I kept telling my wife that I expected Tarzan or George of the Jungle to come swinging through our house at any moment. She had set up a corner of the house as her own personal little jungle to accommodate the new guests in our house - our orchids. She found some sources for orchids that were pretty reasonable, and she really enjoyed collecting them. They were very stately and lovely flowers.

I guess I learned then that they come in beautiful shades of lavender, purple, red, and yellow. My favorite gardener did the best she could to create the kind of conditions those delicate flowers are used to. They need warmth in the day, and they need cooler temps at night, light, pure water, and humidity. Orchids are tropical plants and they're often found in out-of-the-way places; which poses a fascinating scenario: millions of these spectacular flowers over many centuries, displaying this exotic beauty, growing where no one may have ever seen them.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unappreciated But Beautiful."

Those orchids tell us something about what the Creator of all of us is like. He's extravagant in creating beauty deep in remote jungles, deep beneath the sea, where much of that beauty is never seen. That happens with people, too. In fact, there's probably someone listening right now who is a uniquely beautiful person - even though few, if any, have ever appreciated your beauty. An orchid doesn't need an admirer to be beautiful. Beauty unappreciated is beauty still the same.

God really did do something beautiful when He created you. First, because you're created in God's own image. The Bible tells us that "God created man in his own image...male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27). The Bible goes on to say that God knit you together in your mother's womb. That's in Psalm 139 that you are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:13-14). You may not have been treated like you're a divine masterpiece (maybe you haven't even believed it yourself) but that doesn't change the fact that you are, because God only does masterpieces.

Unfortunately, we've all made the mistake of trying to find our worth in other things: a relationship, a marriage, our children, our friends, our success. But there's never enough love. There's never enough approval. Here's why. Colossians 1:16, our word for today from the Word of God, reveals that "all things were created by Him and for Him." The "Him" is Jesus Christ. And you were created by Him and for Him. The Bible also makes it clear that we haven't lived for Him. It says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). Our beauty, our worth are rooted in the One who made us. And we're away from Him because of a lifetime of self-serving and sinful choices.

I'm so thankful that God loved us too much to leave it that way. He launched a very costly rescue mission. He sent His only Son, Jesus, to actually lay down His life in exchange for ours. To put it simply, you did the sinning, but Jesus did the dying for it so you could cross that awful canyon - the sin canyon between you and God - and experience the love you were made for and the One who gave you your worth. Suddenly, with Him in your heart, you know who you are: someone worth so much to God that He made you in His image and He paid for you with His blood.

You've been looking for a long time for a love and worth that only Jesus Christ can give you. And today you can actually begin your personal relationship with Him and finally be complete. What it's going to take, though, is your act of faith, telling Jesus, "I'm pinning all my hopes on You and what You did when You died for me on the cross. I want to belong to You, Jesus, from this day on."

If that's what you want, please go to our website. Go to ANewStory.com.

When you find Jesus, you really find yourself, too. Because you discover how very loved you are.

There was this plant in my office that had seen some good days and some bad days. It had really seen some pretty bad days for a while, and it looked like it was about to be a memory and there was going to be a little empty spot in the corner of my office. But one of our staff very lovingly took a knife to that plant. That doesn't sound very nice, but the plant was on its last legs and so she went and pruned out some of the dead or dying branches.

I've got good news! If you're a plant lover, and I hope you're not one of those who talks to plants. Do you? I've never really understood that, but I understand there are people who do. Anyway, here was this plant that almost didn't make it and now it was coming back to life, looking good! I call it the Lazarus plant - it sort of returned from the dead, except it didn't smell quite as bad as he did. The plant was back, and you know, it was that knife that did it. Oh, it looked like the knife was destroying the plant, but it was making it more alive.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How The Cuts That Hurt Help So Much."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God is from John 15:1-2. "Jesus said, 'I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch'" - whoa! Sounds like my office and that plant - "'He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.'" Notice here that God throws away dead branches. But do you also notice what He does with the branches that He likes, the ones that are bearing fruit? He starts cutting on them. God prunes what He believes in.

