amazing."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God actually comes right out of the Christmas Story. It's the story of God coming to earth really and it's found in Matthew 1. Now, you may or may not be aware that the story of God coming to earth actually begins with a genealogy; a list of Jesus' family tree. God's been preparing this line for the Messiah; it's the most special family tree in the history of planet earth. He goes down a long list of names that starts here with Abraham, works its way on down, and I'll just read a couple of them to you.
"Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth," etc. You probably don't want to hear a whole lot more of that. But all of a sudden you stop and your eye goes back and you say, "Rahab? What's she doing in Jesus' family tree?" Now, in most of this genealogy only the father is mentioned. It's only in rare cases where God wants to make a special point of it that He includes the mother. Why Rahab?
Now, if you remember your Old Testament a little bit, some years before, the Israelites were preparing to conquer the land of Canaan. God sent in a couple of spies and they went to the city of Jericho and they found one home where they were taken in to hide, and it turned out it was the home of Rahab - the prostitute. She turned out to be the prostitute who gave herself to the Jewish God for the rest of her life.
But these aren't the kind of people you talk about in your family tree - these are the ones you cover up. This isn't the king! And yet God makes it a point to include her. You see, there's a hidden message here. A message that Jesus is for people who know they need forgiving and who know that God's grace has no limits. God doesn't use the word deserve when it comes to salvation and a relationship with Him. None of us deserves to be in His family tree. It's not just Rahab that's a surprise - what is Ron Hutchcraft doing in God's family? What are you doing there?
We're sinners who must always find grace to be "Amazing grace - how sweet the sound." The hymn says, "I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me...a sinner condemned, unclean." I hope today you still find God's grace amazing, and that you haven't been around so long that you think you belong in God's family because you deserve it. There is no one listening today who cannot be forgiven by Him. After all, Rahab was. And there is no person who doesn't still need His amazing grace today.
But maybe you've never experienced that grace for yourself. Oh, you've heard that song a lot of times - Amazing Grace. It says, "I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." But today, how appropriate. The God who will forgive all those who come to Him, holds out His hand to you and says, "Grab My hand, my child." His Son died to pay the penalty that you deserve. And God can be a forgiver because of the death of His Son on a cross. And, because His Son walked out of His grave under His own power, what began in a manger ended on a cross, and culminated with a resurrection and becomes personal for you when you let this Jesus be the forgiver of your sins.
That's the day you're welcomed into His family. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I want You to be my personal Savior from my personal sin."
Go to our website and find out there how you can be sure you belong to Him. Just go to ANewStory.com. Because the story of Rahab tells us that there is no one who He will not welcome into the family of God.

February 28, 2025 Earthquake Hope - #9950

Stranded on the highest mountain on earth. Or buried beneath the rubble of a shattered hotel.
After the earthquake that rocked that mountain kingdom of Nepal, thousands of people lost their lives. Many more found their world, their homes, actually their lives wiped away.
There were some who survived the quake, but they faced the prospect of dying in the aftermath. Like those climbers on Mt. Everest, trapped on the mountain by massive avalanches. Or that 27-year-old man, lying amidst the stench of dead bodies, trapped for 82 hours under mountains of concrete.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Earthquake Hope."
One six-letter word. That was the difference between life and death for the men on the mountain and the man in the rubble.
Rescue. That's the "hope" word that we keep hearing in the heartbreaking news from great disasters all over the world.
In this one, 18 climbers died when part of Everest collapsed on their base camp. There were 140 surviving climbers, but when they tried to go down through the escape route, it was impossibly blocked by fallen rocks. And as time passed, their food was running out; their water was running out.
And then the choppers came. One after another they landed somehow on that mountain, saved those climbers, taking out two at a time.
Then there was young Rishi. He was running out of hope, he was running out of life. Beneath that collapsed hotel. Then, after ten hours of digging through concrete, the rescuers broke through. Rishi is alive...the climbers were alive...because the rescuers came.
Hope in Nepal depended on - as it is in so many disasters - a rescuer from above.
And that's where the news intersects my life and yours. Because hope for me depended on a rescuer from above. At the spiritual crossroads of my life.
I was trapped in a place where I would have died. Except my Rescuer came. His name is Jesus. The One called "Savior" by millions of people around the world. That's Savior as in Rescuer.
In fact, the Bible says in our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 1:3, "Jesus gave His life for our sins...in order to rescue us." Not to start a religion. Not to be an example or a teacher. But to rescue us. So, it isn't about a religion, called Christianity, it's about a rescuer named Jesus. He came to rescue us at the cost of His life.
Because I - and a world of folks like me - was facing spiritual death for dethroning God in my life. Letting Him run the universe while I ran me. His Book makes the outcome of those sinful choices, unmistakable. It says, "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:3). Here, a life without meaning. Hereafter, an eternity without hope.
But, thank God, the Rescuer came! From above. To a cross. To die for my sin and yours so we don't have to. Amazingly, in the words of Galatians 2:20 in the Bible, "He loved me and gave Himself for me." First person singular. The death of Christ on the cross for my sins.
Then He blasted out of His grave three days later. To reach into my rubble. To reach into your rubble. To save us from certain spiritual death.
If you're ready to make The Rescuer your personal Rescuer from your sin, if you want to begin this life-saving, eternity-changing relationship with Jesus, I invite you to tell Him right now, "Jesus, I'm yours." And go to our website where you can get this confirmed and be sure you belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com.
There was a day that Jesus reached for me. This may be the day He is reaching for you. Would you grab His nail-scarred hand, my friend? You will be safe. Forever.

February 26, 2025 Your Life's Most Memorable Legacy - #9948

Ronald Reagan led one of the most extraordinary lives of the 20th Century - a life which he sadly and progressively forgot in the last years of his life. His long battle with Alzheimer's Disease acted like a cruel eraser. It removed recollections of what he had done and even who he was. After Ronald Reagan's death, we learned a lot more about what happened during his long journey into darkness. Memory of his years in Hollywood just disappeared, and then he couldn't remember being Governor of California, and ultimately he lost all that had happened in his years of being President of the United States. But one memory stayed alive almost until the end. In the office that Nancy Reagan set up for him, there was a picture on the wall, it was a picture of the Rock River in Illinois. When visitors would ask him about it, after most of his life was there no more, he would brighten and he'd say, "Oh, that's where I was a lifeguard when I was 17. That's where I saved 77 lives!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Life's Most Memorable Legacy."
After all was said and done, the one thing Ronald Reagan could remember about his life was the lives he saved. But then, there's nothing about your life that's more worth remembering. No matter how many or how few, no matter how large or how small your life accomplishments have been, that's your greatest legacy. There's nothing more heroic, there's nothing more meaningful than being someone's difference between life and death - especially if it's eternal life or death.
Our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 11:30 tells us what the legacy of your life and mine ought to be. God says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise." What you should have to show for the one life you've lived is a trail of life - people whose souls you have helped move from sin's death penalty to the eternal life that can only be found at Jesus' cross.
There's a stretch of beach that God has assigned to each of us who belongs to Him. There's a stretch of beach where He's assigned you to be His lifeguard - the one who's responsible to do all you can to rescue the people around you who will die spiritually unless someone helps them get to Jesus. You may be looking around and saying, "Me? Surely God must have someone better than me to help these people get to heaven?"
Stop looking around. You're the one He's put in their lives. Not some highly trained spiritual professional, not some professional God salesman, not someone with a more outgoing personality, not someone who's got it more together than you have. Your Savior decided you were the person they needed as their link to Him.
Look, if you're like most of us, your fear has kept you from actively trying to introduce them to Jesus. Fear is actually from one thing: it's all about me. It's focusing on ourselves - how I'm going to look, what they'll think about me - instead of focusing on what might happen to them if we don't try to tell them.
Maybe you've been preoccupied with goals and accomplishments that won't even last for your lifetime, let alone forever. But God says those who lead many to righteousness will "shine like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:3). People in heaven because you cared - there's nothing you can do in this life that can even come close to that as a legacy. Lives saved forever.
The place where you work, the activities you're involved in, the school you attend, the neighborhood you live in, the people who keep showing up in your life; they are the lives at stake on your stretch of the beach. Don't fail the Savior who died for them by letting them live and die without Him because of your silence. Don't fail them by not showing them the difference Jesus makes; by not telling them what Jesus did for them on the cross.
See, you are their chance at Jesus. You're their chance at heaven.

February 25, 2025 The Tapestry And The Threads - #9947

Okay, let's do a little word association here, you ready? Persian. Ah...cat? Well, you might have thought of cat. For me, when I hear the word Persian...I think rug. I've never owned one and I probably never will, but I've sure seen them. And you know it's much more than a carpet. It's a work of art! Years ago Amy Carmichael wrote about the incredible process that produces these masterpieces. Try to picture this. There are two sets of workmen sitting on a bench on one side of the carpet which is hanging from a beam up above. The designer stands on the other side, he's holding a pattern in his hand and he directs the workers by calling across to them exactly what they're to do next. It's like a chant actually. And then the workman chants back to the designer the word that he's heard, verifying that order. Then the workman cuts from whatever bobbin has been ordered and he pushes that thread through the carpet warp and he knots it. All he can see is that thread. He sees nothing of the pattern until the caret is finished. That's all in the designer's hands. But when he finally sees what all these commands and all these threads have made, wow!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Tapestry And The Threads."
Take a peek at what The Designer is up to...our word for today from the Word of God, Romans 8:28, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to his purpose." Now, in His hands is the pattern - what the masterpiece will look like when it's finished and it's beautiful. But He's the only one that can see that whole pattern. He said in Jeremiah "You know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for evil." And the Bible says, "As for God, His way is perfect." Oh, it's going to be beautiful, it's going to be good. He's working out the eternal tapestry for your life. But we're just like those workmen, we can't see the pattern. All we see is the next thread. Our job, Romans 8:14, says, "Those who are led by the spirit of God, are the sons of God." Our job is to be led. How? Psalm 119:133 gives us a clue, "Direct my footsteps according to your Word." The next step, the next thread...show me from your Word where my next step is.
The designer's on the other side giving directions that will bring me one step, one thread closer to the grand design. Some of those threads are dark, some don't make sense, some don't seem to fit the pattern, some look wrong to me, but I'm just a workman. My job is to trust the designer, not to try to understand every order. Those Persian workers choose nothing; they leave every choice to the designer. Their responsibility is simply to listen and obey, and so is ours.
Today is another thread in the tapestry. Your mission, fellow weaver, is to check with the Lord frequently, consult His Word faithfully, listen for His inner Spirit promptings regularly. It's not your mission to know or to understand where all this is going. But the grand, macro will of God for your earth journey is made up of thousands of micro wills, thousands of little obediences, "Go there, call this person, write this, listen to this, take this step, read this verse." Threads that ultimately create the tapestry.
Occasionally God will let you stand back from your weaving to see a piece of the grand design and when you've had a glimpse of what He's making, it's been incredible, hasn't it? But, most days, the designer asks you to just keep weaving those threads. Some you like, some you don't like, some you're thankful for, some you would never choose. But, keep listening, keep doing what the designer says. One day you will stand back with the Master Designer. You will see the masterpiece that you have woven together with His direction and your faithful obediences.

February 24, 2025 Stopped By a Storm - #9946

Every New York television station you turned to had the same bold graphic, "Blizzard of '96." I still remember it. It was barely 1996; we were only six days into the new year when anywhere between 20-30 inches of snow unloaded on the Metropolitan New York area. It was like a mega-ton snow bomb hit the area, and it literally drove the Big Apple to its knees.
This is a city that doesn't shut down...except for a monster storm like this. The schools were closed for an almost unprecedented two days. City workers were told not to come in and bridges to the city were closed. Some of the busiest streets in the world were bare except for an occasional snow plow or emergency vehicle that went by. The trains couldn't make it because snow had choked the tracks. Major sporting events? They 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 take care of the problem. The man who never stopped was stopped that day by a sudden storm.
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 seems 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. Just go to 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." And it was calm.

February 21, 2025 Mountain Shrinking - #9945

I always ask for a window seat on the airplane. Usually aisle seats are more popular because you can stretch your legs a little more. Mine are so short they have plenty of room, no matter where I am. And you can get up when you want to, and when you don't want to, because the two guys on the inside want to get out. Actually, I always have so much to get done during a flight that I like to just set up a little nest there by the window where I can work without getting up or passing food. Unfortunately, I'm so busy sometimes I miss some things that are worth looking at out my window, which is right there. I was flying recently with one of our team members and I was really missing the beautiful scenery of the rocky mountains below me; I didn't even think about them being there. My colleague got my attention, not by reaching over and pointing and shouting, "Hey, look at those mountains, man!" No, he did it with a simple little observation. He said, "You know, mountains sure look a lot smaller from this perspective, don't they?" And I took a good look.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Mountain Shrinking."
Growing up in flat old Illinois, the Rocky Mountains looked pretty impressive - pretty huge to me. Some of them are over 14,000 feet high! But, even the biggest ones don't look all that big when you're able to look at them from above. It can be that way with other mountains, too. Like the mountain you're facing right now. Maybe the finances look huge, or the obstacles, or the opposition, that medical situation, or maybe what's happening at work, or at school, or at home, or in a relationship. Looking up at it, it's enough to overwhelm you! You need to look at that mountain from above.
That's what they did in our word for today from the Word of God. In Acts 4, the early Christians have been told not to preach anymore about Jesus. The people telling them that are not lightweights. These are the leaders of their nation - the people who arranged for the execution of Jesus. In a sense they have the power of life or death. So, when they say, "or else!" they mean it! They can do some serious damage.
Our word for today from the Word of God begins in Acts 4:24, speaking of the first Christians. It says, "When they heard this they raised their voices together in prayer to God. 'Sovereign Lord,' they said, 'you made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and everything in them...they did what your power and your will had decided beforehand.'" They're speaking now of the people who executed Jesus. And then they go on, "Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your Word with great boldness." Boy, they are going totally against the opposition. When they started praying, they were looking up at a mountain that looked huge. By the time they finished praying they were looking down on their mountain and it looked a whole lot smaller. Why? Because they chose to focus on the size of their God, rather than the size of their problem.
You may say, "Well, I pray about it but it doesn't help." That might be because you don't remember who it is you are praying to - who you're with when you pray! This is the Sovereign Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. He's the Creator of everything and everyone in your situation. He's the One whose power and will cannot be thwarted - even in the crucifixion of Jesus. In other words, when you pray, you are standing in the throne room from which those 100 billion galaxies are governed. And when you look at a mountain from the throne room of God, it looks like an ant hill!
The Bible says what happened after this prayer time. It tells us the early Christians "were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." They went out and they rocked their world! The mountains shrank when they prayed and they were intimidated no more! You've been looking at your mountain from down below long enough haven't you? In prayer, in the throne room of God, get above that mountain and see how small it is compared to the Lord who you have fighting for you.

February 20, 2025 The Top of Life's Puzzle Box - #9944

We were trying to teach some young leaders the importance of teamwork. One of the exercises I used was to have them put together a puzzle. (I thought it was a bright idea.) You tear off a page of a magazine, tear it into pieces, dump it into the middle of each small group, and see who could put their pictures together first. It didn't work too well. See, I forgot one little thing. I forgot to give them a copy of the complete picture so they could see what it should look like when it was all together. Duh! Now, I've tried to work on one of those big, many-pieces puzzles myself, and I've had the same frustration because I didn't know where the top of the puzzle box was. It was really hard to put the pieces together when the complete picture wasn't there.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Top of Life's Puzzle Box."
Now, I'm not the first person to describe life being like a puzzle. There are so many pieces; family pieces, friend pieces, children pieces, career pieces; the pieces of school, work, success, failure. The nagging questions like, "Who am I?" "Where am I going?" "What do all these pieces mean?" "What are they supposed to make?"
Well, I found the top of the box. It's in God's book, the Bible, found in Colossians 1:16 - "All things were created by Him and for Him." Now, that's speaking of Jesus Christ. And there are six powerful words there; words that can finally pull all those pieces together, "Created by Him and for Him."
You can begin to put the pieces together when you put your name in that verse. I'll leave a blank. "______ was created by Jesus and for Jesus." So you want to find out how all those pieces make sense? There's going to be a terrible hole in your heart until you have Jesus, because He's the one our heart was created for. No earth thing, no earth person, no earth achievement can fill it.
You may have some great pieces in your life, or some pretty scared and fading pieces. But life is still powerless and disconnected, with often meaningless pieces in front of you. You need the whole picture, and our Creator has told us in that statement from the Bible what that is. He gave His only Son, Jesus, because that relationship that we were made by and for is missing in our lives because we've built a wall between us and our Creator by doing life our way instead of His way, pushed Him to the edge.
You know why our life seems so disconnected and confused? We're created to live for Him and we've chosen to live for us. We've run our own lives when our Creator was supposed to. And according to the Bible, "Your sins have separated you from your God." He's the only one who knows why you're here. He put you here. The only One who has the love you're looking for your whole life is on the other side of a wall. That wall's got a name. It's called sin. No wonder things aren't adding up. We're stuck with the pieces, but we're cut off from the whole picture.
But this statement out of the Bible "created by Him and for Him" tells us where the hope is for things to finally come together. "He forgave us all our sin" it says. He nailed our sins... my sins to His cross. It was our sin and its death penalty that has kept us from our Creator. And it was all those sins that God sent His Son to die for on that cross.
The pieces of your life finally start to fit together when you come to that cross and say, "Jesus, for me." In simple faith you say, "Lord, it's for me, and I want you and your forgiveness for me." If you've never done that; if you're ready to meet the One that you were made by and made for, I invite you to visit our website as soon as you can - ANewStory.com - and find out there how to be sure you belong to Him.
It's like seeing the top of life's puzzle box and the pieces finally come together. You're very, very close to finding the reason you were born, and finding the person you were born for.

February 19, 2025 Following The People or Leading The People - #9943

When historian Stephen Ambrose wrote the bestseller about their amazing adventure, he appropriately titled it Undaunted Courage. It's one of the many accounts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the daring group who explored America's new Louisiana Purchase 200 years ago. As they made their way along the Missouri River, traveling from St. Louis all the way to the Pacific Ocean, most every bend in the river revealed sights and wildlife that no white man had ever seen. One of the many critical moments on their two-year expedition was the point in Montana where they encountered a fork in the Missouri River. There was no map to guide them, and a wrong choice could exhaust their resources for a very long journey. The river to the right was muddy like the Missouri had been. The crew wanted to go that way. But Captain Lewis and Captain Clark assessed the situation, and led their reluctant men down the left fork. When the expedition reached the massive waterfalls that Indian friends had told them they would find, they all knew they had chosen the right way.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Following The People or Leading The People."
The captains on the Lewis and Clark Expedition had the courage and conviction to lead their crew where the crew didn't think they should go. That's called leadership. And some people you're responsible for may need you to be leading them with that kind of courage right now.
See, the troops are often wrong about which way to go. They were in Moses' day when the majority said it was too dangerous to go into the Promised Land. Two men exercised godly leadership that day, defying the popular opinion - Joshua and Caleb. And though the people refused to follow their lead, Joshua and Caleb were the only ones of their generation who did not die during the 40 years in the wilderness. And 40 years later, God gave Joshua the amazing assignment of leading His people into the land where Joshua had tried to take them before. Nehemiah steadfastly led a sometimes frightened, sometimes reluctant majority to stay on mission and finish the Jerusalem wall against overwhelming odds.
In Exodus 17, beginning with verse 4, our word for today from the Word of God, we find a revealing picture of what real, principled leadership requires - whether it's leading your family, your business, a church, a ministry, or any people who look to you. As usual, the Israelites were complaining and quarreling and grumbling against Moses. They're desperate for water, and there's none around. "Then Moses cried out to the Lord, 'What am I to do with these people? They are ready to stone me.' The Lord answered Moses, 'Walk on ahead of the people (listen to that!)...take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile. I will stand before you by the rock of Horeb. Strike the rock and water will come out.'" And Moses' leadership was again vindicated as water for a nation flowed from that rock.
That's the kind of leadership I hope you and I are prepared to give. Walk ahead of the people you're leading - you can't hear the Lord as long as you're listening to the crowd. You have to extricate yourself from the fray and get some perspective, get above the fray. Then cry out to God, "What am I to do with these people?" And listen for where He is headed and do what He says. Your job is to let God show you what He is up to, and then to join Him in what He's doing by obeying Him, and then leading the people in that direction even if another way seems right to them.
Don't follow your biases. Don't follow your own wisdom. Don't follow the people that you're supposed to be leading. Follow the Lord where He's going. When you lead with that kind of courage and that kind of conviction, you can take the people to their destiny instead of to a detour.

February 17, 2025 Stormproof Joy - #9941

I was at my friend Dave's house, meeting with a group of teenagers, and it happened. We had been eating together out on his porch when the sky suddenly turned really nasty. We hustled inside, just before the skies started dumping rain and thunder and lightning - big time thunder and lightning we're talking here. I wanted to continue our conversation under the dining room table, but no one wanted to join me there, so we went to the living room.
Now you may have heard that theory about the origin of the universe - the Big Bang. Well, we heard it right then and there. Not the one that started the universe supposedly, but the one that knocked all the lights out. That lightning bolt had knocked out all the electrical power in the whole area. But were we in total darkness? Oh, no. My friend Dave is a bright boy. After the last hurricane in their area, he installed some emergency lights on a battery-powered system. So we had lights; lights that reverted to internal power when everything else failed!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stormproof Joy."
The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk was a man who felt like all the lights had gone out. He was really struggling with events that he didn't like; he didn't understand. His book opens with him asking a question many of us have asked at one time or another, "How long, O Lord?" He was having a hard time waiting for God to do what He was going to do. Nothing was going the way that Habakkuk had hoped it would.
But his heart has totally changed by the end of the book. In Habakkuk 3:16 he says, "Yet I will wait patiently." He's taken hands off and he's finally quit trying to tell God how to run things. Now - and here's where he describes a situation like that stormy night in my friend's house when everything that might produce light has failed.
Verse 17 says, "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fail and the fields produce no crops (in a farming area, this is a description of total disaster), though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls." We are talking here about the total triumph of Murphy's Law. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. Does that sound familiar at all? All the reasons for being happy seem to have failed. The lights of joy have gone out. Oh?
Though all the external sources of joy have failed, Habakkuk concludes, "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength." This man of God says, "I've found a source of joy that is totally independent of how things are going; totally independent of my circumstances. I am anchoring myself to the Sovereign Lord who is totally in charge, whether it looks like it or not. I'm depending totally on my God who is my Savior in this situation; on my Lord who literally is my strength to handle this hard time."
We're talking Murphy-proof joy here - a light that stays on when all the external sources fail. And, as a result, "The Sovereign Lord enables me to go on to the heights." By carrying me through this disastrous time, God has put me on a high place where I have the perspective to see the big picture - to see my personal situation, my personal history through God's eyes.
So, if your joy is attached to your circumstances, when the storm knocks them out, you'll be in the dark. But if your joy is internally generated - from an unshakable relationship with your awesome, Sovereign Lord - then you have light that will be there when every other light fails.
It may be that a lot of lights have failed you in your life, and you have never found the source of joy that resides in you, not around you. That is Jesus Christ, who died to pay for every sin that keeps you out of God's love and out of God's kingdom, and out of God's family. If you'd like today to have that wall taken down and have Jesus move into the core of your very being with His unshakable peace and joy, would you go to our website and let us help you there find a simple path that will take you in a matter of minutes into a personal relationship with God. Just go to ANewStory.com. You'll find there, in Jesus, a joy you will never lose.

February 14, 2025 God of Galaxies, God of Our Grief - #9940

I really hate it when a five-year-old makes me feel dumb, especially when it's my grandson. I mean, he didn't mean to make me feel dumb. He didn't know he was making me feel dumb. But he is really smart, and he knew a lot about a lot! Like the solar system. He had the planets down cold along with all kinds of facts about the universe. Things I either have forgotten or never knew. Another thing our grandson was really mastering was numbers. Man, could he count! He was working on thousands, millions, billions, and his favorite quantity, a google! When it comes to our universe, he was never going to be able to count that high!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God of Galaxies, God of Our Grief."
With the discoveries of new high-tech explorers like NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, and the Hubble Telescope, we are learning some absolutely staggering new things about the universe we live in. They counted at one point over 200 billion galaxies and I think it's maybe a couple trillion now. When we look up in the sky at night, it's estimated that we can see maybe 9,000 stars. But it's estimated that the average number of stars in a single galaxy is actually 200 billion stars! Let's see: 200 billion stars times 200 billion galaxies... oh for heaven's sake, that's a mental meltdown.
If you think that the vastness of the universe is amazing, fasten your seatbelt for something much more amazing. It's in Psalm 147:4, our word for today from the Word of God. It says of God, "He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name." What? I can't even remember the names of all the people I've met! But God calls each of the 200 billion stars in 200 billion galaxies by name!
Isaiah 40:26 says, "Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." Not only does He number all the stars and name all the stars, but He knows when any star goes out!
In the verse just before the one that says God numbers and names the stars, the Bible shows something else amazing about Him. It says, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Wow! This God who gives personal attention to countless billions of stars cares about your broken heart! He stands ready to heal what's broken in your life with the power that rules this mighty universe. Wow!
You may have felt very unnoticed and very insignificant in your life, but not to the most powerful person in the universe. He knows you, He cares about your wounds, He deeply, deeply loves you. For this awesome God left the throne room of heaven to come here to this little dirtball called earth on a rescue mission for you, to actually die on a cross for the sin you've done against Him, the sin that has cut you off from Him all these years. The sin no religion can remove. The Bible says of Him, He is "the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
And this very day, this awesome God may be knocking on the door of your heart. He's offering to come into your life with His infinite love, His infinite power - the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Why would you wait one more day to open up your heart to a Savior like this? Tell Him, "Jesus, it makes no sense for me to try to run my life any longer. I'm sorry for running a life you were supposed to run. I believe my only hope is your death for my sin on the cross. I turn from my sin today. I am yours, Lord Jesus!"
If you want to make this day your "Jesus day," will you experience the greatness of His love in your heart, the greatness of His power in your life, would you just reach out to Him today? We'd love to help you do that. That's why we're here. Go to our website ANewStory.com.
He's who you were made by. He's who you were made for, and this very day, my friend, you can belong to Him!

