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 gone to be alone, and where I finally slowed down and noticed her again. She was beautiful all the time, but I didn't notice it all the time, because I saw her best when we were alone. If you're in a lonely time right now, let's talk.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Seen In Your Desert."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 16:7. It tells the story of a young woman named Hagar. Maybe you remember that Abraham and Sarah got impatient for God to send the son that He had promised, and Sarah was getting older and older. The baby didn't come, so Sarah, going along with the customs of that day, suggested that Abraham sleep with Hagar, her maidservant, and then Hagar would be the surrogate mother through whom a child would come. They couldn't wait for God to do it His way, so they had to figure out a way they were going to do it. It's not how God wanted it done, and after Hagar gets pregnant, Sarah gets a little jealous. And Hagar gets a little caustic about it.

Now we find her out in the desert all alone because guess what? She's been driven there by her mistress, Sarah. Here she is used, rejected, deserted, she's pregnant, she's alone in the desert, she's the picture of abandonment; all alone, or so she thinks.

Genesis 16, verse 7: "The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert. The angel of the Lord said to her, 'You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.'" He goes on to describe some of what to expect from this son, and then she gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her. "'You are the God who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the One who sees me.' That's why the well is called Beer Lahai Roi." Which, by the way, means "the well of the Living One who sees me."

It's interesting the name of God here, "I have seen the One who sees me." Maybe right now you're in the desert; it's a very lonely desert. God sees you in your loneliness, and He has heard your tears. We keep hearing our desire to be seen...Oh, here is the God who sees you. The broken relationship, the lost loved one, the years of living alone, the collapse of your family; God sees you. Do you see Him? She said, "I have now seen the One who has been seeing me." When no one sees, when no one knows, when no one understands, Ishmael. You know what that name means? God hears.

And guess where we tend to see God best? Yeah, in the deserts of our lives. Not until we are stripped of all the other supports in our life, that's when Hagar finally saw the God who had been seeing her all along. That's when we see Him. That's when you dig deep into His resources; you see what He can do. You feel His love, and you let His love be enough. Paul said, "When everybody had abandoned him" (2 Timothy 4:17), "the Lord stood by my side."

I told you when I noticed my wife's beauty and wisdom the most - when there was no one else around. Well, it's the same in a relationship with the Lord Jesus. When it's just the two of you, maybe like it is right now, you can see Him as you've never seen Him before.

How did we know it was a stupid question? Our family was in Alaska some years ago and we asked some of the folks there what seemed like a reasonable question, "Where can we go to see a moose?" Turns out seeing a moose is really no big deal in Alaska. In fact, some people we talked to had hit one recently! So, they're everywhere. Sure. While I was busy speaking, my wife and kids drove all over the countryside looking for some moose. Nada. Maybe people hit them all! They even went to the Moose Sanctuary and they saw no moose there; frustrated, tired of looking, and pretty sure those moose were only in pictures in the tourist brochures. One morning we walked out of the house where we were staying, piled in the car, and started driving down the driveway. Suddenly, one of the kids shouted, "Moose!" And sure enough, there were three members of the antler gang right there at the bottom of our driveway! What we'd been looking for all that time was right in front of us!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Looking for What's Right There."

You know this is a time when spirituality is important to more and more people, there's a word you hear a lot and folks use it to describe themselves spiritually - I'm a "seeker" or I'm "searching spiritually." And that's a good thing to be doing. We're created with this eternity dimension by a God who is eternal, and we'll only find life's real meaning by shopping in the store called "spiritual answers." That part is right.

Today, as never before, there's a spiritual cafeteria to choose from. Our search for the truth can carry us to many different religions or a blend of several religions; into New Age spirituality, into ourselves to find the power within us. But like our family hunting for moose, we're looking, but often not finding what we're looking for. Much searching - still no lasting peace, no security about eternity.

