May 1, 2013
“I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, you mountains…” (Isaiah 44: 22, 23)
When one of the greatest men of God who ever lived committed the sins of adultery and murder, filled with remorse and contrition (which means exceedingly sorry for sin), he prayed a great model prayer for forgiveness. If you have sinned and you don’t know how to confess your sin read Psalm 51. Make it your own prayer and you will do a great job of confessing your sin.
In the original Hebrew David actually asked God to un-sin his sin. Any devout believer who has really sinned will resonate with this prayer petition of David. The spirit of the prayer petition is: “Oh God! If You could only make it as if it had never happened!”
That introduces us to one of the most beautiful words in the Bible: “justified.” This word means “just as if I’d never sinned” and it means “to be declared righteous.” David uses this word in his prayer of repentance.
Sunday school children are taught a song that summarizes these Scripture verses: “God has blotted them out, I’m happy as I can be. God has blotted them out, I’ll turn to Isaiah and see. Chapter forty-four, twenty-two and three. He’s blotted them out and I can just shout! For that means me!”
They may be merely singing words when they’re children but when they grow up and become people who sin they may shout with tears when they read these verses and remember that song.
When you sin can you shout, “That means me?”
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Uncategorized | Tagged: christianity, confessing our sins, confession, Faith in God, Forgiveness, Isaiah 44:22-3, justification, King David, Mercy, prayer for forgiveness, prayer of repentance, prayer petition, Psalm 51, theology | 
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Posted by Dick Woodward
April 27, 2013
“Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” (1Timothy 4:16)
Although it sounds contrary to what we have been taught as believers the Apostle Paul wrote to his son in the faith, Timothy, that there are times when he should join the Me First Club. When you find something great in the Scriptures how many times is your first thought the person who simply must hear this truth?
In this prescription for spiritual growth Paul writes that Timothy should place the Scripture down on his life, and then hold his life up to the Scripture. Paul promises Timothy that if he will continuously do this as a spiritual discipline, he will experience salvation himself first and then lead others to salvation.
There are at least three times when committed disciples should put themselves in first place; when we are judging, when there is sin to confess, and when it comes to our own needs. Many disciples have become casualties in the spiritual warfare because they neglected these priorities.
There is a sense in which if we do not save ourselves we cannot save anybody else. When the oxygen masks appear on a commercial air flight, mothers with babies are instructed to place the mask on themselves first and then on their baby.
If you are a spiritual leader don’t apply Scripture to others that you have not first applied to yourself. Think of the priorities being taught here as concentric circles. You are the innermost circle. The other circles represent those with whom you share God’s Word after you have joined the Me First Club.
Save yourself and then watch God work as He saves others.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: christianity, Discipleship, faith, Grace, religion, spiritual priorities, theology | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
March 24, 2013
“I would have despaired, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13)
The Apostle Paul concludes his great love chapter by profiling three eternal values: faith, hope and love. We know that love is an eternal value because God is love. We can also understand why faith is one of the three eternal values because faith brings us to God. But why is hope one of the three great eternal values?
God plants hope, or the conviction that something good exists in this world, in the heart of every human being. When you get into the lives of many people and understand their battles and challenges you cannot help but wonder how they could believe there is something good in this life.
When I was in college my dormitory was located at the end of Hope Street in Los Angeles adjacent to the Los Angeles Public Library. The same day I learned in a course that more than 25,000 people committed suicide in 1952 because they lost hope, a man committed suicide by jumping from the top of my dormitory.
The newspaper reporter who recorded the story was more eloquent than he knew when he wrote: “An unidentified man jumped to his death today from a tall building at the end of Hope Street.”
David knew that he would despair if he ever lost that conviction God put in his heart the Bible labels hope. Hope is an eternal value because it is meant to lead us to faith, and faith is to lead us to God.
Let your hope bring you to faith and your faith to God. And remember that people around you are despairing without that hope you have.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: christianity, eternal values, faith, Hope in God, Jesus, losing hope, Love of God, Psalm 27, sharing hope | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 26, 2013
“And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work…For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.” (Philippians 1:6; 2:13, NLT)
When Jesus met two of the apostles for the first time He asked them the question: “What do you want?” They were disciples of John the Baptist and John had instructed them to follow Jesus. They were following behind Jesus as He walked down a road. Jesus turned and asked them this question when He saw them.