February 13, 2025 You Win, I Win - #9939

Joey's story really touched me. Joey ran in the handicapped Olympics that were held in conjunction with the Olympics in Seoul, Korea some years ago. Of course it was at a separate location, and in his particular track event there were only two people competing. Well, Joey got off to a good start, but of course because of his handicaps, his arms and legs were flailing and he wasn't very graceful. The announcer was heard to say at the beginning of the race, "I'm glad I'm not like Joey."
Well, as Joey took the lead, his coach kept yelling over the sounds of a crowd who were basically dispersing for the day, "Come on, Joey, you're a winner! You can do it!" And as Joey continued to increase his lead, he would chant and say, "Come on, Joey, that's it! You're a winner! You're a winner!" Well, Joey was doing better and better, and his coach's cheers were getting louder and louder.
And then suddenly Joey stopped in his tracks. What happened after that melted that announcer's heart, and actually mine too when I heard about it. Maybe you'll be like me. Maybe you'll want to be like Joey.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Win, I Win."
Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 9. We'll get to that after you hear what Joey did when he stopped in his tracks during the race. Much to the consternation of his coach, he turned to his opponent; the only other guy in the race and yelled, "Come on! You're a winner too! You're a winner too!" His coach ran out to the track and yelled, "No! You don't want him to be a winner! You're the winner!"
Well, no matter what the coach said, Joey waited for that other boy to catch up. And then they crossed the finish line together with their arms raised in victory. The announcer who had said at the beginning of the race, "Sure glad I'm not like Joey" at the end was heard to say, "I sure wish I was more like Joey" and so do I.
See, in a competitive, I've-got-to-make-it world; the real heroes are the people who make other people winners. Acts 9 tells us about Barnabas, who we are told was the one who when the disciples didn't know what to do with Saul of Tarsus - this former Christian Persecutor - it says, "Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles." And then we're told in Acts 11:25, "Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul." Then in chapter 13, God says, "Separate for me Barnabas and Saul for the work." And then by the end of that chapter it says, "Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue." Did you notice, Barnabas was in the front seat when we started here, and suddenly he's taken a back seat?
See, Barnabas? Well, he was like Joey. He didn't have to come out on top; he didn't care if they remembered his name. He just wanted others to win. Are you like that? Your Master was. He gave up His life for ours so we can win eternal life. Your friends need someone who's willing to put aside their own interests and to say, "You're a winner! You can make it!"
You see, your children need that kind of encouragement from you. They need to know not just what needs improving. We're really good as parents at talking about that. They need to know what they are doing right. "You can do it! You're a winner, my daughter! You're a winner, my son!" And the people at work starved for encouragement, the people at your church; again there could be a lot of shame, there could be a lot of guilt, there could be a lot of condemnation. A lot of people don't feel very important. A lot of people feel on the edges - excluded. Will you be the one who pushes other people to the front? You won't lose if you stop promoting you and start promoting others. You'll both win.
So, be like your Master. Enable someone else to be a winner. Look at the people close to you and quit trying to beat them, or use them, or to control them. Look at them and say, "Hey, if you win, I win."

February 12, 2025 Recycling Your Personal Garbage - #9938

It was exciting the first time I landed at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. There's the skyline of Manhattan out the window, and water all around us as the plane touched down on the runway. It was only after I had landed that my host in New York told me how they built LaGuardia Airport. He said, "Oh, they built it on the garbage of New York." Landfill in the bay created a base on which an airport could be built.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Recycling Your Personal Garbage."
It's amazing what they can do with garbage, isn't it? They recycle what seems vile and useless and they make it into something useful. That's the very kind of miracle God's been doing for people for a long time, and He wants to do it for you.
In a past summer God used the brokenness, the courage of a team of young Native Americans to bring unprecedented numbers of reservation young people to a commitment to Jesus Christ. I've seen it for like 32 summers. Some of the most powerful moments we experienced with our "On Eagles' Wings" team were when some of these young people, representing some 20 or more different tribes, stood in the middle of Indian villages and shared what they call their Hope Story. They poured out the pain of some horrific backgrounds, and then the incredible hope they have found in Jesus Christ. And kids who listen to no one listened to them, and over the summer hundreds gave themselves publicly to Jesus Christ.
One night, at a reservation outreach, Mary shared her heart-wrenching story of sexual abuse and the drugs and alcohol she used to sedate her pain. It's a story that's always hard for her to tell, but one which powerfully turns young people's hearts to Jesus. After telling her story at a second outreach, Mary came to me and said, "I can't believe how God uses the stuff I've been through to change so many lives."
That's it. Garbage, recycled by God, to help other people find life and find hope. In Genesis 50:20, our word for today from the Word of God, Joseph summarizes the perspective God has given him on the junk of his life. He's been nearly murdered by his brothers as a teenager, he's been sold into slavery, unjustly imprisoned in a foreign land, but ultimately rescued by God and made the assistant Pharaoh of Egypt, the second most powerful man in the world. In that position, his God-directed plans to prepare for a coming famine, saves many lives in Egypt and even the lives of the brothers who betrayed him many years before. No betrayal and he never would have been in Egypt. No Egypt and many would have died, possibly even his own family.
So here's Joseph's summary of it all, explained to his brothers: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish...the saving of many lives." See, that's what God wants to do with all the garbage of your life - make it into something that can touch and heal many other lives.
If you'll release all that junk, all that pain to Jesus, He alone can heal it and He alone can redeem it, and He'll make it into a magnet for some other hurting lives. If you harbor it, it's just going to make you hard and bitter and largely useless in a wounded world. But if you surrender all that garbage to Jesus, He can turn it into a beautiful compassion, because you know how it feels. And that will cause many other struggling people to identify with you, to open their hearts to you, to trust you, and perhaps to let you lead them to your Jesus. He's the One who was "a man of sorrows," the Bible says, "familiar with suffering" who "took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows." And the Bible says it is, "by His wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4-5).
Or in the words of a broken young native woman who has experienced His healing, He will "use the things you've been through to change so many lives."

February 11, 2025 When God's Messenger Messes Up the Message - #9937

There are five Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John - and the Christian. Most people never read the first four. That observation, made a long time ago, could not be more true today.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When God's Messenger Messes Up the Message."
If our world's getting darker, then something must be wrong with what folks are "reading," in the Christians - the messengers - they know. We talked about that yesterday. And then there must be something wrong with their message. No, wait! Actually, with the way they represent the message.
That message is, as the Bible says, the "good news about Jesus" - the love that died for us, the power that crushed death. So the problem sure isn't the message. But the Good News doesn't sound as good when it's obscured by three mistakes that we messengers make.
Number one, our tone. So many unbelievers I know use some unwelcome words to describe Christians. You may have heard them: "angry," "you're judgmental," "you're condemning." Did you know up to 80% of communication is tone? Not what we say, but how we say it. So is our tone drowning out our message?
Jesus' main man, Simon Peter, seemed to learn that over time. Earlier, he was brash, he was explosive. But later, he said we should "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone...with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15). Is that how people feel when they're with us - "gentled" and "respected?" Is it our message folks are rejecting or our tone? This isn't about winning an argument. It's about winning a heart.
Then secondly, our retreat may be part of the problem. Our message gets obscured. We Jesus-followers have one authority for the message that changes eternities. It's God's Word. "All Scripture" the Bible calls it. He says it is "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16).
But as our culture moves, Christians tend to move with it. Always keeping an apparently "righteous distance" but quickly ending up where non-believers were as little as ten years ago. And reinterpreting, rationalizing, diluting their source, the Bible, to justify their flexible "truth."
When we adjust our beliefs to placate our culture, we are no longer the choice Jesus called us to be. We're just an echo of our culture; losing the power of God's voice for some wimpy blend of Christianity and cultural appeasement.
As Martin Luther essentially stood against the whole world in his day, here was his anchor verse: "Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens" (Psalm 119:89). If it stands firm in the heavens, I can't change it on earth.
Thirdly, I think our message can be obscured by our baggage. The Gospel is compelling when it's just the Gospel. But some people never get to the Gospel because of the baggage we encumber it with: politics, church, denomination, culture wars, rules, condemning people's lifestyles.
It's all about Jesus. Jesus made it all about Jesus with His simple invitation, "Follow Me" (Mark 1:17). "Come to Me" (Matthew 11:28). "Trust in Me" (John 14:1). That's why Paul, Jesus' greatest ambassador, said in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "I resolved when I was among you to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Charles Spurgeon said the Cross is God's "magnificent magnet." Because "if they perceive, "Spurgeon said, "that He loved them and gave Himself for them, their hearts are stolen away."
That message, uncompromised, unencumbered, delivered with love, is what it has always been. According to Romans 1:16, "The power of God at work, saving everyone who believes." It's all about Jesus and His Cross. Stick to that my friend!
Messengers who act like Jesus, a message that's all about Jesus. That is a bright light on an otherwise dark and dangerous stretch of beach.

February 7, 2025 When a Man is a Man - #9935

The Indy 500 is probably the most exciting American automobile race of the year. I mean, you can almost feel the anticipation growing during the time trials and the qualifying events that lead up to the big race. And then, on the day itself, the engines rev, and the fans and the promoters cheer, and the cars make their first drive around that legendary track in Indianapolis. But there's really no race until that first lap.
They're all going the same speed, led by some guy with flags flying out of his car window. Who is that guy? He's the pace car, and everyone starts the race at the pace he sets. You know, everybody's race has a fellow like that.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When a Man is a Man."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God goes right back to the beginning of time - the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:6. "And when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it." Verse 8 says, "The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man, 'Where are you?'"
Notice here that God comes looking for the man. The woman sinned first, but He comes looking for the man and He addresses only him. Why is this? Because Adam is meant to be the pace car for Eve. See, God gave all the instructions about the tree to Adam. There is no record, though, of Adam giving them to Eve. Apparently Adam transmitted them to her, and I don't know if he got them across or not; she watered them down.
God seems to say, "If Eve is having a problem, I'm going to go looking to Adam for the reason. Adam, where are you?" Now, there's a principle here that really goes throughout creation: if Adam isn't right, then Eve isn't right. Maybe there's a man listening today who is wondering why his wife is nagging so much. Maybe it's because he isn't listening and she's doing everything she can to be heard, to get your attention.
Why is my wife so bossy? Maybe it's because you're not leading. Why is she so detached? Maybe you haven't had time for her. If the pace car isn't pacing, then Eve's car starts veering, and sliding, and going too fast or going too slow. If Adam isn't right, Cain and Abel aren't right either. The kids act out of either not enough love or not enough discipline, if Dad neglects his leadership in their lives. He's their pace car too. God just made it this way.
If Adam isn't right, the garden isn't right either. There's stress, conflict, confusion, decisions not made if the man who is supposed to be leading isn't doing it. Think about it today if you happen to be on Adam's side of the human race. Could some of your frustrations be because you've been neglecting your God-given responsibilities to your wife, to your children, or to be the spiritual leader?
See, throughout the Bible the buck always stops with the man. If the cars around you are speeding, and swerving, or crashing, take a good look at the pace car. That's you, man!

February 5, 2025 Why Together is Better Than Turf - #9933

Marty and his Great Puppy Adventure. That was the lunch time talk around our office when one of our team members became the proud owner of eight new puppies - thanks to his trusty dog, Sister. Each day seemed to bring a new episode; especially as Marty would compare the way of the puppy with the ways of people. He told us one day about trying to replenish their food. His intention was to load up their container with a lot of good things. But they really made it very difficult. See, the puppies were too busy fighting over two little pieces that were left in the corner.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Together is Better Than Turf."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 133:1, "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity...it is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows His blessing, even life forevermore."
Do you get what God's saying here? "I've got so many good things I want to give you." Notice when He gives it, when we "live together in unity." I wonder how often God feels a little like my friend Marty did. He wanted to pour out good things for the puppies, "I want to, but they're all getting in the way. You're too busy fighting over a little piece for yourself."
It happens in marriages. God wants to do some wonderful things in a couple, for a couple, but they're just focused on each defending their territory, getting their way in their marriage. God wants to bless some parents and children, but they're too busy staking out their ground, trying to again get their way. When people are just fighting for what they think are their rights, their way, the Lord just can't give them all He wants them to have. He responds to people working together, not working separately. He blesses peace and unity. He likes people looking out for each other, not looking out for themselves.
This same preoccupation with "my stuff" limits God's blessing on ministries and on churches. Where Christian leaders are only concerned with their turf, their work, their needs, then the atmosphere there is stressful, self-centered, and even cold. If they only knew the power and the joy they could have with God's unhindered blessing on them.
But they're living way below what could be because there isn't that unselfishness and unity where God says He'll pour out His blessing.
Even whole communities are missing God's outpouring because churches, ministries and leaders are not working together. Again, each one is fighting for their program, their budget, their territory, and God just turns away and says, "If you only knew what could happen in your town if you could ever get together."
You know if you take five fingers and slap yourself in the face with that, you're going to find out it might have a little sting. Now, pull those same separate fingers together and make it a fist. Now hit yourself...that's going to hurt! Of course we know that fingers together are far more powerful than fingers apart. Why can't we get that spiritually? We're operating so often like separate fingers in the Kingdom of God. How about if we pulled those together and made a fist in Satan's face and said, "You've taken enough lives, we're coming together to take them back."
Those crazy puppies - they missed so much because they were so busy only caring about their own little piece. Just like us. Would you be willing to lay down your sense of entitlement, to release your rights, your interests, your little piece and let God pour out all those good things that He's been wanting to give you? He can now, because you're working together.

February 4, 2025 Always Caught - #9932

This could surely come under the heading of "You know it's going to be a bad day when..." Yeah, my wife and I were stopped at a stop light during the rush hour one morning. We were on a local street that intersects the busiest highway in the area in that town. There were two lanes. We were in the left one - the left turn lane. The light turned green, I started turning left. Well, I noticed another car next to me on my right turning from the right lane. Well that's not allowed. You're not supposed to do that; it's illegal, and it's very dangerous at this intersection. Well, suddenly, I guess this guy saw in his rearview mirror - this blinking light behind him. He had just made that illegal turn right in front of a police officer. Needless to say, he was pulled over on the shoulder before he even cleared the intersection. I mean he's not even out of the neighborhood yet and he's been caught.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Always Caught."
Now the Bible has some unsettling news in Numbers 32:23. It says, "Be sure your sin will find you out." See, if God knows, you're already caught. And God hasn't missed a moment. His video camera rolls 24 hours a day; it's inescapable. His recorder catches every word you speak. Our neighbor at the light thought if the law doesn't see me, this is fine. Boom! Caught!
In fact, when it comes to people catching us, we often do get away with sin. Your parents may never find out, your mate may never know, your boss may never catch you, your friends may never find out, your pastor, your congregation. It sets you up for the myth that you're actually getting away with it. Nobody ever gets away with sin. The bill may be delayed, but the bill always comes. Whatever a man sows, that he will reap.
Adam and Eve's death sentence came later, but it came. Postponed judgment never means judgment has been canceled. Now, our word for today from the Word of God: 1 Timothy 5:24 - "The sins of some men are obvious; reaching the place of judgment ahead of them. The sins of others trail behind them." Now, one way or the other we get caught; sometimes earlier, sometimes later. Which is better? Well, the longer it takes for the bill to come, the more the interest accumulates.
That might be the reason God's asking me to talk about this today. Because He's telling you, through this, to face that sin before it faces you with much greater consequences than if you choose to deal with it right now. Today, this is the least expensive day you will ever have to face that sin. The bill continues to increase. Maybe it's a sin that you've committed. Maybe it's lying, or immorality, cheating, stealing or even backbiting or it's lust. It could be rebellion. It could be messing with the occult or verbal or physical abuse of someone.
And then again, it may be a sin of omission: you're neglecting your mate or your children, or a commitment you've made, or time with your Lord. But every day the sin calculator is running, the consequences are growing, and the gap between you and God is increasing. You're driving with your eyes on the rearview mirror wondering if you're going to get caught. Wouldn't you like to be free; wouldn't you like to be forgiven?
It's far better to freely come to God with that sin than to have God come to you with it. And he took all of that sin on that first Good Friday and put it on His son so Jesus could pay for it so that when Jesus said "Father forgive them," He was talking about you. This can be erased from God's book forever. The Bible says, "Repent and turn to God, and your sins will be wiped away and the times of refreshing will come from the Lord." This is your day to finally be clean inside, to get the spiritual shower only the man who died for you could give you. If you want that, I encourage you to check out our website the soonest you can get to it today. And let me show you there, how to be forgiven and how to begin your relationship with Jesus. Go to ANewStory.com. That's what it could be for you - a new story. You started out this day dirty inside, you can be by the end of it, clean inside as you have never been before.

February 3, 2025 Whose Smile You're Working For - #9931

It was a hot summer day when my oldest son and I were out working in the yard. I was doing the mowing; he was doing some clipping around the rocks; working just a little bit behind me where I had just mown. And I noticed that he was working pretty hard, and I glanced at him. I was pretty pleased with how he was doing, and I just kind of gave him a quick smile and went back to work.
About ten minutes later he walked up to me and I could see his lips moving, but I could not understand what he was saying because of the lawn mower was so loud. So, I turned the mower down and I said, "What did you say, son?" And he said, "Dad, would you do that again?" And I said, "Do what again?" He said, "Would you give me another smile like you did a few minutes ago?" And then this is what I'll never forget. He said, "Dad, you know, it's your smile that keeps me going." Talk about a melted Dad! "It's your smile that keeps me going." He had decided that a father's approval was worth working for.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Whose Smile You're Working For."
In our word for today from the Word of God the Apostle Paul tells us whose smile he was working for. Galatians 1:10 - Paul says, "Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God?" By the way, that's a good question to ask looking in the mirror today. "Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Wow! Paul said in essence, "I've decided who my audience is. I've decided whose applause I'm interested in. I've decided whose smile I want." And frankly he's saying, "It just doesn't matter to me what men think of what I've done, but I want to know that my Lord Jesus is smiling when the day is over and saying, 'Good day. Good job, faithful servant.'"
Now, when you work, and sweat, and minister, and sacrifice; when you do all those things that you do for your family, who are you doing it for? Even the simple things of household chores, homework, tasks you have to accomplish at work. Who are you doing it for? The answer to that question makes all the difference in the fulfillment factor and the meaning of what you're doing.
Years ago, author Keith Miller told in one of his books about getting close to the Oklahoma college football team at a time when they had the longest winning streak in college history. For years they had not been defeated. And he went to a practice at the invitation of the soon tp become immortal Coach Bud Wilkinson, and he said after a couple of days there that he found out what their secret was. They lived for Monday. Yeah, that's when they watched the movies of the game with Coach Wilkinson, because as it turned out it really didn't matter to them what the sports writers said. And even though there were say 50,000 people in the stadium, it really didn't matter ultimately whether they cheered or jeered. And it didn't really matter even what the rest of the team said. They waited for one thing. They waited for the coach's verdict on how they had played that day. And Keith Miller said, "The secret of that football team's winning was that they played only for the coach." How about you and me?
Are you playing for the stands, you playing for the other people on the team, playing for the writers, the publicity? I'll tell you this: ultimately every other audience will prove disappointing and unappreciative. You do it for your family, sometimes they'll disappoint you. For your church, for some Christian leader, for your employer, for your teachers? Count on it, sometime they're going to let you down.
But the Bible says, "We serve the Lord Christ." And the thrill of that is taking today's activity and saying, "Lord Christ, I'm doing it all for You."

January 31, 2025 Putting On Your Glasses, Getting On Your Knees - #9930

OK, so I fought it for a while, and I lived in denial for a while. I finally broke down and got glasses - mostly for reading. I had been the 20/20 kid my whole life. I just couldn't face the fact that the world was getting blurrier and blurrier. I just thought my arms were getting shorter. Suddenly I couldn't hold my reading material far enough from my eyes to make things stop blurring. So, hello, glasses! And what a difference! All those little words that were "fuzzing" out on me suddenly look big and clear, including what I'm looking at right now! It's amazing how clear things start to look when you're seeing them through corrective glasses!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Putting On Your Glasses, Getting On Your Knees."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Nehemiah 1. Actually, I thought this said Jeremiah before I put my glasses on. Great prayer here that God was so impressed with that He put it in the Bible. And it's a real-life model of what the ultimate purpose of prayer is. Obviously, our purpose is to get whatever we're praying about. But God's purpose is to give us His glasses.
Nehemiah has a heavy burden on his heart. It's the news that God's people and God's city are a mess, and it drives him to his knees for weeks of praying about it. I don't know what's weighing heavily on your heart right now, but I hope it's driven you to your knees. Maybe like Nehemiah, you feel powerless to solve this one. Then you'll be interested in how he ends up praying after initially focusing on the situation. Praying about the situation changes how he looks at almost everything. After heavy duty praying, he's seeing things much more clearly through God's glasses. And that's what the ultimate purpose of praying is; not getting an answer, but getting God's perspective - which often leads to the answer.
First, he's realized again who God is. He says, "O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love." Notice, he's not talking about the great and awesome problem, but the great and awesome God. He's spent enough time with God on this that his vision is clear. He's not overwhelmed by the situation anymore; he's overwhelmed by God - a God who is totally in charge...a God who always keeps His promises.
Then, he clearly sees who he is. Three times in this prayer he refers to himself as "Your servant." Now Nehemiah works for the most powerful man in the world - the King of Persia. But as he spends time in prayer, he remembers that he reports to the King of the universe. As you pray, you should see yourself more clearly - not as the victim or the problem-solver in the situation. You're just God's servant, playing whatever position He asks you to play in this situation; living, like a servant, with no agenda but your Master's agenda for each new day.
Faithful praying over a situation will give you a clear vision of who those folks around you are, too. "They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed." Nehemiah prayed. The believers around you are not your competitors or your problems. They're God's people purchased with the blood of God's Son. You'll treat them differently if you get God's glasses and remember who they are. That happens while you pray.
Prayer glasses will also show you what the real issue is. In the situation that burdened Nehemiah, he reached this conclusion: "I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself, have committed against you." As he prayed, God gave him the insight to see beyond the initial situation he was praying about to the sin that was causing the situation. Finally, he prays that God will, "give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man." This man was the king he worked for! But praying showed Nehemiah what his next step needed to be.
It's that burden on your heart that gets you to praying. But if you'll persist before God, you'll notice your vision starting to clear up. The Divine Ophthalmologist will be giving you glasses to see Him, and yourself, and the people around you, and the real issues, and your next step as you've never seen them before. When you go to your knees, you get God's glasses. And suddenly, things look so much clearer!

January 30, 2025 When You've Been Hurt By Love - #9929

Governors' desks were vacant. Senators' offices were empty. They might as well have just put a sign on the door - "Gone to Iowa." Yep! It was the election season of 2016. We've been through another one recently but I'm thinking about that one. It had been the time when everyone goes to New Hampshire and South Carolina and on and on in the wild and crazy year when so many people were wanting to be president.
For a long time, the Iowa caucuses saturated cable news because that's where it all started. It was over and I was still trying to understand how it worked. But there's no doubt that the road to the White House started in the cornfields and ethanol wells of Iowa.
Every four years, cash becomes Iowa's bumper crop. Restaurants, motels, TV and radio stations, stores - they open their arms to the invading political army for months. And then, in a single day, boom! They're all gone; Iowa in the rear view mirror. Next primary states, here we come!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You've Been Hurt By Love."
One Iowa store had some pretty funny caucus shirts back then. One said, "Is there a bale of hay I can interview you in front of?" Another one captured the cynicism of a state that knew the Iowa-fest was over when people voted, "Don't forget to wave next time you fly over."
"We love you, Iowa, and then we leave you" after they've served their political purpose, of course. That kind of "love ya as long as you can do something for me" is one thing when it comes to a state. But it's a broken heart when it's a person dumped by someone who said they loved them.
The "'til death do us part" that changed to "I just don't love you anymore." The company you gave the best years of your life to that says one day, "We don't need you anymore." The people who cheered for you once are nowhere to be found now. The lover whose l-o-v-e seems now more like u-s-e-d. When "love ya!" turns to "see ya!" it hurts. It really hurts.
I've spent a lot of my life sharing with people the good news about love that changed my life and millions of others. Because I'm profoundly grateful that there's a love that will never betray me, never abandon me, never die on me.
It's obviously got to be bigger than any human love. But it's a love even little kids can understand. I know. Because I sang about it a lot when I was a kid - like millions of kids still do. "Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so."
Yes, it does. The Bible says in Romans 8:39, our word for today from the Word of God, "Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" - nothing on earth, nothing in heaven, nothing in hell, nothing in death. Jesus guaranteed this in Hebrews 13:5, I will never leave you or forsake you." And He said, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
The more love has hurt you, the harder it is to believe that. Before that "nothing can separate us," God says, "He did not spare even His own Son for us." That's when Jesus hung on a cross, to pay the death penalty for our hijacking the running of our life. For taking it out of God's hands to run it with our own.
Today it is possible for you to embrace the love that will never let you go. You've lived this long without the love of Jesus. Don't live another day without Him if you want to begin a relationship with Him. He went to a cross to have this relationship. He walked out of His grave to prove to you He can deliver love that will last forever. Right now you could say, "Jesus, I'm yours." Tell Him that today, put all your hopes on Him.
And then would you go to our website please? I've set it up in such a way that it has information there that is easy to grasp that will help you make sure you really do belong to Him. Check out ANewStory.com.
If Jesus was ever going to turn His back on you, it would have been when He was going through your hell on that cross. But He didn't. He went the distance for you. He will never break your heart. His was broken for you. Jesus loves you. This I know.

January 29, 2025 Human Jumper Cables - #9928

One little light. That's all it took to render our car totally unusable. The little light in the rear of our vehicle was left on one night after we unloaded some things, and it stayed on for several days while we were gone. When we got back, everything in that car said, "I'm not starting, pal!" because that one little light totally drained our battery. But then came the hero! Yes, up came our friend in his pickup truck with his trusty jumper cables. And those cables delivered the energy that my flat old battery needed to run again!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Human Jumper Cables."
What does it take to get a drained and tired battery going again? A jolt from jumper cables that infuses the energy needed to revive it. And what does it take to get a drained and tired person going again? Human jumper cables that deliver new energy to revive them.
I'm guessing that you know someone right now who is pretty depleted - emotionally, mentally, maybe spiritually or physically. When they turn the key, not much is happening because their battles, their responsibilities have left them unable to get going again. That's why God has given us each other. To be jumper cables for each other when we sense that someone we know is pretty run down. If you've got your eyes open for them, you'll see someone in need of an emotional and spiritual "jump" most every day of your life.
There's a wonderful example of this. It's in 2 Timothy 1:16-17, our word for today from the Word of God. This is the last letter Paul ever wrote. He's away from most of his friends, he's locked up in Caesar's prison in Rome, and he knows he may never leave there alive. And in fact, he won't. Then along comes an unsung hero called Onesiphorus, and he is God's jumper cables to help the great apostle find the energy to go on.
Listen to Paul's testimony and think about how you could be this for someone you know: "May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains...When he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me."
Okay, when you're one of God's jump starters, you wake up in the morning and you say, "Lord, show me who needs me today." Then you look for, even go out of your way if necessary, to call that person who needs encouragement, or to write them, or email them, or visit with them, text them, facebook them, just stop and take time with them.
It's almost always a sacrifice to do that because of all the things you've got to do. But you may have nothing more important to do than this extension of Jesus' love to someone who's really depleted right now. Your joy can jump start theirs. Your praying in faith can jump start theirs. Your affirmation of their value and their significance can jump start them believing it again themselves. Your belief in them can re-energize their courage to get back in the ring for another round. Your reminder of who they really are to God and to you may be just the spiritual jolt they need to get going again.
You could say, "Well, I need someone to jump start me!" You're thinking a lot lately about your burdens, your problems, and your feelings. You know the greatest way to get out of your pit is to reach out and help someone else get out of theirs. Proverbs 11:25 - "He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed."
You have what someone needs today to get started again. You know that? Don't just cruise on by, oblivious to the needs in front of you. "Lord, show me who needs me today." That's the prayer that will make you the conduit to deliver the very resources of God to someone who really can't go on without them. You are God's jumper cables!

