The setting was a beautiful Christian conference center, nestled in this idyllic spot in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Now Rocky Mountain fans won't be impressed, but some of the mountains around the conference center rise to five or six thousand feet. I had been speaking there, and the director began to tell me some interesting stories from their last few months at the center, like the man they had to go looking for at the top of a nearby mountain in the middle of the night. See, he'd gone too far, and he'd stayed out too long. I asked the obvious question: "Well, was he lost?" The director said: "He didn't think he was."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Lost and Not Knowing It."

Being lost can be a dangerous thing. Being lost and not knowing you're lost, or not admitting it, can mean extreme danger—especially if you're spiritually lost. You're away from God, you’re racing without knowing it toward an eternity without Him and you think you're doing just fine. If you're religious, or successful, or smart, things are going pretty well, you may be in the greatest danger of all of being lost and not knowing it, and as a result, ending up lost forever.

Jesus has made a lot of us people who don't seem lost give a second thought with His revealing story of these two men with very different views of their need for Him. In Luke 18, beginning with verse 9, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says: "To some who were confident of their own righteousness... Jesus told this parable: 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee (that's the most religious people of Jesus' day) and the other a tax collector (usually regarded as some of the most sinful people in Jesus' day). The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'"

Jesus continues: "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.'" Wow! You and I are probably one of these two men; the person who looks around at a lot of people who are much worse off and thinks, "Well, you know what? I'm doing okay." But we're not right with God. Or we're the person who says, "I know I'm lost. I know I have no hope of being forgiven. I have no hope of going to heaven except You, Jesus." Which one is you? The difference is the difference between heaven and hell.

Romans 3:10 bursts all our self-sufficient, self-righteous bubbles when it says: "There is none righteous, not even one." But if you don't think or you won't admit you're lost, you'll never reach out in desperate faith to the only One who can bring you home, and that is Jesus, the Son of God. He died for your sins because there was absolutely no other way for you to know God or get into His heaven.

Pride might be the number one reason people will end up in hell instead of the heaven they were sure they were going to. But they never admitted they were lost. They never pinned all their hopes on their only hope, Jesus, the Savior. God’s not willing to just leave you lost. He sent His Son for you. He doesn't want to lose you, and He's come to where you are today to give you this chance to admit that you are what He says you are—lost, and to finally surrender your pride and bow down at Jesus' feet.

This could be your day to say, "God, be merciful to me a sinner and save me, for Jesus' sake." Finally free. Finally His. If you're ready to make the Savior your Savior, would you tell Him that today, "Jesus, I'm yours."

I invite you to check out our website, where there's a lot more information about how to be sure you're going to heaven. It is ANewStory.com.

There are two choices. Don't admit you're lost and be lost forever. Admit you're lost and be found forever. The stakes are eternal.

Did you ever do the bumper cars at the carnival? Our family loves bumper cars! When you first get in the bumper car, you start at approximately the same place. But when you step on the pedal, you take off in about ten different directions and occasionally bump into each other. That was a description of our family when we were all still living under one roof. A description of yours maybe, too? You know, a bumper car family! See, you start out at the same place in the morning, you step on the gas pedal, and off we would go in five different directions, and every once in a while we would just happen to bump into each other.

In our world today it is so easy to let families just fly apart. And as the kids get older and mom and dad get busier and busier and we need to work more to keep up our standard of living, a lot of times there’s less and less time spent together. And then add in the internet and social media! Without even knowing it, sometimes your family – my family – becomes a group of strangers. And then later on we look back with regret and we say, “If only I could have those years back. Why didn’t we spend more time together?” See, every family needs to be together, but it actually takes someone to blow the trumpet to make it happen.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Holy Huddles At Home.”

Our word for today from the Word of God is found in the book of Nehemiah 4. I’m going to be reading verses 19 and 20. If you remember a little of your Bible history, you may know that Nehemiah was God’s man to lead the people in rebuilding the dilapidated and destroyed walls and gates of Jerusalem. It was a major task. It had pretty much been a mess for about 100 years. It took a lot of major organization, and he was able to mobilize all those people, each with a different assignment. And in 52 days, this small group of people literally rebuilt the walls and gates of the city of Jerusalem.

Listen to part of the plan here as he gives instructions to his work crew. “Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, ‘The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall.’” Sounds a lot like the bumper cars syndrome; they all started out in the morning and they all went their separate directions. He says, “Whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us.”

