There was this plant in my office that had seen some good days and some bad days. It had really seen some pretty bad days for a while, and it looked like it was about to be a memory and there was going to be a little empty spot in the corner of my office. But one of our staff very lovingly took a knife to that plant. That doesn't sound very nice, but the plant was on its last legs and so she went and pruned out some of the dead or dying branches.

I've got good news! If you're a plant lover, and I hope you're not one of those who talks to plants. Do you? I've never really understood that, but I understand there are people who do. Anyway, here was this plant that almost didn't make it and now it was coming back to life, looking good! I call it the Lazarus plant - it sort of returned from the dead, except it didn't smell quite as bad as he did. The plant was back, and you know, it was that knife that did it. Oh, it looked like the knife was destroying the plant, but it was making it more alive.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How The Cuts That Hurt Help So Much."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God is from John 15:1-2. "Jesus said, 'I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch'" - whoa! Sounds like my office and that plant - "'He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.'" Notice here that God throws away dead branches. But do you also notice what He does with the branches that He likes, the ones that are bearing fruit? He starts cutting on them. God prunes what He believes in.

Now, if He believes in you, He might be showing it right now by cutting you back. Yes, it is love. Yes, it will focus all of the resources on a few branches. I think that's what happened to my plant. Instead of the life going out to many branches, by pruning some, the life and resource was focused so the plant could flourish. And right now God loves you enough to bring out your very best, so He's removing some branches so you can be more alive than ever.

But if you're a plant and you're being pruned, you would probably say, "He's killing me!" And he might be saying to you, "No, no, I'm helping you! I'm giving you life. Oh, I know it feels like you're dying, but you're growing." Maybe you can feel the hand of God cutting on you and trimming you, challenging you, stretching you. You say, "God, what's wrong?" Maybe nothing's wrong. Maybe He's just pruning what He believes in so you can be more fruitful than ever.

He may be asking you to deal with an overload that's developed in your life. You've taken on too much, or maybe you've got an attitude that needs work, or there's some personal stronghold that's dragging you down. Hebrews 12:1 says, "As we run our race we should lay aside every weight that we carry." Maybe He's trying to get you to lose some spiritual weight. But don't fear the pruning of God. Oh, it may feel as if you're losing. It might even feel like you're dying, but this is divine surgery that will soon lead to new life.

He's cutting you back so you'll be more alive than ever. You are experiencing the knife that gives life.

Someone said the best cure for the population explosion would be if men had to have every other baby. That would slow it down considerably! I'll tell you, there's something that women know about that process, though, that leads to life. A woman, particularly in her first pregnancy, is introduced to a long, sometimes very difficult life process. She knows she wants the baby; there's no question about the results, but it's the process she has some questions about sometimes: nausea, discomfort, her body's doing things it never did before. And the months sometimes feel like years. And last but not least, there are the labor pains. That day alone can seem like one of the longest in her life. But then...then the baby comes.

You know, a lot of life is like child bearing. A long, sometimes unpleasant process is often the only route to the joyful result you want.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Having a Baby, Facing Life's Battles."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in John 16 - it's about that motherhood experience, and I'm reading from verse 21. Jesus said, "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come. But when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." She was waiting for the baby, the process was painful, long, and difficult, but the baby came and erased all the bad memories of the process. A painful process that leads to a glorious result.

Now, that's what might be going on with the "baby" in your life right now. I don't mean some little infant, but for you, maybe it's the goal you've been striving for, the dream you've hoped would happen and you thought would happen, the outcome you've been praying for - you've been believing God for. Maybe it's an outcome for one of your children, or a dream related to your career, something you've prayed for in your ministry, or your marriage. Maybe it's a financial recovery that you've been counting on happening and trusting God for, or a physical recovery; an answer to some fervent prayer; a cry from your heart. But it's taking so long, just like a baby.

It's causing so much pain - you didn't know it would be this tough, just like a baby. It's causing things to happen to your feelings, and to your life that you never counted on, just like a baby. The process that will get you to that result has caused you to lose sight of that result that you were hoping for. Maybe you're questioning whether or not it will ever happen. You've prayed for it, but you've got doubts now.