January 27, 2025 God's Music Through You - #9926

We raised a son who loves sports, but he also had an ability in music. How do you put those two together? A lot of times those two interests don't go together. Well, it was fourth grade when we thought it was time to introduce our son to a musical instrument. And when we talked a little bit about what instrument he'd be interested in, he said, "Well, maybe the saxophone."
We really didn't have a saxophone or the money to buy one, but a friend called us and said that he knew we were interested in getting a saxophone for our son. He'd found a classy, reconditioned instrument that was all shined up and looked great and was willing to make it available to us. Now, I really wasn't too sure how my son and the saxophone would get along at their first meeting, until our friend handed it to him for a first try. I've got to tell you, I was expecting squawks and squeaks.
But instead, out came a couple of notes loud and strong as if he'd been playing it for a while. It was great! He played it loud and strong for many years! I looked at that saxophone one day; I saw myself.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Music Through You."
Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy 4:17. Paul's talking about how God has played His music through him. "But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it." Now, this is Paul's reflection on his life's work as he's nearing the end of his life. And I was struck by these two words "through me." The Lord through me is seeing that the message is fully proclaimed.
Notice he doesn't say it's being proclaimed by me. He said, "Everything that's happening in my ministry comes through me. All those churches that have been established, all those people that have come to Christ, all those letters that are going to become part of the New Testament; ultimately, all those sermons preached. I'm just an instrument."
Which brings me back to my son's saxophone. It never did produce any music by itself. It would really just kind of lay there like a piece of shiny plumbing...only an instrument. But it could play jazz, or pop, or gospel, or patriotic. But that sax didn't decide what it would play; it was only an instrument. And the music was not by the sax, it came through the sax. Without the master playing it... (By the way, my son would love that...the master.) Without the master playing it, it's shining but it's useless, because it's only an instrument.
But then, so are you, and so am I. God has designed you for some special purposes. And if you try to play yourself, you'll be useless. When you realize that you're only an instrument, good things start to happen. First, you relax and you realize you can make a difference because it isn't up to you. You let the master musician pick you up and use you, and play melodies through you that you could never manufacture yourself.
Secondly, you stop telling the master what tune you should be playing. You let Him pick the tune. And thirdly, you give the credit where credit belongs. Anything that happens as a result of my life is not by me, it's through me. That means you can be surprised daily by what He's going to play through you, and you can wake up expectant daily, that He's going to use you.
You're only an instrument, but you don't belong in the case. No, the Master Musician wants to play through your life.

January 24, 2025 You're Free - #9925

For three months, Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer were prisoners of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, accused along with other aid workers of trying to convert Afghans to Christianity. In October of 2001 their prison cells were suddenly shaken by the thunder of U.S. bombs falling on the city of Kabul. Weeks later, after a cold, sleepless night in a steel shipping container, the girls and their colleagues found themselves in a new prison south of Kabul, with rockets crashing down on the contested town they were in. Suddenly, there were men banging on their prison doors. They thought their Taliban captors were returning, and now their fate was clearly uncertain as the situation around them dissolved into total chaos. Then, to their surprise, an anti-Taliban soldier came in with reams of ammunition around his neck. He was just shouting two wonderful words, "You're free! You're free!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You're Free!"
What a feeling to be imprisoned, to be in great danger, and then to have a liberator suddenly come crashing into your chaos shouting, "You're free!" Well, that's an experience shared by many who have met the ultimate Liberator.
His rescue of folks like you and me is described in the Bible in John 8, beginning with verse 34. It's our word for today from the Word of God. "Jesus replied, 'I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.'" When Jesus talks about "sin," He's talking about something a lot deeper than breaking some religion's rules. He's referring to the fact that we've all decided to run our own lives instead of letting God run them - which has led us to a lot of selfish choices, a lot of hurtful actions, and a lot of accumulated garbage in our lives. There's not one of us who doesn't know the weight of the guilt of our mistakes; the bondage to our dark side that has made it impossible for us to shake some of the junk that we really don't want in our lives.
But Jesus moves from talking about our slavery to our dark side to the promise of something better - freedom! In fact, He goes on to say, "If the Son (that's Him - the Son of God) sets you free, you will be free indeed." Now, Jesus Christ is offering to you and me the promise of being liberated forever from the guilt, the shame, and the slavery of this sin-prison we're in - something no religion could ever do for you.
He wants to remove your guilt with total forgiveness for every wrong thing you have ever done - a total new beginning. He wants to remove the shame and replace it with a new sense of cleanness and worth. He wants to give you the spiritual power to stop doing the things you've never been able to shake.
But for Jesus to be able to rescue you from the prison of your sin, He had to give His life. He went to the cross to pay for and remove your death penalty for every wrong thing you have ever done. There is a death penalty. Sin is a capital crime against the God of the universe. And only paying the death penalty can set us free. And Jesus said, "I'll take it instead of you."
So He stands ready to make this day your Liberation Day if you'll tell Him you're opening your life to Him...that you're going to depend totally on Him to be your personal Rescuer from your personal sin. If you've never done that, you can swing open the door to Him right now. You can tell Him right where you are, "Jesus, I turn from the running of my own life. I believe when You died on the cross You did it for every sin I've ever committed. I believe you're alive, and I am now pinning all my hopes on You. I am yours."
Go to our website, I think it will help you get this settled. Just check out ANewStory.com.
You know what this day could be for you? This could be the day that Jesus, the great Liberator, comes into your life and makes this awesome announcement, "You're free! You're free!"

January 23, 2025 All Day Righteousness - #9924

Some days I wear a shirt and tie, because, well, that's kind of appropriate for the meetings I'm going to have that day. Now, you go home a little later and get into jeans and an old shirt. Why? Well, because I don't want to do all the work I'm going to be doing there in, you know, my dress up clothes. It will be appropriate for the work I have to do there.
Now, when I go to a wedding in a few weeks, I'll dress up for that. I'll get in my very best. When I go to the beach, No, I won't do that. I won't wear what I wear to the wedding. See, I change my clothes for the occasion just like you do. There is something I don't change no matter what the occasion - my skin. I change my clothes; I always have the same skin.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "All Day Righteousness."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Corinthians 10, and I'm going to read verse 31. "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." That's an interesting verse. What Paul's saying here is that living for Christ is so practical that you can even do it while you're eating or drinking; having lunch, having breakfast. It's that kind of practical thing.
A couple of Sundays ago I had preached at a church about giving God your best instead of giving Him just your leftovers. And a man came up to me very sincerely and said, "Ron, I really do want to give God my best, but no matter how much I try to do for Him, I feel like I'm never doing enough. You know, I've got my job, and I've got my family, and I've got a lot of other things, and I feel like I'm just never doing enough for Him."
Well, as we talked, I began to realize that enough meant for him doing more spiritual things. And that isn't primarily what the Lord is looking for. He wants to make more things you're already doing spiritual; not have you do more spiritual things.
Our problem is that we reduce our Christ-life to a compartment. We say, "Well, let's see. Here's my money, here's my friends, here's my family, here's my job, here's my recreation. Oh, wait, here's a compartment I have available. Yeah, that's for Jesus. I'll just write in Jesus there and now I've got my Jesus compartment."
Jesus is King of Kings, Lord of Lords. He is not going to be a compartment. He doesn't fit in a compartment. He wants to be in all the compartments; not have one of His own. He wants to be the Lord of all those practical areas. So, you're not adding a list of spiritual things to do. You're letting Christ make the things you already do His things.
So you drive unselfishly for example. You drive to the glory of God. You use your car to help others. You shop for Him. Maybe walking into that grocery store and trying to bring some joy and some love into the otherwise dull life of a checkout girl. Who knows?
Colossians 3:17 picks up the same theme when it says, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." And then it goes on to talk about what kind of wife you are, being a husband to the glory of God. It talks about obeying your parents, and as you're doing it saying to the Lord, "This is for You, Jesus." Fathering in positive ways that don't tear your kids down. It talks about employees working with all their heart as if Jesus were their boss. He is.
Your relationship with Christ isn't just some set of spiritual clothes you put on to do spiritual work, to go to spiritual meetings and then take off. It's skin that you carry with you into every area of your life.
Living for Christ is a style that you carry with you all day, everywhere, like skin.

January 22, 2025 The Warning is the Difference - #9923

He was in Singapore when he got word of a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean and the possibility of a killer tsunami that could be headed for land; land that included his own village in India. He knew what he had to do. Desperately, he tried to reach his family there by means of a cell phone, and they answered. He warned them about the approaching danger, and they in turn warned the entire village of some 150 people. Within minutes they all were headed for high ground. The tsunami did hit that village full force. The homes were destroyed, the boats were destroyed, but every single person from that village survived.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Warning is the Difference."
People that Indian man cared about, people who otherwise would have died, are alive today because of a simple reason - one man who gave the warning.
For every person you care about, every person in your personal world, whether they live or die eternally depends on that same urgent act of love - someone giving the warning. Warning that God's judgment for our lifetime of sinning is coming our way for all of us. The Bible makes clear that "man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). We're all guilty of rebellion against God; making ourselves the center of our lives where our Creator is the only One who belongs there. But the warning of God's Word declares not only the bad news of the inevitable death penalty for our sin, but the wonderful Good News of where the high ground is. It's that hill where Jesus died to pay the death penalty that we all deserve. The lives of people around you can literally be saved forever if someone gives them the warning.
To be sure, God's the One who draws them to Jesus. He's the one who saves the lost. But we're His plan - you and I - for pointing them His direction. And our silence is a fatal silence. That's why God has made our responsibility vividly clear in a number of places in Scripture, including our word for today from the Word of God. In Ezekiel 3, beginning with verse 16, God's challenge to His prophet mirrors what He is expecting of us who know the way to eternal safety; some of the most sobering words in the Bible, "I have made you a watchman." You're the one on the wall who can see the danger coming and whom God holds responsible for warning the people around you.
Listen, He goes on to say, "When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood." Whether or not you think you're responsible to warn the people you know, God obviously thinks you are, and He's going to judge you accordingly. Like that man who called his village to warn the people he loved, God has given you life-saving information - information which they must have in order to have a chance at heaven. You know it. They don't. It's up to you in the power of God's Spirit. Whatever consequences you're afraid of if you tell them about Jesus, they can't even compare to the consequences if you don't tell them.
Just before God spoke this challenge, He led His messenger to just spend some time among the people he was being sent to rescue. Ezekiel says, "I sat among them for seven days - overwhelmed." Would you just look at the spiritual needs around you. Let God give you His eyes to see what He sees when He looks at the people you know. To feel what He feels about the destiny that awaits them unless someone tells them how to get to Heaven.
Let God overwhelm you, even break your heart for the precious people within your reach. Pray for God to open their heart, to open a door for you to speak to them, and to open your mouth when He does. Because the wave is coming, but they don't have to die. No, if you'll just give them the warning.

January 21, 2025 The High Cost Of Convenience - #9922

We knew some folks who owned a convenience store and they were people who worked some very long hours to make a living, believe me. But we enjoyed teasing them about the prices in their store. We'd give some astronomical price for a half-gallon of milk, or a boxes of cookies, or a candy bar. Now it wasn't quite that bad, but you usually do pay noticeably more for things in a convenience store. See, that's the profit factor in being open at times and on days when other stores are closed. Our store owner friends were quick to defend those prices. They reminded us of a simple fact of life - convenience costs more. They're right.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The High Cost Of Convenience."
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Matthew 7:13-14. Notice the price tag on what's convenient and what's easy. Jesus says, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way 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."
Take the easy road - destruction. Take the narrow road - life. Convenience costs. That's a life principle...it's a law of the universe. We instinctively want to do what's the easiest, the fastest. Right now you may be facing some important choices about a relationship, about your future, about your marriage, your financial situation maybe, or your business. My guess is that one road you could take is the easy one...the other road looks harder.
You're tempted to give up - that's the easy choice. There's a temptation really pulling on you - it would be so easy just to give in and go for it. You need money, and it would be easy to go for quick money, dishonest money, or money that would load you up with debt. But remember - convenience costs more!
What Jesus describes with the easy road and the hard road is very revealing. They are sort of like a funnel. Take the easy choice and it's wide up front, but the farther you go on that road, the narrower it gets, squeezing you, restricting you, scarring you, and ultimately destroying you.
Or you could choose the road that will take longer, that will require more discipline and sacrifice, and maybe even cost you something you value. But it's like an inverted funnel. It's narrow up front but it ultimately opens up into long-range happiness and long-range peace. So, in reality, the seemingly hard road is really the least expensive choice in the long run. But it's almost surely the road that will take longer, require more risks, more sacrifice, and yes more faith. But the reward and the payoff is so much greater! Remember, it's the narrow road that leads to life.
So, look at the temptation to take the easy road right now and don't fall for the lure of what's easy. I know it may be pulling hard - but you can't afford the price tag. The narrow road leads to life. And, after all, it's the destination that counts, not the road.
Maybe God sent this program into your life right now, knowing the choice you face, to warn you away from the easier - but ultimately far more expensive - road. Remember - in all the things that really matter in life - convenience costs more!

January 17, 2025 You Need God's Band - #9920

Quite often, I'll speak in churches that have two morning services, and it was a Sunday like that. I went into that little room off the sanctuary where you meet to pray with church leaders. But the people who were there when I went in weren't praying. They were playing - their trombones, that is. Actually, they were warming up to play in the brass section of the church's worship band. Now, there were some very interesting sounds coming from that room. In fact, I was almost afraid to go in, but I did. And I got involved in a conversation with the men behind the music. One of them had just made a minor goof in what he was practicing. Of course, how would I know - Mr. Music Dork? But that led to George telling me why he would much rather play with a band than play a solo. He said, "It is so much easier when the band is there to support you." When I asked him what he meant by "support you," he said, "Well, the rest of the band sort of carries you along and they cover up your mistakes!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Need God's Band."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 2:14. It's in the middle of one of the most powerful sermons ever preached. It's on the day the Holy Spirit came just as Jesus had predicted to indwell and empower His followers. It's about two months after Jesus' return to heaven, and Peter is standing right in the middle of the crowds in downtown Jerusalem. The city is still very highly charged with hostility toward Jesus and toward His followers. Remember the preacher here is Peter, the same man who wimped out on Jesus only a few weeks earlier. He denied Jesus even in front of a little girl. Here's what it says, "Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd." Peter went on to tell some of the very people who had crucified Jesus that they needed Him as their Savior! And 3,000 people came to Christ that day! What happened to Peter? He suddenly changed from a chicken into a tiger! Several answers: he sincerely repented of his failures, he now had the inner power of the Holy Spirit. But there was something else that gave him courage and confidence. He wasn't playing a solo. The band was there to support him! It says he "Stood up with the Eleven." We all need that kind of support. Are you consistently giving that kind of support to the people close to you? Are you playing like a team member or a solo performer? Are you doing all you can to create a climate of playing together instead of every one for himself?
God provides a beautiful score for our spiritual band to follow in Hebrews 10:24-25, a standard to measure what you're doing with your family, the folks you work with, the people you minister with. It says, "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." Hey, is the result of being around you that people feel more motivated to be loving - to make a difference? It goes on to say, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Maybe you've somehow allowed yourself to slip into a solo mode where you're cut off from the support of the band and where every mistake is amplified.
In Africa, when a lion wants a gazelle for lunch, he seldom attacks when the gazelle is with the herd. He waits for it to wander off by itself. I think Satan operates like that. He wants to get you away from the rest of the band, isolate you so he can attack and devour you. Don't let your frustrations - don't let your differences get you to pull away from the band whose support you really need. That's the body of Christ.
Where you live, where you work, where you minister, be known as the encourager. Learn to appreciate the unique contribution of the other instruments, even if they sound very different from you. We were never meant to be soloists. We were created to play with the support of the band around us. Together, we can carry each other along and we can cover each other's mistakes!

January 15, 2025 Out of the House, Into the Harvest - #9918

Birds had moved into the vent in the exhaust fan of our kitchen range while we were on vacation. They set up their little nest and made themselves really at home. And, man, were they noisy neighbors! The nest was so huge it made the fan unworkable. And some lovely spiders were hanging down from the hood on the stove. Our problem was that trying to remove that nest might have killed that nest full of baby birds. Well, we couldn't see them, but man, we could sure hear them when they were hungry! So, we waited until Mom and Dad bird took the babies out. A couple of weeks later, after we were sure they were gone, I got a long stick and I proceeded to rake out the rest. But when we removed the nest, we discovered a little surprise. Well, actually, a big, fat surprise. There was the fattest bird we had ever seen, sitting in the nest. As my wife went to get gloves and a box, he got away. But it literally took a major earthquake to get that bird out of his nest!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Out of the House, Into the Harvest."
You know, God has some spiritually fat "birds" that have been sitting in the nest way too long. They should be flying; instead they're just hanging around the nest. And God sometimes shakes our nest to get us out of where it's comfortable and into some lives whose eternity may depend on us.
Jesus addresses the tragedy of believers who are camped in the nest in our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 9:36-37. It says, "When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." Here's the question: is that what you see when you look at the people you work with or go to school with or live near? When you ask Jesus for a heart like His, those people you see almost every day never look the same again to you. No matter how together they may appear, you see them as sheep with no clue where to go, people with the pain that sin causes and you see them as future inhabitants of hell without Jesus. Unless someone close to them intervenes with the news that Jesus has died so they don't have to.
Then Jesus reveals this deadly equation: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." Farmers tell me that, to them, the word harvest means "ready." So Jesus is saying, "Hey, the ready is plentiful." He's got all kinds of lost people ready to hear about Him. The lost people aren't His problem - it's His people. They're sitting in the nest, soaking up the spiritual goodies, while people all around them are ready for Jesus but spiritually dying without Him. But Jesus says, "Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest field."
In the original language of the New Testament, the word for "send out" literally means "to forcibly expel"! Jesus has to shake our nest, make us restless with our comfort zone, let us know that there's something we're missing, and then get us to join Him in rescuing the dying - His life's mission.
Words like "evangelism" and "witnessing" just don't convey the life-or-death urgency the Bible is describing when it tells us to "rescue those being led away to death" (Proverbs 24:11). When it's "rescue" - when someone's going to die if you don't go after them, you can't any longer just stay in your comfy Christian nest. You've got to do whatever you can to rescue the dying. And maybe God even wants to use these words to shake you out of your nest and get you into the mission for which His Son gave His life.
We can rest in heaven forever. We only have now to help some people we know be there in heaven with us. As Amy Carmichael said so powerfully, "We will have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only a few short hours to win them." We are in those few short hours.

January 14, 2025 The Cure for Spiritual Cancer - #9917

I'll never forget my Grandmother Irene. She was one funny lady. She laughed a lot and she laughed loudly! And she gave me money, she was the life of the party. Some people in our family think she was a big influence on my personality. That's not a very nice thing to say about a woman who is no longer here to defend herself, right? But there's no doubt my grandmother did have a great impact on my life. I almost never got to meet her though, because she had a serious bout with cancer before I was even born. But she made it and I got an awesome grandma out of the deal. It took some radical action on the part of the doctor to save her though. He went in and totally removed the cancer and the areas around it. It was painful, it left some scars, but I'm sure thankful that he did what he had to do to keep her alive.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Cure for Spiritual Cancer."
Removing the cancer - that was my grandmother's only hope for living longer. It's your only hope, too, of living forever.
Our word for today comes from John 1:29 where the prophet John has come to the wilderness of Israel, announcing that God's long-awaited Messiah was about to appear on the scene. Then one day John sees Jesus. And in one simple sentence he identifies Him and he announces the Savior's life-saving mission. "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'" John says, "Man, this is it! The Sin-Remover is here. It's Jesus!"
That's why Jesus came, to remove the sin of the world. Or to understand the personal significance of what Jesus did, put your name in there. "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of (there's your name)." Sin - that spiritual cancer that eats away at all our close relationships, that puts a wall between us and God, the God whose love we just need so desperately. It's a terminal spiritual cancer. The Bible says the wages of our sin is death - eternal banishment from the God who made us.
Somewhere deep in our soul, we're haunted by the sin of our lives. I know we are. I mean, there's shame, and there's guilt, and there's the fear of God's punishment. But how can you treat this cancer that poisons our life here and costs us heaven later? Removal - just like my grandmother's physical cancer. I'm glad the doctor didn't just give her a pain reliever to make her feel better. Some of us try one anesthetic after another to calm that sin-storm in our soul, and it never goes away.
Or we try to defend ourselves with all the good things we've done, "Hey, I'm not so bad after all." But talking about all the ways you're OK doesn't remove the cancer. God strikes down all our religiousness and goodness with these "straight talk" words from Ephesians 2:8-9, "By grace you are saved...not by works." There was nothing my grandmother could do to remove her own cancer except trust herself totally to the one who could remove it.
Isn't it time you did that with the deadly sin-cancer you've got? Isn't it time to trust yourself totally to the master surgeon who can remove it? Not cover it, not compensate for it. Remove it so it never comes between you and God again; so it will not be there when you die, locking you out of heaven.
Jesus is your Sin-Remover because He became the Lamb of God. Like the Old Testament lambs slaughtered to pay sin's death penalty, God's own Son came to be put to death for your sin and mine so we wouldn't have to pay that death penalty. No one has ever loved you like Jesus.
If you've never trusted yourself to the only One who can remove your sin and its death penalty, if you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, this could be your day. Tell Him that you believe He's your only hope of being forgiven because He's the One who died to do that.
Would you go to our website? It will help you be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.
The cancer is deadly, but it's not incurable. When you trust yourself to the Doctor - Dr. Jesus - you trade death for a life that will never end.

January 13, 2025 Your Things to Die For - #9916

For many years, Penn State was just one college of many with a powerful football program. And then not too long ago, it suddenly became the epicenter of a whole lot of outrage.
Screaming students - angry that Joe Paterno, their iconic coach - the "winning-est" college coach ever - had been summarily fired. And then the parents, the politicians, the pundits, enraged as they should be, at allegations of young lives ruined by sexual abuse. Allegedly by a coach who used a locker room as a place to horribly exploit young boys.
All of which has caused me to ask this question, "So what is it that enrages you, Ron? Or should?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Things to Die For."
My friend Bob asks, "What are your 'things to die for'?" He confesses that his list has changed. It used to be a list of legalistic "don'ts" that he thought were the causes worth fighting for. Not anymore. God has broken his heart for people who are going to hell instead of people who are breaking the rules. And he's outraged over the devil enslaving and damning people God created and Jesus died for.
There's something about us that gets all uptight about things that matter a little and largely complacent about things that break and even enrage the heart of God. We can really get up a head of steam about worship music, or liberals, or Christians who are "different," or the way the culture's going downhill. But then we can be strangely unmoved by young girls who suddenly disappear into the snake pit of sexual slavery. Or children who cry every night for food that never comes. A woman living with a man she thought loved her, and tonight fearing for her life. Innocent kids, unspeakably twisted and scarred by someone who abuses them for their own gratification.
Our word for today from the Word of God talks about these outrages in Romans 1:18 - outrages that provoke what the Bible calls the "wrath of God (which) is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men." Things He can't stand; He can't stand for the victimizing of any person He created in His holy image. Proverbs says, "He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God" (Proverbs 14:31). God talks about defending the cause of the poor and the needy and then He asks probingly, "Is not this what it means to know Me?" (Jeremiah 22:16).
Above all, the Bible says, "He is not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). And we're surrounded by people who are one heartbeat away from perishing forever and ever, because no one told them about the Savior who perished so they wouldn't have to. God accepts no excuse for failing to (as the Bible says) "rescue those being led away to death...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?" (Proverbs 24:11-12).
God is not deaf to the shattered lives, the anguished cries of a world that sin has devastated. God says today as He said to Moses in Exodus, "I have heard them crying out...I am concerned about their suffering...So I have come down to rescue them." Oh good! God's going to do something about all this hurt and lostness. Yes He is, and He has a plan. Listen to the next verse, "So, now, go. I am sending you" (Exodus 3:7-10).
So, are the things you'll "die for" the things Jesus died for?

January 10, 2025 Sin's Killer Tide - #9915

It was a massive tsunami that hit South Asia right after Christmas in 2004. I immediately flashed back when I heard about that to a real life lesson I had about tsunamis prior to that. I was in Kodiak, Alaska, with our On Eagles' Wings team of young Native Americans. They had just finished a string of grueling days of outreach, so we took them to a special spot on the ocean for a few hours off. Many of us were fascinated with these beautiful formations we saw just under the water near the shore. That's when our host told me about what happened after a major quake in Anchorage some years earlier. Folks who were at this same shore area watched the ocean suddenly recede dramatically, and that left all those beautiful underwater formations and shells totally exposed. So they seized this unusual opportunity to go in and collect all these treasures of the sea - not realizing that the sudden disappearance of the water was the first sign of an impending tsunami. Moments later, that monster wave suddenly enveloped everything in sight, including the people who literally had run right into its path.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sin's Killer Tide."
Many people lost their lives that day because they ran to what they should have been running from. That's the kind of moral mistake that has cost so many so much. It may well be that someone listening right now is checking out something that looks good, looks inviting, and looks exciting - not knowing or just ignoring the fact that there is a tide coming that will carry you where you never wanted to go and take from you what you don't want to lose.
Because God doesn't want that to happen to any of us, He has issued this tsunami warning for our lives in James 1:14 and 15, our word for today from the Word of God. "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."
First, you see something that's wrong but it looks good. A little excitement in a movie, or a Website, or a magazine with some sexually explicit stuff. The relief that getting drunk or getting high might give you for a little while. The thrill, the release, or even the love you might find in a physical relationship with someone who is not your marriage partner. Sin looks good. Satan isn't stupid.
So the desire conceives and it moves from wanting it to doing it. It says, "it gives birth to sin." You've plunged into the thing that looks so inviting. And just like those folks who were enjoying what they experienced in that oceanless sea bed. Sin may feel good and it may even feel right for a little while - until the tsunami hits, which it always does. Because "when sin is full-grown, it gives birth to death." Sin always kills. Get that! Sin always kills! The tsunami tide of sin's consequences can sweep away a marriage, the trust people had in you, your position, your reputation, your self-respect, your closeness to God. When you plunge into that attractive opportunity, you have no idea of the shame, and guilt, and the hurt that's going to follow.
God says, "Flee the evil desires" (2 Timothy 2:22). Then He says, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11). And, by the way, when the Bible says that sin always ends in death, it underscores that by saying, "The wages of sin is death." And the ultimate killer tide is the judgment that we all deserved for that sin that we've done against a God who put us here in the first place.
The good news about that is that the Bible says, "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Let me just end with some great news today, that Jesus stood and took the killer tide of the judgment for your sin and mine when He died on the cross. And He's alive, because He walked out of His grave. He's ready to walk into your life today so you never have to face that judgment.
If you'll tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours" today. Our website is there to help you know you belong to Him. Would you go there today? It's called ANewStory.com. Remember, sin is a killer tide. Run from it. Make sure that you have taken for yourself the gift of forgiveness that Jesus alone died to give you so you can be, forever, safe.

