December 30, 2011
“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 in 2012.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 27, 2011
“… as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17)
Christmas has a twin holiday that slips into so many of our Christmas cards. Millions of us include in our Christmas cards a letter–complete with family pictures–that give an update on how our year has come and gone.
Economy prophets are now referring to our lingering economic downturn as “The Great Recession.” What security do we have as we begin 2012?
In nine words the aged Apostle of Love gives us a marvelous perspective on security. There are several ways we can interpret and apply these beautiful words. We can say it is only because He is that we can be as we should be in this world. We can say that our security rests in the proposition that He is and He will equip us to be as He wants us to be in this world.
We can say these words mean He lives in us and through us. For 33 years He had a physical body of His own. For 2000 years now His followers have been the only body He has. This presents the challenge that the only Christ the people in this world know is the Christ they see revealed in and through you and me.
As you meditate on the memorial portraits of Christ the New Testament presents to us by those who knew Him, realize these portraits are precisely the way He wants to be revealed to this world through your life and mine today.
The overwhelming personality trait of Jesus Christ was love.
Love is as He was and as He is today.
Our purpose is not to be secure but to let the love of Jesus pass to others through our life.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 25, 2011
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
This verse begins and ends with one of the most beautiful Christmas words in the Bible: the word “all.” The first time the word is used in this great verse it gives us the bad news. It tells us that all of us have gone astray and turned–every one of us–to our own way. The great prophet Isaiah repeats himself for emphasis when he tells us that every one of us has turned to his or her own way. Do you believe you are included in the first “all” of this verse?
I don’t know about you but I don’t need a verse of Scripture to convince me that I’m included in the first “all” of this verse. Only Santa Claus brings good things to good people on Christmas Day. According to Isaiah, Christmas was when good things happened to bad people.
The good news of this Christmas word is the way Isaiah concludes his verse. We are not ready for the good news until we are convinced of the bad news. He tells us the good news that God has laid on His Son the iniquity or sins of us all! Do you believe you are included in the last “all” of this great verse?
If you will meet yourself in the two “alls” of Isaiah you can receive, by faith, your greatest Christmas gift. Paul described it this way:
“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2Corinthians 5:21).
Merry Christmas to ALL!!
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 23, 2011
“I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.” .(Luke 2:10)
When the angels appeared to those frightened shepherds, they gave them a wonderful Christmas greeting. They announced that they were bringing good tidings of great joy to all people.
These good tidings were not just for Jewish people or for good people. They were to bring great joy to ALL people! That means all kinds of people – and all kinds of people everywhere!
Before He ascended, the last words of Jesus were: “… be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere… to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NLT).
Some enjoy their faith as if the last words of Jesus were “Now don’t let it get around!” They live out their faith as if the Gospel is a secret to be kept.
Never forget those two beautiful Christmas words, “All people!”
The spiritual community of those who believe and follow Jesus is not to be a secret organization. It is a community of people who exist for the benefit of their non-members.
Jesus Christ came to bring good news and great joy to people who are not good. The Bible tells us that all of us have gone astray and turned every one of us to his or her own way. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that God laid the penalty for all of our sins on His Son (Isaiah 53:6).
Two more great Christmas words are “mercy” and “grace”. The mercy of God withholds from us what we deserve and His grace lavishes on us all kinds of marvelous things we do not deserve. His mercy and grace give us more blessings than we can count if we have the faith to receive them.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 20, 2011
“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 this present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ …” (Titus 2:11-13)
In these words of Paul to one of his pastors he is giving us a wonderful theological description of Christmas. Paul writes of the appearing (epiphany) of the grace of God that brings salvation. That is what happened on that first Christmas Eve. He then writes of the glorious appearing (epiphany) of Jesus Christ in the Christmas that shall be. He also calls that epiphany “the blessed hope.”
Then he writes of a third epiphany that shows us the purpose of that first Christmas Eve. It also shows us our motivation for looking forward to the blessed hope of that epiphany to come. He is writing of the appearing (epiphany) of God right now to this present age through the righteous and godly living of people who believe in all three of these epiphanies.
He goes on to write of God’s purpose in all this by explaining that God wanted to redeem for Himself a unique people who would be His own peculiar – in the sense of unique – people in this world. This describes and summarizes the Christmas that was, that shall be, and that is right now.
The people who were involved in the Christmas that was were mostly holy and godly people. Paul is writing here that those who are involved in the Christmas that is right now are people who are living soberly, righteously and godly lives. Are you one of those peculiar people who are the epiphany that is? By faith you can be.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Christmas Eve, Christmas that shall be, Epiphanies, Faith in God, God's purpose, Grace of God, Jesus Christ, the First Christmas, Titus 2 | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
December 16, 2011
“So the Word became human and made his home among us…And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” (John 1:14 NLT)
God became human and made His home among us so we could see and not just read what He wrote in the 39 books of the Old Testament. We should find a Christmas challenge in the words of the Apostle Paul which tell us “… that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4: 11).
One of the reasons God did Christmas was because He felt that a written Word was not enough. He wanted us to see as well as read His Word to us. Everything Jesus was, said, and did was one great spoken Word from God to you and me (John 1: 1, 14, 18).
