Sanctified Unselfishness

January 13, 2015

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; loves does not parade itself, is not puffed up.  Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own…”  I Corinthians 13:4-7

I have heard people say, “I don’t get mad, I get even!”  When God’s love is being expressed through us, we don’t get mad or even.  The Greek words for “love suffers long” are often translated patience, but they actually prescribe a merciful, unconditional love – a love that does not avenge itself, even when it has the right and opportunity to do so.

As we examine “love is kind,” we realize this love refuses to play the game of getting even.  The Greek word for kindness means, ‘love is easy – easy to approach, easy to live with, sweet, good and does good things.’  Then we read: “Loves does not envy.”  The Greek words Paul used here prescribe, ‘an unselfish and unconditional commitment to another’s well-being.”  In other words, sanctified unselfishness.

The one who is applying this love is not only concerned about the welfare of the one they love, but they have made a deliberate and unconditional commitment to their happiness.  Their love commitment is not, ‘I love me and I need you,” or, “You love me and so do I.”  They are saying by their love actions, “I am fiercely committed to your well-being and happiness and my love for you is not based on, controlled, or even influenced by the ways you do, or do not, love me.”  Think of how critically this quality of love is needed when a spouse has Alzheimer’s disease, a stroke, accident or an illness that seriously limits them…

The key to the love that behaves properly and is not touchy is that the one loving is not demanding his or her way.  The one who is a conduit of this love is others-centered, not self-centered.

The biggest problem in relationships can be summed up in one word: selfishness.  Therefore, the greatest cure for relational problems can also be summarized in one word: unselfishness. This love virtue of unselfishness is repeated for emphasis, and listed between good manners and being unflappable, because Paul wants to underscore this in our hearts:  “Love does not seek its own (way.)”  It may be the most basic and important of all these expressions of love is that the one who is a conduit of the love of Christ is not seeking his or her own way.

Dick Woodward, from A Prescription for Love

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STEP BY STEP…

January 9, 2015

“… I being in the way the Lord led me…”   (Genesis 24:27)

When we discover the context of these words of Scripture we realize they are teaching us a principle of how God often works in the lives of His people. It is easier to steer a moving vehicle than one that is stationary. God can sometimes steer us more easily when we are moving. That’s why we will find that one step frequently leads to the next step when we have faith to be led by the Holy Spirit.

The words above were spoken by Abraham’s servant who was commissioned by Abraham to travel to the land of his people to find a wife for Isaac. As he journals the events of his search he writes that while he was in the way the Lord led him he encountered the family of Rebekah. When he met her he knew that his search had ended.

We who are committed followers of Christ were commissioned two thousand years ago to go to all nations and make disciples for Jesus Christ. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Like the servant of Abraham, as we embark on the adventure of obeying our great commission, we should expect that each step will lead to the next step.

We don’t always have to know where the road leads as long as we know it is the right road. While we are in the way our Lord has commissioned us to go we must have the faith to take that first step and then, one step at a time, expect our Lord to show us His will about the next step.

Dick Woodward, 28 July 2009

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Hurting Hearts

January 7, 2015

“… who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”  (2 Corinthians 1:4)

The Apostle Paul has just experienced life threatening persecution when he was stoned in Lystra.  As he describes that experience for the Church in Corinth he gives them (and us) a perspective on suffering.  He writes that there is a kind of suffering that drives us to God and there is a quality of comfort that can only be found in God when the level of our suffering drives us to Him.

According to Paul, an evangelist is “one beggar telling another beggar where the bread is.”  A hurting heart that has discovered the comfort that can only be found in God is “one hurting heart telling another hurting heart where the Comfort is.”

As a pastor when I met grief stricken parents who had lost a child, since I had never suffered that loss I sent a couple to comfort them who had lost a child and found the comfort of God to help them.  Any time your heart is hurting because God has permitted you to suffer, realize that you are being given a credential by God.  As you find the comfort that is to be found in God you are now qualified to point any person with that same problem to the comfort you discovered when you had that hurt in your heart.

