December 25, 2012
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” (Titus 2: 11-14).
One of my very favorite Christmas Scriptures is here where the Apostle Paul wrote to Titus that the grace of God appeared on that first Christmas Eve when Christ was born. His Church should always be looking forward to what he calls “the blessed hope” which is the appearing of Christ in His Second Coming.
In these Christmas verses Paul writes that between these two appearances of Jesus Christ God wants to appear to this world through His special people by the way they adorn their doctrine with good works and godly living. The word “special” is sometimes translated “peculiar” or “unique.”
Great paintings are valuable because they are peculiar. If there is another painting exactly like a particular painting it loses its value. Paul counseled Titus that it is critical to have spiritual people in his church who will adorn their doctrine with good works and be peculiar people through whom God appears to this present age.
There is a Christmas that was when God first appeared to us. There is a Christmas that shall be when God appears through the return of Christ. And there is the Christmas that is as God appears through believers like you and me.
Are you willing to be the Christmas that is for those who know you today?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 20, 2012
“Around 9:38
when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven’s gate.
Their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
They could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
They were filled with such joy, they didn’t know what to say.
They remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
“Where are we?” asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
“This is heaven.” declared a small boy.
“We’re spending Christmas at God’s house!”
When what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their Savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
Then He opened His arms and He called them by name.
And in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring.
Those children all flew into the arms of their King.
And as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus’ face.
And as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, “I’ll take care of mom and dad.”
And I heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,
“In the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT.”
(This poem, written by Cameo Smith, honors the children killed last Friday at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.)
We read in the Gospel of Matthew: Then Herod… put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under…” (Matthew 2:16). Think of the children who stormed heaven’s gates shortly after the first Christmas.
There is much in this life that makes no sense until we have an upper story and an eternal dimension to what we believe. The eternal dimension is the most important dimension of our existence. It can make sense out of some of the inexplicable tragedy caused by evil.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 17, 2012
“The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ ‘An enemy has done this while men slept!’ the farmer exclaimed. ‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest.” (Matthew 13: 27-30)
The question “Where did evil come from?” has baffled spiritual and ethical leaders since people began to think and ask questions. In this parable Jesus implies two answers: “An enemy has done this” and “While men slept.” Edmund Burke told us that all we have to do for evil to triumph is to do nothing. Jesus told us all we have to do is sleep.
Thinking and hurting people in Connecticut are joined with millions who are asking questions like this today. The Scripture quoted above is as close as Jesus came to addressing these questions.
Isaiah wrote that there is as much difference between the way God thinks and acts and the way we think and do things as the heavens are high above the earth (Isaiah 55). Moses told us there are secret things that belong to the Lord but the things He wants us to do He has made very clear (Deuteronomy 29:29).
Our thinking is flawed and God has not willed to tell us why He lets the wheat and the weeds grow together. We must conclude that somehow and in some way it glorifies God to permit that horrible enemy to be here. Ultimately, we must leave these questions with our faith in the character of God.
“While men slept” leads us to realize there are some things we can wake up and do to oppose that enemy.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 12, 2012
“And every man stood in his place all around the camp (of the Midianites); and the whole army (of Midian) ran and cried out and fled.” (Judges 7:21)
One of the greatest victories described in the Old Testament is the victory of Gideon over the army of the Midianites. There were several hundred thousand Midianites and Gideon only had 300 soldiers. In the middle of the night, in pitch darkness, Gideon placed his 300 committed warriors in three strategic locations around the sleeping army of their enemy.
On signal from Gideon each group of 100 soldiers exposed 100 torches, blew 100 bugles, and then 100 men shouted: “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” This gave their enemy the impression they were surrounded by a powerful army. They completely panicked. In the darkness they began fighting each other and were soon conquered.
Although this was a great miracle it was a miracle that required a total commitment on the part of Gideon’s 300. That’s why he reduced his army down to less than one percent of what he started with. He had to know that his men were a one hundred percent committed minority rather than an apathetic majority.
This victory also teaches the critically important concept of teamwork. The work of God is a team sport and requires a team effort. The verse I quoted summarizes the key to this great victory. We read that every man of the 300 ‘stood in his place.’ If a percentage of them had been too frightened to execute this plan the event would have been a disaster.
Are you willing to find and stand in your place that together we might defeat all the powers of hell?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 8, 2012
“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. In the verse above 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 Doctor 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. 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?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 4, 2012
“… who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this.” (1Timothy 6:5-11)
In this passage of Scripture Paul gives a profound prescription for contentment. It comes in the form of a warning about the wrong attitude toward riches.
