Tuesday, June 22, 2010

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Bob is one senior who was a tremendous blessing to our ministry. He had been the kind of volunteer who had been there for every kind of project you can imagine. His whole life - it seems like he's been a warrior for the Lord. But then, he had some illnesses and an accident that slowed him down - even to the point of walking with a cane and, well, looking honestly a little more stooped than usual. We asked him if he could help oversee an important remodeling project at our Headquarters. Before we could finish the tour of the area that needed work, Bob was spouting out ideas about how it could be done. Later I saw Bob in the hallway - walking tall, walking fast, without a cane, like a man half his age!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

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Ted is an ex-Marine. I guess once a Marine, always a Marine. Right? You know - Halls of Montezuma, Shores of Tripoli, Semper Fi. Since his days in the Corps, Ted's gone on to become very successful in business, but he keeps getting invited back to talk to Marine recruits as an inspirational speaker. And in the process, he tells them about a rescuer who came for him in the Marines and saved him - Jesus Christ. And I love what he tells them - "One thing about Marines - we always go back for our own, and that's why I'm here today. I'm going back for my own."

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

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It was one of the most compelling television documentaries I'd seen in a long time. It aired on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The stories of rescuers and of survivors, told first-person, took the viewer into what that day really felt like for the people who lived it. One story I just can't shake was told by a British young woman who worked in a brokerage firm high up in Tower Two. She recalled with remarkable composure the confusion in her office on whether or not to evacuate the building. She's alive today because she made the right decision. But many of her coworkers never made it out. She broke down for the first time as she talked about her good friend in the office. All she could say was, "I keep thinking, 'I should have asked him to go with me.' I can't get that out of my mind."

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

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He was five years old. His mommy wasn't feeling well, and so she was taking a nap. His little two-year-old sister wanted an ice cream cone, so he did what Mommy would do. He picked up the car keys Mommy had left on the kitchen table and took his little sister out to the car and put her in the back seat. Then he proceeded to climb into the driver's seat, turn on the car and somehow start driving. (This is a true story.) Then Mr. Five-Year-Old pulled out onto the main thoroughfare at the corner. Thankfully, a police officer saw the car going by apparently without a driver. That got his attention! He pursued the mystery car and managed to get the driver to pull over. Needless to say, there was one shocked policeman when he opened the door and saw a little boy at the wheel. I'd say it's a good thing he stopped him.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

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I was scheduled to speak at an Easter Sunrise Service not far from the home where we were staying. Since I was leaving before anyone else in the house, my hostess gave me verbal directions to the park; directions which really weren't all that complicated for most people. I shot out of the driveway in a big hurry to get where I was going. I turned in exactly the wrong direction. Later, our hostess told me; actually, she also told everyone at the service where she introduced me, that I was driving all around this complex of buildings near their home instead of heading down the road to my destination. Meanwhile, she was in her yard, waving her arms frantically, trying to get my attention as I, in my obsession with figuring out where I was going and getting there, blew right through a stop sign and kept right on driving in the wrong direction.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

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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 a story that 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 said, '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 to, shall we say, to "encourage" 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!"

Monday, March 22, 2010

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Jeremy was a young man who worked in our office every year after he got out of college, and then, a veteran of our On Eagles' Wings Native American team. But something was different this particular year for him - a woman! Yes, a woman in Jeremy's life! And, believe me, it is no secret. He started telling us all about her as soon as we saw him again. The romance had just developed in the weeks preceding, and there was nothing he would rather talk about. She lived quite a ways from where we are, and the more he talked about her, the more he wanted to be with her. At first I was kind of amused by this young love, until I remembered that was me not so many years ago, telling anyone who would listen about the woman I loved. And still do.

Monday, March 1, 2010

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It's hard to find any "good news" in the bad news of being diagnosed with cancer. But Ellen did, and she told me about it after a recent seminar I led in her area. I'm really excited about how God is using our A Life That Matters training events to help everyday believers help people they know be in heaven with them. Ellen told me she'd read my book about that when it came out, but she didn't really look for or see many opportunities to tell people the good news about Jesus...until she got cancer. Suddenly she was in the middle of many people who in her words were "facing their own mortality; people whose future was suddenly uncertain because of that chilling word - cancer. Now, because of what she was going through and they were going through, her cancer strangely qualified her to share the Christ who died and rose again to get us ready for eternity. Ellen said, "I went back and re-read your book so I'd know what to do." God has used Ellen in a powerful way. She said, "Ron, I've led so many cancer patients to Jesus - people from many different religions and people with no faith at all!"

Thursday, February 25, 2010

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It wasn't the first time they'd had problems with the space station, but this one was pretty serious. There are four gyroscopes that the space station really depends on. One had been dysfunctional for a while. But now a second gyroscope had gone down, leaving the station and its crew all too vulnerable. With no backup now, one more gyroscope failure and they would be in big trouble. NASA hustled to find a solution because the gyroscope performs an essential function for that platform in space. It keeps it pointing in the right direction so it will have the power it has to have.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

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Okay, let's put away all the junk food snacks for a minute, and let's reach for a healthy snack today. Yes, it's time for some fresh fruit. It could be an apple, an orange, a pear, but the next time you eat one, would you look for the example on the inside? I wouldn't recommend you eat the entire apple; you'll probably want to stop when you get to the core. But notice what's there in the middle of that apple. Yes, seeds that can make another apple!

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