Well, I'm going to tell you today, "Hang in there!" Jesus was saying to His disciples, "You're going to go through some times when the process is going to be so difficult, so long, you'll despair that the result will ever happen. Hang in there, guys! Remember, the God of the outcome is also the God of the process. You're trusting Him for the result. Well, can you trust Him for the process even though it's difficult; even though it's longer than you thought? Trust the processes of God, not just the results. He's working through this process right now.

And as confusing as it may seem to you, He's trying to prepare you, to prepare others, and to do it in a way that will call everyone's attention to His love and power. When the baby comes, there'll be no question that God gets the glory for it.

That means that sometimes it even has to get worse before it gets better. Just ask any woman who has been through labor. The process is difficult but right on schedule. And when that baby comes, well it will make the process worth it all.

Beware of the third generation! Yeah! That's an intriguing phenomenon that often takes place in a family business. The first generation starts it with nothing but a dream. They work long hours, they sacrifice, and they keep their vision alive. Then, the second generation starts to take over the business, and well, they may improve it a little; they might expand it a little bit, but they basically tend to maintain the vision of the founding generation.

Then along comes the grandchildren, and they begin to take over. Now, they've never had to sacrifice for the cause, they didn't see their parents sacrifice much. For them, it's like just an income source, not a vehicle for a vision they want to carry out. Many management people know that if the business can survive that third generation, it may make it. But often, every time you pass the torch, the flame burns a little lower, and sometimes it burns out.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Next Generation Fire."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy 1. Realize that Paul is writing his last letter before he is martyred for the cause of Christ. He's concerned about the next generations of Christians, all that he bled for and all he's soon going to die for. More importantly, all that Jesus died for. The torch must be passed!

In 2 Timothy 1:14, he says to young Timothy - the next generation, "Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." Then in chapter 2, verse 2, he says, "Don't stop there." He even talks about a third generation: "and the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, you entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."

Now, Paul is saying here, "Don't drop my life's work. Don't drop the torch, man!" See, something insidious is happening, I think, as our faith in Christ passes from one generation to the next. I had a woman tell me not too long ago, "Our grandparents reordered their lives." They just understood that you organized your life differently in order to have a lot of money to give to the Lord's work. You just live that way; that becomes the center of your financial planning. As you look at the studies now you find out that the parent's generation is giving less than their parent's generation to God's work, and the grandchildren's generation is holding on to what they've got more than ever.

See, that first generation of believers may have a lot of vision; they started things in Jesus' name. They gave to the Lord's work first. And then the next generation, just like in a business, sort of maintained the vision, the programs of the founders. Then comes the third generation, and they kind of yawn and sort of take it all for granted. Meet the spiritual minimums, and the flame starts to flicker and die. Don't let that happen.

What God urgently needs right now is a new generation of spiritual pioneers who will become a new first generation with a new vision - risk takers, people who pray for miracles again, people who think up daring new ways to reach the lost. He's looking for some modern heroes who will lead the church into a new era of boldness, who will resist the seduction of material comfort and security. We need a new dream! We need young leaders to lead it!

Has the torch started to flicker just a little in your hands; a torch passed by some folks who sacrificed to make a difference? Well, commit yourself to a holy, new fire so the flame that has been fueled by the lives of those who ran before us can burn more brightly than ever in your hands.

I was speaking for an Easter Sunrise Service in the Ozarks, and I saw something that seemed strangely out of place. In front of this church, there's a ten-foot section of a brick wall with a sign in front of it that says, "Berlin Wall." I was thousands of miles from Berlin, but here was a chunk of what used to be the most famous, and maybe the most infamous wall in the world. Many of us remember how the Berlin Wall represented for decades the Cold War division of our world into Communists on one side and free on the other. The Communists built it on the border between East Berlin and free West Berlin. In spite of that wall, many people still risked everything to scale it and escape to freedom. A few made it. Many died trying.

Then came that amazing day - a day few of us could have ever imagined - when the revolution taking place against Communist rule allowed Berliners to start tearing down that wall. All night long, they went after that wall with everything from sledge hammers to their bare hands. And then there were 100,000 Berliners, celebrating in the square, and they were chanting four incredible words over and over again, "The wall is gone! The wall is gone!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Wall In Your Heart."

