August 17, 2012
“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29)
Communication is one of the greatest challenges we have in our life. Whether it is in our marriage or in any of the relationships we have in our work and interactions with people on a daily basis, we find ourselves challenged by communication.
It takes courage to communicate because those who communicate with us often say things we need to hear but may not want to hear. And we must say things people do not want to hear but need to hear. In many ways when we communicate we face…
A Porcupine’s Dilemma
What’s a porcupine to do,
When faced with cold weather?
When the dark clouds can be construed,
Only as bringing a storm and nothing better,
For in a world of naught but porcupines,
Who among us should be so inclined,
To choose to envelop the other in ourselves,
Despite the threat of our sharp, prickly ends,
Is warmth so inviting,
Its promise so binding,
That a dozen pricks should be a necessary step,
In finding solace once the sun sets,
You see, in the end,
The coin flips between comfort and company,
Does the porcupine seek comfort in its kin,
Only to find pain through some sadistic irony?
Such is the porcupine’s dilemma,
As the wind begins to howl,
Should he enter his kindred’s embrace and suffer,
Or isolate himself and huddle down?
(attributed to: Vishal Bala)
We can be controlled by the fear of being stuck and isolate ourselves into a lonely self imposed solitary confinement. Or, as courageous communicators, we can be controlled by the Holy Spirit and communicate very carefully—like porcupines embracing—and minister grace to our hearers.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
August 14, 2012
“… every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15: 2)
My mentor Ray Stedman loved to tell the story about the famous violinist Paganini. As a brilliant violinist and a superb showman, he liked to attach a sharp razor to his wrist. At the right moment he would cut one of the strings on his violin. The string would pop and the audience would gasp, but the most famous violinist in the world would keep playing. He did this repeatedly and dramatically until he only had one string left on his violin. As a genius he would then play the entire concerto on that one string.
Ray’s application was that God sometimes likes to cut back our strings and play the concert of our life on one string. This brings great glory to Him because people can’t believe that as we are experiencing those cutbacks our concerto continues to play with an even more beautiful sound.
My precious wife has lost the use of her left arm and I have lost the use of all four limbs. But the concerto of our lives and ministry continues to be more fruitful than it has ever been which brings great glory to God who is the One playing the concerto of our lives.
The explanation of Jesus was that He is a Vine and we are branches related to Him. When we are fruitful because of that alignment He cuts us back to make us more fruitful. Is it possible that events in your life that you have considered a setback are actually the cutback of your loving Lord and Savior who wants your life to be fruitful and your reward to be great in heaven?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
August 11, 2012
“My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You…” (Psalm 5:3)
What would you think of a concert violinist who played a brilliant concerto and then instead of granting an applauding audience an encore, fervently tuned his violin? Spiritual people over the centuries believed that we should not play the concert of our day and then at night tune our instrument when the concert has already been played.
Do you wake up holy in the morning? I mean, before you have had your coffee, are you spiritual? Most people do not wake up holy. I believe it is possible for spiritual people to wake up holy, but if we will be honest I believe many of us will confess there are times we do not wake up that way.
George McDonald, a mentor of C.S. Lewis, wrote: “With every morn my life afresh must break the crust of self gathered about me fresh, that Thy Wind-Spirit might rush in, shake the darkness out of me and rend the mesh the spider devils spin out of my flesh, eager to net my soul before it wake, that it may slumber us lie and listen to the snake.”
That is an eloquent and accurate description of the way I sometimes awaken. When I wake up listening to the snake I need to ask God to break the crust of self that has gathered about me fresh, shake the darkness out of me and then do something about my flesh. My flesh is my human nature, unaided by God.
Do you sometimes wake up listening to the snake? When you do, let George McDonald show you what to do about your unaided human nature.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
August 8, 2012
“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness.” (Matthew 6:22, 23 NLT)
Perspective means “to look through” to the end. I learned a helpful spiritual discipline on my faith journey when I asked God to give me His perspective of the long view and the forward look. I now find it helpful to look up and ask God to give me His perspective as I take the long view back at the events of my life. I believe it does wonders for our perspective when we regularly shake ourselves out of our introspective pity parties, look up, and ask for God’s long view perspective of our life in both directions.
