My plane had just landed in a Midwestern city during a record breaking cold spell and the pilot welcomed us to the city with a temperature reading that made you want to divert the fight to Florida. Well, at least I had checked the weather channel and I was able to anticipate the ice age, so I had the appropriate coat, scarf, gloves and layers. As I was waiting for my suitcase in the baggage claim area, I heard someone yell, "Grab those pineapples." Excuse me? Well sure enough there were two couples just returning from Hawaii with beautiful live flowers around their necks, and they were wearing short sleeve shirts and, of course, carrying their box of pineapples. Well, when I hit the wind outside, I was cold, but I was prepared. I can't imagine what happened to the Luau bunch! When they woke up that morning they probably just said, "Well, it's warm here. I'll just dress for where I am." They were totally unprepared for where they were going!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Dressing for Your Final Destination."

Now Jesus actually told about a man who was very prepared for where he was, but totally unprepared for where he was going. Maybe like you. Luke 12:16-20, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus told them this parable, "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do, I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods and I will say to myself you have many good things laid up for many years, take life easy, eat, drink and be merry.' But God said to him, 'You fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you, then who will get what you have prepared for yourself!'"

Here's a man who was really dressed for where he was, he had it all, he had his earth security well planned out. But he forgot about where he would be spending most of his future - in eternity. He was totally unprepared to meet God.

Someday your heart's going to beat for the last time, and in that unpredictable moment eternity will begin for you. And at that point it won't matter what your title was, or your income, or your religion, or your achievements. All that's going to matter is whether or not you have a personal love relationship with God. A relationship that can, according to the Bible, only be accessed through God's Son, Jesus Christ. Why? Because no one can make it to heaven with sin.

See, God was supposed to run your life and mine, but over and over we've said, "No, I'll do it, God." The Bible says, "All of us have sinned and we've fallen short of the glory of God." In this parable, "I will" three times. That man God called a fool, he just said, "I will, I will, I will." Because of that, God is out of our reach, but we're not out of His.

God says this is love, and this is the Bible speaking. "Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" in the most incredible act of love you'll ever hear about. The God we defied sacrificed His one and only Son to carry our death penalty for the sinning we did. And now your eternal destination, heaven or hell, depends totally on what you do with the man who died for your sin, Jesus Christ.

You can reject Him, you can ignore Him, or you can reach out to Him and say, "Lord I'm not ready for eternity but I want to be. I'm facing the fact I've gone my way instead of yours over and over again. Right now I'm putting all my trust in You and Your death on that cross for me to remove the sin between God and me, and to open the door to eternal life for me.

I want to invite you to go to our website because it's there to help you be sure you have begun a relationship with Him. It's ANewStory.com.

Maybe you've been so focused on where you are now, that you've neglected your forever. Yeah you're one heartbeat away from eternity. Isn't it time you got ready for where you're going to be for a very long time?

You know it's tough the first time your child goes to camp...I mean for the parent. The kids probably have a ball; it's just tough for the parents. It all comes together when you have to sign that permission slip, and then a medical release, and then insurance forms. You start to think of all the things that could go wrong - the bad things that could happen.

Now, up until now you've been there in the background to protect them and to make sure they're eating the right things, and guiding them to make the right choices. But now, even if it's only for a few days, you're turning your precious child over to someone else. That's why I like to know someone who's going to be in charge there. A lot of responsible parents do that; even with conferences we've planned. People will say "Hey, I want to find out who I'm turning this kid over to." It's tough. I want to be able to trust the person to whom I'm handing my son or daughter. But it's still hard to release them.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Turning Over Your Treasure."

Our word for today from the Word of God is from 1 Samuel 1. I'm going to begin reading at verse 27. It's part of a prayer that Hannah, the mother of Samuel, prayed. We know that Samuel grew up to become a mighty judge in Israel; a mighty leader for God at a strategic time. She had wanted this child for so many years. She had been barren, and finally God miraculously sends her a child. Listen to her very poignant words, "I prayed for this child," she says, "and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So, now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life will be given over to the Lord." Wow!

Hannah is saying about a child that it has taken her years to have, "Lord, whatever you want to do with him; wherever you want to take him is fine with me." You know it's hard to say, "Whatever you want, Lord" just about your own life. I think it's even harder to say that about your child's life.