It was a number of years ago where 39 members of the "Heaven's Gate" cult committed suicide. It was really unsettling because these were bright people, competent people; sincere spiritual seekers hoping to graduate from earth to, believe it or not, a waiting spaceship. That was their unusual belief. But listen, this is what I wanted to share with you - what one national news magazine observed about them and about us. It said, "Subtract the spaceship and the mass suicide, and you have a yearning and a search familiar to millions of Americans." That's true.

That magazine pointed out what they called universal needs that many people are trying to meet: "the craving to belong, the wish to connect to something larger than oneself, the secret hope of finding an all-caring parent who offers protection and comfort." I'll tell you what, those needs were built into us by our Creator.

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Colossians 1:16. "All things were created by Him and for Him." That simple statement from God could be the beginning of the end of your spiritual search. He says you were created by Jesus; you were created for Jesus. The Savior who's been pretty much in front of you all the time, but maybe you've passed him by because you get Jesus confused with all the religious baggage attached to His name because you thought it was some new spirituality you needed.

But only Jesus died to remedy our central spiritual problem: we're away from God because of our sin. And only the One who paid for that sin with His life can put you and God together. Without that, all spiritual searching must, sooner or later, turn up empty. The day you find is the day you say, "Jesus, You died and it was for me, for my sin. And today, I am Yours."

He's been here all the time, but you've missed Him. Why don't you make today the day you find Him? Make a trip to our website and find out there how to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.

Searching is good. Finding is better. Your long search will end in the loving arms of the One who's been patiently waiting for you all this time. Jesus - the end of your search.

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 this really scenic 18-hole golf course. I'm not a golfer, but I am a walker. There was a beautiful path around there, so I struck out on my early morning walk, and the mist was there, and the dew was all over the golf course. And I said, "You know what? I am the first one to conquer this golf course today. There'll be a lot of people out here later, but I have beaten all the golfers." I felt like the world was all mine, or so I thought. Then I got to one hole and I saw a carpet of dew covering the green, and footprints all across the green. Someone had walked there before me.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Someone Else Has Walked There First."

Our word for today from the Word of God is from John 10:4. Jesus beautifully, intimately describes His relationship with us here as being like that of a shepherd with His sheep: Him shepherd, me sheep. John 10:4 says this, "When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them and the sheep follow Him."

I discovered this verse many years ago, just before we moved from all of the "knowns" that we had in Chicago, to all of the unknowns of northern New Jersey and New York City. We moved there to begin a youth ministry. We had no supporters, we had no place to live, we had no office, we had no staff. We knew nothing. We just claimed this verse, "when He brings out His sheep, He will always go ahead of them." We got there and we found out that God had picked out an apartment, He picked out friends, He had picked out a church, He had picked out an office for us, He picked out supporters; people who could open doors that we needed opened, and that's what God does for all His kids.

Everywhere Jesus will lead you to walk, He promises to walk there first; He goes ahead of you. That's how a shepherd operates. Wherever he's going to take his sheep, he goes ahead of them to see if there's enough pasture for them to be fed, if there are any wolves there that he needs to take care of, and where the cliffs are that they might walk over. He makes sure that He checks it out before they get there. He prepares it for them. That's just the kind of Shepherd He is.

Think of the fear that takes out of the future; the uncertainty. Like the old song says, "I know not what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future." Right now maybe you're looking ahead at the next few weeks, maybe months and you're anxious about it. Honestly, there's a whole lot of question marks; there's a lot of unknown out there.

Well, there is one known in the midst of your unknowns. Guess what? That one known covers all the unknowns. Jesus will always be your "go ahead" Shepherd. He always does that with His sheep. He has promised that He would, and He always keeps His promises.

In fact, today He knows your situation, and I think He brought us together and brought this verse to my heart for you, as a personal assurance from Him to you that He is already stepping ahead of you. There's nothing to fear on a path that Jesus has walked before you. It's the blessed security that only a follower of Jesus Christ can know.

So, wherever He takes you, yours won't be the first set of footprints you'll find there. Your Shepherd got there first.