Three Philosophies of Life

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?

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Posted by Dick Woodward

A Priority Focus

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

Who Are You?

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.

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Posted by Dick Woodward

A Common Currency

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

A question for New Year’s Eve

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

A Christmas Epiphany

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.

 

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Posted by Dick Woodward

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