My friend is in the ministry. And Rob and his wife have served the Lord actively and effectively for many years. And their daughter, who's in her mid twenties, came to them and said, "Mom, Dad, I feel like God has just called me out of nursing and is calling me into the ministry." Rob said, "I couldn't believe how I responded. I said, 'Well, honey, you're making such good money now as a nurse. And, you know, that's security.'" And he said, "For two weeks I tried to talk her out of it. Finally," he said, "I realized what we had prayed for all of our lives, we were now trying to talk her out of."

Well, that's understandable. We've all been brainwashed with the American lie about what success is and what security is. We push our kids to perform and we often neglect their character. We want them to be societal winners sometimes, rather than spiritual warriors. The child God gave you is on loan to you. Not yours to keep; not yours to assign. Your job is to help them discover the person they are in Christ and the works God put them on earth to do. Not the works you want them to do.

If you're a parent, could I encourage you to take a Hannah inventory today? Are you releasing your son or daughter for whatever? Whatever assignment your Lord has for him or her? Or do you have a plan for your child that you're trying to get God to sign off on. Don't stand in the way of God's best for that child of yours, and don't be seduced by the lies our world tells us about what's best for them.

Find a quiet place, and again, turn over your treasure to the One who gave that treasure to you in the first place.

"I don't wanna go." When our boys were little, that was sometimes what they'd tell me when we were out in the woods where it was totally dark and a little scary. Well, not for me. I mean for them, of course. But I would reach for their hand and their little hand would instinctively reach up my way when we hit a dark stretch, and they'd grab on tight. Now the strangest thing happened. Once they had their father's hand, their feet started moving. They could go where they otherwise would never think about going as long as they had my hand.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hand That Keeps You Safe."

At the other end of life's spectrum from little boys was where my wife's grandfather was. He was 94. He was unable to remember very much, including my wife - his granddaughter. She called him one day and she said, "Hi, Granddad." She, of course, told him her name, and she said, "I love you." He wasn't very happy about it. He said, "I don't know who this is." Some strange woman was calling and saying she loved him! What is this? Well, she reminded her Granddad of his only son and that she was his daughter. "I don't know you." Finally she just said, "Well, Granddad, remember this. Jesus loves you." To which he replied, "Now Him I know!" Isn't that interesting? After 94 years, not much that he could remember, but there was one person whose love and whose presence he was still aware of - Jesus.

Listen, that's not a religion. That's a relationship so real that it's there for you through every conceivable stage of life. For my wife, it was real when she used to walk that dark stretch of road from her house to the school bus as a little girl. They lived way back in the woods, and that last stretch was beyond where she could see Mommy, or the neighbor, or anyone. Knowing those trees could be hiding the bears and the mountain lions that she knew were in their area, she would just start to sing, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me."

This Jesus - this Savior - is literally the hand you never outgrow. The hand that is there for you as my hand was there for my boys in those dark and uncertain places. Here's our word for today from the Word of God. It's the familiar words of the 23rd Psalm. They're a description of a personal relationship with God that I hope you have, or if you don't, that you'll begin it.

These are the words my own father wanted me to read to him the day he was going into that heart surgery from which he would never recover. Here are the words, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want...Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me."

This deep, personal, unloseable relationship with Jesus Christ is what I pray you will begin. It's the relationship your heart has always been hungry for. This is the Savior who'll be with you through the turbulence of being a teenager, the pressures of parenting, the lonely moments of being single, the darkness of depression, the struggle of disease, or divorce, or disaster, or facing death.

The hand of Jesus I think maybe is reaching out to you right now. If you look closely you'll see nail prints in that hand. They're there because of the price He paid to tear down the wall between you and God. His brutal death on the cross was to pay the death penalty for your sins and mine. Now He waits to forgive you; to be the one constant in your life and in your eternity no matter what changes.

Don't you want to grab that hand of Jesus to be your own personal Savior, your lifetime friend? Tell Him today, "Jesus, I give my life to the One who gave His life for me. I've been running it. You run it from now on. Jesus, I'm Yours."

Experience that love for yourself today. Go to our website because it's set up to help you begin your relationship with Jesus and to know you have. It's ANewStory.com.

You know, for an elderly grandfather, for a very sick father, for a frightened little girl, for you, the same never-leave-you person is Jesus. His hand is reaching. Won't you grab it? I'll tell you, He'll never, never let go.

Ten more minutes and my wife would have never been born. The story that changed everything is hope for any of us who love someone who's making some very bad choices. My wife's grandfather, Bill, had given up on life. Trashing a profitable career for the alcohol and cocaine he could not resist. He was labeled with a prison record, he was penniless, he was hopeless and he was suicidal.

