January 15, 2013
“Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the glory forever, Amen.” (Matthew 6: 13)
Jesus taught us to begin our prayers with a providential or God-first perspective. He also taught us to end our prayers with the same kind of Kingdom benediction. In this prayer/prescription after we get our priorities straight we are to close our prayers in a way that is consistent with the way we begin our prayers.
In essence, we are to end our prayers by telling God that since the power to answer our prayers will always come from Him the glory will always go to Him and the result will always belong to Him. That is what “Your’s is the Kingdom” is really all about.
When you pray are you taking God into your plans or are you asking Him to take you into His plans? I have had the privilege of being involved in the founding of two churches. After many years serving those churches I then had to drop out and let others pastor them. That was when I learned what it means to pray: “Your’s is the Kingdom.”
Jesus taught me to pray that since the power to answer my prayers over many years as the pastor of those churches had come from Him the glory should now go to Him and the result (the churches) should belong to Him.
James tells us we ask and do not receive because we ask amiss (James 4:3). A teenager asked me if James was telling us we can pray a hit as well as a miss. If you want to pray a hit every time allow Jesus to show you how to begin and end your prayers.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 11, 2013
“… but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ” (Philippians 3: 13, 14)
As we move into a new year so many of us could say, “These forty/eleven things I dabble in” as we consider our priorities. Spiritual heavyweights like Paul can write “One thing I do.” They can write that they have their priorities sifted down to one thing because they forget those things that are behind.
We all have things we need to let go of so we can press toward the goal of what God wants us to do now and in the future.
The story is told of a man who fell over a cliff but managed to grab hold of a little bush that was growing out of the cliff about forty feet from the top. He frantically shouted “Help!” several times but his voice simply echoed back to him. Desperately he yelled, “Anybody up there? A subterranean voice answered, “Yes!” He then yelled again “Help!” Then the voice said. “Let go!” After a brief pause the man shouted, “Anybody else up there?”
Sometimes it takes a lot of faith to let go. It may be that we need to let go of things that we cannot do and only God can do. It may be we need to let go of things we cannot control. And, sometimes we need to let go of hurts that people have inflicted on us and we cannot forgive them and just let it go.
Do you need to let go and let God so you can unload baggage and move forward with God?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 9, 2013
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)
The greatest obstacle to inner healing is un-forgiveness. Those who work in ministries of healing claim that the lack of forgiveness on the part of a victim that has been terribly violated can retard their own inner healing.
Can you see why Jesus instructed His disciples to pray every day: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors?” The original language has it, “As we have already forgiven our debtors.” Do you think Jesus knew how important it is to our inner healing that we should forgive those who sin against us?
Some are bothered by the way Jesus offers commentary on this petition in the disciple’s Prayer. He commented that if we do not forgive we are not forgiven. It almost sounds as if we are forgiven because we forgive. He defuses their confusion with a parable that is recorded in Chapter Eighteen of Matthew. A man is forgiven a very large debt in the millions of dollars. He does not have to go into debtor’s prison and see his wife and family sold into slavery.
But on the way home he meets a man who owes him twenty dollars. He grabs him by the throat and orders him to pay him every cent or he will have him put into debtor’s prison. Both events are observed and told to the one who forgave him the large debt. He is recalled and his forgiveness is revoked. Jesus comments on that story, that if we from our hearts do not forgive, we are not forgiven.
The point is that if we are a forgiven person we will be a forgiving person. If we are not a forgiving person we are not really a forgiven person.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 5, 2013
“In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power
And the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6: 8-13)
Make the observation with the help of the bold type that this disciple’s prayer/instruction teaches that we should begin our prayers with what we might call a ‘providential perspective.’
This is expressed in three petitions: Your name, Your kingdom and Your will. Before we get to “Give us” we are to bring into our perspective Who God is, as He is revealed in all His names. Then we are to focus on the fact that He is our King and we are His subjects.
When we understand that He is our King, we know His will must be done on earth through us even as it is done perfectly in heaven, all day long every day.
Many think prayer is coming into the presence of God with a shopping list and sending God on errands for us. But here Jesus is teaching that prayer is reporting for duty to our King that He might give us our orders for the day.
We are to end our prayers with a providential benediction. The essence of the providential benediction is that since the power to answer our prayers will always come from God, the glory and the result (the Kingdom) will always belong to God. James tells us we sometimes “pray amiss.” The difference between praying amiss and praying a hit can be this perspective on prayer.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 28, 2012
“Then He brought us out that He might bring us in…” (Deuteronomy 6:23)
Are you ready for a new thing? God often wants to do a new thing in our lives but He has three challenges. When He wants to bring us out of the old and into a new place He cannot get us out of the old because we are insecure and want to hold on to the old place. He then has to blast us out of the old. That’s why a call of God is often made up of a pull from the front and a boot from the rear.
His second challenge is that He has to pull us through the transition between the old place and the new. Transitions can last for years and they can be very painful. But He promises He can pull us through the worst of them.
His third challenge is to get us right so He can settle us into the new place. We should no more resist that work of God than a baby should resist being born and coming out into life.
Don’t give God a hard time when He wants to do a new thing in your life. We must believe that God is good all the time. If we trust His character we should cooperate with Him when He wants to make changes and do new things for us. A rut is a grave with both ends knocked out. Our loving heavenly father does not want to see His children in the living death of a rut.
Instead of giving Him a hard time, make it easy for Him as He brings you out of the old place and leads you into the new places He has for you in the New Year.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Christmas, Christmas Scriptures, christmas verses, faith, Jesus Christ, religion, the Second Coming, the Word of God, theology, Titus 2:11-14 | Permalink
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?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Christian discipleship, faith, Leadership, mentoring, Ray Stedman, religion, Saint Paul, spiritual mentorship, teaching the Bible, the Word of God, theology | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
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