Subscribe  

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Download MP3 (right click to save)

I've traveled a lot. Of course, sometimes I drive, and time matters a lot. So over the years, I've learned a fundamental secret of making great time on the open road. Not speeding – just driving steady. Over and over, I've watched what I call a "spurter" come roaring up behind me. (You've seen them too.) He does everything but push you into the right lane. He's obviously well into the State Trooper Zone as far as his speed's concerned. So I move over...he roars past...but I catch up with him a few miles later without ever changing my speed. See, he's settled back into the right lane, just cruising along. (Have you passed this guy, too?) He speeds in binges, he floors it one minute and then he's just tapping the accelerator a few minutes later. I usually make excellent time driving places, and I've talked to other marathon drivers who are used to getting places fast. And we pretty much agree. How do you trim hours off a long trip? A steady foot. The fast way to get somewhere is not with big spurts, but with a consistent, steady speed. 

Monday, April 23, 2018

Download MP3 (right click to save)

There was a movie years ago called "The Horse Whisperer." I thought it was about a man with laryngitis, but it's actually about this man who has an amazing ability to gentle horses-horses that it seems no one else can tame. In fact, the main character was modeled after a real man whose skill in gentling and training wild mustangs is almost legendary. In the past, people have used some pretty brutal methods to force a horse into submission. But the real horse whisperer doesn't "break horses." He uses body language and, yes, some quiet talking as his tools to gentle a horse that otherwise would be uncontrollable.

Friday, April 20, 2018

Download MP3 (right click to save)

One of our team members reminded me the other day of how I felt about junior high school lunches. He was talking about it in our team devotions. Few of us remember those 7th or 8th grade cafeteria lunches with great fondness. Friday wasn't bad – that was French fry day. But most of the other days – who knows what some of that stuff was - mystery meat! We'd complain about the food, we'd trash the food sometimes, and sometimes we even had a food fight with it! Hey, it's junior high; what do you want? There were many days I wasn't too excited about what was on my plate. There still are.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Every fall, the TV networks start hyping their new shows. And usually, they have a couple that feature some well-known star. You can be sure that those headline shows and those headline stars, won't be on at 2:00 in the afternoon or 1:00 o'clock in the morning. No way. They will air sometime in the heart of the evening, like 8:00 or 9:00 o'clock. What do they call it? Prime time! You know you've made it when you've got a show on prime time. Even though a lot of what's on in those hours doesn't seem very prime to a lot of us, to the networks it's their best. Stick the reruns and the less popular shows to the off-hours when not as many people are watching, right? But prime time, hey, that's reserved for the best.

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Download MP3 (right click to save)

It was pretty scary for a four-year-old little girl. My wife's grandfather had somehow managed to drop his favorite pen down a cistern in his yard. Yeah, Karen always remembered it as being about 25 feet deep, and she remembered that because she was the one who had to retrieve Granddad's valuable pen. Her Daddy made this makeshift harness for her to sit in, then tied a rope around her waist, and began to lower her down into that hole. Her mind was focused partly on the lost pen, and partly on what snakes might be down there in that damp hole in the ground. As she dangled in space in this scary place, she was counting on one thing: her big, strong Father was holding the rope.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Download MP3 (right click to save)

When you live in the New York area, locking up your house is just second nature. In fact, it's wise to make sure that every door and every window is locked. Unfortunately, all those precautions can work against you if you forget or lose your house key. Yes, this is the voice of experience. Not only are all those nasty people locked out, you are now locked out! I've been there and done that. I can remember making a complete circuit of the house, desperately trying every window and every door. And the good news was that sometimes I actually found something was unlocked. I'd take even a window that I had to be a contortionist to get through! Anything to find a way to get in!

Monday, April 16, 2018

Download MP3 (right click to save)

We've gotten all too used to seeing streams of refugees pouring into another land; into a place to escape whatever was happening in their country. I still remember the heartbreaking images from the end of the 20th Century. You know, there were tens of thousands of Kosovo refugees fleeing from the attacks of Serbian soldiers and police. Day after day, we would hear reports on the news of how many more refugees had arrived on the Albanian or Macedonian border, and how many were jammed into makeshift camps, desperate for food, for water, for shelter, and for a feeling of being human again. Most of the major networks had correspondents on the scene who would report from that sea of humanity and misery. In a moment of disarming honesty, one reporter said, "When you cover a tragedy like this, you have to put up a steel wall to protect yourself or you can't do your job." But then he went on to say, "But I have to confess to you, suddenly today my steel wall came down. I just lost it."

Friday, April 13, 2018

Download MP3 (right click to save)

I was in a convenience store one night when an alert clerk made an important discovery. Someone had just handed her a bill, and she did what she was trained to do: she held it up to the light. She got this furrow in her brow and she reached for a special pen. When she marked the bill, the mark was black. When she marked another bill of the same denomination, it turned out yellow. The clerk turned to her coworker with the black-marked bill in her hand and said one word - I'll bet you guessed it - "counterfeit." Apparently, the man who gave it to her didn't realize it was counterfeit. But, looking at the bills side by side, there was no way I could tell one was counterfeit. But the light revealed that something was missing from that counterfeit that actually was printed into the real ones, and the pen confirmed it. I want to tell you, though, if you don't know how to detect the difference, the counterfeit and the real thing look the same...except one is worth absolutely nothing.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Download MP3 (right click to save)

There's this one experiment I remember from my grade school science class – no, it was not dissecting a brontosaurus. Our science teacher had this little hand-crank generator wired to a light bulb. And we'd turn that little crank, and it managed to generate just enough juice to light the light bulb. That baby generator was fine for the limited demands of Mr. Light Bulb, but I'd hate to try and run my whole house on it! Bye-bye stove, microwave, refrigerator, computer, lighting, and heat. No way that puny power supply could handle all those demands!

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Download MP3 (right click to save)

We were adding onto our little house, and we were getting some help from good old Chuck. He's been a part of adding to our house; actually, he did most of the work. A wonderful Christian brother, skilled builder and handyman. He's like an everyday genius...which I am not. Now the days were pretty long and we'd be leaving the house earlier than Chuck got there and we'd return home after dark. So, I didn't get to see him much. But every day that front porch was noticeably farther along than it was when we left that morning. I actually did get to talk to Chuck on the phone one day, and I told him, in a way, he reminded me of the Lord. He was interested in how that happened. I said, "Well, I don't actually see him, but I see the difference he's made!"

Subcategories

Your Hard Times

Your Relationships

Page 170 of 420

A Word With You Categories

                

GET IN TOUCH

Hutchcraft Ministries
P.O. Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602-0400

(870) 741-3300
(877) 741-1200 (toll-free)
(870) 741-3400 (fax)

FIND OUT MORE

Home / About

What We Do / Resources

News / Blog / Store

Contact Us / Privacy Policy

Donate

STAY UPDATED

We have many helpful and encouraging resources ready to be delivered to your inbox.

Please know we will never share or sell your info.

Subscribe

rhm-logo-white Copyright 2024 - All Rights Reserved - Hutchcraft Ministries

Back to top