My outreach trips to South Africa have been with some wonderful ministry experiences. We saw African young people coming to Christ. We had the privilege of training South African youth workers to reach lost young people. And we were even training people to reach the lost and the young through radio. One afternoon we were able to sneak away long enough to visit one of the gold mines that helped make South Africa the richest country on that continent. Years ago this was the largest and richest gold mine in the world. Today, an old miner takes guys like me, puts a helmet on them, gives them a light, and takes them on tours. It was fascinating to hear him describe how gold was uncovered and then extracted from deep inside the earth. At one point, he asked us to shine our light on one wall of the mine, and it sparkled with this bright, yellow gold! It was amazing...it was beautiful! The old miner told us, "Don't get too excited. Real gold is black. It doesn't even look like gold. That stuff that glitters, well, that's just fool's gold."

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

It's "values clarification time," with the help of our word for today from the Word of God. 1 Timothy 6:8 - "If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich (that's the people who go after the stuff that glitters) fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

It's so easy to buy the values of a world that measures worth by success isn't it, by how much of the glittery stuff you have - to spend major life-energy going after more house, more car, more wardrobe, more position, more prestige. It's gold - but it's fool's gold. Notice the words God uses to describe the pursuit of more: a trap, foolish desires, harmful desires, ruin and destruction, wandering from the faith, grief. The foolishness of all this is summed up in two words God uses to describe security that is based on earth-stuff. Ready for the two words? It's right out of the Bible: "so uncertain." That's what He calls it in 1 Timothy 6:17.

So God reveals the scam - what looks so valuable is so worthless, and the spiritual riches that may look kind of worthless are so valuable. Like fool's gold and real gold. The chapter goes on to describe the real gold. "But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness." Don't look for those on the Dow Jones, but they are so much more precious than anything you'll find there and certainly a lot more lasting.

God says when you live your life to give instead of get, you're going to be one of those who "lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life" (1 Timothy 6:19) or the gold that is really gold.

Take a moment for a priority check - not about what you believe, but about how you're spending your life. Honestly now, is most of the best of your life tied up in going after fool's gold? Do you even have much energy, much time, much resource left to pursue the gold that will last for eternity like getting to know Jesus better, getting people to heaven with you, showing Jesus' love to people who really need it, absorbing God's Word? Don't you think it's time to live for what will last?

With whatever years you have left, and none of us knows how long that is, go where the real gold is. The stuff that glitters is what most of the people around you are going for. But remember, it's just fool's gold.

Two and a half feet of snow had just left a million people without power, and we were there! Wouldn't you know, I had picked my time to be up there in New England when that happened. Well, we checked into the motel before the storm, but now as I stood at the front desk, that phone was ringing incessantly. I kind of felt bad, because the lady gave the same answer every time, "Sorry, no room." Hey, those are tough words to hear.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Christmas Knock at Your Door."

Well, you know, Jesus knows that feeling. And as we celebrate this Christmas Day, let's remember that the night He came, the innkeeper told His dad "No room," and shut the door. Of course it wasn't the last time Jesus got shut out. You know, a lot of us are so busy and running around in our own life, so stressed, we're basically saying, "Jesus, I like you, but I really don't have any room for you."

That happened to Jesus even when He came here. In Matthew 23:37 Jesus said, "I have longed to gather you together, but you were not willing." And that tragedy continues today as Jesus tries to get into a life that He came for that first Christmas; that He died for on Good Friday - maybe yours. He paid such a high price for you. He loves you so much He doesn't want to lose you. He died to pay for the sin that would cause you to be shut out of Heaven.

Actually there is in Luke 13 a disturbing picture of what happens to people because they would not open the door to the only One who could bring them to heaven. It says this: "Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' Then you'll say, 'Well, we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'" These are people who hung out with Jesus; they knew a lot about Jesus. But He will reply, "I don't know you or where you come from. Away from Me! There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," and maybe a mom or a dad, or people you love that went ahead to heaven because they asked Jesus to be their Savior. But it ends by saying, "but you yourselves thrown out."

You don't want to be, and it's not what Jesus wants for anybody. That's why He paid the price for you to be in heaven with Him. You could get that done this day, this, this Christmas He's reaching out to you with this word for today from the Word of God, John 1:12 - "To all those who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God." That could happen for you this Christmas Day. If you open the door to the man who died for you, you can be sure He'll open the door of heaven to you.

