One moment they were in their apartment building. The next they were under it. Ninety people were trapped when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar suddenly leveled their building.Fifty Myanmar children went to preschool that day. At least a dozen died there in the sudden collapse of their school.

One doctor in Mandalay said: "Wherever I looked, I saw collapsed buildings. Only dust."

It's a tragedy that's almost incomprehensible. Especially when some scientists are estimating the death toll could even go to 10,000. Not numbers. Somebody's son or daughter. Husband or wife. Mom or dad.

In spite of the ferocity of the quake, many did not have to die. As one expert explained, building codes in this quake-prone area "fail to fully consider earthquake resistance measures." In other words, unlike places like Japan, structures are not built to withstand the shock of a major quake.

It's not just buildings with that kind of vulnerability. It's people.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What the Quake Can't Take."

Cancer. Stroke. Heart attack. The death of a child. Or, like me, the death of the love of your life. It's just been a litany of loss lately among friends and acquaintances. Bad news from the doctor. Financial collapse. A devastating fire or storm. The collapse of a marriage. Mental health and anxiety issues are off the charts.

It's like we're all living in a quake prone zone. The question is not, "Will there be a lifequake?" The question is, "Is what I'm building my life on strong enough to withstand the trauma that shakes everything in my world?"

So many things we live for... we depend on... our "go to's" fail us when the quake hits. We look around and there's "only dust." What is there that the quake can't take?

That's something the Biblical psalmist addresses when he wrote these words in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 46: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with surging... Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall". He's saying here that literally, everything is collapsing. But listen... "The Lord Almighty is with us."

A ship in a storm can be tossed around violently. But the anchor holds. Mine did nine years ago next month. It shook my world like nothing else ever could. The Great Quake - death - suddenly took my Karen, the love of my life since I was 19.

But there's something it couldn't take. My personal relationship with the only Person who ever beat death. The one man who walked out of His grave under His own power. Jesus. The Christ. The Son of God.

Yes, the one who promised to love me "til death do us part" kept her promise. But death did us part. But, in the words of Scripture, "Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39). It's the love we saw poured out for our sins on the day we call Good Friday. A love that didn't turn its back then. A love that never will.

Millions of people for two thousand years have anchored their life to this Jesus, and found that "we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19). It seems appropriate that on that morning we call Easter the Bible says, "there was a violent earthquake" at the tomb of Jesus. For that is the day He walked out of that grave to conquer the Great Quake of death.

Listen, if you want to be sure you belong to Him in an uncertain world, our website is there to help you begin a relationship with Him. Would you go there today? It's ANewStory.com.

Someday I will face the Great Quake. But not alone. For, as the Bible says, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For YOU are with me!" (Psalm 23:4)

I was out of the country, and my wife was visiting her father, along with our daughter and son-in-law. My wife convinced her dad to hike with them back into the woods to see the spring where they used to go to get water when she was a little girl. That spring gushing from the rocks, just beneath a cave above it.

They spent a few minutes exploring and then they headed back. That night our son-in-law pulled out the video that he'd shot of their little expedition. As the picture panned past that darkened cave, he stopped the video and rewound it to get a closer look. And there, gleaming in the darkness, were the two eyes of a big cat - as in panther or cougar. They had not seen that cat - they had been exploring right beneath that cat - and they never knew the danger they were in.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Secret of Staying Safe."

I wonder how many of those you and I have had in our lives; the things that could have hurt us or destroyed us that we never knew about - the cats that never pounced. In an increasingly dangerous world, isn't it great to know that you are under that kind of protection?

Paul wrote about that security in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Timothy 4:17-18. He said, "I was delivered from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom." Now there is a pretty powerful antidote to fear! The Lord is going to rescue me from every threat, except one - the one that's designed to take me home, right on time. That's right on time according to the life plan He made for me before there was a me.

That doesn't mean we don't take precautions, the ones that God directs us to. Paul often continued to preach boldly, even when he knew there were forces who wanted to kill him in the city. But other times he left town quickly or sneaked out of the city in a basket. When Nehemiah and his workers were threatened, he said, "We prayed to our God and we posted a guard day and night" (Nehemiah 4:9). Now, look! Our faith is not in that guard but in our God. But sometimes God chooses to protect us through practical steps that He asks us to take.

