I was teaching at a national seminar on how to communicate an unchanging Christ in our rapidly changing culture. Well, at the end of a session, a pastor from Kentucky came up to tell me his story he thought really illustrated some of what I had been saying. He said, "When I was a young man, we used to have some big tent revivals in my community. Each night an invitation was given for folks to come forward if they wanted to be, well as this country preacher would always say, 'borned again.'" The pastor went on to describe how some of the deacons would actually go out into the audience and go row-to-row, and shall we say they were "encouraging" folks to make that choice. Near the back, one of the deacons came to a young man who gave him an honest and memorable response. The deacon said, "Son, do you want to be borned again?" To which the boy said, "No." The deacon pressed the point, "Why don't you want to be borned again?" The young man answered in all seriousness, "Cause I'm afraid this time I'd come out as a girl!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Lost In Our Language."

Okay, first we can laugh at what that boy said. Then, when we're done laughing, let's think about what we can learn from a response like that. The preacher used words that the preacher understood, but apparently not everyone who was listening understood. It's a classic example of the problem with a language called "Christianese." It's the language we church folks speak without even thinking, and the language that folks who desperately need our message don't begin to understand.

Many of our "Christianese" words are good Bible words, but words that a lot of lost people around us just don't know. For just a moment, try to "think lost." Think to think like a lost person. Think what a person without the context of a Christian environment hears when we say words like "accept" or "receive Christ as your personal Savior." We receive packages today, not people, and when we accept someone, we treat them right. When you try to hear what a lost person hears, words like "salvation" and "saved" and "become a Christian" are either not understood or they're vastly misunderstood. Oh, and "born again."

In a world without absolutes, the word "sin" has become a word without meaning to many people, as much as the word "believe." Most people would probably say "yes" if you asked them if they believe in Jesus. And you'll know that they don't mean what the Bible means when it says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Even the word "Savior" is not one that people use much today. They're great words, but the people who need Jesus the most have no idea what they mean or have the wrong idea. That's what makes our word for today from the Word of God such a mission critical prayer for any of us who know people that we want to take to heaven with us. In Colossians 4:3-4, listen to Paul, "Pray for us that God may open a door for our message...Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should."

It's not enough to just transmit the Good News about Jesus. No, like good missionaries, we need to ask God to help us translate it into non-religious words that lost people can understand. If a man came running into the room you're in, shouting in say Swahili, "The room is on fire! Evacuate immediately!" you'd probably go, "Well, he sounds sincere; I think he has something important to say." But you'd have no idea what he was saying, because it wasn't in words you could understand. It's not in your language, and you might die as a result. And that's no matter how important the message and no matter how sincere the messenger.

The spiritually dying people around us hear us Christians announcing our all-important life-or-death message, often in words they don't understand. Yes, the gospel's life-or-death information that literally eternities depend on. So, we can't afford for them to get lost in our language, or they might be lost forever.

Five beaches became bloody battlefields, and that became the turning point of World War II. It was D-Day, June 6, 1944 when the allied forces invaded those beaches on the coast of France and began to move against and tore Germany. Of course Nazi stronghold after Nazi stronghold fell to those advancing allied troops, but the war still dragged on. Finally, the allies smashed into Berlin; the war still was on. Eventually, it came down to a few blocks around Hitler's bunker, and finally only after Hitler's death, the surrender came. Then the war was over. There had been a lot of victories along the way, but the war wasn't over until the last stronghold surrendered.

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

Our word for today from the Word of God comes right out of the life of Abraham. He has walked with God many years at the time this happens. And now in Genesis 22, the ultimate test of his faith. "Some time later, God tested Abraham, He said to him, 'Abraham!' 'Here I am,' he replied. Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

Man! Imagine this! This is the son God promised; this makes no sense. And yet, Abraham, with the son he deeply loves, marches up Mount Moriah with the knife in his hand, with the wood for the sacrifice altar. In fact it says, "Early the next morning Abraham got up, saddled his donkey, and took with him his son, Isaac." Now, as I pointed out, when this happens, Abraham has walked with God many years. He's sacrificed his security back in his homeland. He's taken many risks for the Lord. He's fought battles for the Lord. He's believed God over and over again. And now God takes him to the edge of faith and asks him to surrender the dearest treasure he's got - Isaac - the last stronghold.

Here is Abraham with his love for God on one hand and his love for something earthly on the other hand, and he must choose. Do you see what he does? He's up early the next morning. I would at least slept till noon. But he's up early the next morning; instant, immediate response, obedience.

