I had the opportunity to spend 24 hours of my life in the city of Athens in Greece. I was on my way home from a teaching mission, and if I only had 24 hours, well, I knew what I wanted to see. I wanted to see the Acropolis, and there it was on a hill that just dominates the entire city. That's where the ancient Greeks built a temple to their goddess, Athena, after whom, obviously, the city was named.

Even after 21 centuries, I've got to tell you it is still an impressive, imposing, dominating structure up there on the mountain. Maybe you can even see a picture of it in your mind, if you've ever seen one before. It was the most sacred, most protected, most honored place in all of Athens. In fact, it was actually a crime to violate that temple. Of course it was that way in many cultures. The temple always got first-class treatment because your gods live there. Well, those ancient people had the wrong god, but they knew what to do with a temple.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Temple In The Mirror."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. It's not about the Acropolis, it's not about the ancient Jewish temple, but it's about temples. Listen to where the temple is. "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." This is one of Christianity's most revolutionary ideas - you are the building God lives in.

You can go in the bathroom, look in the mirror and see His temple. Even pagan people knew that the way you take care of your god's dwelling place tells a lot about how you feel about your god. Now, if you know Christ, you are God's two-legged temple. He's come to live in you by the presence of His Holy Spirit. That puts a whole new significance on your body - what happens with your mouth, your mind, your eyes, your ears, your hands, your feet, and every part of your body. Because in a sense, what you do with that body - everything you do with it - God is a part of. He lives in that temple. Everything you do to that body, you do to God.

Now, even people without God in ancient days recognized that you guard, and you protect, and you keep special, and you honor the place where God lives. Let me ask you, "Have you been treating your body like the temple treasure that it is?" See, if you really care about your God much, you won't let His temple get run down. You won't let it have to carry the extra weight it's been carrying. You won't let it be too out-of-shape. You won't poison it with things that should never go into it; things that will degrade your body. It's a temple you're talking about, not just your body. That's a whole new reason to take care of it.

See, that temple advertises what your god is like, and God deserves the best! Maybe you've devalued that temple with some junk you've been putting into it. Maybe you have defamed the temple of God by playing around sexually with His temple, dragging the name of God and the presence of God into things He is so much against, using His temple to satisfy your glands.

Your body isn't yours. See, it was bought with the price of Jesus' blood. Your God lives there! Keep it special.

My life was profoundly affected by the example of five American missionaries who died trying to get the Gospel to a Stone Age tribe in Ecuador who had never heard the name of Jesus. They were actually murdered by the tribe that was then known as the Aucas. We now know them as the Waoranis. Amazingly, the wife of one of those missionaries and the sister of another actually went to the tribe that had killed their loved ones to tell them about Jesus. Today, some of the murderers of the missionaries are pastors of the Waorani church. It's an amazing story.

I had the unforgettable privilege a few years ago of going to the Ecuadorian jungle to tape a radio program about what happened there. And I met Mincaye, one of the killers, one of the pastors. I learned that those missionary women had difficulty translating the Bible into the native language because this tribe literally had no word for or even concept for "forgive." But the message somehow had gotten through to Mincaye. Here's what he said: "What we did to those missionaries was a terrible thing. But one day soon I will see them in heaven because Jesus has washed our hearts."

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

A spiritual rescuer had come to people to whom the word "forgive" meant nothing. But God's messenger to them did what effective missionaries have always done. She found a way to say it in words the people could understand. You know, we can do no less for the spiritually dying people around us.

Obviously, the need to translate Christ's message is hard to miss in a foreign setting where there is a clearly different linguistic language. But the need to translate the Jesus-story is easy to miss when our neighbors and friends speak that same linguistic language we do, but they speak a different cultural language. The words of our Christian "tribe" simply have no meaning, or the wrong meaning, to the lost "tribe" next to us. Many lost people assigned to us by God have no better understanding of "born again," or "saved," or "accepting Christ," or "sin" than Mincaye did of "forgive."

In our word for today from the Word of God, we discover one big reason thousands of people from all over the world came to Jesus in the first outreach ever held by the Christian Church. It was Jerusalem, it was Pentecost, and according to Acts 2:6, "Each one heard them (that is the apostles) speaking in his own language."

Now that was a special miracle from God, but it underscores that people must hear Christ's message in a language they can understand, which our church language - which I call Christianese - is not. Maybe you've been transmitting the Good News about Jesus and getting little or no response. Could it be they're stumbling over your vocabulary? You can't just transmit the Good News; you have to translate it into everyday, non-religious words.