January 9, 2025 Hope When the Pressure's On - #9914

I think I've been on a diet since I was about three days old, and I've become somewhat of an expert at what works and what doesn't work at losing weight...or putting it on.
Frankly, I find it very difficult to lose weight, especially during times when I'm under pressure. Oh, many of you will understand this unless maybe you're one of those people who are terminally thin. But maybe you're the one who does understand about losing weight and gaining it; my thorn in the flesh I think is my metabolism. Well, when things are calm and normal - status quo - it's a lot easier to maintain your diet disciplines. Then the crunch comes - extra stress - and out comes the crunch of cookies, and chips, and candy, and an attack of the munchies to help you get through the pressure. Pressure gives you this strangely expanded desire to eat. Now, usually, that's a bad response...usually. In some cases, it's actually a good idea.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope When the Pressure's On."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 1, and I'm going to begin reading in verse 8, where we hear about Paul under pressure. I mean a lot of pressure. Listen to his words. He said, "We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so we despaired even of life." Boy, if you've been under pressure, maybe you know that feeling of "beyond my ability to take any more." Then he goes on to say, "This happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God."
Well, in a sense, Paul's response to pressure in his life was to eat. Not physically, but spiritually; to download spiritual resources he needed to make it through. He ate spiritual protein, not spiritual snacks. See, when you're pushed beyond your ability to take it - to handle it - it's more than you can do, more than you can solve, more than you can provide for. OK, you understand? Well, then it's time to load up on two resources.
In 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, he talks about "the father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles with the comfort we have received from God, we are able to comfort those who are in any trouble."
Notice He's the God of all comfort in all situations. It's like a comprehensive insurance policy. You will always have comfort as big as the pain or the hurt. You'll never fully learn the comfort of God though until you're really uncomfortable. That's interesting! So, if you're uncomfortable right now at this time in your life, load up on a heaping helping of the comfort of God; even enough to serve others.
The other resource you eat very aggressively at this time is God's power. That's why he says, "This all happened to us so we could taste God's power and not rely on ourselves." "The God," he says, "who raises the dead." Now, you'll never fully learn the power of God until you're at a point where you're fully powerless. Then comes that sweet surrender to God's working; you've run out of options. And all of a sudden there's a lot of Him and almost none of you. So, you get a big helping of the power of God; working where you're powerless to do anything. And what kind of God? A God who raises the dead! This is a death-reversing, resurrecting, life-giving God in the moments when there's so little you have to give.
Maybe you're in one of them right now. Is that pressure on you right now? Spend quality time in your Lord's presence, even though it may be harder than ever to do it, you've never needed it more. Feed on His resources. Download them. Partake of it. That's why He's brought you to this point. Get the resources you would never experience if the pressure didn't drive you to it.
When the pressure's on, eat heartily from God's shelves. You know what you'll get? You will get stronger than you've ever been!

January 8, 2025 Knowing You, Seeing God - #9913

Usually a total eclipse of the moon seems to happen when I'm counting sheep in the middle of the night. But this one started about 9:00 at night, and this one I got a chance to see. It's a pretty amazing sight to watch that shadow slowly move across the moon until it eventually covers it completely. I said to the friend who was assisting us with ministry that weekend, "I just wish we had binoculars." "Me, too," he said. Then it dawned on him, he said, "Hey, I do have binoculars in my truck!" All of a sudden we moved from seats near the back to something like front row seats on this eclipse. Those binoculars revealed the craters and all the fascinating details of that disappearing moon. What a difference it made to see it up close!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Knowing You, Seeing God."
Whether it's watching the heavens or watching some faraway wildlife right here on earth, binoculars really do make a difference. They make it big by bringing it close, which is exactly what you're supposed to be doing with the God you belong to - making Him big to the people around you by bringing Him close. I guess that would make you binoculars for God.
The famed Westminster Catechism of the Christian faith opens with this powerful summary of why we're all here: "The chief end of man is to glorify God." That's really clear in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 1, beginning with verses 5 and 6. Like the Hubble Telescope, this passage shows us things about our spiritual universe that we could never see without it. Like the purpose for our lives, for example.
The Bible says: "He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." Before there was a world, before there was a you, God had a plan for you to rescue you through His Son, so you could live as it says, for "the praise of His glorious grace."
Verses 11 and 12 talk about His plan, "the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will..." And what is His purpose that guides His plan? "...that we might be for the praise of His glory." Later, it says He bought us with blood to be for this ultimate outcome: "To the praise of His glory."
Okay, God believes in what management consultants call MBO - Management By Objective. Since before there was a world, right up to you and me this day and right on through to eternity, God's running His plan by one objective, "the praise of His glory." Since God's the source of everything that exists, our life makes sense and makes a difference when we bring people back to that source. So, what does it mean to "glorify God"? Well, think binoculars. It's making Him look as big as He really is to the people we meet.
They have no idea what an awesome, loving, totally powerful Father He is. We're to live in such a way that we draw attention to the greatness of our Father. And how do we do that? By living in such a way that we bring Him close to people who otherwise might never see Him or never touch Him.
Jesus said we were to be a light shining so "people will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). So here's one good way to see if you're carrying out the purpose you were made for: When people are around you, do they end up being impressed with your God? If not, you must be filling their view with something else, like with you...how great you are, or how many problems you have, or how stressed you are, or just the trivia of your life.
They may know you as a happy person, a caring person, a strong person, but have you ever told them it's because of what Jesus has done for you? Have you ever prayed with them when they share a need with you so they can taste that relationship with a miracle-working God? Do you ask in every situation, "Lord, how can you use this to draw people to you?"
That's the mind and heart of someone who knows why they're here. God's looking for some human binoculars - like you - that will bring Him close so people can see how very big and how very close He really is.

January 6, 2025 The Hug of a Holy God - #9911

I don't think I've ever "teared up" during a President's State of the Union Address to Congress - until that unforgettable moment during President George W. Bush's State of the Union early in 2005. For me, it had absolutely nothing to do with politics. It was just an intensely human moment that almost transcended politics.
At one point in his speech, he paid tribute to the Iraqi people for their courage in going to the polls in the face of incredible danger. Then, the President introduced a guest that was sitting in the gallery next to the First Lady - a woman who had been an Iraqi freedom activist for eleven years at that time - since Saddam Hussein had her father executed. She stood with her index finger in the air, still tinted with that identifying purple dye of someone who had voted. She was very moved by the standing ovation from everyone in that chamber.
And then a few moments later, the President paid tribute to the soldiers who had died in Iraq and then to their grieving families. At that point, he introduced a couple seated behind the woman from Iraq - their Marine son had died in the Fallujah campaign. They stood as representatives of all those families who had lost a son or daughter in Iraq. And then that mother leaned over to the front row and embraced the martyr's daughter from Iraq. They remained there just crying together, buried in each other's arms as the elected national leadership of the United States stood to their feet in a long and thunderous ovation. That's when I lost it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hug of a Holy God."
What a picture! The one whose son died embracing one he died for. I think one reason I found that so moving is because I can see myself in that picture - embraced by the God whose Son died, and I'm the one that He died for, and so are you. The question is have you ever acknowledged the sacrifice that was made for you? Have you ever stepped into your Heavenly Father's waiting arms? He's got so much love He's been waiting to give you. He's got the love you may have spent a whole life looking for.
God's welcoming embrace cost Him the most precious thing He had - His one and only Son. Listen to these beautiful words from 1 John 4, beginning with verse 9, our word for today from the Word of God. "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him." Why don't you put your name in that verse? "He sent His one and only Son that (there's your name) might live through Him. He loved (there's your name) and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." Like that mother at the State of the Union Address, God's the One whose Son died. But God's Son chose to die, because it was the only way your sins could be paid for other than you paying for them forever in hell.
The cross was for you. To ignore that sacrifice will cost you heaven. To depend on the good things you try to do for God instead of the amazing thing God did for you means you will pay the death penalty for your sin that Jesus already died to pay.
And now the One whose Son died waits to embrace the one He died for. In fact, He's been waiting for you for a long time. Let today be the day you finally experience His awesome love for yourself. Tell Him you know you've broken His laws and you've run your life your way, and that you want to change. Tell Him you're pinning all your hopes for eternity on the Savior who died for you. What an unforgettable day this could be for you.
I would love to help walk you through beginning that relationship. That's what our website is there for. Would you go there today? It's ANewStory.com. I want you to know when you go to bed tonight beyond any shadow of a doubt that you belong to Jesus Christ.
God gave His very best for you. Don't walk away from His waiting arms. Not after the price that He paid to love you.

January 3, 2025 The Right Word For Sex - #9910

It's amazing how creative parents can become when it's time to explain the facts of life to a child, and they really get creative when it comes to the vocabulary they choose. Now, we tell our kids that an ear is an ear, a leg is a leg, an elbow is an elbow and so on. But when it comes time to explain the more private parts of the body and the facts-of-life talk, we have a hard time using the right words. Frankly, I've heard some pretty weird names for human anatomy. Words invented, I guess, by a red-faced parent, but not recognized by any doctor on the planet. You know, it's good to use the right words when it comes to sex, especially the one that really counts - the Bible does.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Right Word For Sex."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the very beginning of man and woman, Genesis 4:1. It says, "Adam knew his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain." Now, the word "knew" obviously is referring to their sexual relationship - sexual intercourse between a man and a woman - Adam and Eve. We are looking in the book of Genesis at sex before it got spoiled, and ruined, and devalued; sex as it was meant to be, still unspoiled, still the best. And the word that's used for a sexual relationship between a man and woman is the word "know"... "Adam knew Eve."
When two people join themselves together physically, it's designed by God to be the ultimate "knowing" of two people. And when two people have sex that isn't based on a deep, intimate friendship and commitment, they don't go all the way. They don't go one-eighth of the way, because they don't have a lifetime of knowing each other that they're expressing through this awesome language of love. The Hebrew word is "yadah." It speaks of an intimacy of two people who know each other as they really are; a deep, personal, intimate, experiential knowledge of another person. That's why God designed sex for a lifetime commitment. He put a fence around sex called marriage.
And ironically, when you take sex out of marriage, outside the fence, it actually slows down or even eliminates the "knowing" process. It keeps you from getting to know a person, because the physical just takes over. The relationship becomes more self-centered. Couples stop talking, and often they end up marrying a stranger, because they've never really had a friend of the opposite sex. It's not knowing, it's using. The result is lonely relationships and even lonely marriages; people who have never had a friendship with the opposite sex and maybe never will.
And when the physical starts to be strong in a relationship, it will often mask the weaknesses in that relationship. Many people have married the wrong person because their passion blinded them. They were kept from really ever knowing the other person, and they made a life-long mistake. Remember, the Inventor always knows best, and the Inventor of sex knows best: two people in a lifetime committed knowing experience.
Anything less is a cheap, twisted, disappointing counterfeit. The Bible says to know someone as your best friend forever... now, that's the right word for sex.

January 2, 2025 God's Got No Grandchildren! - #9909

There's no greater gift our daughter and son-in-law could have given us than the little guy that was our first grandchild and the ones that have come since. From the night he was born, our hearts were all wrapped around that precious new life and they still are for all our grandchildren even though they're grown up. We would jump at the chance to babysit, and believe me; our rates were well below the market. But eventually, we took him home, and it was our turn to relax. That's the cycle of life. I had my chance to be the father of a child when my children were born. A grandchild is grand, but he's really not your child.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Got No Grandchildren!"
Now, I love being a grandfather. God doesn't. Well, He loves being a Father, but the Bible reveals the startling, unsettling truth that God has no grandchildren. Lots of children, but no grandchildren.
There really is no more critical, life-or-death issue in our lives than whether or not we belong to God. Not whether we believe in Him; whether we belong to Him; whether or not we have a personal relationship with Him. So much in this life and everything after this life depends on whether we are in God's family.
Our word for today from the Word of God can really help us determine if we are or we're not. It's found in John 1:12. God says, speaking of Jesus, "To all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." Now, notice we're not automatically born a child of God. We're all His creation, but we're not all His children. There's got to be a spiritual birth for that to take place. And apparently a lot of people who know a lot about Jesus, who have been around Jesus a lot, who are in a religion about Jesus can miss Jesus. These verses tell us that Jesus "came to that which was His own, but His own did not recognize Him."
God makes it clear that you don't belong to Him unless you have personally been born into a relationship with Him as His child. He has no second-generation people in His family. You won't go to heaven because your mom or dad belongs to Jesus, or because your son or daughter does or your husband or wife. You're not God's child just because you've been around God's children your whole life, even if you've been acting like one of God's children.
My daughter is my daughter by one simple fact: there was a day she was born into my family. Without that birth, there's no relationship. Without a personal spiritual rebirth, there is no relationship between you and God, no forgiveness, no heaven. And God tells us exactly how and when you can be spiritually born. His children are those who it says, "received Him (Jesus)...those who believed." That means the day you reach out to Jesus in total trust and say, "Lord, You are my only hope of having my sins forgiven, of belonging to God, because You are the only One who died to pay for my sins, to pay the awful death penalty; to take my hell to go to Your heaven." In short, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
You may be surrounded by Christianity, but missing Christ. Well, today could be your day to change that. It could be your spiritual birthday forever. If you want to begin this incredible relationship with Jesus Christ and know that you have, then let's have a definite beginning. Let Him know that. Tell Him that right now, "Jesus, knowing about You is not enough for me. I want to know You. Having a religion about You is not enough. I know that it will never be enough to get me into heaven or You would have never died on that cross. But, Jesus, I see now how personal that was and I embrace You, I grab You like a drowning person grabbing a lifeguard. You are my only hope, Jesus. And beginning today, I'm yours."
To help you know you belong to Him, would you please go to our website today? You'll find some things there that will really help you be sure. That website is ANewStory.com.
All these years beneath all the Christian words and Christian activities and maybe masks you've known in your heart that someone was missing, and it's been Jesus all along. But that's about to end if you'll give yourself to Him. Then when God opens His family album on Judgment Day - the one with no grandchildren - there you'll be: a child of God, born this very day.

January 1, 2025 Prescription For a Weary Worker - #9908

When Walt Disney animated the story of Snow White, he created seven memorable, even if short characters - the seven dwarfs. I'm not one of them! Now, I'm not going to ask you to name them; we'll save that for a game of Trivial Pursuit or something. But I always loved that little song they sang on the way to work.
And well, they didn't exactly work in an environmentally controlled office building. They worked in a mine all day. Not the greatest place to work! But each day they would merrily march off to work singing, (I won't sing it for you, but here we go.) "Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's off to work we go." Well, what a great way to approach your responsibilities. I'll tell you, anyone who does that is a giant.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about a "Prescription For a Weary Worker."
Now, I attended a meeting of people who are very busy in Christian ministry, and one woman expressed a feeling that, as it turned out, everybody in the room agreed with. She said, "You know, people are working for the Lord around here, and they get very discouraged or they quit because of one word - weariness." And I watched a lot of heads nodding in that room.
Now, there are a lot of men and women who have spiritual responsibility and they struggle with a deep weariness, and it's far beyond physical. They're just tired of pushing, and of being sometimes the one of the few who care. They're tired of little results for a lot of work, and maybe not being appreciated. Some of you might say, "Well, how did you know?" Because there are a lot of us that serve the Lord that start to feel that way sometime or another.
Okay, our word for today from the Word of God, Hebrews 12:2-4 - "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning it's shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men..." And then notice this, "...so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
And then the writer goes on to say, In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." Okay, there's this weariness that we talked about that some people who are listening can identify with; that deep, emotional kind that saps your physical strength too. And there's discouragement; the kind that results in a mechanical kind of service - just kind of crank it out. And honestly, more and more frequent thoughts of quitting.
Weariness, according to Hebrews 12, seems to result from taking your eyes off Jesus. Maybe you're weary because you've been doing God's work in your strength. You know better, but you've gone from God working through you to the crank-it-out weariness of you suddenly working for God. Oh, you're doing the same things, but it's not Him through you. It's you for Him. Or it could be that you've been looking at the results you're getting instead of the Savior you're serving. He gives the results, He gives the rewards - people don't.
Is it time to get your eyes back on the Jesus whose love compelled you to serve in the first place?
You know, when Jacob had to work seven years to earn the right to marry Rachel, I love what the Bible says, "They seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." See, love makes the difference. Then you'll be able to join that saint who served the Lord for 70 years and who sang that song, "Since I started for the kingdom, since my life He controls, since I gave my life to Jesus, the longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows."

December 31, 2024 So What Are You Building? - #9907

This is going to come as a surprise to my friends who know my handyman abilities or my lack of handyman abilities, but my sons and I have built several houses together. Uh-huh! Yeah. Now, don't expect to see a pickup truck around town that says Hutchcraft & Sons on the side; that's not going to happen. See, our houses... Well, they haven't done too well.
It wasn't because we didn't work hard. We did. And it wasn't because they didn't look good; they looked great. It wasn't because they weren't big; we built them pretty big. But they literally collapsed within hours of the time we finished building them. It might have had something to do with the fact that we built those houses out of sand on a beach near the ocean.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "So What Are You Building?"
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 16. I'm going to begin reading at verse 16. "Simon Peter said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church." Did you get that? "And on this rock I will build My church."
That's what Jesus is building, and the tide is not going to affect it, the gates of hell He says will not overcome it. Now, there's no doubt about what Jesus is building. He's building His church. Are you? What are you building? We're all working on some structure; some kingdom of some kind. It's that in which you are putting your dreams, quite a bit of your money, the best of your time, a lot of your daily conversation revolves around whatever kingdom you are working on.
Maybe you're building a reputation for yourself. Maybe you're building a romantic relationship, and that relationship is actually getting most of your best. Maybe you're building a business; I will build my business. I will build my income. I will build my personal dream. I will build my retirement. I will build my own little kingdom, maybe even within Christ's church. It's all sand castles; it's all going to collapse. And our master said, "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).
Jesus is calling us to focus what we have on building His church. Do you know what that means today? It's not building a building. It means reaching the lost and building up believers. So, is that where your best is going? Someone has said in order for us to pray, "Thy kingdom come" we first have to pray, "My kingdom go." All these other things are all right if they're around the periphery, if they're the planets revolving around the sun of Christ's agenda. If Christ is at the center and calling the shots in all of them.
In the Old Testament the Jews were supposed to be rebuilding God's temple in the book of Haggai and God asks this penetrating question: "Why is it that you are rebuilding your own house while My house remains a ruin?" Once again, neglecting God's agenda and marginalizing it for our own.
I wonder if you'd stand back and take a candid look at your motives, at what is really your great passion right now, your great focus, your great obsession. Where are your energies going? Is it getting people to your Jesus? Or has Jesus' building program taken a back seat to something you're building; something out of sand; something a strong tide is going to wash away.
Jesus said, "The gates of hell will not wash away what He is building." Don't waste your few years on earth on a building that's not going to last. Jesus is building His church. What are you building?

December 27, 2024 Pain - Enemy or Friend? - #9905

I don't know if the espionage field is as exciting in real life as it is in fiction, but it sure makes for some great adventure plots - TV shows, novels, and movies. And I love spy stories! Let me tell you, they're pretty exciting! Now, in many good spy stories you'll find at least one character that they call a double agent. That means he's a spy who works for both sides, and you hope he's working for our side on this one. Of course, not all double agents are CIA types. In fact uh... you might know one intimately.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Pain - Enemy or Friend?."
Now, there are many phrases from the Bible that people use all the time and they don't even know it's from the Bible. One of those is, "My thorn in the flesh." Well, that's out of the Bible and it's our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 12:7. Paul says, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me."
Now, literally that word torment means to keep beating me up; to beat on me. Now, we don't really know exactly what the nature of the thorn was. There are a lot of different theories; it could have been something physical or emotional, but that's not important. I think God didn't let us know so we could apply this thorn idea to our own lives.
You see, God had a message for Paul, and so he was given this thorn in the flesh. This thorn was God's means of delivering the message to Paul. In fact, the book of 2 Corinthians really recounts Paul's battle to learn to depend totally on the Lord. We're talking here about a guy who was very skilled, persuasive, influential, and highly educated. He had to battle to learn to depend on God, not on himself.
The simplicity of what we learned when we were little kids, "Jesus loves me, this I know." Remember the part that says, "They are weak, but He is strong." We have to spend a whole lifetime learning that we are weak and He is strong. That's what 2 Corinthians is about. The one thing that makes humility tough is being used mightily by God, and Paul was.
You know, the tendency to take the credit for what God has done through you. You probably know about that. In a sense, when you've been a great worker, well, you need a great "weakener" to bring about balance. Paul's thorn was an agent for God saying, "You really need me, Paul." But it wasn't just God's agent, it was also a messenger of Satan. "It was given to him," it says, God gave Satan permission, in a sense, so it came from God indirectly, but it was a messenger from Satan to beat on Paul. It was a double agent. The Devil was using that same problem to say to Paul, "Give up, man! Do your own thing!"
Now, if God has really been working in your life; if God's really been using your life, you've probably got a thorn in your life. Maybe it's a physical limitation, or financial, family, relational. And you know what? As painful as it is, you needed it, and so do I. It's the thorns that keep us desperately depending on our God, and it's depending that makes us strong. That means that there's just a little of me and a lot of Him because of what I'm going through. But, see, the Devil wants to use this thorn for his purposes. So, the enemy taunts you with that problem. He tries to get you out of God's will; out of God's power. Yeah, that thorn is a double agent in your life, potentially working for both sides.
So, you have to decide whose agent your thorn will be. It's a powerful messenger. Don't let it work for the Devil - the destroyer. Listen for God's message in the thorn in your life, and be sure you're letting Agent Thorn work for the winning side.

December 25, 2024 A Christmas Knock at Your Door - #9903

Two and a half feet of snow had just left a million people without power, and we were there! Wouldn't you know, I had picked my time to be up there in New England when that happened. Well, we checked into the motel before the storm, but now as I stood at the front desk, that phone was ringing incessantly. I kind of felt bad, because the lady gave the same answer every time, "Sorry, no room." Hey, those are tough words to hear.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Christmas Knock at Your Door."
Well, you know, Jesus knows that feeling. And as we celebrate this Christmas Day, let's remember that the night He came, the innkeeper told His dad "No room," and shut the door. Of course it wasn't the last time Jesus got shut out. You know, a lot of us are so busy and running around in our own life, so stressed, we're basically saying, "Jesus, I like you, but I really don't have any room for you."
That happened to Jesus even when He came here. In Matthew 23:37 Jesus said, "I have longed to gather you together, but you were not willing." And that tragedy continues today as Jesus tries to get into a life that He came for that first Christmas; that He died for on Good Friday - maybe yours. He paid such a high price for you. He loves you so much He doesn't want to lose you. He died to pay for the sin that would cause you to be shut out of Heaven.
Actually there is in Luke 13 a disturbing picture of what happens to people because they would not open the door to the only One who could bring them to heaven. It says this: "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'll say, 'Well, we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'" These are people who hung out with Jesus; they knew a lot about Jesus. But He will reply, "I don't know you or where you come from. Away from Me! There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," and maybe a mom or a dad, or people you love that went ahead to heaven because they asked Jesus to be their Savior. But it ends by saying, "but you yourselves thrown out."
You don't want to be, and it's not what Jesus wants for anybody. That's why He paid the price for you to be in heaven with Him. You could get that done this day, this, this Christmas He's reaching out to you with this word for today from the Word of God, John 1:12 - "To all those who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God." That could happen for you this Christmas Day. If you open the door to the man who died for you, you can be sure He'll open the door of heaven to you.
If you're ready to belong to Jesus, here's what would help. Go to our website, and take just a very short time to find out exactly how to be sure you belong to the Christ of Christmas. That website is ANewStory.com.
Right where you are right now you can say, "Jesus, from this day on I am yours. I put all my trust in You." Because this Christmas, no room for Jesus means no chance of heaven. This can be your first Christmas with Christ in your heart. Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2024 The Radical Christmas Victory Plan - #9902

There's something really special about having a new baby in the family at Christmastime isn't there, since it's really all about a baby. I remember, you know, for example celebrating with a brand new granddaughter. Well, she didn't do much celebrating that Christmas. She really didn't do much of anything except lie there and look irresistible. Now, in my head, I know that babies are helpless, but being around one for a little while really brings that home. Our little darlin' couldn't eat unless Mommy fed her; she couldn't burp unless someone burped her (that's something that some of us grew up and learned to be quite good at); our baby couldn't move unless someone moved her; her little hands sort of flailed around - absolutely no ability to control what they did. Helpless.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Radical Christmas Victory Plan."
Now try to get your mind around this: the helpless hands of that little Jewish baby Mary was holding in the manger were the hands that created billions of galaxies! The Son of God, the second person of the Godhead, the One of whom the Bible says, "Through Him all things were made" (John 1:3). He comes to our planet in this helpless little package that basically can do nothing for himself. Omnipotence becomes helpless to rescue a world full of dying people. As one song says, "What a strange way to save the world."
Get used to it. It seems to be God's favorite modus operandi. And this radical victory plan - use the weak to do amazing things - can be both an encouragement to you and an explanation for some of your recent struggles. Let's go to our word for today from the Word of God to see the story of that first Christmas from heaven's viewpoint. Philippians 2, beginning with verse 5, tells us that our attitude "should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."
God goes on to explain that, though Jesus was "in very nature God," He "made Himself nothing (now picture that helpless, little infant in a cattle stall), 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!"
The great plan of God to redeem our world starts with Jesus as a helpless baby in a cattle stall and culminates with Him nailed to a criminal's cross. But Colossians 2:15 announces the crushing triumph won by that "weakness." It says Jesus disarmed the princes of hell and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross!" As musician Michael Card says, "His most awesome work was done through the frailty of His Son!"
God loves to win through weakness. Then it's a whole lot of God, and hardly any of us. That's why He chooses unlikely candidates and does mighty things through them - which means your inadequacy, your ordinariness may be exactly the qualities that can make you a spiritual hero. According to Jesus, who is it that will "inherit the earth"? The mighty? No - the meek (Matthew 5:3).
And about the struggles you've been going through recently. God will do whatever it takes to help us realize our weakness - to break our death grip on the steering wheel of our life and finally let Him drive - to break that stubborn pride of ours, the self-reliance, our need to control.
The events and the news of things in our lives that have gone on for the last few years, if anything, have ripped from our hands any ability to control what's going on, the illusion of control. And all so we can finally surrender and let His strength come flooding in. Maybe the battles you've been going through have been to take you beyond yourself and beyond things you can fix, you can solve, you can figure out - so you'll get out of the way and let God do what only He can do.
A baby wrapped in rags - a bloodied man, hanging on a cross. Vivid pictures of God's radical plan for victory - winning through weakness so everyone will know that the Lord is God!

