Five thousand miles in one month! That's not too bad if you're in an airplane, but that's how far I drove at least one summer and we've had many long trips like that. We just about ran the wheels off of our van driving from one conference, or speaking assignment, or college trip to another. Let's see, if I averaged 50 miles per hour, that means I drove for 100 hours. Oh, man!

Well, it was a great time, it really was. You know why? My wife was with me. We finally got to be together for extended blocks of time with no phone, no errands to do, no people to take us away. We didn't talk all the time, although we had a lot to catch up on. We probably could have been catching up for about 100 hours. Right?

Sometimes we just played music, or occasionally we would just spontaneously pray about something together. Or a lot of times we just enjoyed the silence or some of the beautiful scenery. And then every once in a while you'd hear the silence punctuated with an occasional comment or just an "I love you." I think my wife spoke for both of us when she described what was so nice about all those 5,000 miles. She said, "It was just so great being in your company; just the two of us."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Just the Two of Us."

You know, relationships need time together and especially times when there's like no agenda. It really enriched me to have that kind of time with my wife during all that driving. There's another relationship that might be a need, maybe a desperate need of some "just being" time.

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 42, out of the heart of David, verses 1 and 2. "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God; for the living God." And then he asks this powerful question, "When can I go and meet with God?" That's the cry of a believer for the greatest emotional need he has - to be intimate with his Lord. When was the last time you just sat down with Jesus and enjoyed His company? Or do you only see Him when you have a list for Him?

Jeremy was over at our house with his parents, and he'd been downstairs playing. Suddenly he came into the living room and kind of sat down in his dad's lap, and his dad liked that. His dad kind of wrapped his arms around him, started to cuddle him, and Jeremy didn't settle down; he just kept wiggling. He looked up at his dad and he said, "Daddy, you know I'm not sitting here just because I want to be with you." Great! Yeah, he needed something.

Wow! How often is that me with my Heavenly Father, or you maybe? In fact we say, "Well, I'm not here just because I want to be with You; I've got my list. I need something." But you're growing up as a child of God when you want to be with God just to be with God. You say, "Ron, I don't really feel that way yet." Well, that's okay. Tell Him that. Ask Him for the desire for His company; this passion that David had just to be with Him. "When can I go and meet with God?"

We have the indescribable privilege to cuddle in the lap of the King of the Universe, to call Him "Daddy," to let Him comfort our battered emotions, to speak new ideas and insights into our quiet heart. He can't do that while you're talking to Him. To be real, real close, you can't just run in and run through your "pleases" and "thank yous" and then run out. You can do all that, but then stay a little longer.

I think you and Jesus will feel the same way about it. It's like my wife said, "It was so great just being in your company, Lord, just the two of us."

Two roller coasters. Only one seemed like a real option to me. I should point out that I really don't ride roller coasters much. "Because you're chicken," you say. No, because I'm too short. I just don't measure up to that little height chart that they have at the entrance to the coaster. Actually, I have a friend who declines roller coaster invitations by saying, "I can't. I have an inner ear problem." I like that. I may have to remember that one. For whatever reason, my rides on roller coasters are few and far between. But at this particular amusement park that I visited a few years ago, they had two roller coasters side by side and two lines to get to them. Over one line was a sign that said, "Forward." Over the other line, a sign that said - yeah, you guessed it - "Backward." You can ride looking forward or looking backward. Like this is a choice?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Looking Backward, Missing What's Ahead."

There are two lines in life, and two cars you can ride in. One says, "Forward" and the other says, "Backward." You choose. Frankly, I don't want to ride looking back at where I've already been. I want to ride looking ahead to where I'm going. I hope you do, too.

And that's what God wants for you. In our word for today from the Word of God in Isaiah 43:18-19 - some of my anchor verses. Here's what He says: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." God wants today to be the first day of the rest of your life, not just another day of what your life has been up until now. This can be page one of a whole new volume or just another page of the same old story.

Maybe you've been riding too long looking backward. You keep rehearsing and reliving the hurt of your past, your failures, and the regrets over what you've done or what you should have done. But that's the past, and none of it can be changed. But if you don't move beyond the pain, the anger, the bitterness, the self-pity, the grief, and the self-condemnation - if you keep dwelling on that, you'll miss the part of your life that can be changed - the future.

One of God's great representatives, Paul, said, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). Jesus is the Lord of new beginnings, of fresh starts, of clean slates. You need to come to Him and let Him release you from being tied to the people who've hurt you, by getting His grace to forgive them. You need to ask His help to begin to define your life, not by what has happened, but by what's going to happen; what can happen because of Jesus in your life.

Just a few verses after God's call to forget the past and go for His new thing, He tells us how that's possible. He says, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions...and remembers your sins no more" (Isaiah 43:25). That's what Jesus wants to do for you. It's why He died on that cross and why He rose again from His grave. He paid the death penalty for every wrong thing you've ever done so He could erase your sin from God's book forever, because otherwise, your sin will cost you heaven.

A new beginning. A fresh start. A clean slate. If you're at the point in your life where that's what you want, then it's time to open up your life to Jesus Christ. He's the Lord of new beginnings. You can reach out to Him right where you are and tell Him something like this, "Jesus, I'm done running my own life, I'm turning it over for You to run. I'm grabbing you with both hands because you died for my sin and I want today to be the first day of a new life; of a new me."

There's a lot more great information about this at our website and I pray you'll go there today. It's ANewStory.com.

You've been looking back long enough. There's no reason your life has to be just more of what it's been before, because Jesus has come to you today. And with Jesus, your life will never be the same again.

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!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Open Door On a Locked-Up Heart."

There are probably some people in your world who you want in heaven with you someday - people who probably don't know your Jesus yet. Maybe people who seem to have little interest in knowing Jesus. Sometimes, it seems as if the doors to their heart are all locked up when it comes to Him. But there is a way to get in, no matter how hostile they may seem.

In our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 2:12, Peter says we should "live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us." He even says that "by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men."

A lost person might resist your invitation to Christian meetings and reject your Christian beliefs; but random acts of love and kindness? They're usually a key that unlocks even the hardest hearts. As Jesus carried out His rescue mission here on earth, He wrapped His message in concrete acts of love - touching the leper that no one would touch, going to dinner with "sinners" that the religious people avoided, going to a neighborhood where racial barriers said He should never go, or cuddling the children who came to Him.

That kind of love tears down walls between a believer and an unbeliever; it challenges an unbeliever's misconceptions about Christians being angry, and condemning and uncaring. It creates curiosity about what makes this caring person tick. And the good news is that anybody can show Jesus' love to a lost person. You don't have to have a theological education or a Hollywood personality. It simply requires that you focus on someone whose eternity you care about and you ask yourself this question: "Knowing what I know about this person, what things could I do that would make him or her feel loved?"

Maybe it's babysitting or helping to care for a live-in parent for free, filling in at work so they can have a day off, or helping with a school subject that person is struggling with, or maybe you could provide transportation, or offer to do some "dirty work" for them. Maybe it's forgiving a debt or providing work for them. You could introduce a newcomer to his new surroundings, open your home for dinner, how about repairing a vehicle or an appliance, or just taking an interest in something that matters to them.

I call it "rescue loving." It involves a conscious effort to identify what would make a lost person in your life feel loved. You can find a person's language of love by asking, "What need do they have right now that I could help with?" You literally go looking for needs into which you can pour the kind of love with which Jesus has loved you. That's how you find the open door to a life that you can't get into any other way.