Although you will not answer all of the “why” questions until you know as you are known, are you willing to let this perspective bring some meaning and purpose to your suffering?

Or would you rather choose to waste your sorrows?

Dick Woodward, 10 March 2012

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A New Perspective

January 2, 2015

“…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…” (Philippians 1:6)

This is second day of a new year.  A friend informed me that he no longer makes New Year’s resolutions.  When I asked why he said, “My willpower is nearly always out of power.”

The Apostle Paul’s favorite Church was the Church he planted at Philippi.  Having brought scores and scores of people to faith in Christ in that city, he finds himself in prison and unable to have any physical contact with them.  As their pastor he cannot use his powers of reason and persuasion or his spiritual gifts of wisdom, preaching and teaching.  Yet he has an unwavering confidence that they will continue in their faith until Jesus Christ returns.

This confidence is not based on them or on himself.  He believes his positive and upbeat perspective about them because he knows that the One Who began a miraculous work in them will complete what He has started.

The word “perspective” means “to look through to the end.” At the starting gate of a New Year it’s so very important to have healthy perspective.  I’m not thinking about willpower driven resolutions but spiritual goals that only the risen, living Christ can make doable.  I’m talking about what you would like to see Christ do in your life this year.

I have recently learned a new formula for setting goals.  In the context I have established, let the letters BHAG stand for Big, Hilarious, Audacious, Goals.  As you set goals for the New Year make them big enough to let Christ in.  Watch Him work because you have set goals that only He can accomplish!

Dick Woodward, 04 January 2011

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New Things for the New Year

December 30, 2014

“Then He brought us out that He might bring us in…”   (Deuteronomy 6:23)

Are you ready for a new thing?  God often wants to do a new thing in our lives but He has three challenges.  When He wants to bring us out of the old and into a new place He cannot get us out of the old because we are insecure and want to hold on to the old place.  He then has to blast us out of the old.  That’s why a call of God is often made up of a pull from the front and a boot from the rear.

His second challenge is that He has to pull us through the transition between the old place and the new.  Transitions can last for years and they can be very painful.  But He promises He can pull us through the worst of them.

His third challenge is to get us right so He can settle us into the new place.  We should no more resist that work of God than a baby should resist being born and coming out into life.

Don’t give God a hard time when He wants to do a new thing in your life.  We must believe that God is good all the time.  If we trust His character we should cooperate with Him when He wants to make changes and do new things in us and for us.  A rut is a grave with both ends knocked out.  Our loving Heavenly Father does not want to see His children in the living death of a rut.

Instead of giving God a hard time, make it easy for Him as He brings you out of the old place and leads you into the new places He has for you in the New Year.

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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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Expressing the Inexpressible

December 5, 2014

“And they sang a new song…” (Revelation 5:9)

 Have you ever wondered why God gave us the miracle of music?  We find a clue in the Old Testament book of Chronicles where David divided the Levite priests into courses of four thousand: “four thousand praised the Lord with musical instruments, ‘which I made,’ said David, ‘for giving praise’.” (1Chronicles 23:5)

There are times when we have a need to express the inexpressible.  When we are infatuated with love we often give each other nicknames.  I had an old girlfriend in California I forgot to tell my wife about when I married her in Virginia.  I called that girl “Punky” and she called me “Hunky.” We had written letters to each other using those nicknames.  One evening during the third month of our marriage when I came in from work my wife called me “Hunky darling!” How I wished I had burned those letters. We invent nicknames because we are trying to express the inexpressible.*

The greatest need we ever have to express the inexpressible is when we enter into the divine presence of Almighty God.  In the last book of the Bible, we read that when a door opens into heaven we find every creature in heaven worshiping a Lamb on the throne of heaven.  For that occasion they are given a new song because the need to express the inexpressible will be so very great. I can’t wait to hear what that new song will sound like!

