January 13, 2012
“But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me…” (Philippians 3:13-14)
Picture your priorities as a target with a bull’s eye surrounded by a dozen circles. As you think and pray about your priorities, what would you call the bull’s eye of your priority target? Once you have determined that, how would you label the dozen circles that surround your bull’s eye?
Great men of God like Paul could reduce their priorities down to one thing. Paul’s one thing was to forget what is behind and strain forward to win the prize at the end of the race. That prize was what God was calling him to do.
Can we reduce the forty eleven things that are spreading us thin down to one thing? If we were to do so what would that one thing be? Sometimes there is great wisdom in forgetting the things that are behind. Then there are times when there is even greater wisdom in determining our one thing type of goal for the future. How do we do that?
One way is to consider what we might call the “eternal values.” None of the things we are going to leave behind when God calls us home are worth living for while we are here. Jesus told us: “… This is… life, that they may know You … and Jesus Christ …” (John 17:3).
Would knowing God and Christ be an eternally focused bull’s eye for our priority target this year? Think of how that priority focus will dramatically affect the dozen circles that surround it when our life becomes an expression of the life of God and the risen living Christ.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 9, 2012
“… The Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistants from Jerusalem to ask John, “Who are you?” He came right out and said, “I am not the Messiah.” “Well then, who are you?” they asked. “We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?” (John 1: 19-22 NLT)
According to the Bible there is somebody God wants us to be, there is some place we are to be, and there is something we are to be. We will therefore never be fulfilled or happy until we have the right answers to questions like “Who are you? What are you?” and “Where are you?”
God confronts us with these questions because He loves us and wants us to be fulfilled and happy. The priests and religious leaders asked John: “What do you have to say about yourself?” Perhaps a better way to ask the question would be to ask you what God has to say about yourself. Then that question should be followed by the question: “Do you and God agree on what you say about yourself?”
It would be foolish to want and try to be more than God wants us to be. But, life is too precious to be less than who and what and where God wants and has equipped us to be. Jesus said John the Baptist was the greatest man ever born of woman. I’m convinced that was because John the Baptist had the right answers to these questions.
You can also have the right answers to these great questions. I challenge you to pursue God until He finds you and shows you who and what and where He wants you to be. This the best way to have a truly happy New Year.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: answers to questions, Faith in God, John the Baptist, religious leaders, Spiritual Discernment, Trusting God, who we are meant to be | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
January 4, 2012
“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)
In this profound Psalm Moses gives us a wise perspective with which to begin a new year. He writes of the brevity of our life span. He states that God gives us seventy or eighty years of life. Then he suggests a solemn prayer that God might teach us to number our days and gain a heart filled with wisdom.
A missionary was speaking to a primitive group of people. Because some of the listeners had traveled for days or more than a week to hear him speak, when he concluded a message they would ask him to continue speaking. After many hours had passed they asked him through the interpreter if he was wearing his god on his wrist because each time they asked him to continue he looked at his watch as if seeking permission. We should not value time to the point that it is our god, but the thesis of Moses in this Psalm is that we should value time because we do not have very much of it.
With great fairness God gives everyone the common currency of 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week and 8,760 hours a year. Since life is a short trip we should value that common currency and ask Him for the wisdom to know how to spend that time by the year, the month, the week, the day, the hour and the minute.
We wear timepieces because we value life. Let’s ask God to give us the wisdom to know how He wants us to spend the time He gives us in 2012.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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
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