New Year’s Eve Question

December 31, 2015

“Where have you come from, and where are you going?” (Genesis 16:8)

The last days of the year are a good time for reflection and resolution.  Have you ever had a year that was so bad you could not live with the idea of another year of the same?  Are you there now? If you are, you could be ready to hear the question quoted above that God likes to ask people from time to time.

This is the consummate question of direction.  It implies that if we do not have a crisis that changes things, we are going where we have come from.

Sometimes we are the thing that needs to change. Jeremiah actually mocks us for trying to change ourselves: “Why do you gad about so much to change your ways? …  Can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin or the leopard its spots?  Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to doing evil.” (Jeremiah 2:36; 13:23)

There is a big difference between trying to change ourselves and being changed by God.  Unless we are changed by God, or God changes what only He can change, we’re trapped in a cycle of going where we have come from.

With great spiritual discernment David asked God to create in him a new heart and God answered that prayer for him (Psalm 51:10).  God can do that today.  We’re not doomed to that cycle of going where we have come from.  We can be changed and God can change the things that must change so we will not go where we have come from next year.

Confess that you can’t change yourself or your circumstances, but believe God can as you enter the New Year… then watch at God work.

Dick Woodward, 30 December 2011

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The Christmas That Shall Be (Part II)

December 23, 2015

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  (Psalm 27:13)

The Old Testament people of God lived their lives believing it was possible to ‘see the Good.’  In Psalm 34 King David challenges hopeless fugitives to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good,’ and the Lord is the Good they have been seeking all their lives.

In the great love chapter of the Bible, the Apostle Paul tells us the three lasting, eternal values in life are faith, hope, and love (I Cor. 13:13).  Love is the greatest of these eternal values because God is Love.  Faith is an eternal value because faith brings us to God.  Hope is also one of the three great eternal values because hope brings us to the faith that brings us to God.  In the heart of every human being, God plants hope – the conviction that something good exists in this life and someday that good is going to intersect our lives.  That is what the author of Hebrews means when he tells us that faith gives substance to the things for which we have been hoping. (Hebrews 11:1)

Every year, approximately 30,000 people commit suicide.  Research by sociologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists tells us they commit suicide because they lose hope.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we must realize that we have the Good News that can give hope to the hopeless.  Because we really believe in the Christmas that was, we should share it with the people Jesus came to seek and to save.  (Luke 19:10).  We show that we really believe in the Christmas that shall be when we tell hopeless people that God is going to give us another Christmas.

Like the wise men we should ask the question, “Where is He?,” seek Him until we find Him, worship Him, and give the gift of our lives to Him.  Then, like the shepherds, we should tell everybody the very Good News that Christmas has come and Christmas is coming again to this otherwise hopeless world!

Dick Woodward, A Christmas Prescription

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The Christmas That Shall Be (Part 1)

December 18, 2015

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.”  (Matthew 25:31)

More than 300 times in the New Testament God tells us He is going to affect another intervention in human history.  Read Scriptures like Matthew 24 and 25, I Corinthians 15, II Peter 3 and I Thessalonians 4:13-18.  You will also find this Good News in the Old Testament, especially in the prophets.

You will discover that all these Scriptures proclaim the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, which is the blessed hope of authentic followers of Jesus Christ and hope for this world.  Almighty God is coming to earth again!  This time He is not just telling a few chosen people such as a priest, a peasant girl, a carpenter, a few wise men and some shepherds.  God is telling anyone who reads the Bible.

The famous oratorio by Handel, which is sung every Christmas, compiles the Scriptures in the Old and News Testaments that describe the Christmas that was and the Christmas that shall be.  This magnificent sacred music is simply called, “The Messiah.”

As you reflect on this beautiful music and the Christmas that is yet to be, if you do not believe the 318 New Testament Scriptures, or the many Old Testament prophetic Scriptures concerning the future Christmas, then, like Zacharias in the first chapter of Luke, your mouth is shut by your unbelief.  You know the Good News that could give hope to hopeless people all around you, but your unbelief silences you.

Knowing about the Christmas that shall be would give hope to your sphere of acquaintances who are living without hope.  Do you know, or do you remember, what it is like to live your life, day in and day out, without hope?

Dick Woodward, A Christmas Prescription

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The Christmas That Was

December 11, 2015

“Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which is translated, God with us.”   (Matthew 1:23)

The essence of the Christmas that was can be described by the word “incarnation.”  The biblical word ‘carne’ is the Greek word for ‘flesh.” When we consider the Christmas that was, we find ourselves face to face with the incarnation – the miracle that God decided to make human flesh His official residence for 33 years.  We date time from the first Christmas because human flesh became God’s address when Christ was born in Bethlehem.