In Jesus' parable of the four soils, three of which produced little or no good harvest, we see the major difference between those three soils and the soil that produced great fruit. In each case, Jesus explains that "this is the man who hears the word." But where there was a great harvest, Jesus said, "This is the man who hears the word (and here's the one difference) and understands it" (Matthew 13:23).

We've got life-or-death information we have to deliver. We cannot afford to have our lost family and friends miss it because we said it in words they don't understand. It's time to move beyond the comfort of our Christianese to communicate the message people cannot afford to miss. The words we use could be decisive for each of us in our personal rescue mission for Jesus.

You're God's missionary where you are. If you make the effort to translate the Good News into the language of the person who needs it, you could be part of a life-giving miracle!

People become like the environment they spend their time in. At least that's what I've been told. For example, if you work at IBM, you become amazingly well organized for some strange reason. If you live in a college town, or if you work around a college, it's amazing how your vocabulary can change; sometimes increases. Oh, and your clothing? Yeah, it becomes a little bit more collegiate. You know?

I've noticed that people who live near the ocean or resort areas, they just kind of dress, you know, more loose, more casually all year long. If you move from the North to the South, you may very well find your pace slowing down to match your environment.

When I moved to the New York area, I know my driving changed. They say in New York about the roads there that there are two kinds of people, the quick and the dead, and I decided to become the quick. You become like your environment. That seems to be a pretty consistent principle; maybe too consistent.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Drawing a Line."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy 3 - one of the more amazing chapters in the Bible. If you want to read a startling description of the last days of this planet, read 2 Timothy 3 with today's newspaper or news website in your other hand. It's startling because of how it matches up with our headlines. Verse 1 says, "There will be dangerous times." And it talks about these characteristics of people that lead you to believe the reason it's going to be dangerous is because of the death of love. There won't be much love in that world.

Paul's orders to Timothy are included in this chapter, and God's orders to us. Verse 14, listen: "But as for you, you continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you have learned it. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Now, Paul is saying if you live in a world that is racing away from God's standards, you can't afford to become like your environment even a little.

See, there's always a noticeable difference between lost people and God's people. It's kind of my equal distance theory. There's always an equal distance between the standards and lifestyles of the people of God and the people of the world.

Let's say figuratively speaking that the church, or the people of God, are always ten miles closer to God than the world is. The problem is that as the world moves to the left, away from God, so does the church. Now, we're still ten miles away from the marriages of the world, and from the sexual standards of the world, and their hardness, and their love of material things. But as the world moves faster and faster away from God's standards, so do we. We're still the same distance from our culture. So, in a matter of like five or ten years, we Christians are where lost people were only a few years ago, accepting what we thought we would never accept, doing what we never thought we'd do, watching, listening to what we never thought would be part of our lives. But we can feel pretty good about it, because we're better than the folks around us.

But see, the rate of speeding away from God is accelerating right now, and God says, "Hey, you continue where you are! Don't move! Stand still! Don't move any further." He's not saying detach yourself from people who need Him. No, you live in the world, but you don't live as part of it. You don't march to that drumbeat. You know, you feel like you're pretty good if you compare yourself to what the world is doing, or maybe even what most Christians are doing, and saying and accepting. But that's not the measure.

We're to measure ourselves by the God-breathed scriptures of the Lord himself. If you turn the light of God's Word on your lifestyle, maybe you'll see how far you've drifted. You just can't move any more. We've got to get back to God's standards for love, for marriage, for honesty, for family, our relationships.

Our environment is terminally polluted. We can't be like our environment. It's time to draw the line.

On September 11, twenty-four years ago, I saw the Twin Towers crumble to dust. And then, on September 11th this time around, I saw so many people grieving the shocking assassination of a hugely popular Gen Z influencer in front of 3,000 people.

In both cases, millions of people were devastated in disbelief and grief. Including reporters, politicians, law enforcement people - and lots of ordinary folks. And certainly the 2001 tragedy had a scope much greater, but this assassination hit many young people very personally.

I found myself praying, again, what I cried out to God 24 years ago. "God, what do You see here?"

The answer has been the same both times.

Souls. Lost souls. Grieving souls. Eternal souls.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Fatal Shot, A Wounded Generation."

Working with young people my entire life, I've seen many of them become less engaged with their world and with current events. A lot of them know more about Taylor Swift's love life but can't find Ukraine on a map or tell you the name of the Vice President. But they were drawn to Charlie Kirk, and he was dedicated to involving them in the major issues of our time.

