I was about nine years old when my parents took me to meet Paul Bunyan. Actually it was a giant statue of that legendary lumberjack seated on this huge chair. My dad went to the ticket booth, paid for us, and then I went through the turnstile and into Paul's big yard. And there he was in his red plaid shirt and a little log cabin at his feet that showed how huge he was. And then came the heart attack. Suddenly this big voice boomed out for everybody to hear, "Hello, Ronnie." Man, for one of those rare moments in my life, I was totally speechless! How could I know that the ticket guy had asked my father my name (little scam going on here!) and then he relayed it to a man in that little log cabin - a man with a very big microphone. I was just amazed that someone that big actually knew me!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Can't Go Unnoticed."

For many people, life has been a lot of not being recognized, not being acknowledged, not being known, not being seen. Until, much to their amazement, like me as a little boy with that giant, they find out that the biggest Person in the world - in the universe - really knows and cares about who they are. And there comes that moment when it's as if He seems to call you by name.

It happened to a woman in Jesus' day, and it can happen to you, no matter how you've been treated in your life. Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke 8:42. "As Jesus was on His way, the crowds almost crushed Him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped." Now Jesus goes on to ask who touched Him, which surprises His disciples that He could sense an individual encounter in such a crowd of people.

Here's the part I love. "Then, the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at His feet." She was utterly amazed. This woman, who had been ignored and passed over by so many people, had been noticed by the Son of God.

So have you. In fact, you have no idea what you mean to Jesus. First, because you're His one-of-a-kind creation. In the words of the Bible, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:10). You are very special to Jesus. He made you. But not only are you His unique creation, you are His very expensive purchase. When Jesus went to that brutal cross, it was literally to die in your place, to absorb all the guilt and all the death penalty for every sin you have ever sinned. He took your hell so you could go to His heaven.

So no matter how excluded or unimportant or lonely you may feel, the most important person in the universe never stops thinking about you; never stops loving you. Every time Jesus looks at His hands He sees the nail prints left by the price He paid for you because He loves you so much.

The question isn't whether Jesus has noticed you, it's whether you have noticed Him. That woman in the Bible received what Jesus had because she reached out in faith to Him. Has there ever been a time when you reached out to Jesus and said, "Lord, You are my only hope of knowing God, of being forgiven, of going to heaven. I'm yours." You'll never experience His love or His life until you do.

If you want to begin your relationship with this One who loves you as no one else ever has? Well, tell Him that now where you are. And I'd love to walk you through how to be sure you belong to Him at our website, which is there for that very reason. Check it out today - ANewStory.com.

Even while you've been too busy to notice Jesus, He's been reaching out to you. Today His nail-scarred hand is reaching your way one more time. Please, don't miss Him.

You know, when I was growing up, it was a pretty long trip to get to the ocean. I grew up in Illinois, so we didn't have a lot of ocean experience. Needless to say, when I lived along the East Coast for over 20 years, I became fascinated with the ocean. I still love to watch it, I love to walk along the beach, I love to romp in the waves a little, but I haven't gotten used to those big breakers rolling in. Hey, listen, I'm a lake boy, okay; a pool kid.

But those big old waves, they make me feel as if they could pick me up and carry me all the way to England, which I would rather fly to anyway than go by way of the Atlantic Ocean. But I have good friends who really know what to do with those giant waves. They've taught me that what you do is you surf on it if you know how, and they're good at it. They wait for that big old curl to come roaring down on them, they leap on their surfboard and they ride that wave. Now, I see a mega wave as a threat. My friends? They see it as a vehicle.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Surfing the Wave That Could Sink You."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 8, and it talks about the day that a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem. All except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. It really sounds like a large wave coming in against God's people. But listen to what they did with it.

"Those who had been scattered," chapter 8, verse 4 says, "preached the Word wherever they went." Now, here is this violent enemy attack on the infant church, and it forces the believers out of their little nest in Jerusalem. Probably losing their home, and their family connections, and possibly their job. What did they do? Did they sink? No, they surfed on that big wave! They started spreading the Gospel in all the places they were forced to go.

