A Word With You

My next door neighbor in our dorm in college always wanted to preach like Billy Graham. I mean he really wanted to preach like Billy Graham. He would record Billy Graham on his radio program, and then he would listen to the tapes over and over again. He would copy everything, including even the inflections of Billy’s voice. And then he would watch Billy Graham. He studied his gestures; he’d try to...

When I say this man is a veteran test pilot, I mean he’s easily old enough to be comfortably retired. Instead, he’s still blasting through the skies at these mind-boggling speeds, testing some of America’s most advanced aircraft. He told his amazing life story on a national television program. It’s a story of a lifelong adventure in the skies and a long spiritual search here on earth that ended, w...

My Dad worked to make the money for our family, so my Dad decided where we went on vacation—fishing. Now some people would consider that a dream vacation, but the high-energy, ten-year-old me? No, I didn’t think so. After just a little while, I was complaining. I was bored, but of course we kept fishing. Did I mention that my Dad made the money? Well, actually, we did have a good catch there and t...

When you’re a five-year-old girl, going to dark places can be pretty scary. When my wife was that age, she lived in the country and she had this long, often dark road that she walked to get to the school bus. Part of the way, there was a grandma, and then there was a neighbor who watched and waved at her as long as she was in sight. See, it was that last stretch that was the problem. Trees coverin...

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 rel...

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 though...

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 th...

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...

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 sti...

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...

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, "...

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 i...

They're just pieces of cardboard, but some of them are worth hundreds, even thousands of dollars. We call them baseball cards. Actually, our son got interested in them when he was a little guy, and pretty soon they became a pretty serious investment for him. He really knew how to, well like they say on Wall Street, buy low and sell high. Because he watched up-and-coming players, then he would get...

I couldn't just sit down and start using your personal computer. If you work in an office, chances are they make sure that they can have access to the company computer that you use. Your computer, my computer, your company's computer - obviously they're all protected from any funny business by something we call a password. I can't get into my computer without typing in my password. Would you like...

Some of my favorite moments in our kids growing up years have been story-telling time. I remember one time after we told the Bible story about the book of Genesis, I said to my daughter, "And Honey, do you remember who the first Mommy and Daddy were?" And she said, "Yep! Eve and Steve." Okay, good, so much for my Bible teaching. I said, "Do you remember who their boys were?" She said, "Yep! Cain a...

Our plane was racing down the runway, preparing to take off from Nashville. I was so exhausted, I was already drifting off into la-la land. Then came those jolts as the front wheels left the ground. The team member who was with me said, "Have you ever felt anything like that?" I said, "No." And I dozed off. I wouldn't sleep for long; the flight attendant suddenly announced that we had blown a rear...

There's something invigorating about being the first one out and around in the morning; you sort of feel like the conqueror of your environment. Like when you're the first one out exercising in those first hours of the new day. I had that feeling one morning as I went out for my fitness walk. I really like to walk when I'm away from home, too. And I was in a setting where right behind me there was...

Jeremy was a young man who worked in our office every year after he got out of college, and then he became 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 was no secret. He started telling us all about her as soon as we saw him again. The romance had just developed in the...

Surprise! I used to be in a quartet. Oh I did! Listen, don't laugh out loud. Yes, when I was in college, for a little while I sang in a gospel quartet. I did not sing any solos. No, no solos for me. Now, musically, I'm okay in a group. Solo - not so much. You know, in a way, we're all like that. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'm going to have A Word With You today about "The Antidote For Loneliness." Now...

Many years ago we were shopping for a place where God wanted us to build a radio studio that we desperately needed. I've got a beautiful one at our headquarters today but back then we needed just something that would get us through. We were looking at a possible location - this big barn of a room with a high ceiling and it was totally bare. Well, when I looked at it I saw a big bare room, but not...

Two words, but a valuable reminder about how important Mom is and why she is. I had occasion to stay at my son and daughter-in-law's house while I recovered from a painful injury. They set me up with a wonderful little "apartment" in their basement - recliner, remotes (of course), kitchenette. And like all the babies in our family, a night monitor. Now, I needed some help in the middle of the nigh...

It was one of those winter nights that chills you to the bone - cold temperatures, a brisk north wind, a freezing rain, some snow. Our friends were inside their house, and their horses were inside their barn. Well, actually, three out of four of their horses were inside the barn. Cassie, their Shetland, was standing outside for some strange reason. So as our friends looked out their window, they s...

OK, let's put away all the junk food snacks for a minute and 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? There is one. Oh, I wouldn't recommend you eat that entire apple; you'll probably want to stop when you get to the core. But notice what's there in the...

If you've ever checked your suitcase when you're about to take a trip by airplane, you know what they do with our luggage. No, not lose it. Not usually. The ticket agent determines what your final destination will be, he prints out an adhesive sticker with that destination on it, and he puts it around your suitcase handle. And then you settle back in your seat, knowing that bag will meet you at th...

Nantucket - a romantic island off the coast of Massachusetts. Waterbrook - a humble cabin in the woods in the mountains north of New York City. Long Beach Island - a little house by the Jersey shore. See, those are places where my wife has been her most beautiful. That's not because she had new makeup on, or was all dressed up, or did her hair differently. Those are just some places where we've go...