Following Jesus can have a dynamic impact upon the way we answer that question. We often have a flawed “want to” when we meet Jesus. But as we follow Him He heals those flaws in the desires of our hearts. I remember a college student who met Jesus and was following Him for some time. As she expressed her excitement about the changes in her life she exclaimed, “I wonder where my want to went to!”
As we follow Jesus we discover that when He shows us what we should want we need more than just knowing what we should want. We need the power to do what we should want to do. As a pastor over many decades, I have been intrigued by the importance of this question. Why do some people earnestly desire to do the will of God while many others are apathetic?
According to Paul, it is God who gives us the unflawed “want to” and the dynamic power to obey Him and do what pleases Him. Would you like to follow Jesus and wonder where your “want to” went to? Begin every day by letting Jesus ask you, “What do you want?”
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: christianity, desiring God, doing the will of God, faith, following Jesus, Jesus, loving God, spirituality | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
January 25, 2013
“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again… no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” (John 3: 3, 5)
John Wesley preached so often on the text “You must be born again” that people asked him, “Mr. Wesley, why do you preach so often that we must be born again?” His answer was always the same: “Because you must be born again!” In the two quotes from Jesus above it is almost as if someone has asked Jesus why we must be born again.
Jesus gives us two answers to our question. Without being born again we cannot see the Kingdom of God and we cannot enter the Kingdom of God without being born again. The Kingdom of God is therefore the end to which the new birth is the means.
People have misinterpreted and misapplied these two answers of Jesus. They replace the concept of the Kingdom of God with the concept of heaven. They would answer our question by telling us we cannot see heaven or enter heaven unless we are born again.
Jesus was not talking about heaven after we die. The Kingdom of God is the concept that God is a King and He wants to make us His subjects. To see that concept and enter into that relationship with God whereby He truly is our King and we are His subjects we must be born again.
Have you ever seen that truth? Have you entered into a relationship with God where He truly is your King? If you have not seen that truth or entered into that kind of relationship with God then you simply must be born again!
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: being born again, Born Again, Christ the King, christianity, faith, Jesus Christ, John 3:3-5, John Wesley, Kingdom of God, new birth, Relationship with God, theology | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
January 5, 2013
“In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power
And the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6: 8-13)
Make the observation with the help of the bold type that this disciple’s prayer/instruction teaches that we should begin our prayers with what we might call a ‘providential perspective.’
This is expressed in three petitions: Your name, Your kingdom and Your will. Before we get to “Give us” we are to bring into our perspective Who God is, as He is revealed in all His names. Then we are to focus on the fact that He is our King and we are His subjects.
When we understand that He is our King, we know His will must be done on earth through us even as it is done perfectly in heaven, all day long every day.
Many think prayer is coming into the presence of God with a shopping list and sending God on errands for us. But here Jesus is teaching that prayer is reporting for duty to our King that He might give us our orders for the day.
We are to end our prayers with a providential benediction. The essence of the providential benediction is that since the power to answer our prayers will always come from God, the glory and the result (the Kingdom) will always belong to God. James tells us we sometimes “pray amiss.” The difference between praying amiss and praying a hit can be this perspective on prayer.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: christianity, Disciples Prayer, faith, how to pray?, Jesus Christ, Matthew 6:8-13, prayer, prayer of Jesus, presence of god, providential perspective, the Our Father, theology | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
November 9, 2012
“Where there is no vision the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)
When God wants to do a great work there must be a person with a vision. They must also have a plan because where there is no vision the people perish and where there is no plan the vision perishes. Since the vision and plan must be shared, that means there must be a vision caster. In response to the vision caster there must be keepers of the vision who will preserve and propagate that vision.
The greatest example of this in the Bible is Jesus Christ. He was the greatest vision caster this world has ever seen. He had a vision and a plan. In one of many places, He shared His vision and His plan when He gave His Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). His disciples were, and are, the keepers of His vision. They have preserved and proclaimed His vision for two thousand years. If you are an authentic disciple of His today you are commissioned to be a keeper of His vision.
