October 28, 2014
At Dick’s Memorial Celebration his grand-daughter shared a moving tribute. Be blessed and challenged today by Morgan’s words & ‘inbox discipleship.’
“Granddaddy was, and still is, my hero. He was so compassionate… He was always there for me – loving me so well, exactly where I was, providing endless affirmation. When I was 18 and wrestling with my faith, Granddad was there to disciple me. I may have gone to a ‘missionary school,’ but the true discipleship in my life took place in my e-mail inbox. I would ask the most difficult theological questions you can imagine and he would take the time to answer them in full. One of my favorite responses he gave is this:
Precious Granddaughter, do not judge too quickly about the context in which you find yourself. It is easier to move to a consistent and problem-free extreme than to remain at the center of tension on any biblical issue; but the truth is found at the center. One of the greatest things you will learn in this adventure out there is that God can use you. That truth is on a need to know basis. When we place ourselves between the love of Christ and the pain of hurting people, we discover that He loves to turn us into conduits of His love (I John 4:16.) When that happens we find out where He is and where we want to be for the rest of our lives. You know my four spiritual secrets. We learn them best when we are in over our heads and He is using us to do what only He can do. The miracle is that He does work through us. Looking back, standing on the finish line, I see clearly that His plan for me was perfect and wonderful! What He gave me or did not give me shaped me into the person, the unique person He wanted me to be for His glory, not my own. He is doing the same thing in your life, precious granddaughter.
“…And the Lord is doing that for us all. Let us all pick up the baton today and follow Granddad’s legacy as we lean in to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ – that we may all be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Morgan Perry (15 March 2014)
1 Comment | 
Uncategorized | Tagged: agape love, Dick Woodward, Discipleship, email theology, faith, following Jesus, God's love, I John 4:16, Love of Jesus, miracles of faith, Spiritual Discernment, spiritual legacy, spiritual tributes, theology | 
Permalink
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
April 11, 2013
“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, you are My disciples indeed.’” (John 8: 31 KJV)
One of the most important words in the New Testament is the word “continue.” From the horrible Mamertine prison in Rome Paul dictated his last words to Timothy, his beloved son in the faith. He fervently exhorted Timothy to continue in the things he had learned.
International Cooperating Ministries has built more than 4,000 churches in 65 countries. One of the greatest challenges we face is attrition. This is both in individuals who profess faith in Christ and churches that are started by professing believers. We have found that churches are 91% more likely to continue and build daughter churches it they get into our four year curriculum of Bible study we call “The Mini Bible College.”
Our Lord was intensely realistic. He knew all about the hard reality of attrition. In His Parable of the Sower He taught that nothing happens 75% of the time the Word of God is proclaimed or taught. That’s why when people professed to believe in Him, His challenge to them was to continue in His Word and be His disciples indeed.
His Great Commission to His disciples was to make disciples (Matthew 28: 18-20). There were three participles in that commission: going, baptizing and teaching. But there was only one commanding imperative: to make disciples.
Apply this word “continue” to your own personal commitment to follow Jesus and remember this concept when you share the Gospel with others. It is critically important that we, and they, not only profess to believe but make the commitment to continue and become disciples indeed of our glorious and victorious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Bible Study, Discipleship, Evangelization, faith, International Cooperating Ministries, Jesus Christ, Mini Bible College, Parable of the Sower, The Great Commission | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
November 27, 2012
“He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you..” (Matthew 4:19)
In the seventies I attended a meeting where the business executives of a large city asked the vice president of a large shipyard to explain why his shipyard was continuously given the contracts to build large aircraft carriers. They had just been awarded a contract to build a large carrier and the next highest bidder was $38 million above them.
He said that he could answer their question with one word: apprenticeship. He explained that a student in a university absorbs information for many weeks and then is asked to show that they remember and understand that information. After doing that for four years they are given a degree and we declare them educated. But unless they specialize in something that equips them for a specific job they are often educated people who can’t do anything. In the shipyard, however, they put a person in the classroom for two weeks and in the shipyard for two weeks and after doing that for five years they build aircraft carriers.
I believe it is helpful to define what we mean when we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ. A synonym for the word disciple is “apprentice.” A disciple is an apprentice who is learning what they are doing and doing what they are learning. Apprenticeship and discipleship are essentially the same concept.
To paraphrase and summarize, Jesus offers a covenant contract to those who profess to believe in Him. That contract has two parts. He promised, “You follow Me. That is your part. I will make you. That is My part. You follow Me. That is your responsibility. And I will make you. That is My responsibility.”
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: disciples of jesus christ, Discipleship, Following Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Matthew 4:19, religion, Spiritual apprenticeship | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
July 6, 2012
“Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Isaiah 40: 4-5)
The essence of Isaiah’s great sermon is that when you build a highway you do four things: you level mountains, you fill valleys, you straighten crooked places, and you smooth out rough places.
Isaiah preached that God was coming into our world and when He did He was going to travel on the highway of the life of His Son. In that life the mountains of pride would be leveled, the empty spaces would be one hundred percent filled with the Holy Spirit, the crooked ways of sin would be perfectly straight and His rough places would be made smooth by the way He responded to them.
Just before Jesus parted with His apostles He told them that in the same way the Father sent Him into the world He was sending them into the world. If His life was to be a highway on which God traveled into this world, our life is also to be a highway for God. I challenge you to ask God to make your life into a highway for Him to travel into this world.
If you pray that prayer when God’s bulldozers start leveling your mountains of pride, His Holy Spirit fills your empty spaces and straightens out your crooked ways of sin and then gives you the grace to smooth out the rough challenges that come into your life.
While all that is happening you can write “Caution: God at work” across your life.
I dare you to have the courage to pray this prayer.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: crooked places, Discipleship, faith, God at Work, Great Commission, Highways of the Lord, Isaiah 40, Jesus Christ, rough places, spirituality, walking the path of faith | Permalink
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
January 20, 2012
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name.” (John 15:16 NIV)
Jesus had been with the apostles for three years when He spoke these words. It was as if these men had been in a three-year seminary with Jesus with no days off – no weekends, holidays or summers. It was just Jesus 24/7. He was now about to be arrested and suffer all the things Mel Gibson so graphically portrayed in his film about the Passion of Jesus Christ.
These words must have fallen like a bombshell on these men. They had all made choices. But He now informed them that He had made the choices. He had chosen them. They had not chosen Him. He chose them for a purpose. That purpose was that they were to be fruitful. They were to bring forth fruit that lasts.
That is the definition of what we call a legacy or legacy giving. A legacy is fruit that lasts long after we have gone home to be with God for all eternity.
By application, we do not choose Jesus and take Him into our plans. He chooses us that He might take us into His plans. It is not all about us – it’s all about Him. Jesus adds the commentary that when we understand this, God will start answering our prayers.
Mother Teresa told us that the only safe, sure, wise, and lasting investment is what we give to God. Have you produced fruit for Christ that will last beyond your lifetime? Wouldn’t you like to leave a legacy of lasting eternal values?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Discipleship, eternal values, God's purpose, Jesus Christ, John 15:16, lasting investments, Legacy Giving, Legacy of Faith, Mother Teresa, passion of jesus christ, spiritual fruit that lasts | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
4SpiritualSecrets 