For many of us, there's a wall that's still standing that is costing us the most important things in life. It's a wall between us and the God who made us. In fact, you probably didn't need me to tell you there's a wall. We know there's something between us and God. What we may not know is what that wall is keeping us from; like the meaning and purpose of your life. The only person who can show you why you're here is the One who put you here, and He's on the other side of the wall. The only love that can ultimately satisfy the loneliness in your heart is God's love. If we die with that wall still there, it's there forever. The Bible calls that hell.

The Bible describes the wall this way: "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). The bricks in the wall between me and God are all the countless times that I've chosen to do things my way instead of His way - my sins. Every wrong thing I've ever done, every lie I've ever told, every person I've ever hurt, every mean thing I've ever said, every selfish thing I've ever done, every dirty thing I've ever thought or done, and everything and everyone I've ever let be more important than God in my life. Those are my sins. I'm cut off from God because of that sin-wall. And there's no way you or I can tear it down no matter how decent, how religious, or how sincere we are.

The only One who can do that is the very God we've rebelled against, and that's what He did the day His Son, Jesus, paid for our sin on the cross. For centuries, God's people, the Jews, had worshipped in a temple or tabernacle which had at its core, the Holy of Holies - God's place. Between them and that place was a curtain through which no man could ever go, except once a year when the High Priest entered to offer a sin sacrifice on behalf of the people. Our word for today from the Word of God, Matthew 27:51, describes the astonishing thing that happened the moment Jesus died: "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom."

The curtain separating man from God could never have been removed by man from the bottom to the top. Only God could let us into His presence. So He split the curtain from top to bottom. There's the picture of what can happen to the wall between you and God this very day. God will tear it down forever if you'll bring the sins of your life to Jesus to be forgiven; if you'll tell Him you're putting your total trust in Him and what He did on the cross for you.

If that's what you want, I want to be all the help I can at this decisive moment in your life. Go to our website. It's ANewStory.com. Right there you can be sure the wall is gone between you and Him.

This could be the day you celebrate the greatest, most liberating miracle of your life; the day you can finally say, "The wall is gone!"

I keep finding these notes and cards I wrote my wife. The love of my life since I was 19! She's been with Jesus for nine years now and I never stop missing her but these notes are great. All these things I wrote to her came from all the stages of our life. There's the predictably mushy love letters from our courtship and engagement. The little notes I left for her in the morning over the years. The things I wrote in holiday cards, for birthdays and anniversaries. Lots of different seasons, lots of different ages - before kids, with kids, after kids. Everything from fancy cards to stationery, yeah, scraps of paper too. Many shapes and sizes - but always the same unchanging message. "I love you, baby!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Constant Change and an Unchanging Constant."

I walked into this radio studio the other day, and I had a crowd. Usually it's me and our dedicated engineer. I think half our staff was jammed in here - and there was a big cake on the table where my Bible and notes were. Uh, I love doing these radio programs. But it's never been a party before!

I hadn't been keeping track, but they had. I was about to record "A Word With You" number 10,000! Hard to believe! But it's true! What you're listening to today is our 10,000th program! Sorry, the cake is all gone!

This is a testimony to the God we sing about often in that classic hymn - "Great is Thy faithfulness." When we'd get to the last verse of that song in church, I'd reach for Karen's hand or slip my arm around her waist when we got to these words: "Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow - blessings all mine with 10,000 beside. Great is Thy faithfulness."

I've recorded these programs before children came, while they grew, before grandchildren came, now that they're growing or grown, with Karen by my side, and in the years since she's been gone. Like all those love notes I've found, many seasons. But the message has never changed.

Our word for today from the Word of God - from Galatians 2:20.

About our Jesus. "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." The greatest news on the planet. The God I have sinned against again and again and again loves me so much that He sent His Son to do the dying for the sinning I've done. That you've done.

Good Friday was for me. Good Friday was for you. Not just a historical or religious event. A deeply personal event. He loves me. He gave Himself for me. Then, conquering death on Easter morning, He offered eternal life to me.

This morning, I heard a song that I haven't heard for many, many years. And it took me back to some of the first times I ever preached this Good News. With a Gospel team in college. I was just 18. And when I gave people the opportunity to publicly respond to an invitation to begin a relationship with Jesus, my friend Dave would sing this song. Hearing it again today, took me back to my first days proclaiming this invitation from Jesus that I've now preached across the country and the world.

The chorus simply says - "There's room at the cross for you. Though millions have come, there's still room for one. There's room at the Cross for you."