For believers the purpose of music has been, will be, and is now to express inexpressible praise to God.  Whether it is in a congregation with a choir, or a worship group leading a large congregation, or in your private prayer closet let music express the inexpressible for you.

 Dick Woodward, 17 July 2011

*Editors Note:  After 56 yrs of marriage (& counting), Dick still calls Ginny his “Angel Face” and she calls him her “Angel Pie.”    (written on 17 July 2011)  An addendum today, Papa & Mama kept calling each other Angel Face & Angel Pie until he went to glory… : )

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Ability and Availability

December 2, 2014

“There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many?” (John 6:9)

There is a myth many of God’s people believe today.  It goes something like this,”God uses super-duper people to do super-duper things because they are super-duper people.”  The truth is the exact opposite.  Throughout Scriptures we are told that God loves to use very ordinary people to do extraordinary things because they are available.

As a pastor I have often observed that people who are long on ability are very often short on availability, while people who are short on ability are very often long on availability. The exhortation in Scripture comes down to this: whether we are long or short on ability, the important thing is to be long on availability.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 6, we find the great miracle of Jesus called ‘the Feeding of the Five Thousand.’  Jesus actually fed 5,000 men and their families, which means that He probably fed at least 20,000 people.

An important part of this miracle has to do with where Jesus got the bread and fish that He blessed and multiplied.  Simon Peter’s brother, Andrew, discovered the little boy who was willing to give up his lunch that was probably five little biscuits and two sardines.  “What are they among so many?” It’s a profound question.  The answer is, “in the hands of Jesus they are enough to feed 20,000 hungry people.”

The application is that little is much when God is in it, and little is much when placed in the hands of Jesus. In the early 1980’s God laid it on my heart to put together the Mini-Bible College.  Once in place, He spoke to me through the availability of the little boy’s lunch, so I placed the MBC in His hands…

May I challenge you with the missionary vision of Jesus Christ, and the missionary vision of a little boy who placed what little he had in the hands of Jesus?  Many of us say we would give to the cause of Christ or serve Him if we had much to give or great abilities to serve.  We must see, however, that our stewardship is not based upon what we do not have, but upon what we have.

God is looking for people who can take whatever they have and place it in the hands of Jesus.  The greatest ability is therefore availability.

Dick Woodward, MBC Report (Fall, 1993)

Editor’s Note: By the grace of God, the MBC has been translated in over 31 languages with 10 more in process. As the ministry of ICM has built thousands of churches, thousands upon thousands of people in most every corner of the globe have come into deeper faith through the MBC.  To God be the glory, great things He has done (& is doing!)

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Gravy-on-the-Table Faith

November 29, 2014

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  (Psalm 27: 13)

As we ponder the definition of faith we often hear it said that believing is seeing.  “When I see it, then I’ll believe it” is the way some put it.  In Psalm 27 David clearly writes that if we believe first, then our believing leads us to the seeing of what we believe.

Biblical faith always has an unseen object.  According to other Scriptures there will always be evidence that the unseen object of our faith exists, but when our faith is biblical faith the object of that faith will be unseen (Hebrews 11:6).  Seeing does not lead to believing because we already have the object of our faith when we see, but believing does lead to seeing according to David and other authors of the Bible.

A rural pastor told his people that when they invited him home for dinner after church he was always hoping they would have southern fried chicken.  If he had no reason to believe that would be the menu he could only hope there would be chicken for dinner.  But when he came into their home if he smelled chicken and then saw from the living room chicken gravy sitting out on the dining room table, those things were the evidence of the object he could not see.  He could now believe with certainty there was chicken in the kitchen and that he would have it for dinner.

David tells us that after the believing that leads to seeing, all we have to do is wait on the Lord until we see the object of our faith.  Are you believing God for something you cannot yet see?

Dick Woodward, 02 March 2013

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