Tuesday, May 10, 2016

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The man in the Disney movie was an inventor. One of his inventions was a shrinking machine. There's been some suggestions that that's what happened to me–I got into a shrinking machine. Anyway, this actually did happen to his kids' baseball. It crashed through the window of his laboratory. It landed in dad's shrinking machine, turning it on as it landed, and the kids were amazed to see how their ball suddenly shrank. Thinking this machine was really cool, they started playing with it...until the machine suddenly shrank them to an almost invisible size. And the anguished cry of the father is the title of the movie "Honey, I shrunk the kids!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Chainsaw in Your Mouth."

Sadly, too many of us have a shrinking machine that is shrinking our kids, maybe our spouse, other people we love. That shrinking machine is in your mouth. It's a tongue that says things that repeatedly diminish some of the very people you love the most: angry things, cutting things, sarcastic or critical things, discouraging things.

It's almost as if we have this verbal chain saw in our mouth that keeps cutting people we care about. It may be that you've been doing this for so long you hardly even notice how destructive some of your words are. But the people who are hearing them are not only noticing your words, it's quite possible they will never forget them. We can still remember the names we were called decades ago, right? Some of us have replayed over and over again something hurtful someone said to us a long time ago that they may have forgotten. Some of us have even defined our self-worth, or our lack of self-worth, based on some of those shrinking things that someone said to us. That's how what you say impacts those you love. There's so much power in your words!

The Bible doesn't talk about a verbal chain saw, but it does talk about a verbal sword. It says, in Proverbs 12:18, "Reckless words pierce like a sword." Proverbs 18:21 raises the stakes even higher: "The tongue has the power of life and death." Your words are either making the people around you feel more alive inside, or it's killing them inside. We replay people's failures over and over, we diminish people by constantly comparing them to someone else, we mark them, maybe for life, with the names we call them. We spew out reckless words to win the moment, but we scar someone for life.

Jesus said, "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:35) A runaway mouth comes from something down deep inside; a dark, angry, wounded heart. Until the heart gets fixed, the mouth is just going to keep shrinking and scarring people we care about. It's all part of this sin thing the Bible talks about; our separation from God because we've pushed Him out to do the things we want to do the way we want to do them. The hurt we inflict comes from a sinful heart.

God knows that. That's why He sent His one and only Son to pay the price for our sin, to rise from the dead, to make it possible to be forgiven for every hurting thing, every unholy thing I've ever done or said.

Ezekiel 36:26-27, our word for today from the Word of God, makes this incredible promise: "I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit in you. I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness." A new heart, cleansed by Jesus' forgiveness, and filled with His love. And a new beginning for any man or woman who reaches out to Jesus in total faith, admitting their sin, surrendering their sin, and grabbing Jesus as their personal Rescuer from their personal sin.

If you have never done that, then you've never experienced the difference His love can make. The people you love have never experienced God's love coming through you. But all that could change today if you'll make this the day that you say, "Jesus, I'm Yours."

I want to invite you to as soon as you can today, get over to our website and walk with me into what it takes to actually know that you have begun your personal relationship with the life-changer, the heart-changer, Jesus. Just go to ANewStory.com.

Because of Jesus, it doesn't have to be the way it's always been. He's been loving and changing people for a long, long time, and He's waiting to do that for you today. Letting Jesus into your life is the most loving thing you'll ever do for the people you love.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

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For three months, Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer were prisoners of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, accused along with other aid workers of trying to convert Afghans to Christianity. In October of 2001 their prison cells were suddenly shaken by the thunder of U. S. bombs falling on the city of Kabul. Weeks later, after a cold, sleepless night in a steel shipping container, the girls and their colleagues found themselves in a new prison south of Kabul, with rockets crashing down on the contested town they were in. Suddenly, there were men banging on their prison doors. They thought their Taliban captors were returning, and now their fate was clearly uncertain as the situation around them dissolved into total chaos. Then, to their surprise, an anti-Taliban soldier came in with reams of ammunition around his neck. He was just shouting two wonderful words, "You're free! You're free!"