Look, you've walked awhile with the Lord, and maybe you've fought battles for him and you've sacrificed some security for Him, you've taken some risks, you've believed Him. But now the Lord is coming to you to ask you to surrender your Isaac; to do whatever He chooses to do with it. God supplied a ram in the thicket for Abraham, and it did not cost him his son. But Abraham didn't know that when he made this walk.

What's your Isaac? A lifetime ambition, a dream of being married, your career, a position you really want, some material expectations, maybe a child that's become too important to you, your ministry. God is looking for you to take back that contract you've asked Him to sign. At the bottom, you know, you've got the things the way you want them and at the bottom you want it signed GOD. No. He wants a blank piece of paper that you have signed. He'll write on it. Are you going to obey Him? He'll never do you wrong. He died for you. It's a crisis in Lordship.

Today He's asking you to lower that flag that says "Mine" on the last stronghold and raise the flag that finally says "His," because if He can have this, He can have anything. Once you release to God what or who you love the most, God will release to you power and peace like you have never known before.

She was at the time, a princess in the royalty of Hollywood - one of the most successful, A-list, admired actresses in America. Behind the glamour, there are unrelenting struggles and unanswered questions, apparently. She was given some major recognition at an international awards ceremony, and as she expressed her gratitude, she also opened up her heart in a brief moment of extreme candor. Listen to what she said, "You know, I play so many roles, sometimes I wonder who the real me really is." I'll tell you, you don't have to be a Hollywood star to have that going on.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Playing the Part, Missing the Lord."

Playing a role. You know, a lot of folks are doing that. Following the script you're supposed to follow, acting the way you're supposed to act, giving such a convincing performance that you almost believe it yourself. That gap between playing the role and experiencing the reality becomes horribly expensive when you're playing the role of belonging to Jesus Christ, when you don't really belong to Him.

That's why, in a passage of the Bible written to church folks, God gives a life-saving warning. It's in 2 Corinthians 13:5, it's our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "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?" For those of us who have spent a lot of time around Jesus, it's particularly important that we don't assume we automatically have Jesus. We need to examine ourselves - to test ourselves. Christ Jesus isn't, in the Bible's words here, "in you" unless there's been a time in your life when you've consciously opened the door of your life to Him and invited Him in to run it from now on. When you know the words, go to the meetings and you believe the beliefs, it's just way too easy to miss this one life-or-death step.

My friend Gary is in the medical profession. The other day he took me aside and he told me his personal testimony. He said he and his friends had gone forward at a church meeting as young teenagers. And while he went through what he described as an "accepting Christ" thing, he never really had a personal transaction with Jesus that day. He did what he was supposed to do on the outside, but nothing really happened on the inside. From that point on, he said, he played the role.

Gary became a Sunday School teacher in his church, a deacon, and even the youth director. No one would have even thought to question whether or not he was really a Christian. One of his former professors invited him to a men's retreat one day, and he looked forward to impressing this respected Christian friend of his with what an active Christian he had become. But instead, that friend kept pressing him for an answer to this question: "If you died tonight and God asked why He should let you into His heaven, what would you tell Him?" Gary answered with his spiritual résumé. His friend told him that none of that could get him into heaven. It was that night Gary finally realized he was playing the role but missing the reality. He fully committed His life to Jesus Christ that night. And that has made all the difference in the world, and all the difference in where he will spend all of eternity.

Could it be that you have missed that step? The eternity-changing step of actually telling Jesus, "I believe you died for me. I believe You are my only hope. So beginning right now, I'm totally Yours." That takes courage. It takes honesty to admit you don't really have Jesus, but the cost of continuing to just play the role is way too high to pay; too awful to pay. God brought you here today so this could finally be your personal Jesus-day. So as He's speaking to you in your heart, with that tug you feel, don't miss this moment of truth. "Jesus, I'm Yours for real, beginning today."

Check out our website today, please. And go to ANewStory.com. We will walk you through the steps to help you know you really belong to Christ now. That's ANewStory.com.

Tonight you can finally go to sleep with the peace you've never had. It's the peace that comes from only knowing that you really do belong to Jesus now.

I remember this one visit to Texas where they got me on a horse. Bet you wish you could have been there! They were there with a camera. See, I was with a group of teenagers doing a radio program, and we decided to do part of it with me on horseback. I'm not sure why, but that was what we did. I had asked for like a nice, gentle horse, a tired old horse. So as I started to mount the horse I said, "By the way, what's his name?" They said, "Tornado." I knew I was in big trouble! I said, "Do you have anything named Glue Factory?" They didn't.