Now, that's just what God had predicted in Acts 1:8, when He said, "You'll be My witnesses in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and in the uttermost parts of the earth." But they weren't leaving Jerusalem until this persecution hit. See, the attacks of the enemy often end up facilitating the plans of God (don't you love it?), because of how believers handle the heavy waves of crisis that come crashing toward them.

You could do that. It's called capturing your crisis for Christ. This type of believer surfs on a wave of trouble instead of sinking under it. Let's fast-forward 2,000 years from the book of Acts to your life right now. You've got pressure. What's the wave that's coming in at you right now? You've got stress, you've got some anxiety. Can you see it? There's a crisis that's threatening you, or maybe a disappointment, or a disease, a disaster. Capture your crisis for Christ. Do what these early Christians did. They used it as a platform to proclaim Jesus. They said, "Well, if the crisis has forced me into a place I never wanted to be, I'm going to use this as a place to proclaim Christ."

Basically, they believed that their situation was their assignment wherever God put them. See, the crises of life put us in positions where a lot of folks are watching what we do; where we meet new people, where we can find a platform for saying, "Jesus is enough, even in this; especially in this situation." Now, the enemy would love to use this wave that you see coming at you to sink you, but don't go down under it.

Remember, your situation is your assignment from God. Do what the great surfers do! Ride on top of this wave; surf on it. Capture it for Christ.

"The Mad Cleaning Man" That's one of the nicknames affectionately given to me by my family. And I've worked pretty hard to earn that name. Let's put it this way, I hate clutter. I'm not the neatest guy in the world, but I can only function so long when mess is building up around me, you know? So, often without warning, I would go on a straightening rampage. And what was the best way to keep from having to pick something up again? Right! You throw it away! I look at things before I trash them. Come on, you should know that. I'm not irresponsible. But over the years, a family member would walk into a room that was messy when they left but had since had my magic touch. But they would say "Oh no! Dad's been at it again." Which could be followed by cries of frustration as they look for some item, "Dad, where's my such-and-such? It was right here!" Then they would see the glazed eyes of "The Mad Cleaning Man" and they gave up asking. Cleaning up is good, right? But it can be irritating.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Catch, Then Clean."

You can be that way with a house. You can be that way with people. Trying to clean them up, that is. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 5:17. And it starts with this exciting news: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" When Jesus comes into a person's life a wonderful transformation begins. The old person we were when we were outside of Christ starts to disappear, and we start becoming this new person that only Jesus can make us when we are "in Christ." Cleaned up by Jesus Christ.

Now the passage goes on to tell us that God has reconciled people to Himself through Christ's forgiveness and that He "has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors." In other words, God's counting on you to let people know how to have peace with Him through Jesus. That's our mission - bringing a lost person to the Savior. Not cleaning them up. Jesus said we're fishers of men. And you know what? Every fisherman knows you've got to catch fish before you clean them!

But sometimes we approach lost people like "The Mad Cleaning Man" approaches our house, "must get you cleaned up." And it alienates the very people we're trying to tell about God's amazing grace. In a blatantly sinful and godless culture, we see more and more behaviors that aggravate us, offend us, and anger us. We're really bothered by their sexual immorality, their language, the things they talk about, the things they joke about, or just their disregard of one or another of God's commandments. And that should bother us. And while we want them to begin a relationship with Jesus, we also want to clean up their act!

But it's a mistake to try to clean people up before they have the Cleaner-Upper! 2 Corinthians 5:17 doesn't say that they will be in Christ when they become a new creation. It says they'll become a new creation when they're finally in Christ! We need to be stressing relationship, not reform. The message of reconciliation God has trusted to us is all about Jesus! People sin because they're sinners, and they will be sinners until they know the Savior of sinners! So stick to Jesus and stick to His cross, and don't encumber that simple Gospel with an attempt to clean up their lifestyle.

Yes when they come to Jesus there is repentance with their faith to recognize that there's someone new in charge and life is going to change. But Jesus will do the cleaning up. Even as a parent or spiritual mentor, we may have gotten hung up on someone's deeds more than their needs or on correcting their behavior which can build walls, instead of building our relationship which builds bridges.

Oh yes, cleaning up is a very important part of coming to Christ. It's called repentance. But Jesus does the cleaning from the inside out. Cleaning them up - that's not my job. Introducing them to the Cleaner-Upper - that's my job!