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

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You remember that massive tsunami that hit South Asia right after Christmas in 2004? I immediately flashed back when I heard about that to a real life lesson I had about tsunamis prior to that. I was in Kodiak, Alaska, with our On Eagles' Wings team of young Native Americans. They had just finished a string of grueling days of outreach, so we took them to a special spot on the ocean for a few hours off. Many of us were fascinated with these beautiful formations we saw just under the water near the shore. That's when our host told me about what happened after a major quake in Anchorage some years earlier. Folks who were at this same shore area watched the ocean suddenly recede dramatically, and that left all those beautiful underwater formations and shells totally exposed. They're like, "Whoa! Look at this!" So they seized this unusual opportunity to go in and collect all these treasures of the sea – not realizing that the sudden disappearance of the water was the first sign of an impending tsunami. Moments later, that monster wave suddenly enveloped everything in sight, including the people who literally had run right into its path.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

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There's no greater gift our daughter and son-in-law have ever given my wife and me than the little guy that was our first grandchild and the ones that have come since. From the night he was born, our hearts were all wrapped around that precious new life and they still are even though he's grown up. We would jump at the chance to babysit, and believe me; our rates were well below the market. But eventually, we took him home, and it was our turn to relax. That's the cycle of life. I had my chance to be the father of a child when my children were born. A grandchild is grand, but he's really not your child.

Monday, April 25, 2016

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Valentine's Day! That's the season when all of us think about the love we found, or the love we lost, or the love we're looking for. And, man, people are looking! Did you know there are over 5,000 dating websites, including Match.com, OKCupid, along with SeniorPeopleMeet, Farmers Only and DateACowboy.com?

Thursday, April 21, 2016

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Well, I'm happy to report to you that I have no problem with the paparazzi. Those celebrity photographers have been very respectful of my privacy. In fact, they could care less about anything I do. But, in reality, these freelance celebrity photographers have been the object of some big-time criticism. I mean, think of their pursuit of Princess Diana which some think contributed to the circumstances of her tragic death.

Monday, April 18, 2016

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As our family was growing up and we were driving somewhere for vacation, my travel philosophy was very simple and very male. The purpose of the trip is to get there! Why waste unnecessary time getting there, right? So we would drive along some long stretches and we'd have gas, rest, and food stops down to a well timed drill. We called it "the drill". But, during the busy vacation seasons there was a down side to this and it came at the end of when your body's saying, "Put me down, now!" See, since I didn't know exactly how far we'd be able to make it, I couldn't make a motel reservation. So, I got off where there were some choices of reasonable motels and I drove in hoping I could be horizontal within say fifteen minutes. "No chance." I hate words like these. "Sorry, we're full." Or those dreaded words, "No Vacancy." Or the slightly more comforting sign, "Sorry." They all mean the same thing – no room, I'm not getting in.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

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I was out of the country, and my wife was visiting her father, along with our daughter and son-in-law. My wife convinced her Dad to hike with them back into the woods to see the spring where they used to go to get water when she was a little girl. Eventually, they came upon a scene that was imprinted on her memory like a photograph – that spring gushing from the rocks, just beneath a cave above it.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

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One August night every member of our family got a new name. It was the night our daughter gave birth to her first child – a little boy. And that tiny eight-pound bundle made our daughter "Mommy," and our son-in-law "Daddy," and our boys were suddenly uncles, and my wife became "Grandma." And I became "Husband of Grandma." It was quite a night – and my wife and I were privileged to be able to be with our little grandson right in the birthing room only minutes after he was born. Those are moments I'll never forget. Seeing our daughter, the baby we once held, holding her first baby. And his Daddy, not knowing what other children would come, held that little guy in his arms and said five precious words: "My one and only son."

Monday, April 11, 2016

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It's always a good idea to lock your luggage when you're flying commercially. It's especially a good idea if you're going out of the country. It's an even better idea if you know where the keys for your suitcase locks are before you try to lock them! I was packing in a rush for my flight to Mexico. I had my padlocks ready to go. I couldn't find the keys. Now with only minutes left before I had to leave, we launched this all out desperate search. We checked drawers – no keys. We looked in creative places – no keys! So I was resigned to leaving with unlocked suitcases and a garment bag, when I zipped this garment bag shut and I found the keys. Someone had been wise enough to attach them to the zipper that we use to lock...right there! What I had been looking for everywhere, it had been right in front of me all along!