A Word With You

Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
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Daily A Word With You

  1. 10h ago

    Fighting Temptation Before it Hits - #10276

    It seems like I’ve been on a diet since I was about six months old, or at least it seems that way. My “thorn in my flesh” could be my metabolism. Is that possible? It refuses to convert calories; it loves to store calories instead. Now, over the years, I’ve made friends with my metabolism, and thankfully I was able to knock off a good amount of that. I’ve learned how much intake I can stand in relation to how much I’ll be doing that day. The problem is that the day is filled with caloric choices, whether it’s a nibble on those snacks that somebody brought to the office, or getting a sandwich from the deli like everybody else is, or eating that tempting dinner that someone has prepared. I’ve learned a fundamental principle of how to control your weight. You have to decide in advance what you’re going to do. You choose your lunch fare before your appetite or your opportunity chooses for you. I have to decide in the morning what I’m going to do about lunch. And you decide early in the day that perhaps you’re not going to eat dinner or you’re going to figure out a very low-calorie dinner. In fact, pre-choosing? That’s actually the way to control of any part of your life. I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Fighting Temptation Before it Hits.” Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Daniel 1:8. Daniel is actually a captive in another country; he is in Babylon. The Jews have been carried away to captivity there. He’s been identified as kind of a leadership prospect, and he and some of his friends are kind of in the leadership academy there, and he’s being asked to eat food that is forbidden to him by his Jewish faith. He says he won’t do it. The Bible puts it this way, “Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way.” He goes ahead and eats a diet that is consistent with his convictions and he ends up stronger than any of those who ate the prescribed diet. Notice here his resolution came before – ahead of time – that he was not going to eat it. Then he took action to support that choice. He had already resolved what he would not eat. See, most of us don’t do that; we make situational choices. Right in the middle of it we’ll say, “I’ll see how I feel. I’ll see how it’s going. I’ll see which way the wind’s blowing. I’ll see how it goes. I’ll see what the circumstances are.” Well, that’s a good way to get blown away spiritually by temptation. Remember this, the key to no-regrets choices is deciding in advance. I guess Sampson had never really made up his mind how far he would go. And with Delilah he lost his leadership and he lost his life. But Daniel, in contrast, knew where his line was and became one of God’s great leaders. He had decided in advance. Now, if you’re facing a situation where you’ll be tempted to give away what you’ll later wish you hadn’t, decide in advance how you’re going to handle it. That’s nowhere more crucial than in keeping sex pure and special. You set your line sometime when you’re alone with your Lord, and then you don’t violate that boundary. You don’t let your glands decide. Your glands make lousy choices. Maybe you’re in a situation where you’re going to be tempted to tell something less than the truth. Well, you’ve got to decide now to tell the truth and what truth you’ll tell. It might be a situation where you’re going to be offered a chance to sin possibly. Would you decide now how you’re going to answer? We live in a world where 99% of the pressure is to not do it God’s way. If you wait and see how it’s going to go, I know how it’s going to go – so do you. You’ll make a wrong choice. No, you see, like a dieter, you have to know now what you’re going to do then. Remember, the key to no-regrets choices is deciding in advance.

  2. 3d ago

    Finding Your Way Home - #10275

    A police officer spotted this little guy standing on a busy street corner in this huge city, crying. Of course, he tried to help the boy by asking him his address, and Scotty didn't know. The officer asked him his phone number, and he just said through his tears, "I can't remember." The officer was running out of options. He was just about to take that little guy down to the station when he thought of one last question: "Little boy, is there anything near your house that I might recognize?" That was the moment the little guy discovered the one thing that really helped him finally get home. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Finding Your Way Home." There was one landmark that lost boy was able to identify for the policeman. He said, "Mister, next to my house there's this big church, and it's got a big cross on the top. And if you can get me to that cross, I can find my way home." So can you - home to the love that you've been looking for your whole life; home to the only relationship that will finally fill that hole in your heart. And, one day, home to the heaven we all want to go to but that none of us deserves. Finding your way home means first "getting to the cross." Not long ago, a friend of mine met a 30-something man on a plane who had left the church of his childhood years to embark on a search for spiritual reality. Along the way, there were a lot of religions, many spiritualities, no satisfaction. Then, he said, "One day I stepped back into the church I'd grown up in. I was the only one there. Up in front, I saw the cross that I'd looked at so many times as a kid. But suddenly something hit me that I had missed all those years. I found myself saying, "For me. That cross was for me." And that's where his long search ended. That's where the spiritual search of millions has ended. Looking at that cross, seeing what Jesus did there, and suddenly saying those two words that change everything, "for me." Our word for today from the Word of God, Galatians 2:20, puts it this way: "Christ loved me and gave Himself for me." For many people in recent times, Mel Gibson's portrayal of Jesus' death in his movie, "The Passion of the Christ," revealed the enormity of the suffering and the sacrifice that Jesus went through. And one can understandably ask, "What made such a bloody, horrific death necessary?" Answer, my sin - and your sin. Because sin isn't just breaking some religion's rule. Na, no, no. It's declaring ourselves "God" of our own life; taking a life God made and doing with it what we want. That sin carries the death penalty of an unbearable hell - an eternal separation from God. And that's what Jesus was carrying for you in His body and His soul as He agonized on that cross. And three days later, He walked out of His grave under His own power. Which means you can have, not a religion about Him, but a relationship with Him. If you will make personal what He did on that cross by telling Him, "Jesus, I believe that when You died, You were dying for me. I'm putting my total trust in you to be my personal rescuer from my personal sin. Beginning right here; beginning right now, I am Yours." If you're ready to trade your emptiness for His peace, and your hell for His heaven, make sure that this is the day you say "Jesus, I'm Yours," Don't put this off another day. No other day is guaranteed, but today. To support you in this I want to invite you to our website where many people have gone and confirmed their own relationship with Jesus Christ. That website is ANewStory.com. Go there as soon as you can today, please. The search of a lifetime ends at the foot of an old rugged cross. And if you can get to the cross my friend, you can finally find your way home.