A prime time CNN host said: "If you don't know who Charlie Kirk is, ask your teenager or your college student."

He was, in a sense, a generational prophet to many of them. He had over five million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and hundreds of thousands of listeners to his podcast and radio program. A lot of people have said that this generation is disconnected. But listen, they connected with Charlie Kirk.

To countless millions of young people, he was finally a voice they could trust. Suddenly, he was gone.

For me, this isn't about Charlie Kirk's politics or his culture war perspectives. It is, of course, about his wife Erika and their two children. I'm so glad the Bible says, "the Lord is close to the brokenhearted" (Psalm 34:18). She has a relationship with Him. I pray Jesus will hold them close in His big arms.

I do see what God showed me on that dark September 11 years ago. Those souls. The emotional outpouring that has flooded social media gives testimony to the deep sense of personal loss so many young people are feeling now.

After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, there was a hole in our hearts that none of our usual "go to" answers could fill. So we turned to God. Churches were full. Prayer was everywhere. Many people opened their hearts to Jesus who died for them and beat death by His Resurrection.

For many contemporary young people, this recent loss has left their own hole in their heart. That's where it's about "souls." This trauma will be, for many, a "turning point." Sadly for some, to anger, retribution, disillusionment, despair. All destinations devoid of hope.

Or to Jesus, whose hope is stronger than death, guaranteed by an empty tomb. Which brings us to our word for today from the Word of God, which happens to be a verse that Charlie's wife posted hours before his death.

Psalm 46:1 - "God is our refuge and strength. An ever present help in trouble."

We are desperate for a generation that doesn't carry all our baggage. A spiritual awakening may well be our only real hope. And our young people may be our only real hope of a better tomorrow. I'm praying the death of a looked-to leader may lead them to the Leader whose life and hope are eternal.

Jesus called us to tell our world about His unloseable love - and then to let them experience that love through us. That was his final order.

I think about the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where the guard coming on and the guard coming off exchange these words. The current guard says, "Orders remain unchanged." And the new guard says, "Orders acknowledged."

We have our orders from our Master - to be His witnesses.

No matter the loss, no matter the cost. Our orders remain unchanged.

It was one of those really special 90-degree days, when it is very humid and I was just finishing about eight miles on my bike. I was feeling all fit, and then I passed Tom running all ten and a half miles around that lake. Well, I realized that Tom did that every day. Nobody knew; nobody noticed actually.

But I knew that he'd be in the headlines back home, and he'd be in the headlines a lot. Because he was one of the county's champion track stars. And I yelled to him from my bike, "No time off for vacation?" And he reminded me that running is a 12-month sport.

Champions aren't made on the day of the race with the crowd applauding. It turns out they're made on like 1,000 unsung mornings.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Unseen Secret of Spiritual Champions."

I've never understood people who get involved in a sport or an activity or in anything and just settle for like being mediocre. If you're going to get into something, well, aim to be all you can be. Right? If that's true in sports, it's really true when it comes to serving the King - the Lord Jesus Christ.

Maybe you've looked at spiritual champions you know, or some leader, or somebody you admire as a spiritual person and you said, "Boy, I'd like to be used by God that way. I wish I could teach, or preach, or minister musically, or lead like that. I'd like to make a difference. I'd like to influence people for Christ like that person does." And you see them in a public setting at the pulpit, or you watch them on television or you hear them on radio. You read their book, maybe hear them in concert. But the ministry you see in a spiritual champion is because of something you don't see. Just like that championship runner, chugging out those miles on those back roads. Nobody noticed, nobody seeing him, but that's where the champion is built.

Okay, Isaiah 50:4, our word for today from the Word of God says this: "The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary." Now, how does he keep coming up with the words that people need? It says that "God wakens me morning by morning; wakens my ear to listen like one being taught." Okay, the great prophet of God says here, "morning after morning" there is a meeting with his Lord that nobody sees.

And while others are resting, the champion is in God's Word, he's on his knees, not going on spiritual binges occasionally to get some great spiritual insight. No, no, no, no. He does it day after day, week after week, month after month. And finally there's all these years of accumulated time with God, and how He's touched you, and how He's changed you, and how He's moved you. So, when he speaks, he speaks with a "God-instructed tongue" because he shows up for class every morning. See, there's no glory there. There's no crowds applauding. It's just Christ's personal presence, and you're there with Him.

