March 18, 2012
“Lord, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, ‘There is no help for him in God.’” (Psalm 3: 1, 2)
As David writes the Third Psalm he is facing the greatest crisis of his life. His son has turned the entire nation against him and has driven him out of Jerusalem into the wilderness where he hid from King Saul when he was a young fugitive. His situation is so desperate that many people said that even God could not help him. But in this psalm David explains how he knows God will be there for him; he is not having a panic attack so he gives us a prescription for one.
Observe the way David uses three tenses as he lays out his prescription that kept him from panicking. He recalls that in the past there were many times when he cried out to God and the Lord heard him. When he lay down to sleep not knowing if the enemy would slit his throat while he was sleeping, he awoke alive because the Lord sustained him. He then declared that he will not be afraid of the thousands of people who wanted to see him dead. He then declares in the present tense that God is with him and His present blessing is upon him.
When you are in crisis think back to times in the past when God met you and brought you through a crisis. Then let those past answered prayers inspire you to trust God for the present and the future crises in your life.
Look back. With faith, look forward. Then look around at your present circumstances, not with panic but with faith and peace.
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Uncategorized | Tagged: be not afraid, faith, Faith in Crisis, Faith in God, keeping the faith, King David, panic attacks, Peace of Jesus Christ, Psalm 3, religion, spirituality, trust god, Trust in God | 
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 14, 2012
“Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” (Psalm 100: 4, 5)
In Hebrew culture names had great significance. When parents named a child the name they chose often expressed their desire for the life of their child. Sometimes the name was given to a child because certain events occurred surrounding the birth of the child. The significance of names is especially important when we consider the names of God in the Bible – they tell us much about God.
In this short psalm we are instructed to praise the name of God. We are to praise God because He is good. Rick Warren told us life is like a railroad track. The left rail represents this reality: there is always something negative in our life because God is more interested in our character than He is in our comfort. The right rail represents this reality: there is always something good in our life because God is good and He loves us.
In this very short psalm we are instructed to bless the name of God by focusing His goodness, His everlasting mercy, and His enduring truth. Mercy is His unconditional love and forgiveness. That word is found 366 times in the Bible because God knew we would need it every day and He even included a year like this leap year.
If we read the Bible looking for truth we will discover truth that endures to all generations. In the last verse of his shepherd psalm David informed us that the mercy of God pursued him like a hound of heaven. Will you fill and take this prescription for blessing the name of God?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 10, 2012
“… 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?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 2, 2012
“Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, ‘Who will show us any good?’” (Psalm 4:5)
David cannot sleep. He is uptight and anxious. From the context of the psalm we know he cannot sleep because he is under great stress. He decides to meditate within his own heart and be still. (He has a little “board meeting” with himself in the middle of the night). If he does the right thing, he believes he cannot survive. He is therefore thinking about doing the expedient thing. But since he is a man of great spiritual integrity he finds himself awake and uptight.
As a result of his meditation he resolves his dilemma. He makes the decision that he is going to make whatever sacrifices he has to make to do what is right and then trust the Lord for his survival. He knows there are many people who are looking for someone who will do what is right even though it costs them everything to do right.
Have you ever found yourself awake, uptight and stressed out in the middle of the night because you are in a crisis? If you do what you believe God wants you to do you don’t see how you can survive. But your spiritual integrity won’t let you sleep if you don’t do what you believe God wants you to do. David models here a prescription for resolving that kind of dilemma.
His prescription is simply to do right. Whatever it costs you, do right and trust God for the consequences. Many people will be blessed, God will be glorified, you will have great peace, and get some sleep.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Doing Right, faith, Faith in God, great peace, King David, peaceful sleep, Psalm 4, Righteousness, spiritual integrity, spirituality, the cost of doing right, trust god, trust in the lord, Trusting God | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
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.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: eternal values, faith, Faith in God, knowing god, priority focus, priority target, running the race with faith, St. Paul | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
December 6, 2011
“But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)
After the Angel Gabriel visited the priest Zechariah he went to the village of Nazareth to a peasant girl named Mary. When he told her she was going to be the mother of God she responded in three ways. The Scripture states very clearly that she believed and praised God (Luke 1:45-55). As we might well imagine, we read that she was so filled with awe the first person to question the virgin birth was the virgin. She showed us that honest inquiry is not the sign of a weak faith. And the verse above tells us that she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
When the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles tell us about the Christmas that shall be when Jesus Christ comes back again, they tell us that His coming is the only hope of the world and the blessed hope of the church. Hope is the conviction that something good exists in this world and we are going to experience it. Somewhere close to thirty thousand people in America take their life every year because they no longer believe in something good. In other words, they end their life when they lose hope.