Asked who Jesus is, a little boy answered, “God with skin on.” That’s good theology!  When Jesus was born, one of His names was “Emmanuel,” which means God with us.

The Bible also frequently uses the word flesh to mean ‘human nature, unaided by God.’  God knew that our human nature desperately needed supernatural aid.  The essence of ‘incarnation‘ when applied to the Christmas that was, demonstrates the reality that we needed God to do something for us that we could not possibly do for ourselves.  On that first Christmas Eve God intersected human history with what we might call “The Great Intervention,” that we might experience salvation.

If you carefully read the first chapter of Luke, you will discover that God told a priest what He was going to do and the priest did not believe Him.  God responded by shutting the priest’s mouth.  Zacharias had the greatest sermon to preach, but lost the opportunity because unbelief shut his mouth.

God told some wise men what He was doing.  Those wise men asked the question, “Where is He?” They traveled far searching for Him until they found Him.  When they found Him, they worshiped Him and gave gifts to Him.

Dick Woodward, A Christmas Prescription

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A Christmas Prescription

December 4, 2015

“But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.  (Luke 2:19)

The holidays are the most family-oriented weeks of the year.  Yet for many – those who have no family, singles, widows and widowers, the divorced among us, and those with painful and negative family experiences – the holidays can be the most difficult time of the year.  As a pastor, every year I had parishioners who asked me in early November to pray for them to make it through the holidays.  The hard reality is that lonely, depressed, and anxious people are lonelier, more depressed, and more anxious during the “season to be jolly” than at any other time of the year.

At the same time, the last four weeks of the year are filled with joy and happiness for millions of people and their families.  Whether the holiday season is your favorite time or your most difficult time of the year, I want to share a Christmas prescription that can bring the true meaning of Christmas to your holidays and to every day of your new year.

Try to block out the advertising blitz of the commercial Christmas we have today. Carefully read the Christmas scriptures in the first two chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and then read the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John.

God told a devout peasant girl what He was going to do.  Mary believed God, but she asked Him questions and pondered these things in her heart.

Dick Woodward, A Christmas Prescription

Editor’s Note: During December, the blog posting elf would like to share one of Papa’s booklets, A Christmas Prescription, bit by bit with you. Be blessed this month as we ‘ponder’ the Christmas that was, the Christmas that shall be, and the Christmas that is…

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Entering the Gates of Thanksgiving

November 26, 2015

“Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” (Psalm 100)

 In this profound thanksgiving psalm David tells us that coming into the presence of God is like having an audience with a great King.  That audience begins with the gates of thanksgiving that are followed by the courts of praise.  In a corporate worship service or in your closet worship, always try to begin your approach to God at the gates of thanksgiving followed by the courts of praise.

I personally know of no other worship helps that mean more to me than to begin my approach to God with thanksgiving.  When I begin thanking Him and praising Him for all my blessings I soon find myself coming before His presence with singing.  In His presence I know that He is God.  I know that He is my Shepherd and I am His sheep.  I know that He is good, His mercy is everlasting and He wants me to share the truth of His Word in all the lands of this world because He wants people in all the lands of this world and in every generation to know what it is to make a joyful shout of worship in His presence.

 Let this great worship psalm of David show you how to

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

Dick Woodward, 23 November 2011

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Like it Was, Like it Is

November 19, 2015

“… although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful…”   (Romans 1:21)

In the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the believers in Rome he gives a resume of the fall of the human race.  Paul does the same thing Moses did in the third chapter of Genesis.  They both describe the fall of man as it was and as it is.  By that I mean they are not merely describing an historical event in the past but they want us to understand what is happening in our culture right now.

In Paul’s account of the fall of the human race he traces the origin of our fall to two things: we did not glorify God as God, and we were not thankful.  He then continues to describe how God gave us up to what we wanted and we became guilty of every imaginable kind of sin.  As he vividly describes what happened to the human race after God did not give up on us but gave us up to what we wanted, the result became what Paul described as “all unrighteousness.”

If you track with Paul as he itemizes what he means by “all unrighteousness,” it’s intriguing to realize that all that horrible sin began with the hard reality that we were not thankful.  There are so many exhortations and prescriptions in the Word of God for us to be thankful but here in the first chapter of Romans is a great warning about the price of not being thankful.

Like it was and like it is, appreciate the value of an attitude of gratitude.  And, like it was and like it is, do not underestimate the price of an attitude of ingratitude.