December 23, 2024 Christmas - The Search is Over - #9901

We took one of our granddaughters to the Christmas Festival at a theme park when she was two. And she loved it! There were lights everywhere, exciting music performances and a great Christmas parade. But there was one thing that impressed her so much, and she talked about it all year long - the Living Nativity. We got to see a portrayal of the angels' appearance to the shepherds, the visit of the Wise Men, and best of all, Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus in the Manger. From that night on through the year, when we would mention that theme park, the first thing she associated with it was "Jesus" no matter what time of year it was.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Christmas - The Search is Over."
Our granddaughter thought that Jesus should be all year round. She's right. Some of us think about Jesus mostly on His holidays, like Christmas and Easter. A lot of us think of Him mainly on Sunday at church. But He didn't come to be our holiday Jesus or our church Jesus. He came here to make possible a personal love relationship with Him that gives meaning to every day of our lives; not just to be a belief or a religious compartment in our lives.
The event Jesus, the holiday Jesus, the religious Jesus; they're just not enough to forgive your sin, to answer your questions about the meaning of your life, or to get you to heaven someday. You've got to belong to Him every day, not just visit Him occasionally. He told those who belong to Him: "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). And a "never leave you" relationship is the kind of anchor that our soul is looking for. Every other relationship in our life has one thing in common: it's "loseable."
People turn on us, they dump us, they disappoint us, they divorce us, and no matter how deep the relationship, they ultimately die on us. That's why we can never really feel safe in this world, until we anchor ourselves to the Savior who said, "He who comes to me I will never cast out." (John 6:37 ) In Matthew 28:20, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus made the ironclad promise that He alone has the power to keep, "Surely I am with you always."
Now, in a world of things and experiences that are never-lasting, Jesus offers the only thing that is ever-lasting. John 3:36 tells us that "whoever believes in the Son (that's Jesus, the Son of God) has eternal life." See, you don't have to die to see if you have eternal life. You have it as soon as you put your trust in Jesus. The verse then gives the alternative: "Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on Him."
We had no chance with God until Jesus came that first Christmas. Until He gave His life on the cross to take the rap for every wrong thing we have ever done. We can't get anywhere near a holy God with our sin. But Jesus allowed God to dump all our sin on Him that day on the cross, so you could be clean, so you could be forgiven, so you could be with Him forever.
This Christmas season provides a wonderful time to make the Savior your Savior. He's not just for Christmas, but this Christmas season is a tremendous time to finally experience His love for yourself.
Look, if you're ready to make that move, you've already done life without Him and you don't want to do it any more, then I invite you to visit our website. It will help you know if you belong to Him and how you can. It's ANewStory.com. There's a brief explanation of how you know you have a relationship with Him. And you can tell Him right now, "Jesus I'm Yours."
And today, move beyond a religion about Jesus - to this love relationship with Jesus. Move from just believing things about Jesus - to really belonging to Jesus.

December 20, 2024 Amazing Grace, Amazing Christmas - #9900

There are lots of people digging into their family tree these days. In fact, we've done some of our own. A lot of digging around to find out where your roots are. You know, where my grandfather came from and my great grandfather, and which king or famous person I'm descended from. Of course I would be descended from someone famous, right?
Some people do find out that they are related to royalty, and then other people find out some embarrassment in their family tree - the old horse thief, you know, that they'd rather not talk about. For 2,000 years God has been developing and protecting a line for His Son to come through, and there are in that family tree some eyebrow raisers.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Amazing Grace, Amazing Christmas."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God, comes right out of the Christmas Story, is found in Matthew 1. Now, you may or may not be aware of the fact that the Christmas Story begins actually with a genealogy - a list of Jesus' family tree. God's been preparing this line for the Messiah; it's this most special family tree in the history of planet earth. He goes down a long list of names that starts here with Abraham, works its way down, and I'll just read a couple of them to you.
"Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth," etc. You probably don't want to hear a whole lot more of that. But all of a sudden you stop and your eye goes back and you say, "Rahab? What's she doing in Jesus' family tree?" Now, in most of this genealogy only the father is mentioned. It's only in rare cases where God wants to make a special point of it that He includes the mother. Why Rahab?
Now, if you remember your Old Testament a little bit, some years before, the Israelites were preparing to conquer the land of Canaan. God sent in a couple of spies and they went to the city of Jericho and they found one home where they were taken in to hide, and it turned out it was the home of Rahab - the prostitute. She turned out to be the prostitute who gave herself to the Jewish God for the rest of her life.
But these aren't the kind of people you talk about in your family tree; these are the ones you cover up. This is scandalous. This isn't the king! And yet God makes it a point to include her. You see, there's a hidden message here in the Christmas Story. A message that Jesus is for people who know they need forgiving and who know that God's grace has no limits. God doesn't use the word deserve when it comes to salvation. None of us deserves to be in His family tree. It's not just Rahab that's a surprise; what is Ron Hutchcraft doing in God's family? What are you doing in His family?
We're sinners who must always find grace to be "Amazing grace - how sweet the sound." The hymn says, "I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me...a sinner condemned, unclean." I hope today you still find God's grace amazing, and that you haven't been around so long that you think you belong in God's family because you deserve it. There is no one listening today who can not be forgiven by Him. Rahab was. And there is no person who doesn't still need His amazing grace today.
But maybe you've never experienced that grace for yourself. Oh, you've heard that song a lot of times - Amazing Grace. It says, "I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." But today, this Christmas season, how appropriate. The God who will forgive all those who come to Him, holds out His hand to you and says, "Grab My hand." His Son died to pay the penalty that you deserve. And God can be a forgiver because of the death of His Son on a cross. And, because His Son walked out of His grave under His own power, what began in a manger ended on a cross, and culminated with a resurrection and becomes personal for you when you let this Jesus be the forgiver of your sins.
That's the day you're welcomed into His family. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I want the Savior you came to be, to be my Savior. You came into the world at Christmas. Come into my life this Christmas season."
And, go to our website and find out there how you can be sure you belong to Him - ANewStory.com. Because the story of Rahab tells us this Christmas that there is no one who He will not welcome into the family of God.

December 19, 2024 Your Journey Leads to Bethlehem - #9899

There's just no better time to have a baby boy than Christmastime. My parents did, we did. Not my wife and me! That would really be a Christmas miracle! No, it was our son and daughter-in-law.
And our family was able to say, with the ancient prophecy of Jesus' coming, "to us a child is born; to us a son is given" (Isaiah 9:6). And what a baby boy he was, charging into the world at ten pounds, ten ounces!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Journey Leads to Bethlehem."
The parents decided to hold off on announcing Christmas-boy's name until he was born, so we didn't know. And they gave him a strong Bible name for a first name. But it was his middle name that melted me into a puddle. It's my brother's name - the one who died suddenly when I was only four years old; the baby who brought Jesus to our family.
I was a baby boy born at Christmastime, too, but into a family who knew little or nothing about Jesus. I never heard about Him. In our little second-floor apartment on the south side of Chicago, there was, as in the Christmas story, "no room" for Jesus. There was room for gambling and arguing and drinking, but we were spiritually nowhere.
Then came the night my only sibling, my baby brother, was rushed to the hospital, and he never came home. My dad's heart broke. And in his grief, he decided he should take his four-year-old son to church. Oh, he didn't go in; he just stayed in the car and read his Sunday paper and smoked his cigarette. One Sunday I came bounding out of that church, and I said, "Daddy, today I accepted Jesus into my heart." I don't think he had any idea what I was talking about, but the following Christmas Eve he got it. That night my father went to church there and he came out with Jesus in his heart, too. My mom soon followed. And Jesus became the center of our life in that little apartment, and I got a brand new mommy and daddy all because of a baby who died.
As I understand the Bible, my little brother's in heaven. But his mom and dad and brother were headed for a different destination. He was the only one in our family who was ready to die. My whole family believed then, and believes now, that my baby brother was sent by God to lead us to Jesus. And over the years, it has been my privilege to be there as many thousands of folks have found the same Jesus that changed my family and changed our eternities forever.
Because of that baby, because of the mission he accomplished, all my children belong to Jesus. And so do all their children who have now welcomed Jesus into their heart as I did. One of my children was right then, the father of a brand new, hours-old baby boy. The baby I looked at across the hospital room. The baby who bears the name of the baby God used to give me Jesus.
I can't answer all those hard questions about why God allows suffering and pain in the world. But I can tell you how God used the seemingly "senseless" death of a baby to help me, my family and ultimately countless others be in heaven someday.
We experienced the truth of that wonderful word from God's Word, our word for today from John 1:12. "He came unto His own. His own did not receive Him, but to as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name." Born into His family because of the baby who was born in Bethlehem, and in our case, the baby who was born that led us to Him.
I wonder if you've ever had that birthday? I mean that spiritual birthday. I wonder if you've ever come to know Jesus? He's brought you down a journey; brought you down a road that has brought you to listen to the radio and come to this point this day because this is the day He is ready to come into your heart. If you hear Him knocking, open the door.
Go to our website. I would love to be a part of helping you begin your relationship with Him. That's what it's there for, it's ANewStory.com.
You know, Christmas really is all about a Baby who came to die so we could live. And I will never stop thanking Him that He saw that lost little family in a second floor apartment on the south side of Chicago and sent a missionary - my brother - who never spoke a word to give us Jesus.

December 17, 2024 The Only Feedback That Matters - #9897

I remember that time when our son got a new haircut and a pretty noticeably different hair style. Not something real radical, but it was different. Needless to say, he was a little unsure of how he looked the first day after he had the makeover. At least he was used to the old style; he knew how to feel about it. We tried to reassure him. We gave him our parent's opinion about how he looked, but of course, what does our opinion matter...right?
So, he went off to school looking for feedback, and he returned all smiles that afternoon. Yeah, well guess who had liked it. Several girls - the right girls - had noticed and they had complimented him on his new hair style. It didn't matter what anybody else said, whether they liked it or not, he decided whose feedback really mattered to him. You know, that's actually a good thing to decide.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Only Feedback That Matters."
Now, there are a lot of choices more significant, of course, than a change of hair style. And we usually evaluate our decisions and our performance based on how well we please the audience that really matters to us. Right? My son wanted to make sure the girls liked his hair style; he decided what audience he needed to please. It's sort of like a boy who wants to know if his Dad likes what he did, or an athlete who has decided that above all else he just wants to please his coach. "What does the coach think of my performance?"
When you decide to follow Jesus Christ with your life, you've decided whom you want to please. You've said by following Christ, "I've decided my bottom line is this: 'Is Jesus happy with it?'" It's as if all the significant people in your life are sitting in this circle. Just imagine them in a room and they're waiting for you to make whatever life decision you're dealing with right now. Members of your family are there, maybe your pastor is there, some of your key friends, some coworkers, maybe your boss is there, or your teachers, a professor, and Jesus is in that circle.
And then you announce the choice you've made. Whose smile are you looking for? Whose smile lets you know you did the right thing? My son decided that the approval of certain girls would determine the rightness of his hair style choice. Well, the smile you should be looking for in that circle is the smile of Jesus.
So, how do you judge whether He's pleased or not? I mean, He isn't visibly there. Well, our word for today from the Word of God - you thought we'd never get there. We just did. Colossians 3:15 says this: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." Now, the word rule there actually means be the umpire; be the deciding factor in your life. "The peace of God." See, if God is smiling, He will show His pleasure by giving you this supernatural sense of His peace deep inside; this stubborn confidence; a poise that's there even if everyone else in the circle is frowning.
Oh, you may still have doubts, but when you're alone in His presence - it's just you and Him - you'll just know that you've done the right thing. That peace, that sense of rightness, okay-ness, will be there in the midst of the confusion. Live for that green light of God's peace. Believe that peace deep down in your soul. It will stand the test of the worst of storms.
Over and over in our family, when one or the other of us has been faced with a major life choice, we've given each other the advice that sometimes we tend to forget, "Go with the peace." After all, Jesus' smile expressed through the inner peace He gives you, is the only feedback that really matters.

December 16, 2024 Christmas - A Time for Outsiders - #9896

Well, for several years in a row our town was pretty lucky. We had a winning football team every year in high school. And every year the parents had a dinner in the team's honor, and everybody came. I mean, even people who had nothing to do with the football season suddenly showed up: the politicians, the board members, a variety of seemingly unconnected dignitaries. Oh, I'm sure they were there to honor the players.
But do you suppose they might have come for another reason? Hey, listen. We all like to be associated with winners, right? You have to ask yourself, "Who would be there if this team hadn't won a game?" Well, if you like to be associated with winners, there's something very unsettling about the Christmas Story.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Christmas - A Time for Outsiders."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 2:8-9, where we find the cast of the Christmas Story and how revealing it is concerning God's kind of people. Familiar words, "There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them."
Now, if you know much about the shepherds of that day, you might want to say, "The angel of the Lord appeared to THEM?" It's almost like there's a question mark there, "To the shepherds? They're the first ones to know?" See, these were like the lowlifes of Judea at that time. They weren't even allowed to go in the temple. They were the classic outsiders.
And it is to them God announces the birth of Christ, and He goes beyond that. In verse 20 of Luke 2, it says, "The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen." These guys turn out to be God's first ambassadors, the first evangelists. And think about the wise men; they were Gentiles. And in that Jewish culture they were considered outcasts - Gentile slime. But some of them were the first worshipers of Jesus.
It's pretty clear from the coming of Christ where His heart is, and where ours should be. Jesus goes with those that we call losers. He said in His first sermon in Luke 4, He was there for the poor, and the prisoners, and the blind, etc. It goes against our whole natural bent, though. I want to be with the power people. Jesus says, "Go to the powerless." "I want to spend time with those who make me look good." Jesus says, "Go to those who might diminish your reputation but who need you." "I want to be with those who can help me in some way, you know?" Jesus says, "Go to those who have nothing to give." Wow!
Look around you this Christmas season. Who's the outsider in your world, the reject, the left out person, the poor, the powerless, but they're within your reach? Go to some people Jesus would go to. They're all around us. From God's perspective, we're all like those shepherds - spiritually dirty, and smelly, and unattractive.
I can tell you this, Jesus knows how it feels to be an outsider. Oh yeah, He does. Yeah, the Bible says He was rejected by men. All the people who should have been there for Him ultimately seemed to abandon Him. And the Bible says, "He was a man of sorrows." And He ultimately ended up hanging alone on a cross, because He came to bring us inside the greatest love in the universe, because we were cut off from the God that loves us and the God that made us. He didn't cut himself off from us; we did it by running our own life and hijacking our life from Him and putting up a wall between us and Him.
And Jesus came here and became the ultimate outsider so we could become the ultimate insider; to be actually welcomed into the family of Almighty God. But it took Jesus' blood on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. It started in a manger, but it was what happened on that cross that tore down the wall.
And today He waits this Christmas season to welcome you into the family of God. Why don't you tell Him today, "Jesus, I love you for loving me the way you did. I am Yours beginning today." Could there be a better time to do it? Our website will help you know exactly how to begin that relationship. Please check it out - ANewStory.com.
Aren't you glad that Christmas is for losers like you and me? Let's be sure that we go to the people that Jesus came to on that first Christmas.

December 13, 2024 Sandal Security - #9895

My car started this morning. You say, "Big deal." Well, it is - it starts every morning no matter how cold it is or how wet it is. That's especially good when you realize the old girl's got, you know, something like 150,000 miles on her. I don't have nearly that many miles on me, and I'm having increasing trouble starting in the morning myself. Actually, all our cars have been like that since we began in the ministry many years ago, and they just keep working. And I don't credit the automobile company with it; I credit the manufacturer - no, THE manufacturer.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sandal Security."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Deuteronomy 29:5. God is speaking through Moses and reflecting on the 40 years that He kept the Israelites in the wilderness. Seemingly there's going to be no place where they're going to be able to get what they need. There aren't too many resources out there in the wilderness. But He says, "During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out nor did the sandals on your feet..." "...and your car kept starting." (No, no... I added that part. That's the Hutchcraft translation.)
Jewish sandals! The sandals didn't wear out on your feet. This is another insight into your Heavenly Father who is called Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides. See, God has so many creative ways to meet the needs of His kids. He seldom does it the same way twice. Sometimes it's manna from Heaven. The supply comes in a form you've never even known before. Sometimes it's water from a rock. "Where are we going to get water, Moses?" Wait! Water doesn't come from rocks. Oh, really?
Sometimes God supplies for you through a totally unexpected source. Sometimes He sends the ravens, like He did for Elijah, as He sent them every morning and evening with his food. Surprising deliverers of His supply will be the ones who sometimes bring it to you. They just weren't even on your radar. Who would have guessed it would have come from them? And you know what? God usually does it on a daily bread basis; just what you need for that day. Sometimes He does loaves and fish; he makes a little go farther than you ever dreamed it could. But He always keeps His promise in Psalm 23, "The Lord is my Shepherd" - say it with me - "I shall not want."
Sometimes there's a different kind of supply miracle. He simply makes things last, like those Jewish sandals. Our repairman said that about our washing machine. He said, "This thing should not be alive." But it was still going - there's those Jewish sandals, sandal security.
Now, God could have had it rain sandals if He wanted it to, but instead He just preserved one pair, and they're walking every day for 40 years in those sandals in the wilderness. See, we get in a rut of looking for manna all the time, and God may want to do it through some miracle like that. We miss those miracles of things that just last because they're not as dramatic. Well, take care of what God gives you, and pray for His preserving miracles as well as His delivering miracles. Let God do it in any creative way He wants, and live knowing that you always, always will have what you need.
His Word in Philippians 4:19 is, "My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Look around you. I'll bet somewhere God is meeting your need through a miracle of manna right now; just a miraculous, out-of-nowhere provision. But I'll bet somewhere you've got the modern equivalent of those Jewish sandals. Either way, every need is supplied. You're living hand-to-mouth; His hand to your mouth. Wow! Talk about security!

December 12, 2024 Broken at Christmas - #9894

Having had two teenage boys who loved football, there was one Christmas gift that was a sure hit - a new leather football. And seeing how it was a rare 60-degree Christmas morning, do you think we were going to just sit around the Christmas tree and admire that ball? No! They went right outside and did what you're supposed to do with a football.
So here we were - the three men of the house - running quickly out of the house, out into the middle of the street, passing that football back and forth. See, I went back for a long one; the pass was right to me! And I caught it! Right on the end of my little finger, like the Christmas klutz. The emergency room? Yeah, that's not where you want to spend a chunk of your Christmas, but that's where I was with a special souvenir of that Christmas - a broken finger.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Broken at Christmas."
Hey, take it from me; it is no fun having something broken during Christmas. Especially if what's broken is a relationship you really care about, or your family is broken, or your heart is broken. All the "joy to the world" around you just seems to make the hurt even worse. And often the Christmas season brings painful reminders of the things that have hurt us the most.
You need to know that the One whose birthday we're celebrating knows about what's broken and He knows how much it hurts. He cares about that pain, He cares about your loneliness, and He really understands. Remember, this Jesus who came that first Christmas was, in the words of the Bible, a "man of sorrows and familiar with suffering" (Isaiah 53:3). He was misunderstood, He was abandoned, He was betrayed, falsely accused, and put to death.
So while everyone around you may be celebrating and totally unaware of how you're hurting, you've got to know that Jesus is moving close to you today, and He wants to do something very powerful for you this Christmas. That's why I think He's led me to talk about this today. His Word says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18).
In Isaiah 61:1, our word for today from the Word of God, the Son of God says, "The Lord has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted." He really is the fixer of broken hearts, and broken lives, and broken people. Because He came to do something about what's at the root of all our brokenness. There's a reason we use each other, hurt each other, and let each other down. Something's very wrong in our world; something's very wrong in us. It goes back to our living with our back to the God who put us here. We simply aren't living as we were made to live, which is God's way. We have this deadly disease of "me" called sin. It's ignored God over and over again. And sin is a killer of everything beautiful - everything that matters.
In fact, sin killed Jesus. He absorbed our death penalty for our sin to remove that wall between us and the God whose love we need so desperately. And the broken things in your life are a painful reminder of your deep heart need for a love and a security that you can't lose. Only God can give you that.
So the body of Jesus was broken to repair the broken relationship between you and God, so He can move in and fix and forgive what's broken inside you. In fact, this very day, the one who came on Christmas is coming to you, offering you this opportunity for Him to come into your life with His love. But you have to open the door to let Him in.
And this could be the day that happens, the day you finally experience what it is to belong to the one who loved you enough to die for you and then was powerful enough to conquer death. Just tell Him right where you are, "Jesus, I've lived without you long enough. You died for me. I can trust you. I'm yours." And please go check out our website today - ANewStory.com. It will help you know that you really belong to Him.
What a Christmas this could be. What a new beginning! Being broken can actually drive you into the loving arms of Jesus Christ where you can finally be whole.

December 11, 2024 Breaking God's Heart - #9893

Fettuccini Alfredo! It's that great Italian dish that has buttered noodles served in a rich, creamy sauce. Unfortunately, it's not recommended as health food. It's more like "heart attack on a plate." Maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but the fact is that a lot of foods do contribute to the slow shutdown of the valves that happen to carry the blood and oxygen into your heart. I love what one commercial called it - blood sludge. Medical people refer to the hardening of the arteries - the process in which foods that are high in cholesterol and fat start building up these hard deposits in your arteries. If this hardening in your heart is allowed to continue long enough, it's no laughing matter. It can threaten your life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Breaking God's Heart."
Hearts can harden physically and hearts can harden spiritually. It can become really dangerous in the heart of any man or woman who is trying to make a difference for Jesus Christ. It was Jesus' heart that motivated all He did - a heart that the Bible says was "moved with compassion when He saw the multitudes." He was deeply moved. He saw them, the Bible says, as "threatened and helpless sheep without a shepherd." He wept over His city Jerusalem because they wouldn't come to Him and the life He wanted to give them. Paul was a model for all of us who want to serve Christ when he revealed what drove him to suffer incredible pain and to sacrifice so much to tell people about Jesus. It's our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 5:14, "Christ's love compels us."
I was once told about a pastor in one of America's major cities. Often, he wouldn't come into the service until a few minutes before his message. But this one particular Sunday, it came time for the sermon and the pastor wasn't on the platform. A couple of church leaders went to check his office, and there he was looking out over the endless rows of apartments and houses that jammed their depressed neighborhood. And he was weeping. One of the men who had come looking for him said gently, "Pastor, I understand, you're weeping because of the great needs all around us, aren't you?" "No," the pastor told him, "I'm weeping because it doesn't move me like it used to."
That is cause for weeping. This servant of God realized that something had happened to his heart. Like a person with hardening of the arteries, his heart had started to close up - to harden. Maybe yours is, too. Like that physical hardening, it happens slowly and imperceptibly, but the longer it goes unchecked, the more dangerous it becomes.
Most of us start serving the Lord with a healthy heart. We're moved by the lostness of people who don't have a Savior. We realize the life-or-death importance of getting to them with the message about Jesus. Heaven and hell are at stake. And we come into the Lord's work with a heart that's soft toward the pain and suffering and the dysfunction that sin is causing in lives all around us. We ask the Lord to use us to make a difference whatever it takes.
But for some of us, that healthy heart started to harden somewhere along the way with all the pressures, the politics, the drama, the disillusionments, the programs, the conflicts. We can no longer say that it is this burning love of Christ for the lost and the hurting that drives us. What once was a passion has become a profession. What once was a deep affair of the heart has become an exercise of our head and our busy hands. And the joy, the fire is going out...or gone.
But the One who gave you that original piece of His heart wants to give it to you again if you'll recognize the crisis of your closing heart and tell your Master that you want His life-changing heart surgery - to open up what the deposits of the years have closed, and to give you a new heart, throbbing with His love, with His passion and with His tears for the lost. Without that, there ultimately is no life.
Go to the Master Heart Surgeon today and tell Him you want a heart like His.

December 10, 2024 Buffalo Riding - #9892

I love to drive through Custer State Park in South Dakota. This time, we were driving through on our way to an outreach for the Lakota young people on a nearby reservation. I love the drive because, if I'm lucky, I'll get to see a lot of buffalo. I know you'll find this surprising, but seeing buffalo is one thing; riding them is another. Not that I ever have!
We were with our Lakota Christian brother, and we saw some buffalo! And he said, "Ron, I know someone who rides buffalo in parades, and on holidays." And I said, "Wait a minute! Rides a buffalo?" I can't imagine boarding one of these wonderful wild animals. Somebody asked this buffalo rider, "What's it take?" Here's what he said: "Patience. If you neglect them one or two days, he won't be tamed any more."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Buffalo Riding."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 7, beginning at verse 19. It actually talks about the buffalo - the wild animal inside you and me; a wild beast that does not want to be tamed. Verse 19, "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." Verse 24 Paul says, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" You get almost a hopeless feeling up to this point.
And then suddenly, "Bam! The sun comes out." Here's the good news. "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" See, there's an animal inside of us that wants us to go against God. It's like the hymn writer says, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love." We know what God wants, and we want it too. But we keep choosing to let that part of us that is out-of-control run us. We just can't seem to tame it!
But we're not without hope. There's a Savior, not only from the penalty of sin, which is huge, but from the power of sin. Romans 6:14 says, "Sin will no longer be your master." When we surrender that wild part to Jesus, He begins to tame what has always ruled us; what has always beaten us. But you don't tame it once and for all. It takes patience like the buffalo rider said.
Luke 9:23 says, "Take up your cross daily and follow Me." If you neglect that buffalo - that animal inside you - one or two days, he won't be tamed any more. That sin that has beaten you, it's got to be beaten now on a 24-hour basis, 24-hour victories. I won it today. Some of us have made the mistake of thinking that big, great, one-time spiritual experience would tame the buffalo once and for all. But he keeps getting away from us; keeps riding over us. It's because we missed the daily part.
If you conquer sin one day at a time, and if Jesus is the only one who can conquer it, doesn't it stand to reason you have to be with Jesus each new day. Now, you notice something that happens consistently when you miss a day or two of your time with Jesus. At least it happens to me. The dark side of me starts to surface again, re-strengthened. I start to see traits that I was seeing less of, and suddenly I start seeing more of. And so does everyone close to me.
It's as if that daily surrender time with Jesus is the only dam that's holding back the parts of me I hate. You miss being with the Savior because of sin, and the sin starts to leak back in. You need a constant get-together. You need a consistent, non-negotiable time together with Jesus, where you again make Him the Lord of your stubborn sin. That's literally the margin between victory and defeat.
We've all got a buffalo to tame. Let him go unattended for a couple of days, and sin will stampede right over you again. But you can ride the buffalo that has ridden you by daily turning over the reigns to the One who died to tame the animal inside you. He is the Savior. He is Jesus.

