There are few words that strike fear into the heart of a student like the word "test." Now, I'm informed that some are to be feared more than others. For example, an essay test is a 10 on the anxiety scale. You have to know your stuff. True and false, well, that's not as bad. And multiple choice, oh man, that seems to be especially popular among students. See, there's the right answer right in front of you; just pick the right one. Now, occasionally multiple choice tests are complicated by those confusing words: All of the above, or none of the above, which makes it a little tougher. Actually, academic tests are pretty good preparation for the real test that you take for the rest of your life.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Marriage Is a Multiple Choice Test."

Now, when you go into training on how to counsel people, one of the first things they'll tell you is to ask this question when you're counseling someone, "What are all your options?" And I've often done that when I've tried to help someone...to list all of the choices that they have in a given situation. So, get your multiple choices right in front of you. It's especially good advice when it's your marriage that's being tested. And, by the way, every marriage is tested some time or another.

Maybe it happens in all those expectations you had, or suddenly confronted with the reality and what you expected him or her to be, or what you expected marriage to be. Well, reality is almost always different. And maybe that's hitting you.

There's conflict that doesn't seem to be resolved. Maybe there are secrets about your spouse that you never realized before like you do now. Maybe you've been very wounded by this one who's closest to you. Or communication is like totally broken down. Maybe your mate is very busy and you're very lonely. Maybe you've even been violated by the ugliness of unfaithfulness. But when your marriage is hurting, what are your choices?

Well our word for today from the Word of God is in Malachi 2, beginning in verse 13. "Another thing you do..." God says, "...you flood the Lord's altar with tears. You weep and wail because He no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, 'Why?' It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you've broken faith with her. Though she is your partner - the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the Lord made them one? Do not break faith with the wife of your youth. "I hate divorce," says the Lord God." Now, in a world where divorce is considered one of your multiple choices, God says, "I hate divorce." He doesn't say, "I hate divorced people." He says, "I hate divorce."

One of the most important choices my wife and I ever made was this: Divorce is not and never will be one of our options. You know what effect that has in a marriage? All your energy goes into fighting for your marriage. It's like a house you know you're going to stay in for the rest of your life. You put all your energy into making that one work and fixing it up. None of your energy should be converted into considering a divorce possibility. As soon as you acknowledge that possibility, you make it much more likely.

Now, there are a lot of multiple choices: To pray in faith that God will change things, to seek counsel, to talk to other couples, to schedule time to talk it through, to fight it through, to admit you've been wrong, to choose to forgive. But it strengthens that marriage to eliminate ending that marriage as an option.

Now, while the Christian world opens the door wider and wider for believers to choose divorce, God hasn't changed. He still hates divorce. Again, not divorced people. When marriage becomes a multiple choice test, use every choice there is to fight for your marriage. And don't divert energy into how to end it. Jesus' first miracle was at a wedding, and He's still doing marriage miracles.

Rwanda - it was the centerpiece of a lot of news attention back in 1994. Bloody civil war; tens of thousands of Rwandans were slaughtered there. There were nightly images of emaciated refugees, dying of disease, dying of starvation. And children; oh, you just couldn't forget the children. Many of those kids had lost everything in the carnage.

Billy Graham's son, Franklin Graham, took a medical team to try to help there, and I heard him tell about one little girl he said he could never forget, and I don't think I will. He was in this rebel camp and he was walking by an army truck. He noticed this one little girl sitting in the back of it and she was just rocking back and forth, and she was singing something very softly but in a language Franklin couldn't understand.

There was a soldier standing by there paying no attention to the girl, and Franklin said, "What happened to this little girl?" And he said, "Oh, the same as all the others. She's got nobody left." Franklin said, "Well, would you do me one more favor? Would you tell me what she's singing?" The soldier seemed a little annoyed, but he listened for a minute and he said, "Yeah, it's..." Then he went on to translate it. When he translated the song, it was clear that this little Rwandan orphan hadn't lost everything.

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

The soldier, after hearing this song sung by that little Rwandan orphan girl said, "Yeah, it's something about Jesus loving her." Franklin said, "Is it Jesus Loves Me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so?" "Yeah, yeah, that's it." With her world torn apart, with every human who loved her gone, this precious little victim had one unloseable relationship. Do you? They couldn't take Jesus away from her.