He said, “In my family of workers we’re going to need to get together. And so I’ll sound the trumpet, and when I do, come together.” Did you know that whenever there is a family that is spread out in their lifestyles like yours and ours, there’s got to be one person in the family who plays Nehemiah; someone who insists that the family comes together. Families are pulled apart unless somebody is willing to work at them being together, communicating, hugging each other, touching each other, praying together, keeping in touch with each other’s lives. It’s like a football team that has to regularly have a huddle. You can’t have a family without regular huddles.

So the person who sounds the trumpet is the person in the family who sets a time and a place and makes it happen to make sure that family comes together. If it doesn’t, people leave home with dangerous, unmet needs. They don’t have the closeness, the intimacy, the encouragement they need, and they’ll go looking for it in places they never should.

Now, biblically, this should be dad. In a single-parent family it may have to be mom. But certainly everyone in the family should come when the trumpet is blown. Dinner together, pre-committed days together, family devotions, vacation, prayer time. Don’t let your family be every man/every woman for himself or herself. Bring them together! Remember, every family needs that trumpet.

I've had lots of friends in law enforcement, and I've even had the opportunity to ride in the front seat with a police officer. But the experience I had recently had a totally different feel to it. I was speaking in a large youth festival, and I had to get across this festival's grounds quickly to my next speaking venue. Two police officers working security said, "Hey, hop in our squad car, we'll take you over there." Well, I jumped into the back seat of the police car and I quickly realized I had never experienced a little of what it feels like to be on the custody end of things like that. There was this wall between me and the officers in the front seat. When we arrived at our destination and I tried to open my door…in vain…there was no way. My officer friend had a good laugh. He said, "Ron, there's no way you can get yourself out of there. See, somebody has to let you out." Okay, I've decided I am not excited about being in the prisoner seat any more.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Only Way to Be Free."

"There's no way you can get yourself out of there." Well, that's a feeling a lot of us have experienced, without ever being physically locked up. It's like there are these hurtful emotional cycles and spiritual cycles that we just can't seem to get ourselves out of.

Maybe you know what it is to be trapped in a cycle of destructive behavior, or damaged relationships, or maybe a cycle of guilt and shame over repeated mistakes, or a cycle of slavery to a behavior you just can't seem to change, or a cycle of unfulfillment; where one experience after another just fails to give you the peace and the meaning you've always hoped for. There are no bars, no prison walls, but we know the feeling of being locked up in a way of living that we can't get out of. Just like a prisoner in a cell, or me in the prisoner seat of a police car, somebody has to let you out. And for 2,000 years, "the" Somebody has been doing that for millions of us spiritual prisoners.

In fact, in Isaiah 61:1, our word for today from the Word of God, He announced His reason for coming to earth this way: "The Lord has...sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners." Jesus understands the powerful force that ultimately keeps us locked up in our destructive cycles. He said, "Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin" (John 8:34). Sin is simply our hijacking of our life from the God who was supposed to run it. And because we're away from our Creator, we're trapped in this self-run orbit where life just doesn't work right.

It took the coming and the dying of the Son of God to break the enslaving power of sin. By taking the death penalty for what we've done, Jesus has the power, not only to save us from our own hurtful ways, but to save us from the eternal penitentiary the Bible calls hell. He's come from the outside to let you out, to set you free. But He waits for your invitation to do that; your invitation for Him to come into your life, to forgive every sin of your life, and to change you from the inside out.

That glorious freedom that so many have experienced, you can experience beginning this very day. It actually begins when you tell Jesus, "I am turning from my sin that has enslaved me, Lord; from the sin that nailed You to a cross. You had to do that to pay for my sin, and I know you walked out of your grave. You are alive! I want you to walk into my life today. I want to give myself to You because you died for my sin. I’m Yours beginning today."

Do you want a new story to begin in your life? I want to encourage you to go to our website - ANewStory.com. You're going to find some information there from God's very own words that will help you start on that road.

This could be your day to finally be able to say, "Free at last, free at last - thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!"

He might be America’s most famous bear – Smokey! Maybe you can picture Smokey Bear right there in his blue jeans and his Park Ranger hat. They used to have commercials like that all the time. He’s probably holding a shovel or he’s looking straight at you very soberly. And he’s saying, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Actually Smokey has been a pretty effective spokesman, especially if we can think of his big line as soon as we think of him. Oh we’ll never know how many fires he’s prevented, but he’s drilled one very important idea into our heads. Take care of your fire; it could do terrible damage.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Fighting Fire When It's Small.”