And that night, as he walked South State Street in downtown Chicago, he was minutes away from Lake Michigan where he'd decided to end it all. One thing saved him. A mother who had never given up on him. There, on the street, he heard the song, the one his mother used to sing to him. It was coming from the rescue mission he had just passed. Something made him stop and go inside. And there a caring mission worker shared a Bible verse that has probably changed more lives than any other. The worker started, "For God so loved the world that He gave..." Suddenly, Bill finished it. "...His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16). Somewhere in the long-clouded corners of his memory, he could hear his mother teaching him those words.

And that night - minutes away from ending his life - he found life. He never touched or wanted alcohol or drugs from that night on. And he spent the rest of his life bringing the hope he'd found to forgotten people across the country. And now three generations Bill never met are here, and they're living and spreading that same hope because of one man's choice that night.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why It Is Too Soon to Give Up."

The story behind the story is told in the inscription on the back of a photo of young Bill. His mother wrote, "O Will, every night when I read my Bible, I look at this picture and I ask God to keep you and somehow seal your heart with His love. You may see this after I'm gone and you'll know that I never ceased to pray for you. Mother." She did live ten years after the night God answered those prayers.

Even as her son's life got darker and darker, this mother was hanging onto a powerful but easily-forgotten truth. That's one that I, too, have hung onto - even today. Because so much of my life's work has been trying to love and rescue people who just keep spiraling downward. It's a hope-preserver for all of us who grieve and who pray for broken, prodigal people.

Never forget the difference between a chapter and a book. See, many a book with a happy ending has some very dark chapters. A loved one's seemingly unstoppable rush to the edge of the cliff? That's not the book. It's a chapter. If we lose that wide angle lens perspective, we're going to lose hope. But the Bible urges us in our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 6:9, "Do not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest..." And Jesus said that we "should always pray and not give up" (Luke 18:1).

That's what Bill's mother did. She wept over many chapters. She never lost sight, though, of the ending God could write to the book of her son's life. She just kept loving, praying and believing. And the final chapters of Bill's life were more glorious and more miraculous than she could have ever dreamed.

If we can remember, in the darkest hours of a loved one's heartbreaking journey, that this is a chapter, then hope can win when despair is strong. Even as I write this, there are young men and women whose life-eroding choices I grieve for. But I know there is a relentless Shepherd who came, He said, to "seek and save those who are lost" (Luke 19:10). He says, "I will search for the lost and bring back the strays" (Ezekiel 34:16). He will do whatever it takes to bring them home. Even when it meant a cross.

So, as long as there's breath, there's hope. I know, because Bill's beautiful granddaughter, my wife, told me.

You may have seen an actor named Iron Eyes Cody in a lot of roles as an Indian. He used to tell an old legend about a young Indian brave, going through the rites of manhood. As he hiked solo into this beautiful valley, he decided to test himself against that rugged, snow-capped mountain that dominated the valley. When he reached the top, he felt like he was standing on the rim of the world. Then he heard this rustle at his feet. It was a snake. Before he could move, the snake spoke. He said, "I am about to die. It's too cold for me up here and there's no food. Would you put me under your shirt and take me down to the valley?" The young brave refused. He said, "I know your kind! You're a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you'll bite me and you'll kill me." But the snake said, "No, I promise to treat you differently. If you do this for me, I will not harm you."

Finally, the young man was persuaded, so he tucked the snake under his shirt and carried it down to the valley. But as soon as he laid it on the ground, the snake suddenly coiled, rattled, leaped and bit him on the leg. The young brave could only cry out, "But you promised!" As the snake slithered away, he hissed back his answer, "You knew what I was when you picked me up."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sin's Deadly Secret."

The story is a legend. But the Indian brave's mistake has been repeated in real life over and over again. God wants you to be sure you know exactly what that snake is - and what it will do to you - before you're fatally bitten.

Which takes us to our word for today from the Word of God in James 1:15 - it's an anatomy of how sin gets us to pick it up and what the inevitable outcome will be. "After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin." Looks good...looks harmless - or at least I think it's worth the risk. First, I want it, then I do it, then I pay for it. It goes on to say, "And sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."

See, sin always works the same way - first it fascinates, then it assassinates. Always. The killer snake will always be a killer snake, no matter how harmless it appears or how likely it looks that you'll get away with it. Not a chance. Sin always kills. It kills your self-respect, it kills your reputation, your closeness to God. You're not going to get away with it. God says, "Be sure that your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23).