If you're ready to belong to Jesus, here's what would help. Go to our website, and take just a very short time to find out exactly how to be sure you belong to the Christ of Christmas. That website is ANewStory.com.

Right where you are right now you can say, "Jesus, from this day on I am yours. I put all my trust in You." Because this Christmas, no room for Jesus means no chance of heaven. This can be your first Christmas with Christ in your heart. Merry Christmas!

There's something really special about having a new baby in the family at Christmastime isn't there, since it's really all about a baby. I remember, you know, for example celebrating with a brand new granddaughter. Well, she didn't do much celebrating that Christmas. She really didn't do much of anything except lie there and look irresistible. Now, in my head, I know that babies are helpless, but being around one for a little while really brings that home. Our little darlin' couldn't eat unless Mommy fed her; she couldn't burp unless someone burped her (that's something that some of us grew up and learned to be quite good at); our baby couldn't move unless someone moved her; her little hands sort of flailed around - absolutely no ability to control what they did. Helpless.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Radical Christmas Victory Plan."

Now try to get your mind around this: the helpless hands of that little Jewish baby Mary was holding in the manger were the hands that created billions of galaxies! The Son of God, the second person of the Godhead, the One of whom the Bible says, "Through Him all things were made" (John 1:3). He comes to our planet in this helpless little package that basically can do nothing for himself. Omnipotence becomes helpless to rescue a world full of dying people. As one song says, "What a strange way to save the world."

Get used to it. It seems to be God's favorite modus operandi. And this radical victory plan - use the weak to do amazing things - can be both an encouragement to you and an explanation for some of your recent struggles. Let's go to our word for today from the Word of God to see the story of that first Christmas from heaven's viewpoint. Philippians 2, beginning with verse 5, tells us that our attitude "should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."

God goes on to explain that, though Jesus was "in very nature God," He "made Himself nothing (now picture that helpless, little infant in a cattle stall), taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness...He humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!"

The great plan of God to redeem our world starts with Jesus as a helpless baby in a cattle stall and culminates with Him nailed to a criminal's cross. But Colossians 2:15 announces the crushing triumph won by that "weakness." It says Jesus disarmed the princes of hell and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross!" As musician Michael Card says, "His most awesome work was done through the frailty of His Son!"

God loves to win through weakness. Then it's a whole lot of God, and hardly any of us. That's why He chooses unlikely candidates and does mighty things through them - which means your inadequacy, your ordinariness may be exactly the qualities that can make you a spiritual hero. According to Jesus, who is it that will "inherit the earth"? The mighty? No - the meek (Matthew 5:3).

And about the struggles you've been going through recently. God will do whatever it takes to help us realize our weakness - to break our death grip on the steering wheel of our life and finally let Him drive - to break that stubborn pride of ours, the self-reliance, our need to control.

The events and the news of things in our lives that have gone on for the last few years, if anything, have ripped from our hands any ability to control what's going on, the illusion of control. And all so we can finally surrender and let His strength come flooding in. Maybe the battles you've been going through have been to take you beyond yourself and beyond things you can fix, you can solve, you can figure out - so you'll get out of the way and let God do what only He can do.

A baby wrapped in rags - a bloodied man, hanging on a cross. Vivid pictures of God's radical plan for victory - winning through weakness so everyone will know that the Lord is God!

We took one of our granddaughters to the Christmas Festival at a theme park when she was two. And she loved it! There were lights everywhere, exciting music performances and a great Christmas parade. But there was one thing that impressed her so much, and she talked about it all year long - the Living Nativity. We got to see a portrayal of the angels' appearance to the shepherds, the visit of the Wise Men, and best of all, Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus in the Manger. From that night on through the year, when we would mention that theme park, the first thing she associated with it was "Jesus" no matter what time of year it was.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Christmas - The Search is Over."

Our granddaughter thought that Jesus should be all year round. She's right. Some of us think about Jesus mostly on His holidays, like Christmas and Easter. A lot of us think of Him mainly on Sunday at church. But He didn't come to be our holiday Jesus or our church Jesus. He came here to make possible a personal love relationship with Him that gives meaning to every day of our lives; not just to be a belief or a religious compartment in our lives.

The event Jesus, the holiday Jesus, the religious Jesus; they're just not enough to forgive your sin, to answer your questions about the meaning of your life, or to get you to heaven someday. You've got to belong to Him every day, not just visit Him occasionally. He told those who belong to Him: "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). And a "never leave you" relationship is the kind of anchor that our soul is looking for. Every other relationship in our life has one thing in common: it's "loseable."