Have you ever noticed the words we use to describe anger? “I’m really hot about this!” “Boy, he’s really steamed!” “She just blew her top!” “I was really burned up!” There’s this strong smell of smoke here isn’t there? And fire - the Bible has a lot to say about the fire of anger and how to control it. Our word for today from the Word of God, James 1:19 for example: “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. For man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

Well, that’s interesting that it doesn’t bring about anything good, right? A rough translation or paraphrase might be, “You don’t do anything right when you’re angry.” In fact, isn’t it when you’re angry that you tend to make your biggest mistakes? Oftentimes you’ll also leave the deepest scars. You create some of the biggest regrets, and it’s when we’re angry that we most often hurt the people we love the most.

That’s why the Bible says in Colossians 3:8, “You must rid yourselves of all such things as anger and rage.” This isn’t just passively saying, “Well, I can’t help it. I lose my temper.” It’s saying, “Attack this thing! Get rid of it. Take it out like the garbage.” James 1 gives us some hints as to how. We could call these fire fighters for that anger fire inside of you.

First of all, it recommends a big ear. That’s the first fire fighter. It says, “Be quick to listen, and then you’ll be slow to become angry.” If you discipline yourself to listen before you speak, to ask two or three questions before you react you’ll be a lot more likely to tame your anger. Bite your tongue until you’ve heard the whole thing. A lot of “blow ups” come from misunderstanding; that’s where we get most of our exercise - jumping to conclusions. Have a big ear. If you’re quick to listen you’ll be slower to become angry.

I think the second fire fighter is the "cool down time out." That’s what I call it. It says, “Be slow to speak.” Take a step away before you respond; leave the room if you have to. Step away from the person. Step away from the situation. Take the cool down time out, and come back in and act instead of reacting.

And thirdly, here’s another fire fighter. I call it the “sundown clock.” The Bible talks about it in Ephesians 4:26. “Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry.” See, anger never stays the same size. It always grows bigger. It will never be smaller than it is right now. So, get rid of it before you go to bed tonight. Deal with it. Get it out. Don’t stuff it inside. When you don’t act that way, well, Ephesians 4:27 kicks in, “Do not give the Devil a foothold.” Unresolved anger, when you go to bed at night, leaves Satan a wide open spot in your heart.

You and I have caused enough emotional forest fires in our lives haven’t we? And too many people have gotten burned. It’s time we draw actively on the love and the power of Jesus Christ to declare war on that fire inside; to keep that fire small, to extinguish it quickly before we allow it to do any more damage.

You can read about the Grand Canyon. You can see pictures of the Grand Canyon. But you can't begin to comprehend how grand a canyon it is until you're standing right there at the edge of it, trying to drink in how massive it really is. The moods, the colors, the vastness—it was really something impressive for our whole family the first time we went there together. You stand on the South Rim and you look at the North Rim in the distance…the far distance, realizing you can only look. It averages at least ten miles across! There's no way to get across that canyon. There’s no bridge that will take you to the other side.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Eternity Gap."

You stand looking at something you'd like to experience, but there's no bridge to get you there—just a very grand canyon between you and what you're looking at. It's a feeling all of us are much too familiar with; looking at where we are, then looking at the kind of person we need to be and realizing there's a grand canyon in between.

Sometimes it's getting married, or having children, or going through one of life's deep valleys that makes us see our dark side; that makes us realize the great gap between the person I am and the person I want to be, the person I need to be, the person the people around me need for me to be. We don't want to be selfish, but selfishness seems so natural and so hard to change. We don't want to be enslaved by this habit, or hurting people with our angry words, or by constantly succumbing to negativity, even depression. We see our worst come out, and it's often hurting most the people we love the most. We want to be different, but listen, it's a long way to the other side. I know what I want to be, what people who count on me need for me to be, but my dark side wins too often.

This is not a new struggle. One of the writers of the Bible actually talked about it in Romans 7, where we find our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do." That sounds all too familiar, doesn't it? "I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” He says, “For what I do is the evil I do not want to do...who will rescue me?" This man has stumbled on the way that we can bridge the gap between the person we are and the person we need to be—a rescuer. He’s crying out for a rescuer. He answers the question "who will rescue me?" this way: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

All our efforts to improve ourselves seem to fall short. And according to Romans 3:23 in the Bible, our best falls way short of getting to a perfect God. We have only one hope of crossing the grand canyon that we've never been able to cross, and that is literally being carried across in the arms of Jesus Christ. He can rescue you from your dark side because He died to pay the death penalty for all your sins, and then He rose from the dead to prove that He has beaten everything that has beaten us.

The arms of Heaven’s Rescuer are, in fact, open to you this very day. But He won’t grab you. No, you have to grab Him. Has there ever been a moment when you’ve come to the end of yourself and placed all your hopes and all your trust in Jesus Christ and in Him alone? If not, this would be a great day for you to finally take that first step of faith and to tell Him, “Jesus, I am Yours. I'm putting all my faith in You to have my sins forgiven and to go to heaven someday, to have a relationship with my God."