It is the plan of God that unbelievers in this world today should see as well as read His Word through your mortal flesh and mine. That truth, which is clearly articulated by the Apostle Paul, moved me to make an important decision in my ministry as a Bible pastor/teacher. In the early sixties I was praying about accepting an opportunity presented to me to be a radio Bible teacher. Those words of Paul were used by God to direct me to be the pastor of a church where people could see as well as hear the Word of God in my mortal flesh.
“We’re writing a Gospel a chapter each day by things that we do and things that we say. Men read what we write whether faithless or true. Say, what is the Gospel according to you?”
That should be our Christmas challenge all year long.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 13, 2011
“… Wise men came saying, “Where is he?” (Matthew 2: 1, 2)
The Christmas cards tell us that wise men still seek Him. Wise men still find Him. Wise men still worship Him and give gifts to Him. We can add this observation: wise men still ask the question, “Where is He?”
If we want to know where He is today we should look where the Love is. Paul writes that He is a specific quality of love (1Corinthians 13: 4-7). If we will tap into that quality of love we will find ourselves connecting with God and discover that God is connecting with us (1 John 4: 16).
The great Christmas word is “incarnation” (“in flesh” John 1:14). The Bible tells us that incarnation also means relocation. God wants to express the quality of love He is where people are hurting. If we will intentionally place ourselves where people are hurting, as we become conduits of His love that address their pain we will discover where He is and where we want to be for the rest of our life.
We must also look where the Light is. We can deliberately place ourselves where the spiritual darkness is and ask God to pass His light through us and address their darkness.
And we should look where the Life is. The Apostle John writes that God has given us a quality of life he labels “eternal life” (1John 5: 11, 12). We can experience this quality of life ourselves and we can become conduits of that Life for others.
We can go or God may place us where the hurting, the darkness and the low quality of life are. Then we can be conduits of God. That’s when we discover by experience where He is.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 9, 2011
“After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished…” (Luke 2: 17-18)
For many years I have wondered why God told the shepherds what He was about to do when He put Christmas in place. We have seen that the first Christmas happened relatively quietly. The people who were told about the first Christmas played an important role in that great intervention of God into history. Zechariah and his wife needed to know because they were to be the parents of John the Baptist, the last and the greatest of the Messianic prophets. Mary needed to know because she was to be the birth mother of God. Joseph needed to know how and why his beautiful young fiancé became pregnant. But why did the shepherds need to know about the miracle of that first Christmas?
I am convinced that a clue to the answer can be found when we realize that unbelief shut the mouth of the first person to know about this miracle. Mary, who is such a marvelous example for us, was so filled with awe and questions that she did not share the miracle. However, these lowly simple shepherds told everybody what they had been told and seen for themselves.
As we consider the Christmas that shall be we must follow the example of the shepherds and tell people who have no hope the good news that God is going to do Christmas again when Jesus Christ intersects human history a second time. Will you prayerfully consider telling people about the Christmas that was and the Christmas that shall be?
Will you give hopeless people a reason to hope?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 6, 2011
“But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)
After the Angel Gabriel visited the priest Zechariah he went to the village of Nazareth to a peasant girl named Mary. When he told her she was going to be the mother of God she responded in three ways. The Scripture states very clearly that she believed and praised God (Luke 1:45-55). As we might well imagine, we read that she was so filled with awe the first person to question the virgin birth was the virgin. She showed us that honest inquiry is not the sign of a weak faith. And the verse above tells us that she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
When the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles tell us about the Christmas that shall be when Jesus Christ comes back again, they tell us that His coming is the only hope of the world and the blessed hope of the church. Hope is the conviction that something good exists in this world and we are going to experience it. Somewhere close to thirty thousand people in America take their life every year because they no longer believe in something good. In other words, they end their life when they lose hope.
Some believers are so awed by the miracle of the Second Coming they ask questions and experience a “paralysis of analysis” which is followed by much pondering in their hearts. When we realize that we have a message of hope to tell people without hope about the Christmas that shall be, we simply must share that good news. It is almost criminal negligence to have this hope and not share it with people who have no hope.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 2, 2011
“But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born.” (Luke 1:20)
A teenager once asked me this thoughtful question about Christmas: “Since there was so much hype about the birth of Jesus Christ, why is it that thirty years later nobody seemed to believe in Him? You would think everyone would have just been waiting for Him to begin His ministry!”
Actually, there were only a handful of people who knew about that first Christmas. The first one to know was a priest named Zechariah. He and his wife Elizabeth were godly people, very advanced in years. They had no children and the angel Gabriel told Zechariah that he and his wife were going to have a child who would be the last of the prophets to tell us about the coming of the Messiah. Their son, whom they were to call John, would actually point at Christ and introduce Him to this world.
Zechariah did not believe the angel. He was therefore told that everything he had heard was going to happen, but he would be smitten mute and not be able to tell anyone until his child was born. This priest had the greatest sermon to preach that any priest ever had. God was going to intersect human history! But he could not preach it because of his unbelief.
Before you are too hard on Zechariah, let me ask you a question. The New Testament tells us more than three hundred times that God is going to intersect human history a second time when Jesus Christ comes back again. Have you ever told anybody about that Christmas to be?
Or does your unbelief shut your mouth?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Christmas, faith, God intersects history, Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, Luke 1:20, the First Christmas, unbelief, Zechariah | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
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