That was His invitation then. It's His invitation today. To you, my friend. Your sins forgiven, your heaven secured. Just tell him, "Jesus, I'm pinning all my hopes on you to have my sins forgiven. To be in heaven with you someday. Beginning today, I'm Yours." My invitation to you today is to please go to our website, because there you'll find what you need to know to be sure you belong to Jesus from this day on. Our website is ANewStory.com.

Because, today-the day Jesus is reaching out His hand to you - there's room at the Cross for you!

The Department of Homeland Security is a fairly new idea in American history. Of course, we live in pretty dangerous times and we need an agency that coordinates our efforts to keep our country safe from growingly hostile forces that could hurt us. But "homeland security" is hardly a new idea. It's been the job of every parent since children were invented. It's a sacred assignment - guarding our family from the things that could hurt them, and the job's never been more difficult.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Homeland Security For Your Home."

Not all the things that can hurt our children are from the outside. Some of them are from the darkness inside us; selfishness, anger, a critical or negative attitude, hurting words, praise that's really needed but never given, affection that's not shown, words that should be said but are left unsaid, and the words that should have been left unsaid. Those are some of the deadliest missiles that can hit a child's heart. And the same mom or dad who is in such a wonderful position to protect them from harm can be the same mom or dad who is in a position to inflict so much hurt.

Our families need our own Department of Homeland Security, right? Something or someone who will keep our family safe and who can make us the mom or dad that our children so need us to be.

Jesus Christ wants to be that for you. He describes the unique security He offers in Isaiah 40:11, our word for today from the Word of God; one of my favorite verses as a Dad. "He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms" (you can put the names of your children where it says "lambs") "and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads those that have young." Whoa! That's you, Mom! That's you, Dad! The dark side of each of us could be the single greatest threat to the security of our personal homeland. The battle against that dark side is going to have to be won by someone stronger than we are - because most of us have tried to change the things we don't like about ourselves and we know that hurt other people, and there's still way too much dark stuff.

Good news! There are three wonderful miracles that Jesus does in the heart and life of a mom or dad who will allow Him to be their shepherd; to decide the direction they go. First, He forgives you for every mistake, every sin, every wound you've ever inflicted, everything you wish you'd done differently, and every hurting thing you've ever done. That forgiveness was not cheap. It meant paying the price to remove the huge wall that we've all built between us and God. We built that wall by our sins. And paying that price meant being separated from God himself on that awful cross. Jesus was, so you would never have to be, separated from Him again. When you open your life to Jesus, He brings with Him the new beginning of being totally forgiven and clean.

Secondly, Jesus will change you from the inside out. The Bible calls it becoming "a new creation in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:17). If He had the power to conquer death, He surely has the power to conquer the darkness in you and me. And then, Jesus protects those who belong to Him, like a shepherd protects His sheep.

And right now, this Jesus is waiting for you to put your life in His hands. He's probably been waiting a long time. I don't know how much longer He'll wait, but I can tell you, Jesus is a Daddy's Savior. He's a Mommy's Savior. He wants to be your Savior. And He will be from the moment you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm not running things anymore. You died for me! I am all yours."

I would love to help you get started in this relationship with Him. In fact, we've set up our website just for that purpose. It's ANewStory.com.

There's no home that is more secure than a home where Jesus Christ lives, and He wants to live in your home because you've asked Him to live in you.

One summer our daughter had the privilege of participating in a musical team that traveled to the Philippines. One of the highlights for them while they were there was to sing the Gospel on national television. They actually went into one of the big television stations to do it.

Two weeks later she was back home, starting back to college, and she heard on the news there had been a coup attempt against the government. And guess what was the first thing the rebels captured? Uh-huh, the TV station that she'd been singing at only two weeks before. You kind of wipe your brow and go, "Whew! That is too close!" It happens every time there is a rebellion there. They want to capture the TV and radio facilities. Well, it happens in many countries when a government's being toppled. They want the transmitter. That's a military principle to always capture the high ground; that's the first thing you do in a battle. Capture the high ground and move out from there. Today the high ground means the battle is for the transmitter...even in your life.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want A Word With You today about "The Message From Your Mouth."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God is coming from James 1:26. Here's what it says, "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless." Wow! Later in chapter 3, verse 2, it says, "If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." Huh! Verse 6: "The tongue is a fire; a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." Man, this is some of the strongest language in the Bible. Verse 8 in chapter 3 of James says, "No man can tame the tongue." Wow!