This could be the beginning of a new story for you. In fact, that's the name of our website - ANewStory.com. And I want to urge you to go there today, and I think you will find there some things from God's Word that will help you be sure you belong to Jesus Christ.

He stands ready to do for you what you have never been able to do for yourself if you’ll just walk into His waiting arms.

Having watched some of the old Superman TV shows and some of the movies, it’s got to be tough for Clark Kent. I mean, these days it’s getting harder and harder to find a phone booth to change in. That’s what he used to do! But He always manages to change his identity to Superman. That’s the important thing. You can’t be a super hero until you change your identity. When you think about it, most of our super heroes over the years don’t become heroes without that change of identity, whether it’s Clark Kent changing to Superman, or it’s Wonder Woman, or it’s Batman. Now, that’s okay for the comics, but in real life, the heroes are the ones who never change their identity.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Only One You.”

Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Philippians 3. It’s about a man who had many possible identities. He would make Clark Kent look like a piker. Listen to this. The Apostle Paul writes to us about some of the identities in his life. He says beginning in verse 5, “I was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, I am a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin…” “I’ve got a tribe I’m very proud I’m from.” He says, “a Hebrew of the Hebrews.” He says, “I’m the top of the line in that department.” “…in regard to the law, I’m a Pharisee.”

Boy, there’s another identity. And then, “As for zeal, persecuting the church,” He said, “I was a very good church persecutor.” Great way to make a living, huh? He says, “As for legalistic righteousness, I was faultless.” Look at all those identities this guy’s got. Now, “But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Out of all the identities Paul could have had, he said, “There’s one that I want to step into. I have settled on one identity and I have decided to give that one identity everything I’ve got. It is following Jesus Christ. That’s who I am.”

Most of us are like Clark Kent. There’s the me I am at work. Now, I don’t get into a phone booth (can’t find one anyway), but I change my identity to be the me I am at church, and then there’s the me I am with my wife, and then the me I am with different groups of friends, and the me playing sports, etc.

I talked with this high school football player, and he said, “Ron, it’s tough to be only one of 30 kids who stands up to the teacher when they say godless things. It’s tough to be the only guy in the locker room with a clean mouth and the only guy who is loyal to Christ.” I wanted to encourage him. I said, “Bill, you won’t always be a football player. You won’t always be a student at that school. You won’t always be friends with those kids. You won’t always be a student in that class. There’s only one thing you’ll always be. You’ll always be a follower of Christ.” I’ll tell you what I told him. “Life becomes more peaceful, less stressful, and less confusing when you pick one identity and stick with it.”

See, life settles down when you make this choice, “I’m going to really be what I’ll always be.” And that’s what you’ll always be, a follower of Christ. That was Paul’s choice. He said, “All other identities are temporary.” Don’t let a temporary identity cause you to betray who you really are and who you will always be. You’re so afraid. It’s kind of like “Well I’m an employee of Company X, or I’m a student of Professor Y, or I’m a neighbor or coworker of person Z.” None of those are who you are. Whose hero do you want to be?

Don’t let your Jesus identity be your secret identity anymore. You will forever be the property of Jesus Christ bought with His blood. So why don’t you really be what you’ll always be. Fantasy heroes keep changing identities, but real heroes pick one and go for it because heroes know who they are.

When you have a commercial flight to catch at a major airport, it's important to pay attention. There are so many flights, so many gates, so many people, and there's only one plane you want to board; the one that's going to your destination. Right? Well, I guess folks must have made mistakes over the years. I mean, that's got to be the reason the boarding agent or the flight attendant gets on the plane and often says something like this: "This is a destination check. You're on Flight 88 to Atlanta. If Atlanta is not your destination today, this would be a good time for you to deplane." Yeah, I guess. In other words, this buggy ain't going where you want to end up!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Surprised People in Hell."

It's one of the most chilling truths in the Bible: there are people who are sure their destination is going to be heaven and they're never going to get there. Unless, you might say, they get off the wrong plane and get on the right plane.

Would you listen to these sobering words from Jesus Himself in Luke 13, beginning with verse 24. It's our word for today from the Word of God. "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' ... 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...'"

Jesus then concludes by describing this heartbreaking scene: "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrust out." These are tough verses, but they're here so none of us will end up being one of the most surprised people in hell. They're here because Jesus loves us too much to let us live and die with the spiritual fantasy that we're ready for eternity when we are not.

It is dangerously easy to know all the "Jesus words" and still miss Jesus; to have Him in your head, but not in your heart, to be in a religion that's all about Jesus, but miss Jesus, to have lots of Christianity but never have Christ. It's easy to mistake agreeing with Jesus for commitment to Jesus.