People turn on us, they dump us, they disappoint us, they divorce us, and no matter how deep the relationship, they ultimately die on us. That's why we can never really feel safe in this world, until we anchor ourselves to the Savior who said, "He who comes to me I will never cast out." (John 6:37 ) In Matthew 28:20, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus made the ironclad promise that He alone has the power to keep, "Surely I am with you always."

Now, in a world of things and experiences that are never-lasting, Jesus offers the only thing that is ever-lasting. John 3:36 tells us that "whoever believes in the Son (that's Jesus, the Son of God) has eternal life." See, you don't have to die to see if you have eternal life. You have it as soon as you put your trust in Jesus. The verse then gives the alternative: "Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on Him."

We had no chance with God until Jesus came that first Christmas. Until He gave His life on the cross to take the rap for every wrong thing we have ever done. We can't get anywhere near a holy God with our sin. But Jesus allowed God to dump all our sin on Him that day on the cross, so you could be clean, so you could be forgiven, so you could be with Him forever.

This Christmas season provides a wonderful time to make the Savior your Savior. He's not just for Christmas, but this Christmas season is a tremendous time to finally experience His love for yourself.

Look, if you're ready to make that move, you've already done life without Him and you don't want to do it any more, then I invite you to visit our website. It will help you know if you belong to Him and how you can. It's ANewStory.com. There's a brief explanation of how you know you have a relationship with Him. And you can tell Him right now, "Jesus I'm Yours."

And today, move beyond a religion about Jesus - to this love relationship with Jesus. Move from just believing things about Jesus - to really belonging to Jesus.

There are lots of people digging into their family tree these days. In fact, we've done some of our own. A lot of digging around to find out where your roots are. You know, where my grandfather came from and my great grandfather, and which king or famous person I'm descended from. Of course I would be descended from someone famous, right?

Some people do find out that they are related to royalty, and then other people find out some embarrassment in their family tree - the old horse thief, you know, that they'd rather not talk about. For 2,000 years God has been developing and protecting a line for His Son to come through, and there are in that family tree some eyebrow raisers.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Amazing Grace, Amazing Christmas."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God, comes right out of the Christmas Story, is found in Matthew 1. Now, you may or may not be aware of the fact that the Christmas Story begins actually with a genealogy - a list of Jesus' family tree. God's been preparing this line for the Messiah; it's this most special family tree in the history of planet earth. He goes down a long list of names that starts here with Abraham, works its way down, and I'll just read a couple of them to you.

"Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth," etc. You probably don't want to hear a whole lot more of that. But all of a sudden you stop and your eye goes back and you say, "Rahab? What's she doing in Jesus' family tree?" Now, in most of this genealogy only the father is mentioned. It's only in rare cases where God wants to make a special point of it that He includes the mother. Why Rahab?

Now, if you remember your Old Testament a little bit, some years before, the Israelites were preparing to conquer the land of Canaan. God sent in a couple of spies and they went to the city of Jericho and they found one home where they were taken in to hide, and it turned out it was the home of Rahab - the prostitute. She turned out to be the prostitute who gave herself to the Jewish God for the rest of her life.

But these aren't the kind of people you talk about in your family tree; these are the ones you cover up. This is scandalous. This isn't the king! And yet God makes it a point to include her. You see, there's a hidden message here in the Christmas Story. A message that Jesus is for people who know they need forgiving and who know that God's grace has no limits. God doesn't use the word deserve when it comes to salvation. None of us deserves to be in His family tree. It's not just Rahab that's a surprise; what is Ron Hutchcraft doing in God's family? What are you doing in His family?

We're sinners who must always find grace to be "Amazing grace - how sweet the sound." The hymn says, "I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me...a sinner condemned, unclean." I hope today you still find God's grace amazing, and that you haven't been around so long that you think you belong in God's family because you deserve it. There is no one listening today who can not be forgiven by Him. Rahab was. And there is no person who doesn't still need His amazing grace today.

But maybe you've never experienced that grace for yourself. Oh, you've heard that song a lot of times - Amazing Grace. It says, "I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." But today, this Christmas season, how appropriate. The God who will forgive all those who come to Him, holds out His hand to you and says, "Grab My hand." His Son died to pay the penalty that you deserve. And God can be a forgiver because of the death of His Son on a cross. And, because His Son walked out of His grave under His own power, what began in a manger ended on a cross, and culminated with a resurrection and becomes personal for you when you let this Jesus be the forgiver of your sins.