December 6, 2024 Not Good Enough for Heaven - #9890

I grew up around Lake Michigan. And when I was little, I used to go in it. Now I mostly just look at it when I'm in Chicago or in the Great Lakes area. Part of that is because of what happened to me when I was ten years old. My memories of that lake are memories of a struggle I will never forget. I was out with my friends. I didn't know how to swim and I was too proud to tell them. Well, I started to go under. No one took me seriously. I mean, I'm yelling. I'm trying to get some help. I'm drinking the lake! I'm in a panic, flailing around, and my friends are going, "Oh, Ron, you know him. He's such a clown!" Great! Finally, just in the nick of time, someone came. They grabbed me and they literally saved my life.
Let me tell you what I contributed to my rescue. That's right, absolutely nothing.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Not Good Enough for Heaven."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ephesians 2:8-9. "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." Okay, fasten your seat belt, because these statements out of God's Word are so radical they basically challenge every religious system in the world, whether it's Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, you name it. Because every system says, "Here are some good things you can do that will commend you to God, and He'll forgive the bad based on the good you do."
But this says, "No good you can do will pay off the bad." "Not by works." Could it be any plainer? Those are radical words! Nothing you can do to contribute to your rescue. No amount of religion. No amount of being a good boy or girl. This word "saved" here indicates that there's a rescue needed. We're dying spiritually because we have broken God's laws. We're away from God. We're powerless to get back to Him. It's like me in Lake Michigan that day. You can't rescue yourself.
Maybe you've been depending somehow on your own goodness to get you to heaven, or your family connections, or the money you give, or the fact that you agree with all the Jesus stuff. You've got Christ in your head but maybe not in your heart. It is, the Bible says, "the gift of God" paid for. Not by you, but by Jesus Christ. You don't pay for your gifts. Gifts are paid for by someone else. Your gift of eternal life was paid for by Jesus because you and I couldn't pay for it. He took your hell and mine. He took your payment for your sin dying on the cross.
How do you get it? It says, "through faith." Faith is what happened that day I grabbed that lifeguard. I just pinned all my hopes on him. For us to be saved - to be rescued - through faith, it means that we recognize that we are drowning spiritually, powerless to rescue ourselves. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to surrender your self-efforts in order to finally get the peace of really knowing God personally?
You quit depending on your religion. It's not Jesus plus anything else. It's just Jesus. So you grab heaven's lifeguard like a drowning person would grab the person coming to rescue them. When did you do this? Have you ever had that moment with Jesus? You say, "I don't know I have." Well, then, you probably haven't. Maybe God is coming to you through this conversation today because He's courting you. He's after you. He's reaching out His hand to save you. This is life-or-death stuff - forever life or death.
If you haven't pinned all your hopes on Jesus, do it now. If you're not sure you belong to Jesus, let me invite you to go to our website. It's there so I can help you nail down your own relationship with Jesus and know for sure that you belong to Him. Not just believe in Him, but that you belong to Him. Let's get together at ANewStory.com.
Jesus plunged into your world to rescue you from sin. You can't rescue yourself from it. Today, as He comes to you, grab hold of your Rescuer.

December 4, 2024 Your Personal Titanic - #9888

It's been over 100 years, but there's something about the sinking of the Titanic that still fascinates us. The latest evidence, newly unearthed photographs and stories, the incredible success of the blockbuster movie, "Titanic." I mean, they've kind of refocused us on it. I've always found the story of the last hours of this supposedly unsinkable ship to be a haunting story. The people on the Titanic represented just about all the kinds of people that there are. Then I start thinking about how most of them died. At best, only a few hundred of them got into lifeboats. Many more of them went down with the ship only wearing life jackets. And, you know, there were different ways people handled those terrifying hours on that sinking ship, and it tells us a lot about what we're all really like.
Only about 700 of the Titanic's 2,200 passengers survived. But what's even more tragic is that many of the 1,500 who died didn't have to die because many of the lifeboats were only half full. And those who made it aboard could hear hundreds of people in the water, crying for help. But almost all those people died - not from drowning - they were in their lifejackets. They died from hypothermia.
Here's the awful truth: there were 20 lifeboats, from the Titanic, most partially empty. Only one of those 20 went back - too late for most of the people in the water. Only six of those people were saved. Most of them could have been saved if only those who had already been rescued had gone back for those who had no other chance but them.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Personal Titanic."
Our Word for today from the Word of God comes from Ezekiel 33:6. It's about the watchman on the walls of an ancient city who sees the hostile army approaching. It says, "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."
God says, "If you know someone is going to die and you're in a position to do something about it, and you don't, that person's blood is on your hands." We're appalled to think that those who had been saved from the Titanic would just row off into the night, save themselves, but doing nothing about those who were dying around them. But I have to ask, "Dear God, is that us?"
We've been rescued from sin's sinking ship - from an eternity without God and without hope. But are we just rowing on, enjoying our cozy lifeboat with others who are already saved, singing our lifeboat songs, going to our lifeboat committee meetings, and building a more comfortable lifeboat for those who are already saved? And oblivious sometimes to our co-workers, our neighbors, our loved ones, our friends who will die if we don't turn the lifeboat around and reach out for them and tell them about our Jesus. Maybe we're not oblivious - maybe we're just afraid to go after them, to reach out to them. Whatever the reason, the result is the same - we're saved, they're not and they're going to die and their blood will be on our hands.
God's clear word in Proverbs 24:11-12 says, "Rescue those who are being led away to death. If you say, '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?" God is accepting no excuses on this.
He's wonderfully pulled you into His lifeboat. He's rescued you from an awful eternity. And now He has put you in the middle of some people who need to know that Jesus died for them; that He's the relationship they've been looking for their whole life. People who are destined to die eternally without Jesus if they don't find out what He did for them on the cross. You're in a position to rescue them. They're within your reach.
There's still room in the lifeboat for the people around you. Please, don't leave them where they are.

December 3, 2024 Why Commitment Is Worth It - #9887

Oh, the frequent flier bonus. That's one of the smartest ideas the airlines ever had I think. You know, you don't usually have to think twice about what airline you're going to book with. If they've got a flight going to the city that I'm going to anywhere near the time I need to go, you know I'm going to try and stick with that one company. I'm just a loyal kind of guy! No. See, the airline credits the flier with mileage awards that convert ultimately into discounts, and upgrades, and even free trips. They're getting a little harder to get, but you know, it's still a pretty good deal. Now, that bonus incentive sure has worked in getting me to stay with one carrier over the years. Especially when I was flying all over the place. And I understand it's worked on millions of other flyers too. The golden principle here is pretty simple: the biggest rewards are for those who stick with the same carrier.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Commitment Is Worth It."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 10. I'm in verse 35. "So do not throw away your confidence." Okay, hang in there, right? Now, in other words, stay where you've been. "It will be" (here is the bonus) "richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God you will receive what He has promised." Well, the message here is pretty simple. Stay with what you've been committed to, and the rewards will be rich. Persevere so you'll receive.
Now, this is addressed to people, if you look at the context, whose commitment to Christ is being tested by very hard times. You can almost imagine in modern terms we might say to them, "Well, you know, it might be tempting to change carriers right now, but the bonuses, the rewards, are for those who stay put, who stay with the same carrier." That's a principle that covers a lot of living. Those who stay put get the biggest rewards.
It's true of marriage. Oh, people get restless in a marriage; the grass...it looks a little greener somewhere else. Or it gets tough and it's hard to work through this really stormy time. But the best of married love and the best intimacy earth has to offer isn't in the passionate days of courtship and the honeymoon. It comes from the long years of weathering storms and facing problems together and refusing to run when it's hard. One day the sun rises on a trust, a belonging, a safety that you can only know by staying with the same partner. It's a joy that the "bailer-outers" will never know.
I've seen it in ministry - people who jump from place to place. They never know the tremendous payoff of sticking it out in one place. They're never there for the harvest; they sow the seed and they leave before the harvest. See, a harvest comes only by patient, persevering work. So often the jumpers leave just before the results start to come. It's like we get to the Red Sea and leave before it parts. They put in the work, but they never see the bonuses. They just keep changing carriers.
It's just true in so many areas of life; sticking with a friend instead of changing friends all the time because it got a little rocky, committing yourself to a cause and sticking with it, or seeing a job through when you feel like quitting. Most importantly, follow Christ patiently, doggedly, stubbornly every day for a lifetime. Even when you can't feel anything, when you can't hear His voice, it is the loyal followers of Christ who see Him as nobody else does.
There's a song that says, "The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows." That is so true. Stay with the same company, and you'll really enjoy the rewards of not moving.

December 2, 2024 Why Religion Isn't Enough - #9886

Years ago in college, our son and a young lady friend of his decided they needed to have an RDT. I know it sounds like an injection or like bug spray. But it actually had to do with what was going on between them. See, men and women at the college that they attended often would have an RDT with someone. And I guess history does repeat itself, because I actually had one with my future wife one night many years ago. We didn't call it that, but that's what it was. I told her this: "I'm just sick and tired of just having a brother/sister relationship. I want it to be more." I risked it all that day and, guess what, I married her.
Well, after she picked herself up off the floor, she got my drift. And we were married a long time. Whenever a man or woman in my son's school wanted to figure out what their relationship was, they would say, "It's RDT time." That's when they found out, "Is this a friendship? Or are we dating? Are we going steady? Is this a possible marriage situation? Are we pre-engaged? What do we call this?" Well, actually there comes a time when you need to know where you stand. Oh, and what is an RDT? I probably should tell you that. It's a Relationship Definition Time!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Religion Isn't Enough."
It may be RDT time for you in the most important relationship of all. See, Jesus Christ calls for you and Him to have a relationship definition time. Our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 13:5 is sobering. Listen, "Examine yourself 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? And I trust that you will discover that you have not failed the test."
Okay, you know about Jesus. You like Jesus. You agree with Jesus. You try to live like Jesus would want you to live, and that's all good. But have you ever made the Savior your Savior and put all your trust in Him; grabbing Him like he's your only hope? See, when it comes to getting things really settled with Jesus Christ once and for all, many of us are like a plane that keeps circling the airport. We're close. We're circling, but we never landed. And you're looking down on that cross where God's One and only Son is dying to pay your sin bill with God. You know that's where you'll get the sins of a lifetime erased from God's book.
But maybe you've never really landed. John 3:36 - "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." The New Testament makes it clear that believing in Jesus is telling Him He's your only hope. You're putting your total trust in what He did on the cross for you, abandoning any other hope. He's your only hope of knowing God, of going to heaven.
Have you ever done that with Him? Have you ever really believed in Jesus in that way? And there's only one other relationship option according to Jesus. You're rejecting Him. Not to believe is to reject. Not to decide is to decide.
The Roman Governor who tried Jesus unknowingly asked the question that decides every person's eternity, "What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?" It's time for you to answer that question. It's relationship definition time.
If you're ready to finally get this settled, would you tell Him right now, "Lord, you're my only hope of having my sins erased from God's book, of ever having a relationship with God and of going to heaven. I believe You died for me, and beginning right now I want to belong to You." I want to invite you to visit our website, and let me walk you through the steps to make sure you belong to Jesus. It's called ANewStory.com.
Today is relationship definition time. There's an old gospel song that makes it pretty clear. "What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. For some day your heart will be asking, 'What will He do with Me?'"

November 29, 2024 Personal Power Failures - #9885

You think you've had a bad day? Oh, I'll tell you about a bad day. It was the summer of 1997; you're a cosmonaut on Russia's space station Mir. So far, you've battled a fire on board. Then a supply ship runs into you in a docking procedure. You lose 40% of your power. You think you've already had your fill of bad days for one mission. But then, the central computer on the space station suddenly shuts down. You are tumbling through space in what reporters called "chaotic flight." Hard to believe! It happened!
The day the computer failed, those cosmonauts were thrown into a particularly dangerous situation. That space station was solar-powered and all of a sudden, as one reporter put it, it lost its orientation to the sun, which means you don't have the power to meet the demands of your flight, and worst case, your life is in jeopardy. Why? All because Mir turned its back on the sun.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Personal Power Failures."
The crisis that faced that space station? Not enough power to meet the demands. That's a feeling a lot of us have had in our lives. Trying to meet the demands of our family, our relationships, our work responsibilities, and frankly, our resources just aren't enough. Do you ever feel like you're running without the personal peace you need, the love, the power? Maybe the description of that space station's situation describes your own life - "Chaotic flight."
It could be that the confusion and the power failure is for a similar reason, too, that space station is designed to draw its life from the sun. Listen to these words from the Bible about how God designed us. Speaking of Jesus, it says we were "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). That Him is the Son of God - S-O-N. Our lives? Well, they're essentially tumbling aimlessly when we lose our proper orientation to the Son. And according to God's Book, we all have.
Here we go from 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." Three words explain why we feel so spiritually disoriented, "his own way." The One who gave us our life was supposed to run our life and we simply took our life and we've run it "our own way."
If you wanted to draw that in picture form, you'd probably put you on the left side of the page, God on the right, and you'd be walking away from Him, with your back to Him; with your back to the source of the love and the peace and the power and the meaning you need. If you die with your back still to Him, erase God from your picture forever. And that's hell. Unless you can find a way to get rid of your sin and get back to Him, like the space station without the sun, the result is ultimately death.
I'm so glad that "gone astray" verse doesn't stop there. It also tells us the way to find the God we've lost. It says, "And the Lord has laid on Him the wrongdoing of us all" The Him is Jesus and all the sin that cuts us off from God was laid on Jesus, God's sinless Son, when He died on that cross. You can literally walk up to that cross and say, "For me. He's doing that for me."
The day you tell Jesus you're putting your total trust in Him to rescue you from your sin is the day you find your Creator, the Son you were created for. For you, it could be today. That's why God brought us together, so this could be your day.
If you want to know how to begin with Him and how to know you belong to Him, that's what our website's all about. I urge you to check it out as soon as you can today - ANewStory.com.
Hasn't your "chaotic flight" lasted long enough? It's the Son - the Son of God - you need right now. He has all the power you'll ever need to meet every demand of your life.

November 28, 2024 You Got Mail...For Thanksgiving - #9884

Okay, so they won't deliver mail on Thanksgiving. But it still might be a good day for someone you love to get mail. Possibly hand-delivered by you!
Now, in our world, you know that rare means something is valuable, like antiques, baseball cards, all kinds of collectibles. The less there is of something, the more valuable it is. How about "thank you." Yeah, that's rare.
When Jesus healed ten lepers of their deadly, defacing disease, only one came back to say thanks out of ten. Seems to be how it always is with thank you's. Maybe one thanks for every ten things you should be grateful to God for, or to each other. That's why you can really light up someone's life this Thanksgiving by giving them some thanks in writing, where it can really sink in; where they can go back to it on their dark day.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Got Mail - For Thanksgiving."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ephesians 4:29. It's a favorite of mine. In fact, many years ago we had our family memorize this, and well, we wanted everybody to kind of program their heart, and their mind, and their relationships - including me - with this verse. It simply says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is useful for building others up." So, the Bible encourages us to use our words to build other people up. We should be in the construction business. And nothing can be more powerful in building people up than words of encouragement, words of gratitude, words that say "thank you," and isn't this a great time to be doing that?
Now, here's the kind of letter you might write. It might be to someone very close to you, or someone you used to be close to until something happened; or someone you pray for but you can't seem to break through to them. In any case, it's just hard to be hard when someone's thanking you for who you are.
Now, we're pretty good at thinking of things we don't like about someone. But something good happens in your heart when you make yourself sit down and you start writing about that person's strengths, and their contributions to your life and to other lives. And something good happens in their life when they get your gratitude in a letter. You are indeed, like the Bible says, building them up.
I've actually seen hard hearts begin to thaw. I've seen closed hearts begin to open when someone who loved them dared to write a letter that, well, went something like this (I'll give you the parts of the letter). Here we go.
First of all, "I love you..." Just expressing your affection, your love for them. Now, you've got to fill in the blanks on it. I can't do that for you. But "I love you..." You take it from there. Second part of the letter, "Thank you for..." You've got to do the rest. But think about the specific qualities that you appreciate about them, or experiences or actions, maybe it's just small things. Maybe, you know, they're not always that way. But you have seen that light; a glimmer of that light. Think of the things you can encourage in them that you've seen that you can thank them for. Maybe good things were recent; maybe they were years ago, but there are some things you've got to be thankful for in that person. The third part of the letter goes, "I'm sorry for..." That's the hard part. What are some of the things you wished you'd done differently? Put it there, "I'm sorry for..."
And then, "I wish we could..." That's the last part of the letter. "I wish we could..." How would you like your relationship to be from now on? However it's been recently, however it's been in the past, how would you like it to be in the future? "I wish we could..."
See, if you will open your heart like this, there's a chance they might open theirs. And honestly, there's no better time than Thanksgiving and the upcoming holiday season to reach out with this gift that only you can give. Because no one can hear all those nice things people say about them at their funeral.
Why don't you give them their bouquets while they can still smell the flowers, and don't wait for the funeral? And, well, my friend, Happy Thanksgiving.

November 26, 2024 Crashproof Peace - #9882

I was on a flight several years ago and my neighbor was one of the flight attendants. For whatever reason we ended up talking about plane crashes. There was one that came to mind in particular because it was a tragic crash off the coast of Nova Scotia back in the '90s.
Since the passengers and the crew knew about the plane's critical situation for a while, we talked about how it must have felt to be anticipating that crash for half an hour. And I couldn't help but reflect on two occasions when the plane I was in had pretty close calls: one where we had serious hydraulic problems, and another where my plane had blown a tire on takeoff. On those occasions we knew about the problem for a while, and we had some time to think about the possibilities.
On one of those flights, I was seated next to a sweet little grandmother who was very scared. Fortunately I was able to be some comfort to her. In fact, I even got her to laugh a little. After we landed with a wounded plane but safe passengers, she said, "How could you stay so calm during a time like this?" I said, "I guess it's because my peace isn't from what's going on around me. It's from inside where nothing can touch it." Or, as I told my flight attendant neighbor, "The peace passed the test."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Crashproof Peace."
I was doubly grateful in those airline emergencies because, well, my plane didn't crash and neither did my peace. Living in the kind of turbulent, unpredictable, even painful world you and I do, our hearts need a source of peace that's unshakable, no matter what. When that grandmother asked me how I could have peace when we could have been facing a crash, I said, "It's because my peace isn't anchored to what's happening around me. It's anchored to my love-relationship with Jesus Christ, which nothing can touch!"
Now that's a peace you may need right now. Our word for today from the Word of God talks about how to have that kind of stability when everything else in our life is up for grabs. It's in Hebrews 6:19. It begins by saying, "We have this hope..." Which hope? Well, the verses around it are talking about the hope we have because Jesus opened a way for us to go right to the heart of God. It says, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." Man, I love that!
"As an anchor for the soul." Sounds pretty good doesn't it? See, while the storm is blowing the ship of our life back and forth, an anchor is there that never moves, that keeps us from being blown away. It may be that there's been plenty of turbulence lately for you, and maybe there's heavy weather coming. Maybe you've already seen some things or even some people that you were counting on blown away. The word "peace" so describes what your heart needs right now - something unloseable.
That's what Jesus promised those who belong to Him. He said, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you" (John 14:27). It was that peace that never failed me when I was anticipating a possible plane crash, when my wife was suddenly gone, when we lost a baby, when my Dad died. It was this peace of Jesus I just saw in my dear friends whose teenage son was killed in a traffic accident. They told me of the deepest pain of their lives, and the most amazing sense of well-being that they had ever experienced.
That's got to be Jesus! Only He could do that, and He wants to do it for you. He gave His life to give you the peace that you need most of all - peace with God. We have this wall between us and our Creator, made from all the sins of our life. But Jesus died to pay the death penalty for our sins so the wall could come down. So you and I could finally trade our hell for His heaven, and our restlessness and our pain for His peace.
Do you want that? Do you want to know you belong to Him? Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." Go to our website and let me walk you through there how to be sure you belong to Him - ANewStory.com.
When you open up to the peace of Jesus Christ, you have found the anchor for your soul, and no storm, no crash can touch it.

November 25, 2024 The Battle for Your Body - #9881

They tell me that a dog is man's best friend. I hope so, because if you have one of those best friends you get to go for a walk with him very, very often, right? I mean, it's nice to have a walk with your best friend. Of course, you often see folks in our neighborhood walking their dog, and occasionally you see a humorous variation on the old theme of a man walking his dog.
There's this very big dog and this not so big person, and you see the owner desperately trying to control and keep up with his dog. It's a great picture. You chuckle to yourself and you think, "Oh, look at that dog walking the man!" It's kind of backwards. I mean, it's funny to see a person being led by something that they're supposed to be leading, right? Or is it?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Battle for Your Body."
Our word for today from the Word of God is from 1 Corinthians 9, and I'm going to be reading verses 24-27. It's about controlling or being controlled; the issue Paul's writing about. He says, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training; they do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."
Now, Paul is, of course, giving us an Olympic picture here, and what he's really saying is that a champion cannot let his body walk him like that man had the big dog taking him for a walk. You've got to control your body. I watched my son at football practice, and the coaches, man, they put them through the ringer. Why? They wanted the players to learn that when your body feels like quitting, you've got to keep going. You don't stop at the first sign of fatigue or pain, "Oh, I hurt. I'm going to quit." You've got to train your body so you control it and it doesn't control you.
That means that if you're a champion, you keep going even if you don't feel like it. It means you don't necessarily eat whatever you want. You don't quit when you feel like quitting; you don't indulge yourself. Now, if you and I are going to be spiritual champions, we've got to stop letting our body call the shots, and too often we do. We have an appetite to eat, so we do. We have a lustful desire; we let it wreak havoc in our soul. We don't exercise to protect that temple of God; the place where God lives - this body, because we don't have time and we don't feel like it. We're letting our body make the decisions.
In his book The Christian Response, Michel Quoist says, "If your body makes all the decisions and gives all the orders, and if you obey the physical, you can effectively destroy every other dimension of your personality." Wow! Over 200 years ago, Susanna Wesley, John Wesley's mother said, "Whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind - that is sin to you."
We're going to have to learn championship techniques here, to deny our appetites and desires, and to exercise daily practices of saying no to your body. Look, has your body been walking you? It's time to get control again. There's an important spiritual reason for passing up that food I don't need, the drink I should never use, the sexual flirtations I should avoid. My body, uncontrolled, will wage war against my soul!
"Lord, once again, become the lord of my body." Say to Him, "Lord, I've been on the wrong end of this leash long enough."

November 22, 2024 Unimaginable Love - #9880

One August night every member of our family got a new name. It was the night our daughter gave birth to her first child - a little boy. And that tiny eight-pound bundle made our daughter "Mommy," and our son-in-law "Daddy," and our boys were suddenly uncles, and my wife became "Grandma." And I became "Husband of Grandma." It was quite a night - and my wife and I were privileged to be able to be with our little grandson right in the birthing room only minutes after he was born. Those are moments I'll never forget. Seeing our daughter, the baby we once held, holding her first baby. And his Daddy, not knowing what other children would come, held that little guy in his arms and said five precious words: "My one and only son."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unimaginable Love."
I'll tell you this, our son-in-law would not have given up his only son at that moment for any cause, any person on earth. Thinking about that makes our word for today from the Word of God all the more amazing. Maybe it's the most famous, and many would say most important, statement in the Bible. It's found in John 3:16. Maybe you've heard these words a thousand times. Maybe you've never heard of them before. But would you listen as if your life depends on them, because ultimately it does.
"God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son." Now why would God make this sacrifice that any of us human fathers would consider unimaginable? It says, "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." As I watched our son-in-law holding and loving our new grandson - his "one and only son" at that point - the love that God has for us seemed greater than ever before.
If you took the message of the entire Bible and summed it up in three little words, here's what they probably would be: God loves you. Maybe you think God is mad at you. Maybe you think God condemns you or He's far from you. But the giving of His one and only Son settles once and for all how God feels about you. God so loves you so much that He would sacrifice His Son for you. He doesn't want to lose you.
The Bible tells us that we're all away from God and we were made for Him, we were made by Him, but all of us have basically run our own lives. And the life with "I" in the middle is sin. That's s-I-n. And that kind of rebellion against our Creator carries the eternal death penalty. God's Book says "we all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way." All those "my way" choices have put a wall between us and God; a wall that no religion, no spirituality, no morality can remove.
But listen to the rest of that "gone astray" verse. "And the Lord has laid on Him (that's Jesus) the wrongdoing of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). See, God in His great love for you and for me took our sin and its death penalty and placed it all on His Son when He died on the cross.
And now God is standing ready to give you not the death penalty you deserve, but the eternal life in heaven you could never deserve. If you will put all your trust in His Son to be your Rescuer from your sin, that life is yours. This very moment, God stands waiting to see what you will do with His Son.
This could be your day to have your death penalty canceled, to have the wall between you and God removed forever, and to experience the most awesome love a human being can ever experience. Please reach out to Him now. He's tugging on your heart now. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours from this day on."
Our website is there to support you, encourage you, and give you the information you need to get started with Jesus. Would you go there? ANewStory.com.
God has only one Son and He gave Him to die for you. That's how much God loves you. And He will never forget what you do with His Son.

November 21, 2024 The Father, The Poor, and Your Heart - #9879

The old wisdom is that the way to a man's heart is, yeah, through his stomach. Actually I think that's true, but I believe that the way to a parent's heart is through their children. And I have to admit that I'm one of those who feels that way. I mean, you really have a warm feeling toward people who are kind to your children and grandchildren. You know, when our kids were young, that was especially true. It was important to me when people remembered my child's name or maybe their birthday.
Most of all, I really felt warmly toward those people who didn't just act like my kids weren't there; they took time to actually talk with them like they were people. I guess I noticed the people who didn't treat my kids right too. You know, it was hard to have warm feelings toward them. I didn't have a grudge but it would have been nice if they'd at least noticed them. Actually there is a Heavenly Father watching you and me too, and He's responding to our treatment of some people He really loves. So, I wonder if you're giving your Father (capital F, Father) those warm feelings?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Father, The Poor, and Your Heart."
Proverbs 19:17 is where we will find our word for today from the Word of God, and here's what it says: "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done." Well, that's pretty clear what God is saying. There is a group of people that are very special to Him, and He's watching how they're treated, as I watch how people treat my children. We're told here that the poor are special to God.
That's not just in this verse. In fact, all through the Old Testament over and over again, righteousness is actually equated with how you treat the poor. The Old Testament law is very careful in providing for the care of the poor. And in Luke 4:18, Jesus preached His first sermon and He says, "I have come to preach good news to the poor."
It's pretty clear from this verse that our Heavenly Father is watching how we treat the poor. And not only that, but He takes it personally. It says that the person who was kind to the poor, lends not to them but to the Lord. That's interesting. It tells you something about your commitment to the Lord and your unselfish love when you do something for the poor. Do you know why? Because they can't do anything back for you. You're really giving. There's nothing in it for you. You know what? We're surrounded today by people who God the Father has His eyes on. They're the homeless people that might be within our reach, or that family out of work right within your circle of influence, a struggling single parent who's having a very difficult time making ends meet. There are some hungry people maybe near you and a world away from us.
If you are attuned to God's heart, you're going to be involved in treating the poor like Jesus did. Maybe you need to be looking for an inner city ministry working among poor people. See, the hardest ministry to support in America is work in the inner city or on Native American reservations. Well, everybody seems to care about their turf, and not so much about what's beyond your own personal world.
Put your money, your time, mobilize your church to do something about needy people wherever they are. I'm talking about getting your hands dirty, personal involvement, family involvement. Teach your kids how to have a heart for the poor. Work first hand with some less fortunate people; help lift their burden. Do the work of God on earth. By the way, those folks have a lot to teach you. Pray this: "Lord, it's so easy just to drive by; to write people off as lazy or just to care about what's done to me. But I know, Lord, You have Your eyes on the poor. Would you give me Your heart for the poor and a way to take a piece of that action in my world? And a way to do something about it in my world?" You know what the Bible says will happen? "He will reward you."
Embracing a poor person or a poor family? Seems like that's the way to your Father's heart.