Robertson McQuilken, a spiritual leader I deeply respect teaches: “It is easier to move to a consistent and problem-free extreme than to remain at the center of tension on any biblical issue, but the truth is often found at the center.”
In an interview Rick Warren was asked how he felt about his wife’s cancer. He reflected that he once thought life was a series of mountaintops and valleys, but he has now decided life is like a railroad track. The left rail represents this hard reality: there is always something bad in our life because God is more interested in our character than He is in our comfort. The right rail represents this blessing: there is always something good in our life because God is good and He does love us.
I have found that when we’re hurting we can often find truth at the center between these two rails of reality.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
August 3, 2012
“… what does He receive from your hand?” (Job 35:7)
Not many devout people are disillusioned when they see wicked people suffer; however, the people of God are often faith-challenged when the godly suffer. For thousands of years devout souls have been asking God, “Why do the righteous suffer?”
The book of Job is the longest, most profound and comprehensive answer to that question in the Bible. If this is the oldest book in the Bible, then the very first truth God wanted to teach us is His answer to this primary ‘why question’ of His hurting people.
The way this ancient “Saga of Suffering” answers that question turns on a question Job asked his wife. God had given Satan permission to take every possession he had, including his ten children (Job 2:3). Then God permitted Satan to take Job’s health. When he lost his health and was suffering from a dreadful disease, his wife told him he should curse God and die. He responded to her cheerful counsel by asking, “Shall we accept good from the hand of God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10 NIV)
The essence of Job’s question was, “What should a righteous man expect God to put in his hand because he is living a righteous life?” The answer to Job’s question is found in a discourse of a young man named, Elihu. He told Job he was asking the wrong question. He should be asking, “What is He receiving from your hand?” (Job 35: 7 NIV)
If you are hurting, or when you do, ask God the right question. What have you done for Him lately? What are you putting in His hand?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
July 31, 2012
“I am the vine, you are the branches.” (John 15:5)
The apostles had been in awe of the profound words and miraculous works of Jesus. In their last retreat with Him, Jesus essentially said that the key to His preaching, teaching, and supernatural ministry is that He and the Father are one. The Word of the Father was spoken on earth and the work of the Father was accomplished on earth through Him because He is one with the Father. He then taught them that after His death and resurrection, if they would be at one with Him His Word would be spoken and His work would be done on earth through them.
While they were in a garden, He pulled down a vine, which had many branches loaded with fruit, and said: “I am the Vine and you are the branches.” In this metaphor the fruit does not grow on the vine. The fruit grows out on the branches because they are properly aligned with the Vine. The branches can bear no fruit without the Vine and the Vine can bear no fruit without the branches. If the Vine, Jesus, wants to see fruit produced, He must pass His life-giving power through the branches, the apostles.
Jesus wants to see this fruit produced far more than the apostles want to be fruitful. By this inspired metaphor, He was actually teaching two propositions: “Without Me, you can do nothing” and, “Without you, I will do nothing.”
It is the plan of God to use the power of God in the people of God to accomplish the purposes of God according to the plan of God. Jesus is a Vine looking for branches.
Are you willing to be one of His branches?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
July 26, 2012
“The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that He has revealed to us that we may obey…” (Deuteronomy 29:29 NLT)
According to Moses, there are secrets God has determined to keep secret. (Perhaps these secrets are on a need to know basis.) However, the things God wants us to do, He has made very plain through His Word, especially the Living Word, His beloved Son. But, if God has willed to remain silent about His secrets, it would be pompous arrogance for us to say we can answer all the “why” questions regarding our suffering.
Where did we ever get the idea that we should expect to understand everything that happens to us? Where did we ever get the absurd notion that God owes us an explanation for everything He has done and is doing in our world and in our lives? If God gave us an explanation for everything and the answers to all of our “why” questions, the very essence of faith and the need for faith would be eliminated.