Anything I have ever said for the Lord that has ever touched anyone has been because He touched me in private first where no one could see, no one else could hear. He wants to do that for you. He wants to do that for all His kids. Do you want to be used greatly by your Lord? Well, before you try to do a great work for Him, why don't you let Him do a great work in you? And you wake up each morning and let Him teach you before you leave.

I saw that in a young track star; a picture of any of us who would like to be God's champion, a winner who's being built on 1,000 unsung mornings.

After watching the World Trade Center as part of my skyline for many years, it hit really hard that awful September 11th to see those towers come crashing down and thousands of lives with them. The day after the first attack on the Trade Center, which was back in 1993, I was greeted by a TV crew as I got off a flight from Newark. Of all things, they asked me as a New Yorker how I felt after that first bombing. And I could only think of one word, "vulnerable." That was my answer.

Well, since the events of that September 11th, and the years since then, and all of the terrorism that has spread Iike a cancer. I think a lot of us are feeling more and more vulnerable all the time. It happens on the street, in churches, in malls, wherever! We're uncertain about what a new kind of war might mean, where the danger might pop up next, and what's going to happen economically. And some of us are trying to help our children understand this crazy world that we don't even understand. We all feel vulnerable. It's as if some of our own sense of personal security and safety started to come crashing down with those towers and it's been crashing ever since.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Safe in an Unsafe World."

Even without the constantly disturbing events in the news, we all know the feeling of having things that we counted on suddenly come crashing down - a person we love, our job, the collapse of a marriage, a bad report from the doctor. In times like these, we're hungry for something we can anchor to, for something to sustain us when the bad news is more than we can bear, for something that will make us feel really safe.

When our President, years ago, addressed the nation after that September 11th, he alluded to the one source of comfort and hope in moments like that. He quoted from that treasured 23rd Psalm in the Bible - actually, Psalm 23:4, our word for today from the Word of God. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me."

The Bible holds out to you and me a security that can keep you safe in life's deepest valleys - even the valley of the shadow of death. That security is a relationship. It's a person. "You are with me, Lord" the psalmist said. All our lives we've been looking for one "unloseable" love. And there really is one. It's the love of the One who made you, the One you will meet on the other side of your last heartbeat, the One whose love caused Him to literally lay down His life for you.

In our vulnerable moments, our moments that are more than you can handle alone, those moments when you've gone seeking God, maybe you've realized that there's something that is separating you from Him. The Bible says that feeling is right. The Bible says, "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). But Jesus came to remove that wall between you and God - the only way it could be removed - by Jesus dying to pay the death penalty for you and for me, hijacking a life that God was supposed to run and we took it instead.

Either you have this life-saving relationship with Jesus or you don't. It all depends on whether there's been a time when you grabbed the outstretched hand of Jesus like a person trapped in the wreckage would grab the hand of his rescuer. If you are ready for the kind of security, the safety that only Jesus Christ can offer, if you're ready to begin this anchor relationship with the man who died for you, would you tell Him that right now right where you are? "Jesus, you died for me. My life is yours from this day on."

I want you to know for sure that you have that anchor, that security from this day on. So I'd invite you to go where some information is that will really help that happen. It's our website, please check it out today - ANewStory.com. I'd love for you to visit there as soon as you can today.

My prayer is that you'll be able to go to sleep tonight knowing you are in the safest place in the universe - the arms of Jesus Christ - and that you'll be able to say, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil - for You are with me."

I was sitting on our front porch, and I saw our son-in-law suddenly running full speed across the front yard, headed for the back yard with his camera in his hand. With my incredible detective mind, I surmised that he had seen something that would make a great photo; something that apparently wasn't going to be there for long. Actually, he had seen our horse running across the pasture with her mane flowing and beautifully illuminated by the setting sun. Well, having a wife who's taken some pretty amazing photos over the years, I understood this. I guess you'd call it the "seize the moment" thing. Photographers know about this, and you'd better not get in their way.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "While the Window's Open."

Photographer-types understand a life-principle that a lot of us miss - that there are moments, there are opportunities that have to be seized - or they're missed forever. And it isn't just photographs. It's precious life moments where a window of opportunity opens for a brief time, maybe just a moment, and either we stop and we take that opportunity or sometimes we lose it for good.

Thus, God's counsel in Ephesians 5, beginning in verse 15, which is our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise..." Okay, so what does wise living look like? "...making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is."