November 20, 2024 An Answering Person or An Answering Machine? - #9878

I know voicemail can be efficient, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Sometimes they're entertaining. I have friends who have major productions or comedy monologues that greet people. But, you know, voice mail doesn't respond. It records, but doesn't respond. 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 "An Answering Person or An Answering Machine?"
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, 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 lost and dying people. 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 and commends.
When the people around you call, they don't need an answering machine, they need an answering person!

November 19, 2024 How to Keep Your Fire Burning - #9877

The driver pulled up and dumped it in my driveway, but I was very happy to see it. It was my cord of wood - a winter of warm fires in our fireplace! See, we had ordered it during a special sale, which others apparently took advantage of big time. The driver told me some people had ordered five cords of wood. When I asked why, he said, "It's for their wood stoves. They're depending on it to keep their house warm this winter!" No wonder they ordered a lot of wood for the winter. And when they run out of fuel, they run out of fire. When they run out of fire, it gets very cold.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Keep Your Fire Burning."
For somebody listening right now, it's winter spiritually - maybe for you. What used to be a warm and passionate relationship with Jesus has turned cold and practiced. Your fire for the Lord and for His work is burning pretty low, or maybe there are just the embers of a fire that once blazed high. The problem isn't the fire; the problem is a shortage of fuel.
See, spiritual fire is like those fires in people's stoves or fireplaces: you have to keep throwing another log on the fire. You can't just get it burning high and then expect it to stay that way indefinitely. Jesus obviously knew what to do to keep the fire going. He knew where the fuel was.
He demonstrates that in our word for today from the Word of God, beginning in Luke 4:40. "When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them...He rebuked demons and would not allow them to speak. At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for Him and when they came to where He was, they tried to keep Him from leaving them. But He said, 'I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.' And He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea."
Now after a very full day and a very late night, Jesus gets up early to go to the spiritual woodpile - time with His Heavenly Father. He went for that spiritual fuel regularly. In Luke 6:12, we are told that "Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." At another point, Luke tells us "Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Notice in Luke 6 that Jesus comes back from His Father-time refueled for His work and refocused on what His work is supposed to be.
Now if the fire is burning low in your heart right now, it could very well be that you aren't spending the heart-to-heart time with God that you once did. That's where you find the logs to rekindle your fire because the flame of serving Christ has to be a deep love relationship with Him. See, it isn't all about Bible study, it isn't all about church or theology or ministry or living the Christian life. It's all about Jesus! And the pressure and stress of each crazy day make it so easy to forget that this is all about Jesus, it's all from Jesus, it's all for Jesus.
It could be that your time with Him has been more and more abbreviated, postponed or even canceled. You need to get back to what fueled your fire in the first place - belonging to Jesus, being with Jesus, loving Jesus. Without that regular time, that sweet relationship is replaced with a stressful rat race.
When Jesus had Father time, He came away knowing He couldn't just stay with the people who had already experienced Him. He had to move on to the unreached. So do you and I. Making your Father time the anchor of your daily schedule will not only fuel your fire for the Lord, but also for the lost people He died to rescue. And you'll feel again the excitement of joining Jesus in His eternal rescue mission.
Those who depend on a fire make sure they have plenty of fuel - and that they add logs to their fire regularly. For us to live as we were created to live, we need a blazing spiritual fire in our heart. So make sure your fuel supply is strong and consistent. Christian living and Christian service are all about Jesus! Staying in heart-to-heart contact with Him will give you all the logs you need for a fire that never goes out!

November 15, 2024 When Your Pain is Your Friend - #9875

Now, if I said I was going to give you the great secrets of hitting a baseball, I don't think you're going to go right out and try them. You're going to be skeptical, and you should be. But if one of the game's greatest hitters were to tell you the secret of hitting a baseball, well now you should pay attention.
Pete Rose actually was one of those, and he was once interviewed for an article in Sports Illustrated, and I like the title. It was called Good Wood. And he said that he liked a heat-treated bat. Now, I didn't realize this, but he said that you put the bat through an intense heat and that the heat would seal the pores and it actually made the bat hit harder. Well, it worked for him! I guess it's true, heat-treated bats hit harder. Well, you know something? So do heat-treated people.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Your Pain is Your Friend."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in Romans 5:3-4, and it talks about, well, heat treating. Here we go. "We, also, rejoice in our sufferings because we know suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope." Those are curious words. "We rejoice in our suffering?" This doesn't mean that Christian suffering feels any better than non-Christian suffering. It doesn't. It feels about the same, whether you're a Christian or not. But if you're a believer, pain is just as painful, unemployment is just as demoralizing, and pressure is just as stressful.
But you rejoice, not because it feels better, you rejoice because in Christ, pain has a point. A minus can be made into a plus. Suffering can be made into perseverance, character and hope. Just ask Pete Rose's bat. He said that heat heals up the holes in the bat and makes it more solid. Well, could it be that the heat that you're undergoing right now is heat-treating you and the holes in your life are being healed up by it and you're becoming more solid because of it? The heat you're feeling is not to burn you up, even though it feels like you might not make it through it. It's to make you strong; to build into you great perseverance, great character, great hope.
Right now you are in a position to learn more about the resources of God than any person who's in a comfortable setting. Sure you'd like to be comfortable again. I hope you will be. Sure you'd like this insecurity, this pain to pass. But right now you have a chance to know the resources, and the power, and the grace of God more deeply than you and those around you perhaps have ever known. You are learning, or you can learn, how to wait, how to overcome, how to really, urgently, desperately pray.
Perhaps you're being forced to close up some of the holes in your life; weaknesses, unconfessed sin, broken relationships that have been called to your attention by this hard time. Things you might not have given attention to any other way. And you can, because of the fire, be forced to deal with the weaknesses that you might otherwise still tolerate. And when you do, you have added a new kind of strength.
The fire turns spiritual wimps into spiritual warriors. So, rejoice as you see what you are becoming or can become through heat-treating, and only through heat-treating. You are becoming a heavy hitter in the hands of Almighty God.
Be encouraged! You're becoming good wood.

November 13, 2024 The People Who Need You Are Outside the Building - #9873

It's amazing how quickly you can get 300 college men to change their plans on a moment's notice. It happened several times when I was in school. Oh, it's late at night; we're all up in our rooms studying, sleeping, or goofing off, and we're certainly not planning to go out. Yet, within a matter of minutes all three hundred men are out of their rooms and out of the dorm. It's amazing what one fire bell can do, huh? Oh, there was no fire, just an occasional fire drill. But the call summoned us from whatever we were buried in, brought us out of our rooms, and out into the night.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The People Who Need You Are Outside the Building."
Now, you can't read the book of Acts without marveling at the explosive impact of those first Christians. They saw thousands come to Christ. And they saw people coming to Christ daily. They made such an impact it spread across the world and twenty centuries, and guess what? They had the same Savior we have, and the same Holy Spirit living in them! So what happened? Well, let's look at one of those keys to life-changing, city-changing, world-changing Christianity.
Our word for today from the Word of God, Acts 4:31, it says, "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions were his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the Apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all" If you compare this chapter with chapter 2, it says in just three verses, they were together, together, together. Three times it says that. See, these people had a life or death message to deliver. They realized the urgency and the enormity of getting the Gospel out to an area that was unreached, and they knew they had to work on it together.
C. S. Lewis suggested that Christianity is like this big house. And I'm going to borrow from his example and add to it a little. Everybody enters the house through the same long hallway. In that corridor you've got the cross and the empty tomb. We all went there to get our sins forgiven, and that's how we came to Christ. Now, off the hall are a lot of little rooms. Not long after we come in the center corridor we find that we like one of those rooms and we go in it, and we stay there like college students on a busy night of studying.
In one of the rooms off the central corridor they're sprinkling people to baptize them, in another room they're dunking them, in another room they're speaking in tongues, in another room they're talking about people who speak in tongues. You know, in our rooms, we spend a lot of time on our group's distinctive features; the things that make us, us; things that tend to divide us from the folks in the other rooms. Meanwhile, just outside the front door thousands are dying without Christ!
There is one call that has the power to do what the fire alarm did in our dorm that night and summoned us from our individual rooms to go out together. It is the call of Jesus to seek and save those who are lost. They need to be brought to the center corridor that we all claim, to get to the cross to have their sins forgiven, and the empty tomb to meet their living Savior. While we've been busy building our Christian subcultures we've lost our culture. One third of Americans say they've had no religious training. Most of the people around you know almost nothing about our Book or our Savior. Could it be because we've lost one of the most powerful words of the early church - together?
This is a time for ordinary believers to look out the window and see the urgency and the enormity of reaching the lost out there and to begin to pull people out of their little rooms, out of their denominational and doctrinal silos, to join in urgent prayer together for the lost, and to make aggressive plans to work together to reach them.
The Lord is sounding the alarm! If we hear His cry for harvest workers, we'll be out of our little room and pulling others out of theirs to rescue the people who are dying just outside the front door.

November 12, 2024 The Real Disease - Beyond Your Symptoms - #9872

My farm girl had a high tolerance for pain. "I know," you say, "she married you." No, I mean physical pain. She seldom complained and I often didn't know she was hurting. There was a season in her life when she was in constant pain for about eight years. A lot of remedies and treatments took their turn trying to help her but actually nothing worked; the flare-ups continued...until something happened. With a big smile on her face, she said, "I am pain-free for the first time in eight years." And she was so grateful. What happened? Our family doctor went to work diagnosing the problem and he concluded it was fibromyalgia. And once our doctor diagnosed what the real problem was, we could start working on some real relief!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Real Disease - Beyond Your Symptoms."
It may be that you've been experiencing some painful symptoms in your life recently. I'm talking emotionally, not necessarily physically. There have been too many blowups, too many dark times, too much loneliness, more and more stress, less and less peace. Like my wife with her physical pain, you're experiencing some painful, disturbing symptoms. And so far, no treatment, no pain reliever has really taken away the pain.
It's time to bring in the Specialist, the One who can get beyond the symptoms and give you the diagnosis of the underlying problem. That would be your Creator. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 3 where God talks about some ugly symptoms. People, it says, whose "tongues practice deceit," whose "mouths are full of cursing and bitterness," it says "their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways." There's this dark side of us that lies and hurts people and basically is out of control. Here's a phrase that might sum up a lot of your life, "And the way of peace they do not know."
Then comes the diagnosis of what's behind so much of the pain in our lives. "There is no one righteous, not even one...all have turned away...there is no fear of God before their eyes." And then, the sobering bottom line, Romans 3:23 - "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." You're in there, I'm in there, we're "all" in there. Our symptom might be loneliness or depression or guilt or darkness inside, but the disease is the cancer called sin. We've done our life our way instead of God's way so we're cut off from the "glory" of His love, His help, and His peace. Just like my wife with her years of physical pain, your symptoms won't start clearing up until you treat the disease that's causing them.
But God doesn't just diagnose the disease, He provides the cure. In verse 24: "We are justified (made right with God) freely by God's grace through the redemption (the rescue!) that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood." In plain language, we had no hope of our sin-cancer being cured, but God, the very One we sinned against, sacrificed His one and only Son to pay the death penalty for our sin. The cure involves blood - the blood Jesus poured out when He died to remove the guilt and the hell of your sin and mine.
That blood cure becomes your cure when you put all your trust in Jesus to forgive every sin you've ever done. He's ready to begin that healing right now if you're ready to begin a trust relationship with Him as your personal Savior. You can tell Him that right now. A real life on earth and eternal life when you die. That's real life. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours."
Go to our website. There are some things there that I've written just to help you walk right into this relationship with Him. Go to ANewStory.com.
After all this pain, God has diagnosed the disease that caused so much of it. And He has paid the ultimate price for you to be spiritually healed. Today He stands ready to do for you what only He can do. Just ask Him to.

November 11, 2024 The Audit Of a Lifetime - #9871

Oh, when the auditor leaves from our annual audit, man, our administrative team is high-fivin'. Partly because, well, we've been blessed to get a clean audit year after year, and partly it's just because it's over! They work pretty hard to be ready for all the things the auditor wants to check out.
In the business world, and sometimes even in the Christian world, audits aren't always happy. Auditors can find things that get you in trouble with your boss, with the government, even with the law. Audits uncover hidden secrets.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Audit Of A Lifetime."
Now, I have a meeting scheduled with the auditor in the future. Except, I don't know when it is, because the appointment is with The Auditor, and only He knows when my audit of a lifetime is going to be. Fact is we're all facing the audit of our lives. Our word for today from the word of God in Romans 14:12 says "...each of us will give an account of himself to God."
There will be no exceptions, "...each of us." There will be no excuses, "...will give account of himself to God." No blaming your spouse, your parents, your kids, your friends, your coworkers, your environment. I will answer for me and me alone. Also, there will be no secrets. Romans 2:16 says, "God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ." The Auditor knows every website we've ever visited, every e-mail or conversation we've been involved with, every sin we thought we got away with.
Many times I've seen a road sign with these stark words: "Prepare to meet your God" (Amos 4:12). Since heaven's all-knowing Auditor will expose everything about my life, it actually makes sense to work on what I'll face in His presence. The Auditor has let us know what He'll be auditing. I'd like to know that now.
Now, I know He'll be auditing the words I speak. Jesus said so; "Men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless (or worthless that means) word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:36-37). All our words, including the gossip, the angry stuff, the putdowns, the dirty stuff, will be there to meet us on the day of judgment and there will be no denying my own words.
The Auditor's also going to examine why I do what I do. The Bible says, "Wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts" (1 Corinthians 4:5). I'm not too excited about those new full body scans that they're installing at airports; they reveal what no one else can see. But that's nothing compared to God's full heart scan at the judgment seat. No matter how good what I've done may be, it will burn if my real motive was me, not Him. God cares a lot more about why we do than what we do. If it wasn't for His glory, if it wasn't because of pure love, it will never survive the audit.
Then Jesus said, "Give an account of your management" (Luke 16:2). The audit is going to be about what I've done with what He's given to me: my money, my influence, my home, my abilities, my opportunities. I'm suspecting that a lot of us are going to be feeling the shame and sadness of what might have been, of how much we could have done and should have done.
And then this warning. "When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not...speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood" (Ezekiel 3:18). Whew! God will confront me with all the people I didn't tell about Jesus, whose eternity depended on hearing about Him.
And here is the hardest-hitting exposure of all, the audit of a lifetime, "...the books were opened. Another book was opened which is the Book of Life...If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:12, 15). What an unspeakably awful moment.
Jesus checks the Book of Life to see if a person's name is there. If it's not, it's too late. It's entered there when you pin all your hopes on the Christ who died on the cross so you would never have to have that moment. You could have your name put in His book today by giving your life to Him.
The audit is coming, be ready for the audit. Prepare to meet your God.

November 8, 2024 Knowing The Facts, Missing The Relationship - #9870

Over the years our son-in-law's made no secret of his basketball loyalties. Even when he was living in the heart of New York Knicks, he was boldly and passionately a Chicago Bulls fan.
Like many Bulls fans, my son-in-law was wrapped up in Michael Jordan when he was at the top of his career in the 1990s. He read his biography, he taped his championship games, and of course he had to go see him play, and he bought the sports memorabilia associated with a superstar player. At Christmas, we would all fall into his trap and we'd feed his Jordan thing with Jordan presents. He was a walking encyclopedia of facts about Michael Jordan. But if he were to give him a call, I'm afraid Mr. Jordan would just say, "Who is this?" Even though our son-in-law knew almost everything about him, he didn't know him. That's the big difference isn't it?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Knowing The Facts, Missing The Relationship."
The gap between knowing about someone and knowing someone is huge, especially when it comes to whether or not you know the God who made you. When you read our word for today from the Word of God, it appears that a lot of people are living with a false sense of spiritual security thinking they're okay because they know a lot about Jesus.
Matthew 7:21-23 are some of the most disturbing verses in the Bible. Listen to Jesus: "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 drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from Me.'"
What awful words to hear Jesus say on Judgment Day "I never knew you." And He'll say it to people who knew all the right words, who had all the right beliefs, and they did all the right things, they were at all the right meetings. Apparently, it's possible to have a lot of Christianity and miss Christ; to know a lot about Jesus but not to know Him.
Jesus said the one He knows and who knows Him is "he who does the will of My Father." Well, what is that? John 6:40 says "My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life." So the difference between eternal life and eternal judgment is "looking to the Son" and "believing in Him." That "believe" word means to totally trust, to commit yourself to. And it's possible to know all the verses, to have been around Jesus your whole life, to be in a religion that's all about Jesus, and miss the step of actually making Him your own Savior from your own sin. To miss that moment of telling Jesus, "I'm putting all my trust in you, Jesus, and what you did on the cross when you died for the sins I've done."
For some people, the distance between heaven and hell is 18 inches - the distance from their head to their heart. Could it be you've got Jesus in your head, but you've never invited Him into your heart? That you agree with everything about Him, but you've never actually committed yourself to Him? If you have done that, it's settled. But if you don't know you have, you probably haven't.
But that could change in these next few moments if you'd just finally admit that for all you know about Jesus, you don't know Him. And tell Him right where you are that you're moving Him from your head to your heart; that you're trusting Him as your own Savior from your own sin.
Do you know you've done that? Are you sure? Get it done today. Our website is there as an anchor place for you to find the information that will help you be sure you belong to Him. Please go there. It's ANewStory.com.
"I never knew you." Those are words I don't ever want you to hear from Jesus. They're words He doesn't want you to hear. Get to His cross today, where you can finally know the One that you know so much about. And have Him in your heart, not just your head.

November 7, 2024 Got the Pain? Get the Point! - #9869

America runs on coffee! Yeah, let's face it! Now, you might object to that, but I don't know on what grounds. You know, there are people who drink coffee, and then there are some who mainline coffee. I have friends who do that, and it keeps people like the makers of those little quickie coffee units very busy. In fact, those little units are a good example of the importance of something called the filter.
Now, when you pour into those filters, the hot water goes straight through and enough coffee gets through to taste good, but the grounds don't get through the filter and you don't want them to. I mean, the reason being that most people I know aren't fans of chewing their coffee, and what makes the difference is the filter. Of course, there's a much larger filter around your life that makes all the difference in your quality of life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Got the Pain? Get the Point!"
Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in 1 Corinthians 10. I'm reading from verse 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. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
Did you notice those words "God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear"? "Not let you." In other words, everything has to get past God before it gets to you. It's got to have His permission. So, God is reviewing every test and every trial that comes into your life before it gets to you. Otherwise the Bible wouldn't say that He "let it come to you." Every problem you're facing right now has been, according to the Word of God, Father filtered. Wow! It can't get past your Heavenly Father before it gets to you.
Of course we know that from the book of Job don't we? The devil wanted to bring all kinds of turmoil and anguish into Job's life. But before he could do that, he had to check with God. He couldn't just go do it on his own. And God, knowing that it would build Job's life, and that ultimately he would double the blessing on his life, said, "Yes, that's okay. You can do it."
The pain that we have in our lives, the struggles that we have, some of it God sends and some of it God allows, but all of it has to get past Him. Now, I find the hard times in my life much less terrifying when I know that God, if He hasn't sent it, has at least allowed it. And He will never allow something to come into your life that can break you; only what will build you.
It's like a weight lifter who, even though he has to strain and push and it hurts to lift more than he's ever lifted before, he's stronger as a result of lifting greater weight. God may allow greater weight to come into your life - not to crush you, but enough to make you stronger.
So, look for the Lord and look for the lesson in that tough time you're going through. And if you're going to get the pain, get the point. Your Father loves you very deeply; He's allowed that to come into your life. Don't say, "Is this from the devil or is this from the Lord?" I don't think we'll ever figure that out. But you can say, "How can God use this?" Because He wouldn't have sent it if He couldn't use it.
What are you facing right now? I'll tell you this, It has been Father filtered. And the filter makes all the difference, because the Father loves you very much.

November 5, 2024 The Bible Wears a Blindfold - #9867

Blindfolds have usually been a hindrance in my life. I mean, I think the first blindfold I ever remember having on was when I was little. I was at a birthday party and we were playing, you know, like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Now, I've never been real coordinated, so you put a blindfold on me and spin me around a few times, I usually end up pinning it on the hostess. Anyway, it's great to be the laughing stock at the birthday party.
Now, as a teenager, they put me in this trust walk where my un-blindfolded friend was leading me around blindfolded through water, into walls, and into trees. And then even as a grownup at parties, all I know is that when they blindfold me I know I'm going to end up looking like the village idiot.
But blindfolds? They aren't always bad. I mean, think about that famous statue you can see at the Supreme Court. You remember Blind Justice? She's holding the scales of justice, upholding the law without being able to see faces, or expressions, or wardrobes, or appearances. Well you get a better verdict that way.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Bible Wears a Blindfold."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God. It comes from 2 Samuel 12:1. It follows after David, the king, has committed his sin of adultery with Bathsheba, and then his conspiracy to have her husband murdered and the conspiracy to cover that up. It says, "The Lord sent Nathan to David." Well, this is not going to be a very exciting mission, because it is the Prophet Nathan's job to confront the king, David.
He tells this parabolic story about a man who took a poor man's flock away from him, symbolizing what David had done. And then Nathan said to David in verse 7, "You are the man who did that. This is what the Lord God of Israel says, 'I anointed you king over Israel, I delivered you from the hand of Saul. The sword will never depart from your house because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own."
Now, Nathan's got a tough assignment here. He has to impartially apply the laws of God to his friend, his king. The one called "the man after God's own heart" David. But like Blind Justice, the Bible makes no distinctions when it comes to God's standards. The Bible wears a blindfold.
I was discussing divorce and how the church should handle that with a pastor friend of mine, and we've discussed many issues like that, that Christians disagree on. I'm not trying to solve that issue here, but I did say to him, "You know, I had a feeling that if we just read the Bible and didn't know anybody, we'd have a pretty clear view of what God wants. Then someone we care about comes along and it kind of gets us confused about what the Bible says." And I told him, "I think the problems start when a verse gets a face."
That's true when we discuss many issues today. Today in Christian circles, we're accepting of so much more stuff - stuff that we wouldn't have touched like say ten years ago. Our sociology often decides more than our theology. Our culture decides more than our Christianity. We can only enjoy the full blessing of God if we insist on the high standards of God.
And I've got to tell you, it's tempting not to when there's a face - especially somebody you care about - in front of the verse. But it isn't really love to lower the standards of God to make some temporary situation more comfortable. Those standards are not there to destroy people; they are the path to personal happiness. No matter how it looks, we must apply the Biblical guidelines with gentleness, not judgment; with love, not legalism. But we cannot dilute the Word of God for any person, for any situation. Not even King David could get such a compromise.
To rightly represent a holy God in this anything-goes world, we have to always be sure of the Bible's way of life and take our stand there.

November 4, 2024 Love Even When You Lose - #9866

When it comes to the Olympics, it seems as if there are always certain athletes that give the Games this personal touch for us. Let's go back to the 1994 Winter Olympics. I remember we all wanted to see the women's skating showdown between Nancy Kerrigan and Tanya Harding. In 1998, it was two teenagers named Michelle and Tara. Michelle Kwan was heavily favored to leave Japan and the Olympics with that gold medal; 15-year old Tara Lipinski was expected to bring home the silver maybe.
But in a stunning performance, and an Olympic upset, young Tara Lipinski captured the gold. Michelle Kwan, who had skated an almost flawless program, was disappointed but she was gracious. She won a silver medal that so many would love to win, but you know it still had to hurt. Some of that hurt slipped out as she sent a message to her family, and TV carried it around the world. She said, "I love you, Mom and Dad, and Karen and Jimmy. I hope you still love me." Ouch!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love Even When You Lose."
"I hope you still love me." That's not just a feeling a disappointed Olympian has felt. Many of us have had those moments when we have wondered, "Can you love me like this? I mean, the way I've failed you or hurt you? I'm not very lovable right now."
It's just a fact that a lot of love in our lives is "performance love." People will love us if we perform. Sales people know a company and co-workers base your worth on this month's sales. Did you get the grades? Did you get the win? But who loves you when you lose? When you're not as young and attractive anymore? Who loves you when you've blown it? When you can't do the things that have always brought you approval? You may know all too well the sting of love that used to be there for you. The love that was supposed to always be there, but it's gone.
Conditional love. There are lots of people who are willing to say, "I love you if..." What your heart cries for, though, and mine too, is someone who will just say, "I love you. There is nothing you can do to make me love you more. There is nothing you can do to make me love you less. I have made my choice. I love you. That will never change."
Maybe you think that kind of "never-leave-you" love is impossible. Well, there really is a love you cannot lose, because it's a love you cannot earn. The undeniable proof of that love is described in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 5:8. "God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." In other words, God loved us enough to sacrifice His only Son for us even though we were doing the things God hates.
Maybe you've tried to earn God's love by being a good person, a religious person, a Christian person. But God says clearly that the way to begin a relationship with Him is "not by works" (Ephesians 2:9). It's by His "grace," the Bible says, which means undeserved love. All your goodness cannot erase a lifetime of sinning. Sin puts us on eternity's Death Row. But even with all our "sin-garbage" - totally unlovable spiritually - God sent His Son to die for us; to die for you. If He didn't turn His back on you when His Son was hanging on that cross for you, He will never turn His back on you.
Once you put your total trust in Jesus to be your Rescuer from your sin, you have His unloseable love. And on your very worst days, you can ask God, "Do You love me like this?" and He will always answer, "Yes." This is the love your heart has been aching for all these years. He's within your reach right now. Just tell Jesus you're giving your life to Him, beginning today.
I'd love to help you know how for sure you belong to Him if you would just go to our website. That's why it's there. It's ANewStory.com. Please check it out today.
Imagine, never unloved again, never another day alone. Not because you deserve it but because Jesus died to remove what could ever take you out of God's love. He made His move on the cross, and now, my friend, it's your move.