That's the day you're welcomed into His family. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I want the Savior you came to be, to be my Savior. You came into the world at Christmas. Come into my life this Christmas season."

And, go to our website and find out there how you can be sure you belong to Him - ANewStory.com. Because the story of Rahab tells us this Christmas that there is no one who He will not welcome into the family of God.

There's just no better time to have a baby boy than Christmastime. My parents did, we did. Not my wife and me! That would really be a Christmas miracle! No, it was our son and daughter-in-law.

And our family was able to say, with the ancient prophecy of Jesus' coming, "to us a child is born; to us a son is given" (Isaiah 9:6). And what a baby boy he was, charging into the world at ten pounds, ten ounces!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Journey Leads to Bethlehem."

The parents decided to hold off on announcing Christmas-boy's name until he was born, so we didn't know. And they gave him a strong Bible name for a first name. But it was his middle name that melted me into a puddle. It's my brother's name - the one who died suddenly when I was only four years old; the baby who brought Jesus to our family.

I was a baby boy born at Christmastime, too, but into a family who knew little or nothing about Jesus. I never heard about Him. In our little second-floor apartment on the south side of Chicago, there was, as in the Christmas story, "no room" for Jesus. There was room for gambling and arguing and drinking, but we were spiritually nowhere.

Then came the night my only sibling, my baby brother, was rushed to the hospital, and he never came home. My dad's heart broke. And in his grief, he decided he should take his four-year-old son to church. Oh, he didn't go in; he just stayed in the car and read his Sunday paper and smoked his cigarette. One Sunday I came bounding out of that church, and I said, "Daddy, today I accepted Jesus into my heart." I don't think he had any idea what I was talking about, but the following Christmas Eve he got it. That night my father went to church there and he came out with Jesus in his heart, too. My mom soon followed. And Jesus became the center of our life in that little apartment, and I got a brand new mommy and daddy all because of a baby who died.

As I understand the Bible, my little brother's in heaven. But his mom and dad and brother were headed for a different destination. He was the only one in our family who was ready to die. My whole family believed then, and believes now, that my baby brother was sent by God to lead us to Jesus. And over the years, it has been my privilege to be there as many thousands of folks have found the same Jesus that changed my family and changed our eternities forever.

Because of that baby, because of the mission he accomplished, all my children belong to Jesus. And so do all their children who have now welcomed Jesus into their heart as I did. One of my children was right then, the father of a brand new, hours-old baby boy. The baby I looked at across the hospital room. The baby who bears the name of the baby God used to give me Jesus.

I can't answer all those hard questions about why God allows suffering and pain in the world. But I can tell you how God used the seemingly "senseless" death of a baby to help me, my family and ultimately countless others be in heaven someday.

We experienced the truth of that wonderful word from God's Word, our word for today from John 1:12. "He came unto His own. His own did not receive Him, but to as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name." Born into His family because of the baby who was born in Bethlehem, and in our case, the baby who was born that led us to Him.

I wonder if you've ever had that birthday? I mean that spiritual birthday. I wonder if you've ever come to know Jesus? He's brought you down a journey; brought you down a road that has brought you to listen to the radio and come to this point this day because this is the day He is ready to come into your heart. If you hear Him knocking, open the door.

Go to our website. I would love to be a part of helping you begin your relationship with Him. That's what it's there for, it's ANewStory.com.

You know, Christmas really is all about a Baby who came to die so we could live. And I will never stop thanking Him that He saw that lost little family in a second floor apartment on the south side of Chicago and sent a missionary - my brother - who never spoke a word to give us Jesus.

Every day the people who broadcast the news to us have to decide what's going to be big news and what's going to be little news. The big news they talk about first. And the little news may not get mentioned at all.

Unfortunately, there are often disasters that occur every day, and they may or may not be big news. Most disasters produce casualties, but casualties are sort of little news. That means people just got hurt. Then there are fatalities. And when there are fatalities, well, sadly, that makes it big news - somebody was killed. The fatality factor seems to propel news to page one. The story of Christmas has a casualty in it, a fatality and a champion.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Knockout Punch at Christmas."

Now, I know you thought this was about Christmas and it is. But we're suddenly going to be in the Garden of Eden for a minute with our word for today from the Word of God which is in Genesis 3:15. The great tragedy; perhaps the greatest tragedy of history has just taken place as Adam and Eve have chosen to disobey God. Sin has entered a perfect world, and God is already talking about the solution.