But ultimately we're safe because Almighty God is watching over us. In just six verses in Psalm 121, it says "The Lord watches over you" five times! It concludes by saying, "The Lord will keep you from all harm - He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."

So, when is the last time you praised the Lord for all those cats that never pounced? For all those times you've been delivered from danger and never even knew it! Wait 'till we watch the video in heaven. I think we're going to be amazed at what could have happened that didn't!

By the way, something amazing happens when we finally come to the end of trying to make it to God our own way, and understand that God had to come for us in the person of His Son, Jesus. And the only way that the sin that keeps me out of heaven could be paid for was by His Son dying for me. See, we're totally not safe. We will never be safe forever. We will pay the price for the sin against the God that put us here unless that sin is forgiven by the only One who can, and that's the One who died to pay its penalty. That's God's Son, Jesus.

What happens when we put our life in His hands is for the first time in your life and finally and forever you are safe in the arms of the Savior. Have you ever given yourself to Him? Let this be the day. Open your heart to Him. Tell Him, "I'm Yours, Jesus." Go to our website and find out how - ANewStory.com.

When our kids were little, we used to put them to sleep every night singing a little chorus: "Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of His hand. Sheltered o'er, sheltered o'er, with His love forevermore. No ill can harm me, no foe alarm me, for He keeps both day and night. Safe am I, in the hollow of His hand." If that's where you are, you're really safe forever. If you've never put your life in Jesus' hands, come home. It's safe there.

Clark Kent! What a wimp! I started watching Clark Kent when he was a "mild-mannered reporter," it said, "for a great metropolitan newspaper." I was a kid then. Poor Clark! He always seemed pretty easy to push around, kind of Joe Ordinary; "Clark Can't" really. Of course there was a secret no one in Metropolis suspected. No one knew that underneath that ordinary exterior was his real identity - Superman! Clark knew that he was a whole lot more than meets the eye.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Secret Identity, a Secret No More."

For many years the ancient Jews had been sort of Clark Kent - pushed around, ordinary, powerless. They had been the slave labor force of the Egyptian Empire, exploited, they were beaten and they were stripped of their dignity. In a word, they were victims. But not any more. No, God had delivered them. They were free! Outside that is, but they hadn't gotten that message inside. The Lord was giving them a super new identity, but they were still "Clark Kent-ing."

Our word for today from the Word of God, Leviticus 26, beginning at verse 12 (you're going to like this). God says, "I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high." Man, listen to who they are! God says, "You are My people, no longer slaves. The bars that have held you have been broken. You can walk with your head held high." God's saying, "I know what you were, but you can stop living like that now. You are liberated! You're Mine!"

They were out of Egypt, sure. But Egypt wasn't out of them. They were out of slavery, but the slavery wasn't out of them. You say, "What does that have to do with me?" A lot, especially if that word victim rings a bell in your heart. Because maybe you've been carrying around a lot of hurt. Honestly, there's been rejection, abuse, maybe rape, abandonment, betrayal. In some form, or maybe in many forms you have been the victim of someone else's sin. If you've been through a lot of pain, it is very natural to see your identity as a victim. Like a business card that has your name and your position on it, except yours has a name and it says "Victim."

But it doesn't have to be that way if you have given your heart to Jesus Christ. He's called Savior, Redeemer, Healer, and if you have Christ, you have a secret identity. A secret because maybe only He knows who you really are now. You don't have to be what you have been. You are no longer a slave He says. He's broken the bars that held you. You can walk with your head held high. You've been loved by God Himself. You've been cleaned up from the sins of the past - yours and those of others because of Jesus' death on the cross. He's made you a son of the King and daughter of the King. You're a prince; you're a princess. You don't have to make the future an extension of your painful or sinful past.

Ask for His grace to turn the page on your past and not be defined by it anymore. To begin a whole new volume. Begin to act as if you are who God says you are, not a victim but a victor.

Clark, maybe your secret identity has been secret even to you. But God says you're free! You're royalty! It's not a secret any more. You don't have to crawl anymore. Because of Jesus, you were meant to fly. It all comes together the day you begin your personal relationship with Jesus. That could be right now when you say, "Jesus, I am Yours."

He'll make you "a new creation," the Bible says. And our website will help you know you belong to Him. If you can get there today, it's ANewStory.com. This is who you were meant to be - new, because of Jesus.