November 1, 2024 The Thought Detector - #9865

If you're up late enough - I'm saying really late - you might catch an episode of the old TV series "The Twilight Zone." Rod Serling, the host, wrote some very imaginative and actually sometimes strange stories that ended up on that series. And it's funny after all these years; I still remember one, even though it's been a long time. This bank teller suddenly develops the ability to know what people are thinking, and he thinks he has a great gift. The amusing part was that while people were speaking, he knew what they were really thinking as they said those words. Aren't you glad this was just fiction?
For example, he heard the banker saying to a customer that had a considerable amount of money in the bank, "We certainly enjoyed visiting with you." Meanwhile he's hearing his thoughts say, "I wouldn't even want to be in the same room with you if you didn't have so much money." Well, by the end of the story, as I recall it, he's not so sure he wants this gift anymore. Someone who knows what you're thinking about; aren't you glad that's just fiction? Or is it?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Thought Detector."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 5, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 20, where a young man has just been lowered through a roof by his determined friends. See, they want their paralyzed friend to have a healing touch from Jesus. You may remember the story. The Bible says, "When Jesus saw their faith, He said, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven.' The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, 'Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?' Jesus knew what they were thinking (oh, here we go!) and asked, 'Why are you thinking these things in your heart?'"
Now, these people didn't say they were doubting Jesus, but Jesus knew they were. See, a passage like this teaches us that if you think it, Jesus knows it. How does that make you feel? I mean, a lot of folks whose outer life is admirably righteous have a moral zoo going on inside. See, Jesus is interested in your thoughts, not just your actions. For example He told us, "If a man commits adultery in his heart; if he lusts after a woman, that's a form of adultery" - mental adultery.
Now, we work pretty hard to get the outside looking good, don't we? But 1 Samuel 16 says, "God looks on the heart." What you think about all day; that's the real you. Jesus knows the bitterness behind those nice words; He knows the jealousy behind the smiles, the lust behind your lectures on sin. He knows the pride behind all that Christian work you do. He knows the thoughts of unfaithfulness that maybe you're covering up with words of love. He wants to be the Lord of what you think about, not just what you do. In fact, the wonderful possibility is given to us in 2 Corinthians 10:5. Here's what it says: "We can bring every thought into the captivity and obedience of Christ."
So, fight the war on the first front, and that's where you think. Sin always lands as a thought first; repentance begins with the things I'm thinking about. That's why David said, "Lord, I want you to know my thoughts." So, let Christ invade the real you, not just the one everybody can see. You need Him in your mind all day. He already knows what's going on there. So talk to Him about it, be honest about it, release His power to change your mind. The Bible says that we can "be transformed by the renewing of our mind." That's the power of a living Christ inside of you if you will open up all the closets in your mind with all the darkness and monsters in it for Him to change.
The greatest strongholds for the kingship of Jesus Christ are in my mind, and they can be, and they must be, surrendered to His will.

October 31, 2024 Broken No More - #9864

When I was growing up and when our children were growing up, basically when generations of children were growing up, mommies and daddies read stories to their children. And most of them had a predictable ending: "and they lived happily ever after." Except for this one nursery rhyme - the one about the uncoordinated egg. You know?
I wasn't sure what I was supposed to learn from that one. "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall - all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again." So what? Don't sit on a wall? I don't know. I kept waiting for the happy ending. There isn't one. Humpty's broken, he's in pieces, everybody tries to put him together and nobody can. Humpty is broken and no one can fix him. Well, not necessarily.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Broken No More."
We live in a world of Humpty Dumpty people; people who are broken inside where it's hard to heal. You might be one of them. The pain, the hurt, the disappointment of your life have left you shattered. And though there have been attempts to put the pieces together, nothing has really worked. The brokenness remains. There's no "they lived happily ever after."
Our word for today from the Word of God offers some real hope for what may have seemed hopeless until now - a happy ending. It's in Isaiah 61:1, speaking of Jesus Christ. "The Lord has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted." The Bible says that part of Jesus' mission on earth is to put together broken people.
Maybe all the King's horses and all the King's men can't put you together again. But the King can if you'll give Him all the pieces of your life no matter how hurtful, no matter how shameful, no matter how ugly. Jesus can do what no friend can do for you, no boyfriend, no girlfriend, no therapist, no medication, no family member, no emotional anesthetic. Why? Because He did what only He could do to deal with the root cause of all the brokenness in our world. And that's the spiritual destroyer God calls sin.
Not the breaking of somebody's religious rules. Sin, according to the Bible, is the basic choice all of us have made to do our life our way instead of God's way. That has led us to a lifetime of choices that go against the way God made us to live. God says, "Sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:15). Sin always destroys. It always leaves behind the pieces. All of us have been the sinned against, and all of us have been the sinner. And all our brokenness is from one or the other.
But God's one and only Son came as Jesus to pay for all that sin. In God's words, "He carried our sins in His own body on the tree." That's the cross where Jesus died. And because He paid for all our sins, He can forgive all the sins you've done and heal the damage done by your sin and the sins of others. It's all summed up in the beautiful word "Savior."
But Jesus isn't your Savior until you ask Him to be by telling Him you're putting your total trust in Him. Has there ever been a time when you've done that? If you've done that, you'll know you have. That's the day the healing begins. How about that being today for you? Tell Him, "Jesus, I want you to be my Savior from my sin. My life is yours. You made me. You paid for me with your life. I am yours."
I want to invite you to go to our website as an action step right now. There's so much good information there that will help you be sure that you know Jesus personally and have begun your relationship with Him. Now, remember this website - ANewStory.com.
No one else has been able to put together all the broken pieces of you. But that's why Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted. He is your wonderful hope of a happy ending.

October 30, 2024 Praying, Then Expecting - #9863

I saw one of those bumper frames for your license plate. It said, "Happiness is being a grandparent." Oh, that's the truth! I mean, I remember when I was a little kid. Happiness was having a grandparent with you, especially my grandmother. Because it always meant surprises; it meant going out to eat, and it almost always meant money! That's what grandparents are for, of course, to spoil kids. Any time I knew that I would be seeing Grandma I was excited to see what surprises she would bring. If we're that way about grandma, we should really be looking forward to what Father has for us today; that's Father with a capital F.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Praying, Then Expecting."
As you know, life is divided into 24-hour chunks. We have this sort of death and resurrection thing that takes place every day. You know, we sort of die about 10:00, 11:00, or 12:00 o'clock at night, and sort of start all over again the next morning. It's like beginning again the next day. So, life isn't this big old blob - life. It just really comes down to these 24-hour things doesn't it: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, etc.?
There's a very interesting look in the Bible at a day in the life of a child of God, because that's really what it amounts to...have a good day. That's how you live the life of a Christian, you have a good day.
Go back to the book of Psalms, and here's what a day in the life looks like at beginning and end; sunrise and sunset in the life of a child of God. Our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 5:3 - "In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation."
Okay, that's one end of the day. Let's go to the other end of the day. The sun has gone down now. Psalm 4:8, same page in my Bible, says this; "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." Now, it's interesting as you read this morning beginning with the Lord, beginning this 24-hour period of time. It talks about the many moods of praying. There's not just one mood of praying; it's sort of like Baskin Robbins. There are a lot of flavors you can pray in. It says, "Give ear to my words, O Lord." Okay, that's just kind of making a statement. Then it says, "Consider my sighing." This is the kind of praying when you're totally depleted; you don't even know what to say. "O Lord, I can hardly get this out." And then it says, "Listen to my cry..." my cry for help. This is desperation. And then he says, "I lay my requests before the Lord" every morning laying out the concerns of my heart.
By the way, did you do that this morning? Do you do that every morning? Talk to Him and say, "Lord, here's what I'm afraid of today; here's what I'm hoping for today; here's what I'm dreaming about; here's what I'm crying about; here are the people I love; here are the needs I'm anticipating." You empty your hands. Now, how can you tell if you've really prayed or if you just went through the motions? Notice that it says, "I lay my request before the Lord and wait in expectation." Hey, that's like Grandma's visit; waiting in expectation for her surprises.
You know you've really prayed when you get off your knees expectantly and you go through your day looking for the fingerprints of God on that day. It may not be like I thought it would be, but there will be His surprises. Expectation is the byproduct of faith. So, are you uh... expecting? You say, "No, I'm a man. How could I be expecting?" No, I mean expecting good things from God. Expecting God's touch on what you've turned over to Him.
No wonder at night we can lie down and sleep in peace. You allow time each morning to turn over the specifics of that day to Jesus, and then you live in an air of expectancy. My grandmother seldom disappointed me, and your Heavenly Father never will.

October 29, 2024 Hope for Your Long Night - #9862

It was another one of our marathon drives. It was a 20-hour trip and my wife and I were alternating at the wheel, and I was doing the night shift. And since it was an early winter trip, the night was a long night. I did my behind-the-wheel calisthenics, I sampled different radio stations, I played stimulating music, kept the temperature at a refreshing level - all those fun things you do when it's you against the night.
Frankly, by 6:00 A.M., I was tired of the darkness. Then, in my rear view mirror, I saw a beautiful sight. In the eastern sky, I could see this bright orange ball peeking over the horizon. The long night was over! The sun was coming up! And I could make the rest of the trip!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope for Your Long Night."
Maybe it's been a long night for you. And, like me on that marathon drive, you're tired of driving in the dark. It's been lonely in your long night. You've gotten hurt in the dark, and sometimes you've gotten lost in the dark. Maybe you're wondering if you can make the rest of the trip like this. You're where I was that long night. You are ready for the sunrise, except you may need to change one letter from s-u-n rise to S-o-n Sonrise - that's Son, as in the Son of God.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 9:25, the story of a man whose whole life had been a ride in the darkness. He was blind from birth. Then Jesus invaded his dark world and the sun came up. Jesus did what no one else could do. He healed that man's lifetime blindness. The religious leaders who had it in for Jesus put the man through this brutal interrogation, trying to nail Jesus for violating the Jewish Sabbath by healing him. They were trying to get the man to agree that the person who healed him was really a sinner.
I love this man's bold answer. "One thing I know. I was blind, but now I see." I was in an endless darkness until Jesus touched my life. And I've come into the light. The sun has come up because of Jesus.
What Jesus did for that man, that's what He's done for me and it's what He's done for millions. Not physically, but emotionally and spiritually, and it's what He wants to do for you. There's a spiritual condition that keeps us all from being able to get out of the long night. It's the cause of the long night. It's called sin. It's the running of our own lives instead of God running them. And only Jesus can bring the long night of sin to an end in your life. Like the world's most famous hymn "Amazing Grace" says, "I once was lost but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see."
There's a reason that only Jesus can bring the sunrise. He descended deeper into the darkness of sin than anyone ever has. He went to a cross where, as He died, He absorbed all the guilt of your sin and mine, and all the punishment we deserve in a hell that has no exit. Because of that unspeakable sacrifice, the Bible says, "God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves" (Colossians 1:13). How? It says "He made peace through His blood, shed on the cross" (Colossians 1:20).
God brought you and me together today, I believe, because He wants you to know that your long drive in the darkness is almost over if you will put your trust in His Son, Jesus, to be your Rescuer from the darkness of your sin.
You tired of the night? You ready to begin a personal relationship with Jesus, who is "the light of the world" the Bible says? Tell Him that, "Jesus, beginning right here and beginning right now, with all my heart I'm yours." I hope your next step will be to go to our website so you can find, there, the information that will help you secure that relationship with Jesus. It's ANewStory.com.
The long, lonely night has lasted long enough. It's time for the Sonrise. It's time for Jesus.

October 25, 2024 The Spiritual Cure You Can Die From - #9860

I've really got to think of a better response when people tell me they have a headache and I say, "You know, pain always attacks at the weakest point." They really don't find that helpful. Actually, we all have our favorite headache remedy - one or two of this pill or that and we wait for the relief as those pills race through our system. I know they do. I saw it on a commercial once.
There was this twisted act of individual terrorism that happened back in 1982 when relief was turned into tragedy. Someone managed to put poison in some pain relief capsules and there were a series of sudden deaths. The victims had taken this brand of pain reliever. I remember reading about a flight attendant in particular who arrived home after a trip with a serious headache. She reached for a couple pain relief capsules. I'm sure she thought they would make her feel better soon. Instead, she died from them.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Spiritual Cure You Can Die From."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 14:12. It is one of the most sobering, unsettling statements in the Bible. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." God's trying to warn us here that we can be on a spiritual road that feels right, that we really believe will give us what we've been hoping for, but it will lead us to death.
In 1997, just before Good Friday, America was stunned by the mass suicide of 39 members of the "Heaven's Gate" cult. Then we saw some of the video testimonials made by those people just before they took their own lives. They talked about how at peace they were, how happy to be taking this next step - suicide. And we learned that these were not some religious freaks; they were bright, competent people. They believed very sincerely that they were graduating to something better.
But listen to Jesus, the Son of God. He says, "I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved" (John 10:9). And it is Jesus who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." If you're counting on anything or anyone other than Jesus to get you to heaven, you're not going to make it. Sincerity doesn't make what you believe in right. That flight attendant sincerely believed that pain reliever would help her. Peaceful feelings don't validate what you're counting on either. The people who died from those poisoned capsules were expecting relief. Instead they died.
Our hearts are incurably spiritual. We need a spiritual answer, and we know it. We're looking for something bigger than ourselves, something that can give us significance, that can conquer the darkness inside of us; that can take us to something better someday. Ultimately, we are looking for a savior who can make us what we could never otherwise be and take us to a heaven we could never otherwise go to.
And there is only one Savior. There's only one person who died the death penalty for the sinning you and I have done, and that is Jesus Christ on the cross. And no belief, no religion, even if it's all about Jesus, can get you to heaven when you die. Only the Savior can do that. You may be on a beautiful spiritual road that looks right and feels right. But like pain relievers that contained poison it may lead you to death.
But Jesus is reaching out to you right now, "the way, the truth, and the life" man. He's urging you to put all your faith in Him; to make the Savior your Savior. Shouldn't that be today? Why would you risk another day without Him? Today you can say, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
The information you need to be sure you belong to Him is right at our website. Just go to ANewStory.com.
Jesus died so you don't have to. Don't risk depending on a remedy that cannot cure sin, because only the Savior who died for that sin can do that. He is what your heart's been longing for your whole life.

October 23, 2024 The Effect You Have - #9858

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!

October 22, 2024 How To Be The One God Can Trust - #9857

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.

October 18, 2024 Security in Uncertainty - #9855

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.

October 17, 2024 Safe In a Dangerous World - #9854

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.

October 15, 2024 Hope is a Rescuer - #9852

"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.

October 14, 2024 The Power of Praying Together - #9851

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.

October 11, 2024 Why We're In Trouble With God - #9850

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.

October 10, 2024 How to Give a Man a Makeover - #9849

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.

October 9, 2024 How to Have a Million-Dollar Life - #9848

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!

October 8, 2024 It Isn't Real Until It's Behind the Wheel - #9847

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.

October 4, 2024 Guarding Your Heart - #9845

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?

October 2, 2024 Helene, Heroes and Heaven - #9843

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.

October 1, 2024 Grace for Every Need - #9842

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.

September 30, 2024 Your Music and Your Master - #9841

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?"

September 27, 2024 When We Expect Too Much - #9840

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.

September 26, 2024 Why Commitments Fail - #9839

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.

September 24, 2024 Men on the Edge - #9837

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.

September 23, 2024 Cheap Faith - Worth What You Paid - #9836

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.

September 20, 2024 What no Religion Can Do For You - #9835

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.

September 19, 2024 Majoring on What Will Last - #9834

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.

September 18, 2024 Risking to Rescue - #9833

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."

September 17, 2024 Spiritual Memories Are Not Enough - #9832

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."

September 13, 2024 A Rugged Road to a Beautiful View - #9830

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.

September 11, 2024 It's Time to Stand - #9828

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!

September 10, 2024 Guilty and No Way to Pay - #9827

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!"

September 9, 2024 Taking Off Before God Says "Go" - #9826

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.

September 6, 2024 When Your Words Come Back to You - #9825

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.

September 5, 2024 Getting Used to the Stink of Sin - #9824

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.

September 3, 2024 Prayer That Wins Battles - #9822

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!

September 2, 2024 Never Deleted - #9821

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.

August 30, 2024 Two Words to Peace - #9820

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.

August 29, 2024 Supermen Are Breakable - #9819

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!

August 28, 2024 How Serving Opens Hearts - #9818

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!

August 27, 2024 Forgiven Means It's Gone - #9817

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!

August 23, 2024 Virgin Treasure - #9815

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.

August 21, 2024 Your Wounded Comrade - #9813

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!

August 20, 2024 Playing for Jesus - #9812

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.

August 19, 2024 Judgment Canceled - #9811

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.

August 16, 2024 Girls Come With Instructions - #9810

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.

August 15, 2024 Trust - The Way to God's Heart - #9809

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.

August 13, 2024 The Monster You've Been Hiding - #9807

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.

August 12, 2024 No Garbage In God's Throne Room - #9806

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.

August 9, 2024 A Springtime Called Hope - #9805

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 â€“ 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 â€“ 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.

August 8, 2024 The Amazing Power of Suffering - #9804

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.

August 7, 2024 Prayer - The Greatest Gift You Can Give - #9803

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!

August 6, 2024 Always Enough Grace - #9802

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!

August 2, 2024 A Man and His Marriage - #9800

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."

July 31, 2024 Leadership - Setting the Temperature - #9798

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.

July 30, 2024 When Every Day's the Same - #9797

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.

July 26, 2024 The Power to Change - #9795

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.

July 25, 2024 Through the Darkness With Jesus - #9794

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.

July 23, 2024 When God's Promises Turn Into Life Preservers - #9792

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.

July 22, 2024 Not Much Time Left - #9791

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!

July 19, 2024 Your Open Door and Your Open War - #9790

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.

July 18, 2024 When It All Comes Down To Trust - #9789

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.

July 17, 2024 To Rescue a Soul - #9788

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.

July 16, 2024 Peace When There's No Reason - #9787

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."

July 12, 2024 The Lion That Stalks Us All - #9785

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.

July 10, 2024 Holding Someone's Eternity In Your Hands - #9783

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!

July 9, 2024 Hope Where There's So Much Hurt - #9782

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!

July 8, 2024 The Compounding Cost of Sin - #9781

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?

July 5, 2024 Where to Take Your Complaints - #9780

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.

July 4, 2024 Why God Slows You Down - #9779

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.

July 2, 2024 Discovering Your Worth - #9777

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!

July 1, 2024 No to Temptation, Yes to the Good Stuff - #9776

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.

June 28, 2024 The Small World of Self-Focus - #9775

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.

June 27, 2024 The Deadly Cost of Compromise - #9774

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.

June 26, 2024 Stopping for the Wounded - #9773

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!

June 24, 2024 How Suffering Improves Your Vision - #9771

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.

June 21, 2024 Love Protects - #9770

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."

June 19, 2024 The Joy of "Others First" - #9768

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!

June 18, 2024 Too Many Goodbyes - and One Unloseable Love - #9767

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."

June 17, 2024 How to Handle a Heavy Load - #9766

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.

June 14, 2024 A Parent's Best Classroom - #9765

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.

June 13, 2024 When You've Been Hurt - #9764

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!

June 11, 2024 Forgetting Is Freedom - #9762

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.

June 10, 2024 God's Big Plan to Get You to Heaven - #9761

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.

June 7, 2024 God's "Welcome Home" Arms - #9760

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.

June 6, 2024 Peace In Your Storm - #9759

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.

June 5, 2024 That's God Calling Your Name - #9758

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!"

June 4, 2024 Someone You Can Finally Trust - #9757

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.

May 31, 2024 Where Do I Start Cleaning? - #9755

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?

May 29, 2024 The Fatal Fear and How to Beat It - #9753

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."

May 28, 2024 It's Not About Christians - #9752

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.

May 27, 2024 When You're Empty, You Can Be Filled - #9751

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 badï¿½like 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.

May 24, 2024 Still Filming - #9750

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.

May 23, 2024 Your Stretch of Beach - #9749

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.

May 21, 2024 The Tebow in All of Us - #9747

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.

May 20, 2024 Turning Your Hurt Into Hope - #9746

"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)!

May 17, 2024 If You Rush It, You Ruin It - #9745

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.

May 16, 2024 Looking Up When The World's On Fire - #9744

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.

May 15, 2024 The Passion of a Powerful Life - #9743

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, ï¿½But 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!"

May 14, 2024 Paving Over Your Sin - #9742

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.

May 10, 2024 Are the Children All In? - #9740

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.

May 8, 2024 Your Situation...Your Assignment - #9738

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, ï¿½Go 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.

May 7, 2024 My Child, My Mirror - When a Parent Looks Up - #9737

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.

May 6, 2024 Deadly Dark Spots in Your Soul - #9736

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.

May 3, 2024 The Bad News Bearers - #9735

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, ï¿½We 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, ï¿½We 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?

May 2, 2024 How Valuable You Really Are - #9734

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.

April 30, 2024 Making Sure You'll be in Heaven - #9732

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.

April 29, 2024 Jumping Before You've Heard It All - #9731

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."

April 26, 2024 False Hope of Heaven - #9730

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.

April 25, 2024 Family Leftovers, Family Regrets - #9729

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.

April 24, 2024 The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Do - #9728

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.

April 23, 2024 Making God Cry - #9727

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.

April 19, 2024 The Question That Settles the Questions - #9725

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.

April 17, 2024 Going Beyond the Walls - #9723

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.

April 16, 2024 Fixing What Sin Has Broken - #9722

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.

April 15, 2024 A Strong Sense of Season - #9721

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.

April 12, 2024 Erasing Life's Big Mistakes - #9720

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."

April 11, 2024 The First Church of "Yeah But" - #9719

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.

April 9, 2024 The Bible - So Much More than Checking the Box - #9717

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.

April 8, 2024 Peace Within Your Reach - #9716

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.

April 5, 2024 Stuck in the Eclipse - #9715

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.

April 4, 2024 The Sign on the Door of Your Heart - #9714

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."

April 3, 2024 Why You Matter So Much to the People You Know - #9713

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."

April 2, 2024 The Warning You Can't Afford to Ignore - #9712

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.

March 29, 2024 Good Friday - What the Jesus Movies Miss - #9710

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.

March 28, 2024 A Tragic Collapse, An Empty Grave - #9709

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.

March 27, 2024 Spring is Never Sudden - #9708

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.

March 26, 2024 Avoiding Life's Biggest Mistake - #9707

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.

March 25, 2024 Surprises in the Storm - #9706

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.

March 22, 2024 Hold Your Fire - #9705

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!

March 21, 2024 Someone Talked - #9704

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.

March 20, 2024 Human Snowplows - #9703

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.

March 19, 2024 How to Handle Frustrating People - #9702

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.

March 18, 2024 A Safe Place in a Scary World - #9701

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.

March 15, 2024 Why Mission Impossible Isn't - #9700

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.

March 14, 2024 Death's Big Question - #9699

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?"

March 13, 2024 Weapon of Mass Destruction - in Your Mouth - #9698

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.

March 12, 2024 Living Like Royalty - #9697

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."

March 11, 2024 The Voice You Can Trust - #9696

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."

March 8, 2024 Cleverly-Disguised Poison - #9695

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.

March 7, 2024 Getting it By Letting Go of it - #9694

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.

March 6, 2024 Spiritual Dynamite In Your Hands - #9693

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.

March 5, 2024 Waiting 'til It's Time - #9692

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.

March 4, 2024 Plane on the Edge and Life's Bottom Line - #9691

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.

March 1, 2024 A Parent's Hardest Job - #9690

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.

February 29, 2024 Twisting the Bible to Match Your Life - #9689

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.

February 28, 2024 Ears That Hear What God Hears - #9688

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."

February 27, 2024 When You Know the Final Score - #9687

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.

February 26, 2024 How People Miss Heaven - #9686

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.

February 23, 2024 Thinking We Got Away With It - #9685

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.

February 22, 2024 Worth So Much More - #9684

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.

February 21, 2024 Bringing Back a Loved One - #9683

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.

February 20, 2024 Four Mistakes That Mess Up Sex - #9682

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!"

February 19, 2024 The Last Days Forecast - #9681

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!"

February 16, 2024 How Freedom Can Leave You Stuck - #9680

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!

February 15, 2024 Protecting Our Sisters - #9679

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.

February 14, 2024 Setting People Free - #9678

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!

February 13, 2024 Faith That Expects - #9677

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.

February 12, 2024 Four Secrets for Being Unsinkable - #9676

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?

February 9, 2024 Why the Coach is Working You So Hard - #9675

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.

February 8, 2024 Throwing Yourself Away - #9674

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.

February 7, 2024 The Word Hell Doesn't Want You to Say - #9673

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?

February 6, 2024 Ending Up Where You Never Wanted to Go - #9672

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.

February 5, 2024 Hug Them Tightly, But Hold Them Loosely - #9671

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.

February 2, 2024 Where to Go Before the Explosion - #9670

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.

February 1, 2024 Man's Forest and Woman's Trees - #9669

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.

January 31, 2024 Eternity Dollars - #9668

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!

January 30, 2024 Disappointment Mountain - #9667

"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.

January 29, 2024 You Get It Ready, He'll Do The Job - #9666

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."

January 26, 2024 Hope From the Rubble - #9665

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.

January 25, 2024 What God's Saying In Your Storm - #9664

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.

January 24, 2024 Don't Stop Before the Finish Line - #9663

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.

January 23, 2024 Slaves To Our "Stuff" - #9662

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!

January 22, 2024 Letting Go Before You Crash - #9661

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."

January 19, 2024 Missing the View - #9660

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.

January 18, 2024 Sincerely Wrong, Eternally Wrong - #9659

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?

January 17, 2024 There's Something About That Name - #9658

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."

January 16, 2024 Waking Up to Good News - #9657

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!

January 15, 2024 Why Your Service Has Been Interrupted - #9656

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.

January 12, 2024 God's Life-Saving Nudge - #9655

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.

January 11, 2024 Using Your Winter To Win Your Battles - #9654

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!

January 10, 2024 Giving That Counts - And Doesn't - #9653

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.

January 9, 2024 How to Make a Woman Feel Loved - #9652

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.

January 8, 2024 Just Beyond Your Last Heartbeat - #9651

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.

January 5, 2024 Driving Hard On a Dead-End Road - #9650

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).

January 4, 2024 When You're Running On Empty - #9649

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.

January 3, 2024 Young People Leading the Charge - #9648

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.

January 2, 2024 It Ain't Over - God Isn't Finished - #9647

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."

January 1, 2024 Allowing People to Change - #9646

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.

December 29, 2023 Sick of Winter, Ready for Spring - #9645

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.

December 28, 2023 How to Save Your Child - #9644

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."

December 27, 2023 Night Lights - #9643

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!

December 26, 2023 The Reason For the Wait - #9642

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!

December 25, 2023 Stopping for You This Christmas - #9641

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.

December 22, 2023 Clouds Over Christmas - #9640

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).

December 21, 2023 Really Ready for Christmas - #9639

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!"

December 20, 2023 Your Christmas Mission - #9638

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.

December 19, 2023 Missing at the Manger - #9637

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.

December 18, 2023 Treasure In Your Desert - #9636

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.

December 15, 2023 The Most Dangerous Season of All - #9635

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.

December 14, 2023 Security When You're On Empty - #9634

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, ï¿½You 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.

December 13, 2023 A Leader's #1 Job - #9633

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.

December 12, 2023 Light For A Dark Christmas - #9632

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.

December 11, 2023 The Loneliest Christmas - #9631

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.

December 8, 2023 Where You Were Born To Be - #9630

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.

December 7, 2023 Sex, Power and Christmas - #9629

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.

December 6, 2023 Bringing Back a Loved One - #9628

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.

December 5, 2023 Chasing Bubbles - and Meaning - #9627

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.

December 4, 2023 The Christmas Window - #9626

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?

December 1, 2023 Unconditional Surrender - #9625

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.

November 30, 2023 Dying From Doing Nothing - #9624

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.

November 29, 2023 Being the Harbor In Their Hurricane - #9623

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.

November 28, 2023 You Shouldn't be Driving - #9622

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.

November 27, 2023 Chased By The Past - #9621

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."

November 24, 2023 You Are Their Best Chance - #9620

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."

November 23, 2023 No Days to Waste - #9619

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.

November 22, 2023 Thanksgiving Goodbyes - #9618

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.

November 21, 2023 Misguided Worship - #9617

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.

November 20, 2023 The Way to Miss Jesus - #9616

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.

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