  3. 4d ago

    How to Recover From a Fall - #10274

    Somewhere on your body there is probably some mark or scar from your early days of riding a bicycle. I mean most of us took a pretty good spill somewhere along the way and we've got the marks to prove it. Well, our family was staying in a little cabin in the woods, and our oldest son came cruising down this little dirt path on his bike. He spun out on the gravel, had an unscheduled meeting with the ground. And when he got up he was really bleeding pretty profusely from his mouth. So we rushed him to the local emergency room. And they cleaned up the mess and found that he had a broken tooth. When they had done all that they could and he was sort of back together again, we came back to our cabin. Guess what was the first thing I had my son do? Uh-huh. Get back on that bike and ride. He was a little reluctant, but he did it. See, I didn't want the fear of failure and the fear of riding to have a chance to build up inside of him. I knew it was important to get right back on after a fall or he may not get back at all. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Recover From a Fall." Our word for today from the Word of God we're in Proverbs 24:16 - "For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again." Do you notice what this verse does not say? It doesn't say a righteous man does not fall. It says, "though he falls, even seven times, he rises again." You know it was important for our son to return to his bicycle ride that day and to do it right away. I didn't want him to dwell on the fall. Well listen, can't you just imagine him lying there saying, "I fell! That's it! I'll probably always fall. I wasn't cut out for bicycle riding. I give up!" No, "Get right up. Get back on." That's exactly what God wants us to do after a fall. I know you've experienced it; I have. That voice that nags you after you've messed up spiritually, "You're never going to beat this. Look what you did! Hey, you might as well stay down. You call yourself a Christian?" That's not God. That's the Devil, trying to turn one defeat into many. Like somebody who goes off their diet. Okay, you goof up one time, "Might as well eat everything in sight!" No, the Devil wants to take that one defeat and make it into many. Your job is to contain the damage the same way my son bounced back after that fall. First, you clean up the damage. Where the Holy Spirit has pointed out steps you need to take to repent, confess it completely, repent of it completely and specifically. You appropriate God's power to not do it again, and you might take a look at the gravel that made you fall in the first place, and you don't ride on that gravel again. It's important to burn the bridges to the sin that you've committed; to the sin that brought you down; to make yourself accountable to be on the line to change. Secondly, you return immediately to the ride that you were on originally. You accept God's promise. You know what He says? "Your sins I will remember no more." Don't let a fall affect more than that day. Don't stay down! The only ones who never fall are those who don't try to ride. By God's grace you will ride more carefully this time because you fell, and you probably won't fall that way again. But when you hit the ground with a spiritual fall, oh my friend get right up. Oh, and claim the promise of the book of Jude that "He is able to keep you from falling."

  4. 5d ago

    Lost In Our Language - #10273

    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.

  5. 6d ago

    The Last Stronghold - #10272

    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.

  6. May 25

    Playing the Part, Missing the Lord - #10271

    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.

  7. May 22

    The Pain and The Point - #10270

    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.

  8. May 21

    Aliens - And Beyond - #10269

    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.

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About

Daily A Word With You

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  • Creator
    Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
  • Years Active
    2009 - 2026
  • Episodes
    587
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    Copyright © 2026 Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
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    A Word With You

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