Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So

June 27, 2012

“Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy…” (Psalm 107: 1, 2)

Redemption means to get something back that has been lost.  It is similar in meaning to the word “rehabilitation” which essentially means “to invest again with dignity.”  I have quoted the first words of a marvelous hymn of redemption.  A thought that is repeated at the end of each of the five stanzas in this psalm is that those who have been redeemed by the Lord should step up and say so – gratefully giving thanks for the various ways in which they have been redeemed.

Levels or dimensions of redemption are profiled and each description ends with the charge that we thank the Lord for His goodness in redeeming us in this way.  God redeems us from our chaos when He finds us.  He then redeems us from our chains when He sets us free from our sins.

This is followed by the way He redeems us from our foolish and sinful choices.  He emphasizes our responsibility for bringing on the consequences of our sins.

He then describes the way God redeems us from our complacency by meeting us in our crises from which He redeems us when we are at our wits end and don’t know what to do.   He agrees with Isaiah that God creates these crises (Isaiah 45:7).

Meditate on all these levels of redemption.  Ask God to continuously redeem you in all these ways.  As you reflect on each individual dimension of redemption step up and join the redeemed of the Lord in grateful worship. 

And say so…

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Posted by Dick Woodward

A Formula for Faithfulness

June 20, 2012

“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”  (1 Corinthians 4:2)

Paul declared that the greatest virtue of a servant of the Lord is faithfulness.

The story is told of a man who was told by God to push against a huge rock as his primary work for a lifetime.  The man did that and exhausted, burned out and discouraged told the Lord that rock had not moved a centimeter.  The Lord responded that He had not told the man to move the rock, but to push against it.  He made the observation that pushing against the rock had given him a strong healthy and muscular body.  God knew all along that only He could move that rock.

This leads to an acrostic based on the word push.  It goes like this:

P- Pray

U– Until

S– Something

H– Happens

I am now living in by 82nd year of life.  One of the observations I have made in my long life is that God is our Mentor.  He is always teaching us and He is fiercely committed to the proposition that we are going to grow spiritually and in every other way.  He deliberately assigns us tasks that are not only difficult but impossible knowing that those tasks will grow and mature us into a faithful servant He can use to do through us what only He can do in this world.

Another observation without which I could not function as a human being or especially as a pastor is what I call four spiritual secrets.  They are that I’m not, I can’t, I don’t even want to but He is He can He wants to and He does.

So push and pray until He does work through you.

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Posted by Dick Woodward

Specks and Planks

June 15, 2012

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7: 3-5 NIV)

Jesus had a great sense of humor; I have long imagined He spoke these words with a smile on His face.  They are, however, very wise and profound words.  The way we perceive other people has everything to do with our relationships with them.

The story is told of two psychiatrists who rode the same subway every day to their office building.  Every morning one got off the elevator at the sixth floor and the other at the tenth floor.  One morning before the sixth floor psychiatrist got off the elevator he spit in the face of the other psychiatrist.  This happened every morning that week. On Friday the elevator operator asked the tenth floor psychiatrist, “Aren’t you going to do something about this?” He responded, “That’s not my problem.  That’s his problem.  He has a problem.  He spits on people.  But that’s not my problem.  He needs to get his head read.”

Very few of us are that secure.  But if we were we would know that it takes a strong person to not retaliate.  If we have a wholesome and positive evaluation of ourselves, and others with whom we have relationships, we would not play games like specks and planks.

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Posted by Dick Woodward

A Fierce Storm and A Profound Question

June 7, 2012

“As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.’   So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, ‘Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?’    When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the water, ‘Silence! Be still!’ Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, ‘Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?’”           (Mark 4: 35-40 LB)

I have not posted a blog for quite some time because I had a medical crisis that put me in the hospital followed by a limited ability to work for about eight weeks.  This experience has reminded me of the story above of a fierce storm that was turned into a great calm by a profound question asked by Jesus.

The disciples clearly believed they were all going to drown including Jesus. The question of Jesus was essentially “When are you going to get some faith?” In other words, “Do you think that all I have told you about My kingdom and your part in it is going to drown at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee?”

Jesus promises to take us to the other side.  When fierce storms break into our lives they will not invalidate what Jesus is doing in and through us if we will let this profound question turn our fierce storms into a great calm.

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Posted by Dick Woodward