I have a number of friends that I agree with on many things, but I'm not married to them. You know, my marriage to my wife was not because of my agreement with her, but because of my total commitment to her. It's the same with Jesus. The question is this: Has there been a time in your life when you have consciously given yourself completely to Jesus, when you've committed yourself to live for the One who died for your sins? If you know you've done that, you belong to Jesus. If you don't know you've done that, you probably haven't. And you probably need to sooner rather than later.

Heaven and hell are nothing to gamble with. Please don't let your religious pride cost you heaven. Tell Jesus this very day, "Lord, I've known about you a long time, I've never really known You. But I want to, beginning right now. I'm putting my trust in You and not in my Christianity. I know I’ll never get to heaven without Your forgiveness. All my trust is in You, Jesus and what You did on the cross to erase my sins. Beginning today, Jesus, I am Yours."

Wow! This could be the for real day when you really know Him for real. Get it settled. Let's get this done while you're hearing His voice in your heart. I would encourage you to go to our website - ANewStory.com. It's all about securing your relationship with Jesus Christ and you need that right now.

It's time for an eternal destination check while there's still time to go the way that will get you where you want to be forever.

Now, it’s hard to lose weight; I know that very well. But the real trick in weight loss is keeping the weight off. Years ago I dropped about 55 pounds and believe me i’m not looking for it. I mean, it went away thankfully a little bit at a time. I found out that it is possible to hang around the level of where you got your weight loss to. Of course, you can’t eat grapefruit all the time, or celery, or diet bars for the rest of your life. No. That’s the way a lot of people regain what they lost. No, what you’ve got to do is to learn new ways of eating that fit your metabolism. At least that worked for me. I call it making friends with your metabolism.

One challenge for me in keeping that weight off is when it's vacation or a holiday time, because, “Hey, I have a fun mentality and I don’t really want to watch what I’m eating.” So I want to eat lots of fun food. In fact, I want to eat more food during those times. And so my calorie intake jumps up during my time off. Well, I’d be back up to where i was if I didn’t make an important adjustment when I’m eating more. Suddenly I’m working more, biking more, playing ball more, fervently hoping as I’m doing that that I’m losing more calories somewhere in the process. Okay, very simple: when you eat more, you’ve got to exercise more.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Overfed Christians.”

Our word for today from the Word of God is in James 1:22. It says: “Do not merely listen to the Word…” We do a lot of that, don’t we? “…and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Interesting! The Bible is saying it’s possible for people who listen to the Word all the time to be kidding themselves if they’re not doing what they hear.

My daughter had the privilege of being on a team that went to the Soviet Union in the days of turmoil and uproar that were beginning to change that part of the world forever. They were asked to sing at a Christian Music Festival as part of a historic outreach. Right there in Lenin Stadium. Wow! Well, in the process, she met some beautiful Soviet believers who had been through so much. And one of them made a very insightful comment. It was a Soviet pastor who said to her, “You know, one burden I have is for American Christians, because I think you are over-feeded.” Well, his English may not have been perfect, but his point sure was. He swept his arms around the people in that auditorium. He said, “We are so hungry and so thirsty.”

He’s right. Look, we here in the West, we’ve got seminars, and books, and recordings, and websites, and Bible studies, and concerts, and church programs. We sit and eat a lot, like me on vacation. But I can’t help where I live; I didn’t decide that. I do get over-feeded. But what about Luke 12:48, “To whom much is given, much is required.” What’s the answer to over-feeding? More exercise. James 1:22 says, “You’re kidding yourself if you’re eating it and not exercising it.” Just because you know it doesn’t mean anything.

What does exercise mean? Well, number one, it means specific obediences to the Lord. For today I open God’s Word and I must be looking for a concrete response that I can measure by tonight, “Did I do it or did I not?” Was there an action step after what I read? I don’t just hear it. I do it; I write it down so I can hold myself accountable. I share it with other people so they can hold me accountable. I look for something to do today because of what I read, or shall we say what I 'ate' spiritually.

Secondly, you look for a personal mission; something on your heart that has broken God’s heart, and you’ve allowed Him to break your heart with it. You’ve got to have a mission, a piece of the action, a place where you’re doing Kingdom business; where you throw money, and time, and sacrifice into it.

See, obedience and mission burn up spiritual calories. God doesn’t feed you to make you heavy; He feeds you to make you active; to give you energy for doing the things that advance His Kingdom.

We are "over-feeded" perhaps, but we can balance that intake by leaving the table and going out daily to run a race for Jesus Christ.