So, I mounted old Tornado, and of course I was full of questions. I was trying to remember how to get him to go the way I wanted him to go (it had been a long time since I'd been on a horse), and I wanted, especially, to know how to get Tornado to stop. That was a major thing I needed to know. So, these teenagers are shouting to me, explaining to me what the bit does, the bridle and how that works, and which way to pull the horse so he'll know which way to go. That bit doesn't feel too good when it's pulled to the left or to the right I imagine, so what I concluded was this: Pain turns out to be a pretty effective steering mechanism.

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

Our word for today from the Word of God - it's in Psalm 32 - and I'll begin reading at verse 8. God says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you." This verse tells us how God wants to direct you. He says, "I will instruct and teach you." His favorite way of getting you to go the right way is to show you in His Word something He'd like for you to do or not do that day. You apply that verse to your situation; you do it His way that day whether it looks like it's the best idea or not.

Then He talks about, "I will counsel you and watch over you." Sometimes He gives you these inner nudges to go the way He wants - those Spirit impulses. He wants you to go the way that's best for you.

Maybe He's been trying to lead you gently to do what He wants, and you haven't been doing it; you've been resisting. You're saying, "You know, I kind of like going this way. I know God may not be thrilled with it, but I think I'm going to do it a little longer." Well, here comes the bit and here comes the bridle. God says, "Okay, then I have to use the bit and the bridle. Aren't you smarter than a horse?"

Well, when gentle doesn't work, God pulls on the reins, the bit digs in and we're hurting. And possibly that might just explain the pain in your life right now. Maybe the question to ask is, "Lord, where have I been ignoring Your gentle leading? Why am I having to feel the bit in my mouth?" It's time you return to the trail that you should be on isn't it? You've been resisting. Guess what? It hurts, and the pain will stop when the obedience begins.

Here's a good rule of life. If you're going to get the pain, get the point. See, God loves you enough to pull on you even if it hurts when you're headed for something that is going to hurt you. Listen to Him. Listen to His Word. Listen to the gentle Spirit impulses on the inside. Do what He's telling you to do.

In other words, don't horse around with God's best. You haven't got time for the pain.

We’ve been looking for them, at least since I was a kid. Life forms from somewhere else in the universe.

In the 1930s for example, famed actor, Orson Welles, freaked out a nation with a radio broadcast of simulated news bulletins. Millions were convinced an alien invasion was taking place.

And then in the 1950’s, sightings of UFO’s triggered reports of downed aliens secretly kept in New Mexico’s infamous “Area 51.” And then in the 1990s, the hit TV series, “X Files.”

Now our government has started releasing extensive files with all kinds of footage of aerial phenomena. Is it military technology? The interplanetary visitors we’ve been waiting for? Or spiritual forces, as the Bible talks about in a section about “how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:9).

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Aliens – And Beyond.”

In our broader popular culture, extraterrestrial life is one of the most enduring mysteries of the past century. But it’s just one of many things in the “beyond us” category.

Astronauts return from space in awe of the magnitude of what they have seen beyond our world. And millions of us are endlessly curious about a buffet of spiritualities and unexplainable spiritual phenomena.

And while our fascination with things “beyond us” takes us down many different trails, there is one common source.

There’s a yearning in our soul that needs something bigger than ourselves. Bigger than can be explained.

And the revealing explanation for this comes from the greatest “beyond us” of all. The God who created us. Who says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, our word for today from the Word of God:

“God has placed eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

We are looking for something that will last forever!

Which effectively eliminates everything “earth.” Oh, we try all kinds of relationships and accomplishments and experiences – but they don’t last! And all of our ventures into the unknown and unexplainable are ultimately, well, substitute supernaturals. Little bridges that leave us stranded. Because none of them reach the destination our soul craves.

Knowing our Creator. For He tells us that we were “created by Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). And as He prayed, Jesus said, “This is the way to have eternal life – to know You, the only true God” (John 17:3).

But our search for lasting love and peace and meaning has not taken us to Him. It has taken us away from Him. God describes it this way: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way” (Isaiah 53:6). The opposite of God’s way.

Tragically, that has left us “without God and without hope” (Ephesians 2:12). Alone in His universe. By our choice, not His.

A lot of religions talk about God at the top of a mountain. And us on many different roads, hoping they will lead to Him.

But the divine bombshell is this amazing reality: we can’t possibly reach a sinless God, no matter which road we choose. But God loves us too much to leave us lost.

So in the greatest act of love in human history, He came down from the mountain to bring us to Him! At the unspeakable price of dying to pay the penalty for the very sinning we’ve done against Him. In the Bible’s words: “Christ died for sinners to bring you safely home to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

Then He rose from the dead to give us a gift that answers the eternity in our heart.

Life. Eternal life!