You might be entertaining thoughts right now that you should have never let in, flirting with something you should be fleeing, making compromises that have brought you to the edge of a spiritual disaster, getting close to someone that you should be getting away from, or you could be harboring hard feelings that you really should have let go of by now.

Down in your soul, you know what it is. It's sin that killed your Savior, sin that always bites the one who handles it. And just because you can't see any consequences now, don't be fooled. Satan will be sure you're hooked and in a position where your fall will do the most damage - then you'll feel his fangs. This is God's loving warning, "Drop it now, while you can, before the inevitable deadly consequences come."

My friend, this is why Jesus is called Savior. Because we need to be saved from the killer of Sin. It kills everything, it will take us one day to a Christless eternity. It will take us out of His Heaven to his Hell. We'll never make it to His Heaven. But that's why Christ died, He took the sting of the serpent, He did the dying. And today He offers you eternal life in exchange for your sin and your death penalty. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I want to be forgiven, I need to be forgiven." He will come into your life and change what you could never change.

Listen, if you want this relationship with Him, go to our website and we'll help you get started with Him. It's ANewStory.com.

You can't afford to hold the snake of sin close one day longer. You know what it is when you pick it up. And you know what it will do. And Jesus has come to rescue you.

Our family, and probably yours, can be divided into two functional groups: the morning people and the night people. Which, by the way, are dysfunctional the other part of the day. You have those at your house? Well, often they marry each other. I don't know why that happens. And then they drive each other nuts at the beginning and at the end of the day. Now, my daughter, for example, oh, she was the slow freight train in the morning. She was almost a no freight train in the morning. It was hard to get her up; it took a long time to get her going, not much spark there, not too many smiles. She was not really like that the rest of the day. But morning was just not her time.

Now, I'm a morning person. Then about 10 or 11 o'clock at night, I start to unravel. I'm the slow freight or the no freight then. Well, I hate to tell you this, but I get to be less and less fun to be with as it gets a little later. Meanwhile, guess what my daughter was doing? She was bouncing off the walls at this point. See, we both could use a little help at the down end of our day. So could you probably.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "At the Down End of Your Day."

Well, our word for today from the Word of God has something for both the morning people and the night people. It comes from Psalm 92:1-2. "It is good to praise the Lord and to make music to Your name, O Most High, to proclaim Your love in the morning and Your faithfulness at night." This is talking about praising, and making music at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day. It says we should be, as followers of the Most High God, positive at the beginning and at the end - both ends of the day.

Now, I've noticed a gap between my metabolism; especially my late night metabolism, and my desire to be like Jesus. See, they're in conflict. Oh, I can be having a good day of serving, and being unselfish, and caring about other people, being positive all day, and then the hour starts getting late. The later it gets, sometimes it just seems like the more selfish I get, the crankier I get, the more brittle, irritable. I'm less likely to go out of my way. I'm more likely to say something cutting or sarcastic, or to complain about having to do something. Now, maybe that happens to you in the morning.

Guess when I need God's resources the most? I need them at night, because I'm a morning person. I need to consciously stretch the lordship of Christ to cover the down end of my day. There's a part of my day that seems like I'm the least under His lordship, and I'll bet there's one for you. And that's the part I need to depend on Him the most. Maybe morning's your toughest time to be a Christian.

Well, David said in Psalm 90:14, "Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days." See, in your case, you've got to wake up and think of Jesus first thing. Whichever is your down end of the day, be sure that Christ's lordship reaches from your first waking moments to your last conscious moments. You can really hurt those you love the most at your harsh end of the day.

Remember, our Lord is the One who gives you a pillar of cloud to wake up to in the morning assuring you of a God-designed day, and who gives you a pillar of fire at night to assure you of His illuminating presence at night time.

So, here's a practical take home test on your spiritual maturity. What difference is Christ making at the down end of your day?

I thought she was the cutest little thing in junior high. She didn't think I was the cutest little thing in junior high, though. See, I decided to make an all-or-nothing play for her. I went downtown and I spent all my allowance money on this necklace for her; the finest rhinestones you have ever seen. Then I wrote this eloquently mushy note to go with it and I sealed them both in an envelope which I proceeded to hand her one day as she passed by my desk in study hall. The next day, she passed by my desk again, and I looked down and there was a familiar looking envelope with the note and the necklace in it. Ouch!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Loving God Back."

I'll tell you, it hurts to spend a lot on someone you care about and basically have them not care. It's a feeling Jesus Christ knows all too well. In fact, without even knowing it, you may have been responding to His love that way.

