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.

One of our team members is quite the woodsman and hiker. And one foggy Saturday morning, he volunteered to lead a group of men who wanted to go hike to this distinctive rock formation called Hawksbill Crag. He had the book on the trails in that area; a book written by the man considered the expert. My friend kept consulting the book as they went along, pretty confident that they would soon end up at Hawksbill Crag. They ended up lost in a poison ivy patch, and the fog wasn't helping much. As they tried to retrace their steps, they passed a house set back in the woods and they happened to see its owner outside. My friend called to him and asked him if he would help them get "un-lost." That man went above and beyond. He actually came to where they were, helped them make sense of the map that they had, and pointed them right to the trail that got them to their goal. Of course, it turns out he was the man who wrote the book.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “When You Can’t Find the Trail.”

Those men finally found the trail they needed to be on from the person who knew the trail best. There's not one of us who doesn't need that same kind of direction for our life! Most of us have lived long enough to have already tried several trails that looked good to us, that we were sure would lead us to the meaning we were looking for, and to the love we were looking for, and to the inner freedom and peace we've always wanted. But so far, no trail has led us there. We're lost. In fact, some of us have found ourselves standing in poison ivy rather than looking at the beautiful view we had hoped for.

But all the dead-end trails you've tried, all the fog, all the disappointments, all the brokenness, have been preparing you to meet the person who knows the trail better than anyone else. And He has our word for today from the Word of God. It's Jesus, of course, and we're reading His words in John 8:12. "Jesus said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'" So, Jesus is offering here a relationship with Him that opens up that awesome possibility of being led by the very person who designed us in the first place, who wrote the book of our life.

So you don't have to "walk in darkness" any more. The problem is that we've all, as the Bible says, "gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). We're lost. We're wondering which way is the right way because we've consistently chosen to go our own way instead of God's way. That's what the Bible calls sin. And we were never meant to blaze our own trail. There's a trail you were made for. But following our own trail has left behind us a trail of brokenness, guilt, restlessness, scars and tears. And ultimately our trail leads right over a cliff into an eternity without God and without hope.

But Jesus left His home in heaven to come where we are to actually give His life to pay for every wrong thing we have ever done. And today He is saying to you, "Will you follow Me from this point on? I'll forgive your sin, I’ll come into your life, and I’ll lead you on the trail you were created for." You'll have to resign from being your own guide; from depending on your religion to get you to heaven, and you just tell Jesus, "I'm Yours, Lord. I'm pinning all my hopes on You. You died for me. You've got me."

It may be that you’re just tired of wandering, tired of feeling lost…off the right trail, and you are ready for the life you were made for. This is the day you can reach out to Jesus Christ, who will bring you into that very life that has your name on it. It begins when you say to Him, “I’m Yours.”

Your new story could begin today. Our website is called ANewStory.com because it's all about helping you get that story started. I hope you go there today - ANewStory.com.

Don't walk any further down a trail that ultimately goes nowhere. You don't have to be lost one more day. With Jesus out in front from now on, you will finally be able to find what you've been looking for all this time.

The church we attended in New Jersey grew a lot over the years. So much so, that it was hard to spot visitors. So, our pastor would ask first-timers to stand and introduce themselves right where they were. He'd take one section of the sanctuary at a time, and ask the visitors to stand and introduce themselves.

Well, our family brought our share of visitors, and many of their faces went through three or four colors when they were asked to stand up! We brought Nancy one day. When the pastor mentioned standing up, we gave her that “How about it, Nancy?” She gave us a look back. I would interpret it as saying, “No way!” Well, you can’t blame people. I mean, most of us have a pretty great fear of being conspicuous, and hey, what if no one else stands?

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

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of Daniel 3:1. “King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura.” Okay, now, a decree went out that everyone was supposed to bow down to this image. Here’s how the decree went: “As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.” It goes on to say, “Therefore, everyone fell down and worshipped it.” Well, almost everyone.

Okay, get the picture. In verse 12, this complaint comes back to the king, “There are some Jews who you’ve set over the affairs of this province—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, O king. They did not worship the image.” Here’s the scene, and it is incredible! This flat plain, this big statue, everyone’s on their knees, there’s no place to hide, and here are these three men standing. You talk about conspicuous! And they got heat for it…I mean literally. They got the furnace. And then verse 30 says, “Afterward the king promoted them.” What just happened here? The story has this happy ending!

Actually I think the King — that is capital K, The King — promoted them. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego should still be our heroes, because they had the courage to be the only one standing. Do you? Everyone else at your school, your office, among your friends may be bowing down to the gods of pleasure, money, sex outside of marriage, and increasingly you’ll have to be the only one standing. Don’t bow down.

There may be something even more difficult, though, than taking a stand among unbelievers, and that’s taking a stand among believers. See, the standards and boundaries are moving inside the church today too. Not just in our culture; the church is moving with the culture. God’s people are increasingly compromising on what they watch, and they listen to, and they talk about, and tolerate. Biblical standards on marriage, and divorce, and sexuality are drifting. Christians are tending to forget the lost, and they are retreating into a comfortable entertainment faith, “Just meet my needs.” Sometimes you even are being asked to bow down and compromise within the context of the church when the majority have followed the culture instead of Christ. But God’s truth has never been decided by a vote, and God’s truth hasn’t changed—and it won’t.

As sin seduces more believers, you’ll need the courage to feel a little old fashioned, a little lonely even at church, but you’ve got to remain standing. People sometimes feel conspicuous when they’re asked to stand at our church. Well, more and more, discipleship will mean what it did in Shadrach’s day: the courage to be conspicuous; to be, even among God’s people sometimes, the only one standing - but applauded by Christ.