That life is within your reach today.

That’s what our website is all about, and I encourage you to go to ANewStory.com. There you’ll see from the Bible how to begin this life-changing relationship with the Jesus.

Suddenly all the scattered pieces of our life make something. All our fear of the future is swallowed up by life that lasts forever. And the cosmic loneliness of our life is finally satisfied by the endless love of God.

No, the answer is not “out there."

It’s right here. In the Savior waiting for us with arms open wide.

They're just pieces of cardboard, but some of them are worth hundreds, even thousands of dollars. We call them baseball cards. Actually, our son got interested in them when he was a little guy, and pretty soon they became a pretty serious investment for him. He really knew how to, well like they say on Wall Street, buy low and sell high. Because he watched up-and-coming players, then he would get the rookie cards of some of those players who later became major stars, and there aren't many of those rookie cards out there. So they're rare and they're valuable. Lest we trivialize the baseball card business, I want you to realize that it helped pay a significant part of our son's way through college. I remember when he told me as a teenager, "Dad, I know my room is a mess, but there's one thing I take care of - my baseball cards." That's true! His valuable ones were neatly organized in these plastic folders in these carefully guarded notebooks. And the reason most of those cards were high value was very simple. You know. They were rare!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What Makes You Really Valuable."

If you're trying to do what's right in an environment where most everybody else is doing what's wrong, you get to kind of feeling lonely sometimes, right? And even weird? In fact, the people you work with, or play with, or go to school with may basically tell you that you're weird because you don't do the things they do. And, after a while, that can start to wear on you and even wear down your resistance. You get tired of being "weird."

But if you're basically standing alone but standing for the right thing, you're not weird - you're rare. Ask any collector, whether it's baseball cards, or antiques, or stamps, or coins, whatever. What makes an item valuable is that there aren't many of them. The less there are like them, the more valuable they become. So, if you're taking a stand, and you're doing things God's way, that's you - rare and valuable.

In His final hours before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed to His Father on behalf of all those who believed in Him at that time and all those who would believe in Him through the years. So, when you listen to a portion of that prayer in our word for today from the Word of God, remember Jesus is actually praying in advance down the years for you and me. John 17, beginning with verse 15, says of His followers, "My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world."

"Sanctify them," Jesus prayed. What that means is, "set them aside for special purposes. Keep them special. Keep them reserved for God's purposes." Jesus wanted to plant you right in the middle of a dark world because they needed a light there, and that's you. So that means that, just like Him, you will take some abuse, some name-calling, and some rejection for your allegiance to Him. But not because there's something wrong with you. No, there's something very right with you!

The less virgins there are, the more valuable a virgin becomes. The less honest men and women there are, the more valuable an honest person becomes. The less people who say no to what's dirty, what's destructive, what's negative, the more your worth increases. Maybe you've been tempted to cave in. You've got combat fatigue; there's heavy pressure. Don't do it. Not only is Jesus counting on you, but the very people who are pressuring you, desperately need for you to stand firm, or their only light goes out.

Because you're Jesus' personal representative in a dark place, in many ways you aren't like everybody else. But you keep loving them unconditionally. You make them feel important; do the right thing without condemning them. And keep doing all of that, and you're going to be, whether they admit it or not, one of the most valuable and important people in their life. Because people like you are rare and very, very valuable.

I couldn't just sit down and start using your personal computer. If you work in an office, chances are they make sure that they can have access to the company computer that you use. Your computer, my computer, your company's computer - obviously they're all protected from any funny business by something we call a password. I can't get into my computer without typing in my password. Would you like to know what it is? Nope!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Password For Heaven."

Our word for today from the Word of God is important mostly for one group of people - people who want to go to heaven when they die; Isn't that just about all of us? This statement by the God whose heaven it is reveals the only password that will get you in. And the last thing God wants for it to be is a secret. He really wants you to be there with Him forever, but there's only one way possible.

Acts 4:12 - The disciples have just healed a lame man in the name of Jesus. Then, through them, God says, "Salvation is found in no one else." (When you hear that word salvation, think rescue - like first responders going in to save the lives of people trapped in a collapsed building.) "Salvation (rescue) is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." No one else but Jesus. No other name but Jesus - the only way to be saved, to be rescued.

From what? From the eternal death penalty that the Bible says we all have facing us because we've taken the life God gave us and, in essence, we've made ourselves "God" in our life. My Creator was supposed to run this life that He gave me and I ran it instead. The Bible says every one of us has done that. And there's no religion that can possibly pay or remove that death penalty, including the Christian religion. What we need to be saved from is hell itself. Without that, any hope you or I have for heaven is false hope.