Now, if He believes in you, He might be showing it right now by cutting you back. Yes, it is love. Yes, it will focus all of the resources on a few branches. I think that's what happened to my plant. Instead of the life going out to many branches, by pruning some, the life and resource was focused so the plant could flourish. And right now God loves you enough to bring out your very best, so He's removing some branches so you can be more alive than ever.

But if you're a plant and you're being pruned, you would probably say, "He's killing me!" And he might be saying to you, "No, no, I'm helping you! I'm giving you life. Oh, I know it feels like you're dying, but you're growing." Maybe you can feel the hand of God cutting on you and trimming you, challenging you, stretching you. You say, "God, what's wrong?" Maybe nothing's wrong. Maybe He's just pruning what He believes in so you can be more fruitful than ever.

He may be asking you to deal with an overload that's developed in your life. You've taken on too much, or maybe you've got an attitude that needs work, or there's some personal stronghold that's dragging you down. Hebrews 12:1 says, "As we run our race we should lay aside every weight that we carry." Maybe He's trying to get you to lose some spiritual weight. But don't fear the pruning of God. Oh, it may feel as if you're losing. It might even feel like you're dying, but this is divine surgery that will soon lead to new life.

He's cutting you back so you'll be more alive than ever. You are experiencing the knife that gives life.

Someone said the best cure for the population explosion would be if men had to have every other baby. That would slow it down considerably! I'll tell you, there's something that women know about that process, though, that leads to life. A woman, particularly in her first pregnancy, is introduced to a long, sometimes very difficult life process. She knows she wants the baby; there's no question about the results, but it's the process she has some questions about sometimes: nausea, discomfort, her body's doing things it never did before. And the months sometimes feel like years. And last but not least, there are the labor pains. That day alone can seem like one of the longest in her life. But then...then the baby comes.

You know, a lot of life is like child bearing. A long, sometimes unpleasant process is often the only route to the joyful result you want.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Having a Baby, Facing Life's Battles."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in John 16 - it's about that motherhood experience, and I'm reading from verse 21. Jesus said, "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come. But when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." She was waiting for the baby, the process was painful, long, and difficult, but the baby came and erased all the bad memories of the process. A painful process that leads to a glorious result.

Now, that's what might be going on with the "baby" in your life right now. I don't mean some little infant, but for you, maybe it's the goal you've been striving for, the dream you've hoped would happen and you thought would happen, the outcome you've been praying for - you've been believing God for. Maybe it's an outcome for one of your children, or a dream related to your career, something you've prayed for in your ministry, or your marriage. Maybe it's a financial recovery that you've been counting on happening and trusting God for, or a physical recovery; an answer to some fervent prayer; a cry from your heart. But it's taking so long, just like a baby.

It's causing so much pain - you didn't know it would be this tough, just like a baby. It's causing things to happen to your feelings, and to your life that you never counted on, just like a baby. The process that will get you to that result has caused you to lose sight of that result that you were hoping for. Maybe you're questioning whether or not it will ever happen. You've prayed for it, but you've got doubts now.

Well, I'm going to tell you today, "Hang in there!" Jesus was saying to His disciples, "You're going to go through some times when the process is going to be so difficult, so long, you'll despair that the result will ever happen. Hang in there, guys! Remember, the God of the outcome is also the God of the process. You're trusting Him for the result. Well, can you trust Him for the process even though it's difficult; even though it's longer than you thought? Trust the processes of God, not just the results. He's working through this process right now.

And as confusing as it may seem to you, He's trying to prepare you, to prepare others, and to do it in a way that will call everyone's attention to His love and power. When the baby comes, there'll be no question that God gets the glory for it.

That means that sometimes it even has to get worse before it gets better. Just ask any woman who has been through labor. The process is difficult but right on schedule. And when that baby comes, well it will make the process worth it all.