He issues a strong warning to those who seek contentment through wealth accumulation. He is often misquoted when people say “Money is the root of all evil.” Paul actually wrote that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” He also warns that those who have a strong desire to be rich can fall into a trap that can ruin them and cause them to experience great grief and sorrow. Have you experienced grief and sorrow in your family because of money?
On the positive side Paul writes that godliness with contentment is great gain. He therefore challenges Timothy to pursue Godliness. If we attain godliness we can be content with as little as food and clothing. Are you a contented person? Work on your pursuit of godliness and your attitude toward riches.
I have a small plaque by the side of my bed that reads: “He who lives content with little possesses everything.”
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 1, 2012
“… much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” (Romans5:17)
Here the Apostle Paul describes the fourth in a series of four conquerors. Each of these conquerors does three things: they enter, abound, and reign. The first one is King Sin. He sounds like a Chinese King. He enters this world and our lives. Paul doesn’t get into a heavy discussion here of how this conqueror entered this world. He just makes it clear that his intent when he enters is to abound and reign. We can’t co-exist with him. Like a malignant tumor his intent is to kill us.
A second conqueror that always follows King Sin is King Death. Even in these days of economic downturns the wages paid by King Sin are always the same. They are death, or the pits. We might say these first two conquerors are the bad news.
The third conqueror Paul presents is Queen Grace. And the fourth conqueror is King You and King Me. We can definitely say that these last two conquerors are the Good News. Just as Kings Sin and Death enter our lives to abound and reign, it is possible for Queen Grace to enter and reign in us in such a way that we can reign in life through Jesus Christ.
In these four conquerors Paul is telling us what God has to do that we might be justified or declared righteous. Then he tells us how God makes it possible for people who have been declared right to get right, be right and do right ‘til the stars fall.
We can enter, abound and reign in Christ and in life.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
November 27, 2012
“He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you..” (Matthew 4:19)
In the seventies I attended a meeting where the business executives of a large city asked the vice president of a large shipyard to explain why his shipyard was continuously given the contracts to build large aircraft carriers. They had just been awarded a contract to build a large carrier and the next highest bidder was $38 million above them.
He said that he could answer their question with one word: apprenticeship. He explained that a student in a university absorbs information for many weeks and then is asked to show that they remember and understand that information. After doing that for four years they are given a degree and we declare them educated. But unless they specialize in something that equips them for a specific job they are often educated people who can’t do anything. In the shipyard, however, they put a person in the classroom for two weeks and in the shipyard for two weeks and after doing that for five years they build aircraft carriers.
I believe it is helpful to define what we mean when we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ. A synonym for the word disciple is “apprentice.” A disciple is an apprentice who is learning what they are doing and doing what they are learning. Apprenticeship and discipleship are essentially the same concept.
To paraphrase and summarize, Jesus offers a covenant contract to those who profess to believe in Him. That contract has two parts. He promised, “You follow Me. That is your part. I will make you. That is My part. You follow Me. That is your responsibility. And I will make you. That is My responsibility.”
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Posted by Dick Woodward
November 22, 2012
“… 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 the book 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.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
November 16, 2012
“In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other” (Ecclesiastes7:14)
Many devout people are confused about prosperity. Some preach and teach a prosperity theology that is pure heresy. It could only receive a hearing in a place like America. It will not receive a hearing in places where devout people suffer poverty and persecution because they believe. Others believe we should feel guilty when we experience prosperity.
Solomon writes that in the day of prosperity we should rejoice and know that our God has given us all things richly to enjoy. And he informs us that in the day of adversity we should consider the profound reality that God has made the one as well as the other. A truth that means much to me is that God is our personal Mentor and He does His most effective mentoring when things are difficult for us.
Now that I am old I spend time looking back over a long life. As I reflect on my relationship with God over more than eight decades I realize that my times of spiritual growth have been times of adversity and my times of spiritual regression and stagnation have been times of prosperity.
Paul wrote that he knew how to be abased and he knew how to abound. He presented a challenge to us. That challenge is that it takes more grace and wisdom to know how to abound than it takes to know how to be abased.
If you are enjoying prosperity I hope you do not feel guilty but rejoice. If you are experiencing adversity let it be a time of effective mentoring from God and a time of growth for you.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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