A Christmas Prescription

December 4, 2015

“But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.  (Luke 2:19)

The holidays are the most family-oriented weeks of the year.  Yet for many – those who have no family, singles, widows and widowers, the divorced among us, and those with painful and negative family experiences – the holidays can be the most difficult time of the year.  As a pastor, every year I had parishioners who asked me in early November to pray for them to make it through the holidays.  The hard reality is that lonely, depressed, and anxious people are lonelier, more depressed, and more anxious during the “season to be jolly” than at any other time of the year.

At the same time, the last four weeks of the year are filled with joy and happiness for millions of people and their families.  Whether the holiday season is your favorite time or your most difficult time of the year, I want to share a Christmas prescription that can bring the true meaning of Christmas to your holidays and to every day of your new year.

Try to block out the advertising blitz of the commercial Christmas we have today. Carefully read the Christmas scriptures in the first two chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and then read the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John.

God told a devout peasant girl what He was going to do.  Mary believed God, but she asked Him questions and pondered these things in her heart.

Dick Woodward, A Christmas Prescription

Editor’s Note: During December, the blog posting elf would like to share one of Papa’s booklets, A Christmas Prescription, bit by bit with you. Be blessed this month as we ‘ponder’ the Christmas that was, the Christmas that shall be, and the Christmas that is…

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Beautiful Christmas Words

December 23, 2014

“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: “… go 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 these 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.

Dick Woodward, 23 December 2011

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A Christmas Challenge (all year long!)

December 19, 2014

“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” (2Corinthians 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.

Dick Woodward, 16 December 2011

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Comfort for Heavy Hearts @ the Holidays

December 12, 2014

“…whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:26)

Has the joyful happy holiday season found you with a heavy heart because you have lost a loved one?  I have suggested that if you want to find the happiness and comfort Jesus promised in His second beatitude to those who mourn, you should ask the right questions and listen to God’s answers to the right questions.  My third suggestion was implied by Jesus as He gave an excellent right answer to Martha when he asked her, “Do you believe this?”

My third suggestion is that you believe God’s answers to the right questions.  When we ask, listen, and believe, the death of someone we love is like an investment in the world to come.  We have simply bought shares in heaven and we have increased our motivation to be there in the eternal dimension with Christ and with them.

A devout surgeon I know says that the word we use most in this life is “Why?” However, the word we are going to use most in the next world is going to be “Oh!” An old hymn I don’t hear much anymore proclaims: “Friends will be there I have known long ago.  Joy like a river around me will flow.  Yet just a smile from my Savior I know,  that will be glory be glory for me!”

The whole Bible is filled with God’s answers to the right questions.  When we believe those answers we will discover that the happy state Jesus promised those who mourn in one word is salvation.  Salvation and the comfort He promised can begin right now and last forever if you will ask, listen, and believe!  Will you do that now?

Dick Woodward, 17 December 2010

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Glorious Music

December 9, 2014

After last week’s post regarding how music expresses the inexpressible, today we are taking a time-out from the written word to enjoy words put to glorious music.  My father loved music! With speakers wired all over our home in Va. Beach, he roused us to the table every morning @ 6:15a.m. blasting the theme from “Rocky” by the Boston Pops. He & Mama so loved to sing hymns.  They would memorize all the verses & go over the words together, checking them in a file he used on his voice-activated computer, before singing them together with gusto.

Papa especially loved this time of year filled with carols. The Williamsburg Community Chapel piped in the amazing Christmas concert every year by video-feed for my parents to watch. He kept a picture of the WCC Choir singing Fairest Lord Jesus in pride of place in our living room.  (It was a no-brainer including that one during his Memorial Celebration.)

We also recorded many Christmas concerts during the holiday season.  The other night we watched his annual favorite, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and heard them sing the glorious “From Heaven on High” by Felix Mendelssohn (from his “Weihnachtslied.)  Be blessed to listen!

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