He speaks to the serpent, who is the Devil, and says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He (that's her offspring) will crush your head and you (that's the serpent) will strike his heel." Did you know that Christmas began in the Garden of Eden? The answer for sin began at the moment sin entered the world. Because God says here there will come a man ultimately descended from Adam and Eve - from the very people who perpetrated sin in the world - a man will come who will crush the serpent.

Notice the verbs here. It says the serpent, Satan, will strike the heel of the Messiah who will come. Satan's going to be able to hurt the Redeemer. That happened at the cross. But it was canceled three days later when Jesus Christ walked out of His grave. But notice what the Redeemer is going to do to the serpent - crush his head. That's the difference between a casualty and a fatality. When the Redeemer comes, Satan will receive a death blow He says.

You need to know that the Devil, for all of his interference in your life right now, is a dead man. Colossians 2:15 says "Christ disarmed the powers and the authorities, and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." If you're in Christ, if you belong to Jesus, the most the Devil can do is to wound you. You may be a casualty, but thank God you will never be a fatality. Satan tried over and over again to wipe out the Messianic line - the family from which Jesus would come. And then he tried to wipe out all the babies that were the age of baby Jesus. It didn't work. He's beaten!

Why would you ever let the Devil or his people beat you or intimidate you? God has entered human history in person. Everywhere Jesus went the forces of darkness surrendered. Everywhere Jesus goes now through your life, those forces of darkness still surrender.

So, Christmas isn't just a warm and fuzzy little story about a baby in a stable and a star. In the battle for human lives; in the battle you're facing today, Christmas is God's knockout punch.

I remember that time when our son got a new haircut and a pretty noticeably different hair style. Not something real radical, but it was different. Needless to say, he was a little unsure of how he looked the first day after he had the makeover. At least he was used to the old style; he knew how to feel about it. We tried to reassure him. We gave him our parent's opinion about how he looked, but of course, what does our opinion matter...right?

So, he went off to school looking for feedback, and he returned all smiles that afternoon. Yeah, well guess who had liked it. Several girls - the right girls - had noticed and they had complimented him on his new hair style. It didn't matter what anybody else said, whether they liked it or not, he decided whose feedback really mattered to him. You know, that's actually a good thing to decide.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Only Feedback That Matters."

Now, there are a lot of choices more significant, of course, than a change of hair style. And we usually evaluate our decisions and our performance based on how well we please the audience that really matters to us. Right? My son wanted to make sure the girls liked his hair style; he decided what audience he needed to please. It's sort of like a boy who wants to know if his Dad likes what he did, or an athlete who has decided that above all else he just wants to please his coach. "What does the coach think of my performance?"

When you decide to follow Jesus Christ with your life, you've decided whom you want to please. You've said by following Christ, "I've decided my bottom line is this: 'Is Jesus happy with it?'" It's as if all the significant people in your life are sitting in this circle. Just imagine them in a room and they're waiting for you to make whatever life decision you're dealing with right now. Members of your family are there, maybe your pastor is there, some of your key friends, some coworkers, maybe your boss is there, or your teachers, a professor, and Jesus is in that circle.

And then you announce the choice you've made. Whose smile are you looking for? Whose smile lets you know you did the right thing? My son decided that the approval of certain girls would determine the rightness of his hair style choice. Well, the smile you should be looking for in that circle is the smile of Jesus.

So, how do you judge whether He's pleased or not? I mean, He isn't visibly there. Well, our word for today from the Word of God - you thought we'd never get there. We just did. Colossians 3:15 says this: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." Now, the word rule there actually means be the umpire; be the deciding factor in your life. "The peace of God." See, if God is smiling, He will show His pleasure by giving you this supernatural sense of His peace deep inside; this stubborn confidence; a poise that's there even if everyone else in the circle is frowning.

Oh, you may still have doubts, but when you're alone in His presence - it's just you and Him - you'll just know that you've done the right thing. That peace, that sense of rightness, okay-ness, will be there in the midst of the confusion. Live for that green light of God's peace. Believe that peace deep down in your soul. It will stand the test of the worst of storms.

Over and over in our family, when one or the other of us has been faced with a major life choice, we've given each other the advice that sometimes we tend to forget, "Go with the peace." After all, Jesus' smile expressed through the inner peace He gives you, is the only feedback that really matters.