Our word for today from the Word of God - Romans 8. It begins by talking about the worst things that could happen to you in your life, and in verse 37 it says, "We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nothing in the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." A love you can never lose; a love that will never lose you.

Jesus is the unloseable person we've looked for all our lives. Actually we're built to belong to our Creator. If it weren't for Jesus, we would never have the possibility of that heart-satisfying relationship because of the gap between God and us. It's called sin. That's basically the self-rule of our lives. It could be summed up in those words "I did it my way." So the God that we're built by and for is out of our reach until that sin bill is paid. Talk about love! God's only Son came to remove the only thing that could keep us from His love - the death penalty for our sin. From the moment you say, "Jesus, I'm putting my total trust in you and what you did on the cross for me" you belong to God. You always will. Nothing in heaven, nothing in hell, nothing on earth can end that relationship. God has guaranteed it.

Quite some time ago, my wife and I spent a week at a little house at the Jersey shore; it was like a mini-honeymoon. And two weeks later she came down with a life-threatening case of hepatitis. I'll never forget the night when she almost died. I realized that this one person who would never choose to leave me might not have any choice about it that night. I'm so grateful God spared her. But that night I realized that the closest thing I have on earth to an unloseable person is loseable. But you know what? Since that day, came the day that I did lose her. But I was still able to sing "Jesus loves me, this I know." I hope you can too.

You probably never thought you'd learn anything from a little Rwandan orphan girl, but she was hanging on to Jesus with all her heart. Maybe it's time for you to do that. I'd love to help you know how. Join me at our website ANewStory.com.

Isn't it time you grabbed Jesus' hand? Because that's the only hand that won't ever let you go.

The great Bible teacher, Dr. Harry Ironside, used to tell a story about a man who lived in a small country town in England. One day, he went to London where he would need to stay for several days. He was glad to be there on a Sunday because that gave him an opportunity to hear some of the great preachers of his day. He wrote home to his wife, and he said: "Last Sunday morning I went to hear Dr. Crandle, and in the evening I went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle to hear Charles Spurgeon. I was so greatly impressed by both of them. Dr. Crandle is certainly a great preacher, but Mr. Spurgeon has a great Savior."

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

So who are people impressed with after they have been with you? Are they impressed with you, or are they impressed with your Jesus? In many ways, that's the measure of the authenticity and the impact of your life.

There have been few more brilliant, more gifted men to walk this planet than the great Apostle Paul. But he didn't want people thinking about him. He wanted to leave people thinking about Jesus. He says so in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 4:5, "We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." He's saying it's not about us, folks. It's all about Jesus. And that's a relief!

I'm guessing there are some people close to you who do not have a relationship with Jesus and therefore they have no hope of heaven because they don't have Him. And there are probably some of them at least who you've never told about what Jesus did for them, and I bet I can guess why. That would be one word - fear. Am I right? Fear of what they'll think, fear for your relationship or your position, fear of messing it up, or fear of rejection. All the fears that keep us from telling about Jesus have one thing in common. They're all about me. They might reject me, they might think less of me, or I might mess it up. We trip over our preoccupation with ourselves and we never get to the people whose eternity depends on them hearing about our Jesus.

But it's not about me. "We preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord." It's all about Jesus. That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." There it is, Jesus and His cross. That's your message. Knowing what Jesus did for them on the cross - that's really the only impression that matters. So, don't encumber the simplicity of that glorious Good News with other things like church, religion, cultural issues, politics, lifestyle issues. There's no point in attacking the lost lifestyle of a person who's lost! "What a surprise! Wow, they're acting lost!" Well they need a Savior. Let's focus on that!

There's something very wrong if you're using Jesus to make a name for yourself or to impress other people with you. You are actually hijacking His glory. And there's something wrong if you're not telling people about Jesus because of something about you. It's not who's doing the telling that's the issue; it's who you're telling about - the One who offers the greatest love in the world.

Just take them to the cross and show them that. He offers them the greatest power in the world. Take them to that empty tomb and show them that. He'll give you the words. He'll give you the opportunity, and He is your message. So make Jesus the subject. Keep Jesus the subject. Don't let religion become the subject, because Jesus made this awesome promise. He said, "When I am lifted up...I will draw all men to myself" (John 12:32).