March 6, 2012
“When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’” (John 5:6)
The Apostle John describes a pathetic scene that confronted those who approached the Temple as they entered the city of Jerusalem in Jesus’ day. There was by the Sheep Gate the Pool of Bethesda. A great multitude of weak and sick people lay in the porches surrounding that pool given the superstition that when the waters in that pool rippled the first one to get into the pool would be healed.
When Jesus came upon that pool He moved among these weak people until he found one man who had been there for 38 years. He was paralyzed and Jesus asked him the remarkable question quoted above. The man might have thought that question ridiculous since he had been faithfully lying beside the pool for 38 years.
We may well ask the question “Why did Jesus heal just this one man?” It may be that Jesus healed this man because he had given up on the Pool of Bethesda.
Today there are millions of people who are sitting beside “Pools of Bethesda” that cannot heal them. Like Solomon, some people try money, knowledge, painting the town red and not withholding from their eyes anything they see that they want. People try success, power, social status and everything but the spiritual for their healing.
Do you want to be made well inside your heart? Give up your “Pools of Bethesda” and ask the risen, living Christ to lead you to your healing. Get into His Word and become His disciple indeed.
Go beyond the sacred page and meet the Living Word and He will heal you.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 2, 2012
“Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, ‘Who will show us any good?’” (Psalm 4:5)
David cannot sleep. He is uptight and anxious. From the context of the psalm we know he cannot sleep because he is under great stress. He decides to meditate within his own heart and be still. (He has a little “board meeting” with himself in the middle of the night). If he does the right thing, he believes he cannot survive. He is therefore thinking about doing the expedient thing. But since he is a man of great spiritual integrity he finds himself awake and uptight.
As a result of his meditation he resolves his dilemma. He makes the decision that he is going to make whatever sacrifices he has to make to do what is right and then trust the Lord for his survival. He knows there are many people who are looking for someone who will do what is right even though it costs them everything to do right.
Have you ever found yourself awake, uptight and stressed out in the middle of the night because you are in a crisis? If you do what you believe God wants you to do you don’t see how you can survive. But your spiritual integrity won’t let you sleep if you don’t do what you believe God wants you to do. David models here a prescription for resolving that kind of dilemma.
His prescription is simply to do right. Whatever it costs you, do right and trust God for the consequences. Many people will be blessed, God will be glorified, you will have great peace, and get some sleep.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Doing Right, faith, Faith in God, great peace, King David, peaceful sleep, Psalm 4, Righteousness, spiritual integrity, spirituality, the cost of doing right, trust god, trust in the lord, Trusting God | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 29, 2012
“God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them.” (Hebrews 6:10)
All of us have or we will experience not being appreciated. It’s challenging to labor long and hard helping people without a word or gesture of appreciation. The author above gives us a beautiful word that we can share with unappreciated servants of the Lord. That word is simply that we can know we are always appreciated.
Our Lord instructed us that we are to work our righteous acts in secret. We are to give in such a way that one hand does not know what the other hand is giving. We are to pray and fast in a closet or in private knowing that our Father in heaven sees and knows everything we pray and do (Matthew 6).
In the same spirit through Moses God said “Walk before Me!” (Genesis 17:1) It can bring spiritually profitable perspective into our daily walk if we will hold on to the perspective that everything we do is done before and as unto our God. The author quoted above is reminding us we are always appreciated when we look up and walk before our God.
When I was in my early twenties and beginning my ministry I met a lovely elderly couple who had spent 48 years in China. As I visited them in charity housing, in so far as I could tell they had been shown no appreciation whatsoever for their wonderful work in China. When I asked them how they could bear that their answer was: “You have to know Who you’re doing it for.”
Walk before God as you do your work – and when you need some appreciation.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
February 24, 2012
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ… The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” (Romans 1:7; 16:24)
The great Apostle Paul begins his letter to the believers in Rome with a marvelous greeting: “Grace to you.” He then closes his letter with the prayer that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with them.