Almighty God has willed that without faith we cannot please Him, or come to Him (Hebrews 11:6). God is pleased when we echo these words of Job: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15 NKJV). In my own words, God is pleased when we come to Him in our crucibles of suffering and cry, “If you heal me, that’s all right. But, if you don’t heal me, that’s all right, too, because You are all right!”
Can you say you are all right because He is all right? Can you leave the secret things with Him?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
July 20, 2012
“… that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)
These words are taken from one of the great sermons Moses preached after the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt just before they invaded the land of Canaan. They had wandered in a terrible wilderness for 40 years in which they suffered every imaginable hardship. In this sermon God tells them through Moses that He was using all that suffering to make them know every word that He has ever spoken.
By devotional and personal application we can realize that this is one of the ways we learn the Word of God today. God is our Mentor and He does His most effective mentoring when we are in difficult places. While facing crises and challenges that overwhelm us God makes us know His Word. Every adversity God permits or directs into our lives is redemptive and is an opportunity for us to let God make us know His Word.
God is fiercely committed to the proposition that we are going to grow spiritually into perfection or completeness and maturity. The first chapter of the letter of James informs us that God’s trials should not be treated like intruders but welcomed as friends because they are sent from God. He does this because He wants us to be perfect or complete and lacking nothing. Jesus told us to be perfect even as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
So when those tough times come sit up and pay attention. God has come to the front of the classroom and He is about to teach us His Word.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
July 12, 2012
“We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you…As a fair exchange – I speak as to my children – open wide your hearts also.” (2 Corinthians 6:11-13 NIV)
To paraphrase this passage, Paul is suggesting that each of us has a communication “flap” on our heart. We should be face-to-face and heart-to-heart with our communication flaps open. But, the hard reality is that we are often back-to-back with our communication flaps down and tightly closed. The solution Paul prescribes here is that someone must say, “I am heart-to-heart with you, and my communication flap is open. Be heart-to-heart with me and open your communication flap.”
We face communication challenges every day in our family, work life, and in our interactions with people. When there is a communication problem it is so very important to realize that someone has to initiate a solution by saying, in spirit and in principle, to the person with whom they are having a communication conflict, “I am heart-to-heart with you, and my communication flap is open. Be heart to heart with me and open your communication flap.”
You may be totally amazed at how taking that stance can melt the obstacles between you and that person with whom you are having a difficult and challenging relationship. This can be a communication “circuit breaker” that restores communication in a relationship.
Bacteria multiply in the dark but cannot live in the light. If we do not have good communication in a relationship misunderstandings multiply like bacteria, but when communication is restored it is as if we have turned the light on our relationship. Most of the bacteria will die and we can address that which doesn’t die with the light of our restored communication.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
July 6, 2012
“Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Isaiah 40: 4-5)
The essence of Isaiah’s great sermon is that when you build a highway you do four things: you level mountains, you fill valleys, you straighten crooked places, and you smooth out rough places.
Isaiah preached that God was coming into our world and when He did He was going to travel on the highway of the life of His Son. In that life the mountains of pride would be leveled, the empty spaces would be one hundred percent filled with the Holy Spirit, the crooked ways of sin would be perfectly straight and His rough places would be made smooth by the way He responded to them.
Just before Jesus parted with His apostles He told them that in the same way the Father sent Him into the world He was sending them into the world. If His life was to be a highway on which God traveled into this world, our life is also to be a highway for God. I challenge you to ask God to make your life into a highway for Him to travel into this world.
If you pray that prayer when God’s bulldozers start leveling your mountains of pride, His Holy Spirit fills your empty spaces and straightens out your crooked ways of sin and then gives you the grace to smooth out the rough challenges that come into your life.
While all that is happening you can write “Caution: God at work” across your life.
I dare you to have the courage to pray this prayer.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
4SpiritualSecrets 