Some believers are so awed by the miracle of the Second Coming they ask questions and experience a “paralysis of analysis” which is followed by much pondering in their hearts. When we realize that we have a message of hope to tell people without hope about the Christmas that shall be, we simply must share that good news. It is almost criminal negligence to have this hope and not share it with people who have no hope.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Christmas, faith, Good News, Hope, Mary, Message of Hope, pondering these things | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
December 2, 2011
“But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born.” (Luke 1:20)
A teenager once asked me this thoughtful question about Christmas: “Since there was so much hype about the birth of Jesus Christ, why is it that thirty years later nobody seemed to believe in Him? You would think everyone would have just been waiting for Him to begin His ministry!”
Actually, there were only a handful of people who knew about that first Christmas. The first one to know was a priest named Zechariah. He and his wife Elizabeth were godly people, very advanced in years. They had no children and the angel Gabriel told Zechariah that he and his wife were going to have a child who would be the last of the prophets to tell us about the coming of the Messiah. Their son, whom they were to call John, would actually point at Christ and introduce Him to this world.
Zechariah did not believe the angel. He was therefore told that everything he had heard was going to happen, but he would be smitten mute and not be able to tell anyone until his child was born. This priest had the greatest sermon to preach that any priest ever had. God was going to intersect human history! But he could not preach it because of his unbelief.
Before you are too hard on Zechariah, let me ask you a question. The New Testament tells us more than three hundred times that God is going to intersect human history a second time when Jesus Christ comes back again. Have you ever told anybody about that Christmas to be?
Or does your unbelief shut your mouth?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Christmas, faith, God intersects history, Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, Luke 1:20, the First Christmas, unbelief, Zechariah | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
November 23, 2011
“Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” (Psalm 100)
In this profound thanksgiving psalm David tells us that coming into the presence of God is like having an audience with a great King. That audience begins with the gates of thanksgiving that are followed by the courts of praise. In a corporate worship service or in your closet worship, always try to begin your approach to God at the gates of thanksgiving followed by the courts of praise.
I personally know of no other worship helps that mean more to me than to begin my approach to God with thanksgiving. When I begin thanking Him and praising Him for all my blessings I soon find myself coming before His presence with singing. In His presence I know that He is God. I know that He is my Shepherd and I am His sheep. I know that He is good, His mercy is everlasting and He wants me to share the truth of His Word in all the lands of this world because He wants people in all the lands of this world and in every generation to know what it is to make a joyful shout of worship in His presence.
Let this great worship psalm of David show you how to
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: faith, Praise, Psalm 100, Psalm of Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day, Worship | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
November 16, 2011
“This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” (John 2: 11)
Jesus goes to a wedding and when they run out of wine, He creates more wine. In addition to the record of a miracle, this story is a formula for regeneration and a prescription for renewal. There is tired and there is tired of. Disciples of Jesus not only get tired – they get tired of. We call this “burnout.”
I’m convinced this first miracle presents a prescription for burnout. If you are experiencing the need of renewal consider this prescription. When Mary tells Jesus they have no wine, since wine is a symbol of joy in the Bible let this represent your confession that you need renewal because you are tired of, dry, and burned out.
Then block out some time to fill your human vessel with the Word of God as symbolized by the vessels being filled with water. While you are filling up on the Word of God do whatever the Holy Spirit tells you to do. Then realize that your renewal is not just to give you an experience, it is for the benefit of those God wants to touch and bless using you as His channel.
Let these four principles you can learn from this miracle that first brought glory to Jesus and faith to His disciples bring renewal to you as you serve Jesus. Our Lord often invited His apostles to come apart and rest awhile. If you don’t come apart at times and take this prescription of Jesus for your burnout – you will come apart. Let Jesus turn your water into wine. That will bring glory to Jesus and make a restored believer out of you!
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Posted by Dick Woodward
November 14, 2011
“This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11 NLT)
An allegory is a story in which people, places and things have a deeper meaning. In addition to being the record of a supernatural miracle the story of Jesus turning water into wine is a beautiful allegory that shows us how to be born again. Carefully and prayerfully read the story.
A first step is expressed in the words of Mary when she tells Jesus they have no wine. Wine is a symbol of joy in the Bible. This statement of Mary is like a confession. Our first step in being born again is to confess that we have no wine (joy) and we need to be born again.
A second step in this formula is when Jesus tells the servants to fill the huge thirty gallon jars with water. The Scripture is sometimes symbolized by water because of the way it cleanses. A devotional application here could therefore be that our second step toward regeneration would be to fill our human vessel with the Word of God.
A third step is pictured when Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. While we are filling our vessel with the Word we must do what it tells us to do.
The fourth step is when Jesus tells the servants to draw out what they had just poured into the huge jars and serve it as wine. Precisely, when did the water become wine? I’m convinced it was when the servants had the faith to serve the water as wine. We are born again when we believe Jesus can turn our water into wine and show His glory through us.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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