The man who led me to Christ and mentored me in Christ and the ministry for thirty years had a tremendous vision for foreign missions. For most of the time he was mentoring me I had missions in my head but not in my heart. He once told me with tears that if he could take his heart out of his chest cavity and place it in mine if it would give me a heart for missions he would do it. I’m so grateful that before he went to be with the Lord in answer to his prayers he saw me become a keeper of that vision of Jesus Christ.
If you are His disciple are you a keeper of His vision?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: christianity, faith, foreign missions, Jesus Christ, Proverbs 29:18, religion, The Great Commission, vision casters, vision of jesus | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
November 6, 2012
“And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in meekness correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” (2Timothy2:24-26)
We might label these words Paul wrote to Timothy: “How to relate to a difficult person.” We all need this teaching because we must all deal with difficult people.
According to Paul the difficult person to whom we are relating has been taken captive by the evil one and we cannot free them. We can maintain three fruits of the Spirit (gentleness, meekness and patience), which keeps the door open for God. We then earn our hearing and place before them the Word of truth they need to hear. We must not quarrel because that opens the door for the evil one and closes the door for God.
When they acknowledge the truth of God’s Word they experience repentance, and escape from the captivity of the evil one. This is not a matter of teaching or preaching. It is not having the last word or winning the argument. This is becoming a conduit through which almighty God sets people free who were not free.
To repent means to think again or to have a change of mind, heart, will and direction. It is a work of God you cannot perform. Only God can use His Word and you His servant to make this happen. In an attitude of prayer and in dependence upon God and His Spirit are you willing to be a conduit of this miracle?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
October 28, 2012
“By faith Moses… esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt… looked to the reward.” (Hebrews 11: 23, 26)
No man has ever made a greater contribution to the work of God than Moses. He gave the people of God their freedom when they were not free. He gave them the one thing newly emancipated people need more than anything else: law and government. Spiritually, he gave them the Word of God and worship.
A famous spiritual heavyweight named Dwight L. Moody summarized the life of Moses this way: “He lived 120 years in three periods of 40 years. In the first 40 years he learned that he was nobody. In the second 40 years he learned that he was somebody. In the last 40 years of his life Moses and the whole world learned what God can do with somebody who has learned that he is nobody!”
Moses faced his greatest challenge when God called him to deliver God’s people from their awful slavery in Egypt. Moses had tried to do this on his own and failed, but God told him as He appeared in the burning bush: “You are not the deliverer. I am. You can’t deliver them but I can.” When the greatest miracle in the Old Testament happened God did not need to tell Moses: ”You didn’t do that. I did!”
Have you ever tried to be the conduit of God’s deliverance from the slavery of addiction or sin in the life of another person? When you do you simply must learn this definition of humility: you are not the deliverer. God is. You can’t deliver them but God can. And if deliverance happens God is the Deliverer.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: christianity, definition of humility, faith, God's Deliverence, hebrews 11, intercessory prayer, life of moses, Moses, spirituality | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
October 21, 2012
When Job prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes. In fact, the LORD gave him twice as much as before!” (Job 42:10)
What may be the oldest book in the Bible answers the question: “Why do God’s people suffer?” Many people are familiar with the book of Job but have a shallow understanding of its message. They think it is just the story of a wealthy, godly man who lost everything and still worshiped God.
This is actually the story of a suffering, godly man who learned three perspectives we must ‘get together’ if we are going to be the kind of person God wants us all to be. Job looks in with his friends to find the answer to the why of his suffering. This led him and them nowhere. He is told to look up. He does and dialogs with God in a whirlwind. This profoundly changes him forever.
When God rebukes his friends because everything they told Job about himself and God was wrong, Job prays for his friends. When he looks around and prays for his friends, God richly blessed him and doubles all he lost.
This old saga of suffering tells us that if we want to be a together person we must first look up and get our vertical perspective and relationship with God together. Then we must look in and confess what God wants us to know about those internal issues that make us tick right.
Only those who have looked up and looked in as directed by God are qualified to look around and be part of God’s solution in the horizontal dimension of relationships.
Is God using the circumstances of your life to teach you to look up, in, and around as you should?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: christianity, faith, faith perspectives, prayer, Relationship with God, spirituality, suffering of Job, The Bible, Trusting God, why do good people suffer? | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
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