Apparently, knowing and doing God's will in your life often depends on seeing the opportunity He has opened up for you and seizing that opportunity. Many of life's regrets are about opportunities we missed because we let them slip by. Like the aging businessman who says, "If only I'd spent more time with my family." As many times as I've heard that lament, I have never heard anybody say, "My only regret is I wish I'd spent more time with my business." Nope, never heard it.

When your child is ready to talk, you'd better drop everything and listen. The window won't be open for long. When your child is ready to be affectionate, you've got nothing more important to do than respond. When your son or daughter has time to be with you, you'd better have time to be with them.

The same applies to your mate, your parents, others that you love. Many a tear at a funeral is over opportunities we did not take when this one that we loved was still touchable, still thankable, still forgivable, still huggable. And how many chances do we have a day to simply compliment someone, encourage someone, stop and listen to someone. Those are God-moments - opportunities to be a channel of God's love into a person's life.

Most importantly, how many times do we pass up a God-given opportunity to talk about our relationship with Jesus Christ, when the eternity of that person may depend on them hearing about our Jesus? Spirit-filled living involves making yourself available each new day to seize the opportunities that God gives you in that day. If you're the kind of person that's all rigid, programmed and inflexible, you'll probably miss or ignore the many times the Holy Spirit is saying, "This is it! This is your chance. The window's open. Do it now. Seize the moment!"

Like a photographer running to capture his picture before the moment passes, we need to capture the God-moments that He is weaving into each new day. Those scenes are just too good to miss!

Our daughter is all grown up now, but she'll never forget that very scary moment when she was four years old. My wife was shopping in a supermarket with our son riding in the grocery cart and our daughter walking with her - well, actually running ahead of her. Karen had warned her to stay in the same aisle she was in, but we're talking a firstborn here - so she had to run ahead to other aisles to explore, of course. Until suddenly she noticed how high those shelves were and how long those aisles were, and the fact that she didn't see anything familiar. And suddenly she felt that awful feeling that she still describes today as "scary" - she was lost. Not too long ago, she told me how it felt. As a grown woman, she said, "Suddenly my security wasn't there." Thankfully, her mother came looking for her. Our daughter got lost, but someone who loved her found her.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "I Once Was Lost...."

Lost isn't just a feeling that little kids know. No, a lot of us who are all grown up know it all too well. The dictionary says that "lost" means "bewildered as to direction; missed the way." You ever felt that way? Now, maybe? It could be that, like our daughter said, suddenly your security isn't there. There's been a breakup, a divorce, changes at work or in your family, a painful loss, a financial setback, some major change.

Interestingly enough, our Creator describes us as lost. We're bewildered about the meaning, the direction of our life because we've, Well, like the dictionary says, "missed the way." You and I have missed what we were made for - a life run by God - and we've wandered off into a life run by us. Like our daughter separated from her mom, you suddenly realize the person you need most isn't there - the God who made you.

You're away from your Father, your Heavenly Father. And, again, like a lost child, there's no way you can find your way back to Him. Your only hope is that He's come looking for you and that's what Jesus is all about. He's God come looking for you. In our word for today from the Word of God - Luke 19:10 - Jesus says, "The Son of Man (that's Him) came to seek and to save what was lost." Jesus literally gave His life to bring you home; He absorbed your death penalty for all your sin when He died on the cross.

And now He's coming seeking you to save you - right now through this visit He may be doing that. It's really Jesus, who knows your need, coming where you are, through this program, to bring you home. Here's a letter that I received from a man who experienced that. He tells about commuting to work one winter morning.

He says, "This hour and one half ride is really getting to be a drag - too much time to think. Thinking about one divorce and a second marriage, never enough money, can't afford a new car and this one may not even make it home." Then again, what if he doesn't make it home? Is this what life is about? Drive-work-sleep, then drink myself into oblivion to numb the monotony? He is painfully aware of a growing emptiness - something's missing - actually everything is missing!

He tells how he started surfing the radio and he landed on this program and he says, "You directed me to the One who would give my life meaning. Without that, it was quite possible I would not be here now." See, Jesus found this man through a radio. And this man finally found everything he'd been missing.

For someone listening right now, that's what Jesus wants to do for you this very day, this very hour.

Would you open up to this man who gave His life for you? You can trust Him with the rest of your days. Would you say, "Jesus, You died for me. You love me. You're alive! You walked out of Your grave. Come into my life. I'm yours." Our website will tell you how to be sure you've begun that relationship. You can go to ANewStory.com.

Jesus loves you too much to lose you. He went all the way to a cross to prove it and right now He's come where you are to bring you home. Don't miss Him, my friend.