The tongue is your transmitter. In the military, if they want to capture a whole piece of ground, they go for the transmitter. It's that way in the conquest of your life too. More sinning is done by our mouth, I believe, than any other part of our body.

Right now I think the battle for Christ to truly rule your life and mine may revolve around this question: does Jesus govern your tongue? Oh, you may be busy for the Lord, you may be very orthodox in your beliefs and pretty moral in your relationships, but what's today's talk like?

If we played back a recording of one day's conversation, how much complaining would there be? How much cutting other people down? How much negativity? Would there be a lot of criticizing, backbiting? Would there be some suggestive, double-meaning talk? Would there be some ethnic or religious slurs?

The people you live with probably know best how much Christ is your Lord, because they hear you when you're tired, angry, and when you're under pressure. Maybe it's time to move the front lines of your spiritual battle to the point that really counts; making Jesus Christ so real that He becomes the Master of your mouth.

All day long you're transmitting to the people around you. Does it sound like Jesus? When you have surrendered the transmitter to Christ, then He is really in charge.

Lori Piestewa was the first woman killed in the Iraq war. She was a Native American and a single mom with two children. She died in an Iraqi ambush, and her good friend Jessica Lynch was wounded, captured and rescued. You might remember that. She was determined to help fulfill Lori Piestewa's dream - to have a house for her parents and her children. Jessica Lynch contacted the TV program, "Extreme Makeover," to see if they could make it happen. Their popular program showed them doing amazing makeovers of people's homes in a very short time, re-creating them into houses that were far beyond anything the owner's ever dreamed. They did it again for a war hero's family, moving them from their deteriorating trailer home into a wonderful new home. Given the good TV ratings of the show, apparently a lot of people loved to watch those amazing transformations.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Miraculously Changed."

Bill Carroll was a hopeless alcoholic - since someone got him hooked at the age of ten. He moved from lost job to lost job, from jail to jail, from one desperate measure after another to meet his need for alcohol. One day a fellow prisoner recommended a remedy for the shakes that Bill had developed - cocaine. Bill Carroll actually ended up digging the gold fillings out of his teeth to pay for that cocaine.

Ultimately, he decided this life wasn't even worth living anymore. He was headed to Lake Michigan in Chicago to end his life. But as he walked by a rescue mission, he heard a song about Jesus that his mother had sung to him. He wandered into the meeting and he heard the liberating news about how Jesus Christ can forgive your sin and change a life. He went into that mission hopelessly addicted. He came out with an extreme makeover from the inside out. From that day, he never again had the slightest desire to touch the alcohol or the drugs that had ruled most of his life. And oh, how grateful I am because Bill Carroll was my wife's grandfather, who was here for me to love because of the makeover miracle by Jesus Christ.

For 2,000 years, the Carpenter of Nazareth has been transforming lives. Not reforming - transforming. In the words of 2 Corinthians 5:17, our word for today from the Word of God, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" It's a spiritual makeover from the inside out that only one man can accomplish - Jesus Christ, the man who died to cancel your sin and who came back from the dead with the power to give you a new life. It's not something a religion can do - any religion. Because religion tries to make us over from the outside in as we comply with its rules. What Jesus offers is a personal relationship with Him where He comes into your soul with life-changing power.

Without Him, I'd be the selfish only child who cares only about me. But He's changing me. He's given me the great joy of living for others instead of myself. He turns greedy people into generous people. He tames a temper that has inflicted so much hurt. He breaks the power of those dark things that have controlled you.

But you have to want Him in your life...driving your life...changing your life. While you've probably known about Jesus for a long time, maybe you've never given yourself to this man who gave His life for you. The good news is that you don't have to spend one more day without Him, without this life-transforming miracle. It can be today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I believe Your death was for my sin. I want that new beginning from You, I'm Yours."

Listen, go to our website today and there you'll find the information to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.

There's power in that cross of Jesus to transform you into the person you want to be, that you need to be, that the people you love need for you to be. He's been doing extreme makeovers for a long time. He wants to do it for you. Actually, He died to do it for you.