But why is there "no one else," "No other name," other than Jesus? Why is He God's password to heaven? In a world that so values tolerance and open-mindedness, isn't it colossal arrogance to say He's the only way to heaven? Well, I didn't say it. The Bible did. Jesus did when He said, "I am the way...no man comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). It isn't so much about one religion being right and the others wrong. In fact, it's not about religion at all. It's about a spiritual death penalty that can only be paid one way-Somebody's got to die. And that's why Jesus came. When Jesus died on the cross, He was dying so you don't have to. And the day He walked out of His grave, He proved He's got the power to turn your death sentence into eternal life.

Which leaves us with the question on which everything rests, "On what are you basing your hope for heaven?" If your password is the good things you've done or your spiritual background or your religion - no chance. Because your only hope is pinning all your hopes on Jesus Christ.

Has there ever been a time when you clearly, consciously, personally told Jesus that you were placing all your trust in Him? The day you do is the day you trade forever the hell you deserve for the heaven you could never deserve. And this could be that day. With your forever at stake and with life so unpredictable, waiting another day just doesn't make sense.

So today would you say, "Jesus, I understand that You and You alone are the password to heaven, the door to Heaven, the One who opened that door by Your death on the cross for me. And Jesus, beginning today, I am Yours." I want to be sure that you really do belong to Him and that's why we have our website. Would you check out ANewStory.com today?

Your hell cancelled, your heaven guaranteed - today. If you'll enter in through the only name God will accept. That is His son. That is Jesus.

Some of my favorite moments in our kids growing up years have been story-telling time. I remember one time after we told the Bible story about the book of Genesis, I said to my daughter, "And Honey, do you remember who the first Mommy and Daddy were?" And she said, "Yep! Eve and Steve." Okay, good, so much for my Bible teaching. I said, "Do you remember who their boys were?" She said, "Yep! Cain and Mable." There we go again.

Well, back to the drawing board for Bible stories. But I do think the Bible is exciting, and I wanted my children to think so. So I tried to make the telling of the stories as exciting as possible. So, each night I would take the story to sort of a cliff-hanger point and I'd leave it there, often to loud protests. But even when they objected, they were ready to listen the next night. You know, when you don't tell the whole story, you keep folks interested.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Chapter at a Time."

If you are in need of God's guidance today, would you walk with me into the life of Abraham for a minute? God's got a great story line for Abraham's life. He's going to have him leave his home, he's going to have him go to Canaan land, and he's going to eventually promise him that that land will be his. Then he's going to promise that He's eventually going to have a son, and that son's going to become a great nation, and He's going to give that son to him miraculously. But did He tell him that all at once? Oh, no. God only gives Abraham the story a chapter at a time, like I used to tell my kids stories.

Just real quickly, as we march through his life in our word for today from the Word of God, Genesis 12:1-2, "The Lord said to him, 'Leave your country. Go to a land I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you.'" He sure doesn't give him very many details. He just says, "Leave and go to this land." Well, that's what Abraham does. He goes on what information he has.

Chapter 12, verse 7: He's in Canaan. God appears to Abraham and says, "To your offspring I will give this land." Now he finds out that there's going to perhaps be some children. And then he finds out that it's going to be the land of Canaan that God was talking about. In chapter 15 and verse 4, God goes on to say that it's going to be to a son that will come from your own body. "You're going to have a son!" Then finally, He leads him in Genesis 22, to the offering of that son, willing to sacrifice him. And after he has shown that willingness, God gives him blessings that are unprecedented.

Notice the pattern of God's leading. You might need to know this right now to understand what He's doing in your life. He shows you what you need to know to take the next step. Then, after you do just that next step, He'll show you what you need for the next step. It's an unfolding scroll...a little at a time. It's like me telling that story to my children. Because I didn't give them the whole story, they were eager to get back to my lap the next night.

The old hymn writer said, "We cannot see what lies before, and so we cling to Him the more." See, the plan is the easy part for God. He could give you that in one blueprint right now, but you would walk away with that under your arm and not need Him, not depend on Him, and not be back in His lap.

God wants to build trust in Him in a day-to-day relationship. And so He shows us the story a little at a time. Like Abraham, your mission is to take the step He shows you today from His Word; not to worry about the whole big picture. There's another reason He doesn't show it all to us. If He did we might either run from it or run to it and we'd ruin it, like jumping ahead of the book and wondering why the chapter didn't make any sense.

But if God's will unfolds a day at a time, then it just seems natural when we get to it. So, act on the chapter the Lord is revealing to you right now, and then return to His lap tomorrow for the next exciting episode.