That love, and the response Jesus should get from us, is clearly described in 1 John 4:10, and then verse 19, our word for today from the Word of God. Here's what it says, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." And what a sacrifice - the sinless Son of God taking the filth of your sin and mine so we could be forgiven. God's one and only Son, the Prince of Heaven, abandoned by Father God because He was carrying your sin and mine. The One angels worship, with nails driven angrily through His hands and feet, a spear thrust into His side, absorbing your hell so you would never have to go there. Amazing love - unspeakable love - love which demands a verdict from you and me. Will you give yourself to the man who gave His life for you? Or will you, however politely or religiously, withhold your life from Him?

1 John 4:19 explains the only response worthy of the sacrifice. "We love Him because He first loved us." As actor-director Mel Gibson immersed himself in the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus in preparation for his movie, "The Passion of the Christ," here's how he described its impact. "The full horror of what Jesus suffered didn't really strike me. But when you finally see it and understand what He went through, it makes you feel not only compassion, but also a debt. You want to repay Him for the enormity of His sacrifice. You want to love Him in return."

It's possible to appreciate Jesus' death on the cross, to respect Him for doing it, even to be grateful for it and still miss the only response that really matters to Him - the only response that makes what He did for you on the cross really yours. The incredible Bible verse that says, "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son" says He did that so that, "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). "Believe" means you grab Jesus like He's your only hope. You're abandoning every other hope you might have clung to for getting to God.

You say to Jesus, "I cannot resist this love, not any longer. Your death for me is my only hope of being forgiven and going to heaven. So Jesus, I'm giving you what you paid for. You paid for my life and my future and my eternity. Jesus, I'm Yours."

If you want that, I want to help you be sure you've got it and that's why our website is there. So I urge you, at your first opportunity, to visit me there at ANewStory.com. Come and be sure that you belong to Jesus from this day on.

After all God's Son gave for you, I can assure you of this, God is never going to forget what you do with His Son.

One day when our daughter was a teenager, I heard an interesting variety of emotions coming from her room. First, I'd hear her laughing, then sniffling, then she'd let out an occasional "I can't believe it!" Finally, my curiosity got the best of me; I had to know what she was doing. She said, "I'm reading my diary, Dad." Well, as she was reading that diary, she was reliving a lot of great moments, some hard times, and a number of lessons learned. I've often wished I could go back and enter into how I felt at some key moments in my life. The problem is I didn't write it down.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Power of Journaling God."

Now, it really is true: if you want to keep something, write it down. Like a friend once told me, "The weakest ink is stronger than the strongest memory. In fact, when it comes to some of life's experiences - some of life's most eternally important experiences - writing it down shouldn't be optional.

Your most important experiences in life are your personal times with Jesus Christ. They are what shape your life here. They're a foretaste of what your eternity is going to be about - being with Jesus. And this side of heaven, the primary place where you meet your Lord is in His Word - the Bible. But it won't change you if you don't remember what He says to you.

Which is what God is saying in our word for today from the Word of God in James 1:22-25. God says, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does."

Like a person looking in the mirror in the morning, you're supposed to look into God's Word to see what needs to change. First, God says to reflect on what He's saying to you in His Book, "looking intently" into it. Then He says to remember what He's said to you, and that's usually the problem. Even a few hours later, we probably can't remember what He said or what we read. And these verses in James imply that we will only make spiritual progress if we are "not forgetting" what we heard from the Lord.

That's why I tried something many years ago; keeping a daily spiritual journal. If I gave it a title, I'd just call it "My Times with Jesus." I never kept a personal diary about how I was feeling but I did start a journal of my times with Jesus. And I started doing it and I haven't stopped, including this very morning. Those entries in a notebook have turned out to be the tangible proof of God at work in my life - an album literally showing my growth in Jesus Christ.

I really want to strongly recommend this spiritual journaling to you. As you browse back through it later on, you'll be able to see the pattern of God's leading as it's unfolded and you'll find in it an incredible faith-builder in the crunch times.

Write down the date and where you're reading. Then read a few verses two or three times. Then write down two things: first, what did you read? Summarize what God was saying in your own words, not Bible words. Secondly, write down what you're going to do differently that day because of what God said. (1) What did God say? (2) What am I going to do differently because of it?

It's really exciting to keep a record of what God says and what He does in your life. That diary will be filled with the power and the presence of your Lord. And when you're feeling discouraged or confused or alone, reach for the record and experience again the wonderful power of a journal that is glowing with your personal experience of God.