Paul dictated all his letters but one to a stenographer. At the close of each of his letters he took the writing instrument from the scribe and in his own hand wrote these words: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”
Paul greets and leaves believers with a wish and a prayer for grace. This is because grace is the dynamic of God that saves us. We can define grace if we turn this five letter word into an acrostic and use each letter of the word to spell out:
“God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.”
But grace is not only the way God saves us. The grace of God is the dynamic we desperately need to live for Christ.
In the second verse of the fifth chapter of this same letter Paul writes that God has given us access, by faith, into the grace that makes it possible for us to stand for Christ and live a life that glorifies God.
Paul begins this letter and closes all his letters the way he does because he knows it is absolutely critical that we access the grace God has made available to us if we are to live our life for Him in this world.
Since grace is always our greatest need, consider meeting and leaving your fellow believers with a wish and a prayer for grace.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
February 22, 2012
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him…” (Psalm 100: 4)
Psalm 100 is the definitive worship psalm. This psalm tells us what worship is, what we should experience when we worship, how to worship, what we know, what should happen to us and what the results should be because we worshipped.
According to David worship is to come before God’s presence, and coming before the presence of God is like having an audience with a King. Our approach to the presence of God begins at the gates of thanksgiving. This means that in a corporate worship service, or in our private closet worship, we are to begin our approach to the presence of God by passing through the gates of thanksgiving.
As I attempt to maintain my spiritual equilibrium as a bed fast quadriplegic I get more spiritual mileage out of the therapy of thanksgiving than I do anything else. David has pointed me to the truth that when I begin thanking God I soon find myself in the courts of praise and coming into the presence of God with singing. In the presence of God I know that He is God, I am His sheep and I live in His pasture. Then I’m told again that I should keep on thanking Him.
As a result of this worship experience I am to know that God wants people in every land of this earth to know what it is to make joyful noises of worship in His presence. He also wants it to be known that His truth endures in all generations not only in past generations.
To that end He wants me to serve Him with gladness because I came into His presence with thanksgiving.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
February 17, 2012
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind…” (Jeremiah 17: 9-10)
In this passage of Scripture God gives us all a spiritual cardiogram. According to the prophet Jeremiah, our heart is not only desperately wicked, but above all things our heart is deceitful. We can pay a professional therapist thousands of dollars to help us understand our deceitful heart. But according to Jeremiah, the reality is our heart is so deceitful only God is qualified to understand it.
I once had the immature belief that if you showed me someone I could understand you would be showing me someone I could love. In my experience of more than sixty years as a pastor I have met people I understood pretty well but found it very difficult to love. I now have a more mature belief.
In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John we read that Jesus told the apostles to lift up their eyes before they looked upon the fields (people) of this world. He was teaching them that if we look at people through the lenses of the way God sees them we will never meet anyone we cannot love because God loves them all. He loves them so much He became a man and died for them.
Beginning with those who live under the same roof with you, and moving out from there, are you willing to lift up your eyes and get God’s perspective on the people who intersect your life before you look at them? That can revolutionize your relationships!
This is true because you will never see or meet anyone God does not love whom Christ cannot love through you.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: God's love for all, Gospel of John, Jeremiah 17, Jesus Christ, love of God and others, love of Jesus Christ, prophet jeremiah, revolutionized relationships, Spiritual cardiogram, Spiritual hearts | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 14, 2012
“So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” (Luke 10:36)
Jesus was the absolute master storyteller of parables – stories that illustrated His teachings (in Greek Para = “alongside of” and Ballo = “to throw.”) A lawyer asked Him the question: “Who is my neighbor?” In response Jesus told a parable about a man who was mugged and left half dead. When a priest saw him he passed by on the other side of the road and did not get involved. A Levite, or Temple assistant, who traveled that road did the same thing. Then a traveling Samaritan came down the road. When he saw the helpless man he gave him all the first aid he could, put the man on his animal and took him to an inn where he paid for his care. Jesus then asked the question quoted above.
This parable presents three philosophies of life. The mugger’s philosophy of life was: “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours will be mine as soon as I can take it.” The religious professionals in the story believed: “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours.” The philosophy of the Samaritan was: “What’s yours is yours and what’s mine is yours any time you need it.” That is obviously the philosophy of life Jesus was teaching by His parable answer to the lawyer’s question.