Dick Woodward, 22 November 2012

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The Greatest Teaching Method

November 13, 2015

“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2)

The Apostle Paul invested himself in a one on one relationship with a young man named Timothy.  He challenged Timothy to have that same kind of relationship with other men, who would then have that kind of relationship with other faithful men.

I had about seven years of classroom education for the ministry.  I also had a handful of older men who mentored me personally in a relationship like Paul had with Timothy.  A great pastor named Ray Stedman invested four hours every Thursday afternoon for a year with me in the Word of God.  He challenged me to do the same with others.

As I have considered the impact of Ray Stedman’s investment in me and my investment in others, I have come to the conclusion that this is the greatest teaching method in the world.

This method actually started for me when I was a small boy as I watched my father spend hours sitting in a rocking chair preparing his Sunday school lesson.  Every now and then he would exclaim, “Oh this is wonderful!”

I realized there is wonderful truth in the Bible.  When I was a late teenager I adopted that declared value of my father and have passed that value on to my son who is a pastor.  I am greatly blessed to have had a father and a mother who taught me the Scriptures in a one on one relationship like Paul had with Timothy.

If you are a Timothy, do you have a Paul? If you are a Paul, do you have a Timothy?

Dick Woodward, 08 December 2012

Editor’s Note: Women readers note that we are not off the hook – we should be challenged to do the same with younger/ older women in our faith communities! The daughters and sons of Dick Woodward would not be where we are today if it had not been for our precious Mama who prayed for us, taught us about Jesus, loved us with His love… and led by her example of faith.  Of course, it also helped that she & Papa ganged up together to get the Word of God into us (& us into the Word!) 

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Learn To Wait On The Lord

November 10, 2015

“Then he blessed him there.”  (Genesis 32:29)

It takes more faith to wait than it takes to be active.  God’s guidance prescription for what we call Type A personalities like Jacob is to wait on the Lord.  Jacob was missing God’s will for his life because he was always running ahead of God.  He was a make-it-happen, mover, shaker and doer kind of person.  Read the story of Jacob in Genesis, chapters 25 through 32, and Paul’s commentary on that story in chapter 9 of Romans.  As you read how God crippled Jacob so He could crown him with His will for Jacob’s life, you will see what I call, “The Cripple Crown Blessing of Jacob.” When a man is crippled what else can he do but wait on the Lord?

Sometimes on our journeys of faith, God puts us in a holding pattern.  We are like commercial airplanes when they are directed by the control tower to circle the field while waiting their turn to land.  In the book of Psalms, the word Selah is found in 73 places.  The Amplified Bible’s paraphrase for Selah is: “Pause, and calmly think of that.”

As He leads us God frequently places Selahs in our lives. Sometimes what God does in our lives while we’re waiting can be more important than what we’re waiting for.  He may want us to pause and calmly think about our priorities, our vision statement and mission objectives and other issues as we experience His will for our lives.  When you encounter one of the Lord’s Selahs and find yourself in one of His holding patterns, ask yourself what God wants you to pause and calmly think about.  And, never put a question mark where God places a period in your walk of faith.

Dick Woodward, 10 June 2013

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October 25th: Purposeful Benedictions

October 24, 2015

For… to Him are all things… To Him be the glory forever! Amen.” ..(Romans 11:36)

The Apostle Paul concluded the argument of his greatest theological masterpiece with an inspired benediction in which he declared that God is the Source of all things, He is the Power behind all things and the Glory of God is the purpose for all things.

When Paul puts these two words “all things” together, he is referring to all the things he has written about in his letter to believers in the city of Rome.  He then concludes his inspired and the most comprehensive explanation of the Gospel ever written by quoting Isaiah: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments (decisions) and His ways past finding out!” That is followed by his benediction as referenced above.

I come to this truth on the day when many who love me are celebrating my 80th birthday.  A secular motivational speaker, Dale Carnegie, wrote that the most beautiful sound in the world to a man is the sound of his own name.  I disagree with him because there is a sense in which I do not even like the sound of my name.  To me the most beautiful sound in the world is the name of Jesus Christ because apart from Him I would be a zero with the circle rubbed out.

As I reflect on Paul’s benediction I have made the commitment that I do not want to pour my life into any venture unless I am certain that God is the Source of it, He is the Power behind it and the glory of God is its purpose.  How does this benediction impact your mindset?

Dick Woodward, 25 October 2010

Editor’s Note: As many of you know, Papa’s birthday is October 25th. This year he would have turned 85.  Oh how we miss him(!) but today, as stated in this post 5 years ago, when we remember Papa, he would have us dwell in the Name of Jesus Christ & be challenged by Paul’s benediction – is God the source & power behind what we’re doing? Is God’s glory the purpose for what we do?

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