May I ask you to get real and ask yourself which of these three philosophies of life and neighbor are yours? Do you believe people are to be exploited for your personal gain? Do you not want to get involved? Or are the people who intersect your life an opportunity for service?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Faith in God, Good Samaritan parable, Jesus Christ, Love of Jesus for real, Luke 10, parables, philosophies of life, Teachings of Jesus | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 10, 2012
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)
The mercy of God withholds from us what we deserve and the grace of God bestows on us all kinds of wonderful blessings we do not deserve. Grace is also the dynamic we must receive from God to do what He calls and leads us to do. This is the most superlative verse about grace in the Bible.
It tells us that God is able to make all grace, not just some grace, abound toward us and not just trickle in our direction. Then we may have all sufficiency, not just some sufficiency in all things, not just some things. We are then equipped to abound, not just do our duty, as we do every good work He leads us to do, and not just the works we like to do, ALWAYS!
Twice in this verse Paul emphasizes the reality that this grace is for you – not just for the pastor or the missionary – but you! Is this grace a reality in your journey of faith?
I once heard Dr. A. W. Tozer preach on this verse. After he read the verse there was an eloquent pause and then he said, “Sometimes you cannot help but allow the thought that God oversold the product in the New Testament!” He then preached a powerful message challenging us to believe that God has not oversold His grace but we need to learn how to access His grace.
The hymn writer wrote, “The favor He shows and the joy He bestows are for those who will trust and obey…”
That is a good place to start.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
February 7, 2012
“What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?” (1Corinthians 4:7 NLT)
We would all do well to think about and then answer this intriguing question presented by the Apostle Paul. Can you think of anything you have that you did not receive from God? Can you think of all the wonderful things you have received from God? According to the Bible our salvation is a gift from God. The faith it takes to receive salvation is also a gift from God. As Paul has implied, if we will do a gift inventory we will find that God has given us many kinds of gifts.
Our DNA proves that God has given us a physical body that is unique and makes us different from every other person living on the planet. Physically, there is not now, there never has been, and there never will be any one exactly like you. God has given us intellectual gifts that equip us to live smarter, not harder.
When we receive the gift of faith that saves us God also gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Holy Spirit He adds a cluster of spiritual gifts that enable us to minister in many ways. He can bring gifts of mercy which enable us to love those who are hurting with great compassion. He can give us the gift of knowledge, wisdom and teaching that make it possible for us to teach the Word of God. He can equip us to lead others to Christ.
Make a gift inventory and thank God for all the gifts He has given you!
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Posted by Dick Woodward
February 3, 2012
“If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” (John 7:17)
The Apostle John records the claim of Jesus that His teaching is not merely the teaching of another Rabbi coming down the pike. His teaching is the teaching of God. If we want to prove that, we must choose to do what He is teaching. When we do it we will know it. The doing leads to the knowing according to Jesus. The intellectually sophisticated person usually claims: “When I know it I will do it.” Jesus told us when we do it we will know it.
That profiles what we call “discipleship” and “apprenticeship.” These two words are actually synonymous. A disciple is literally “a learner who is doing what they’re learning and learning what they’re doing.”
I once heard the vice president of a large shipyard explain to the business community of Norfolk, Virginia how they had just been given another contract to build yet another large aircraft carrier. He said he could answer their question in one word: “apprenticeship.”
He explained that a college student takes in huge amounts of information and then regurgitates that information periodically. After doing that for four years they are given a piece of paper that says they’re an educated person. But often they cannot actually do anything. He explained that at the shipyard they put a person in the classroom for two weeks and in the shipyard for two weeks. After five years the graduates of their apprenticeship school build large aircraft carriers.
Have you been apprenticed in your journey of faith? Are you apprenticing others in their faith journey?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Discipleship, faith journey, faith journeys, Jesus Christ, John 7:17, journey of faith, learning by doing, Spiritual apprenticeship, Teaching of God | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
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