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?
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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 24, 2012
“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” (Luke 8:15)
This verse is taken from a very familiar parable of Jesus called “The Parable of the Sower, “ but I call it – “Four Men in a pew, which one are you?”
Jesus is claiming that when the Word of God is taught, seventy-five percent of the time nothing happens. The first man who hears is wearing a hard hat – the Word does not penetrate his mind. When the word is not understood, nothing happens.
The second takes his Word on the rocks. The seed of the Word does not penetrate his heart, or his will. If the Word of God does not penetrate the will, nothing happens.
The third man understands and fully intends to obey the Word but he loses the Word in the weeds of riches, pleasures and worries. Again, nothing happens.
The fourth man understands, obeys and overcomes all the weeds above the soil and the rocks under the soil. He perseveres through all this and produces a crop that is more than one hundred percent what was planted.
Jesus is giving us a formula for hearing when the Word of God is being taught or preached. We must understand, obey and overcome all the obstacles that are trying to defeat us as we hear the Word of God.
Jesus is also challenging His disciples to realize that as they teach the Word of God unless they penetrate the understanding, the will, and the opposition of the evil one nothing happens.
He concluded this teaching with the challenge to be careful how we hear His Word and how others hear when we teach.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: cultivating faith, faith, Jesus, Luke 8:15, parable of jesus, Parable of the Sower, religion, teaching God's Word, teachings of Jesus Christ, the Scriptures, the Word of God, theology | 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?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
October 16, 2012
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
Who was the greatest prophet who ever lived? Who was the greatest man who ever lived? According to Jesus the answer is John the Baptist (Luke 7:28; Matthew 11:11). Having studied the Scripture for six decades I find that answer to be intriguing because very little space is given in the Bible to record this man’s life and ministry.
As I meditate on the Scriptures that describe him I have come to a conclusion about his greatness. At least one key to his greatness was that he accepted the limits of his limitations and the responsibility for his ability.
As we attempt to discover who we are and what God wants to do through our life it is a good rule of thumb to accept the limits of our limitations and the responsibility for our ability. When a degenerative disease of the spinal cord took away my physical abilities, it was critical for me to accept my increasing limitations and continue to be responsible for my abilities.
After about two years of illness when the acceptance came, it was so profound I decided it was a form of inner healing. Using speech recognition software on my computer I received the grace to write about ten thousand pages of what I call a Mini Bible College. These 782 studies of the Bible have been translated into twenty eight languages in sixty countries.
It fills me with grateful worship to realize that the formula for greatness I have learned from John the Baptist has guided me to the most important work I have done for God and Christ.
Are you willing to accept the limits of your limitations and the responsibility for your ability?
4 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: faith, God's will, healing, Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, letting go & letting God, limitations & abilities, speech recognition software, spirituality, theology | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
October 6, 2012
“… the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” . (Acts 5:32)
The purpose of a compass is not just to give us knowledge about where we are when we are lost but to also guide us into the way we need to go. If you think about it – a compass is worthless if we do not comply with what our compass shows us.
In the Gospels Jesus introduces the apostles to the Holy Spirit. He tells them the Holy Spirit will guide them into all truth. He calls the Holy Spirit the “Paraclete.” This word means: “One who comes along side us and attaches Himself to us for the purpose of assisting us.”
Jesus tells them that if they will love Him and keep His commandments He will ask the Father to give them the Holy Spirit (John 14: 15, 16). So many believers miss this. The operative word when it comes to implementing salvation is “believe.” But the operative word when it comes to knowing God through the Holy Spirit is “obey.”
In profound simplicity the hymn writer expressed it this way: “But we never can prove the delights of His love until all on the altar we lay. For the favor He shows and the joy He bestows are for them who will trust and obey. Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.”
Jesus said it even more simply and profoundly when He offered this invitation: “Follow Me and I will make you.” (Matthew 4:19) That’s why the last point on this compass is the most critical of all.
Are you willing to comply with what your compass shows you?
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: faith, Faith Compass, following Jesus, gospels jesus, Jesus Christ, John 14, Obeying God, Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, theology | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
October 4, 2012
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
(Psalm 139: 23, 24)
Applying the compass of a jet pilot to our personal compass of life we next need to ask what it means to conserve when we think we may have lost our way. The familiar prayer of David in Psalm 139 is one answer to that question. We can assume that David is facing challenging decisions about the way he needs to go. We might also assume that he is aware of what this translation lists as his ‘anxieties.’
He is asking God to take the lid off his mind, heart, thoughts and motives along with his anxieties and show him what should not be there because he wants to walk with God in the everlasting way. By example and precept David is teaching that we should be conservative when our anxiety is letting us know that we have lost our way.
We should not make big decisions when we are down or on an emotional high. We should move ahead steadily when what God shows us under the lid of our heart and mind is in alignment with His will and the way He wants us to go with Him.
My friend, the squadron commander, told me about a rookie pilot who radioed his carrier: “I’m lost somewhere over the South West Pacific Ocean but I’m making excellent time!” When we know we are lost that’s not when we are to be making excellent time. That is the time for us to be conservative and pray this prayer of David.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
October 1, 2012
“… God called to the man, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9)
When we know we could get lost we make sure we have a compass with us. Jet pilots fly so far so fast they must have a compass to use immediately when they think they are lost. A squadron commander I knew taught his pilots to use this five-fingered compass: “CONFESS, CLIMB, CONSERVE, COMMUNICATE and COMPLY.”
They were to immediately CONFESS when they thought they might be lost. Then they were to CLIMB because communications are better and they burn less fuel with altitude. Next they were to pull back on the throttle to CONSERVE fuel. The final two points on their compass were critical: to COMMUNICATE with their carrier and then COMPLY with that communication. He promised that if they faithfully implemented the five points on this compass they would see the red light on their carrier called the “meat ball” that guided them to a safe landing.
If we realize we have lost our direction in life we must confess that we are lost. Then we should climb, or do whatever we can do to get close to God. This could be having a private spiritual retreat or seeking out spiritual people. We should not make big decisions but conserve when we have lost our way. The last two points on our personal compass are also critical: we must communicate with God and comply with what we believe He makes us know we are to do (John2:5).
If we will faithfully implement the five points on this compass we will see the “meatball” of His will that will guide us to green pastures in this life and to a safe landing in the house of the Lord forever.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: faith, Faith in God, Finding our way, Genesis, Genesis 3, knowing God's will, personal compass, Seeking God, Spiritual Compass | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
September 28, 2012
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53: 6)
A police officer on a motorcycle noticed a large enclosed truck driven down Sixth Street in Los Angeles, California. The driver stopped every few blocks, got out, and beat all around the sides of the truck with a large baseball bat. After observing this for some time, the officer flashed his lights and ordered the driver to pull over. The policeman said to the driver, “Mister, as far as I can tell, you’re not breaking the law. But I just gotta’ know, what are you doing?”
The truck driver explained, “Officer, this truck here has a capacity of five thousand pounds. But, you see, I’ve got six thousand pounds of canaries. So, I gotta’ keep a thousand pounds of canaries up in the air all the time!”
Perhaps you are up in the air about what you must believe to know that your sins are forgiven. Isaiah told us in the verse above that if we confess that we are included in the first and last all of his verse then our sins are forgiven.
As a seminar for baseball umpires concluded, an old veteran umpire said, “The way I see it, some are balls and some are strikes, but they ain’t nothin ‘til we call ’em!”
I have just thrown you a strike. I have shown you how to know your sins are forgiven. But like the old umpire said, what I have shown you isn’t anything until you call it something.
What do you call this Good News from Isaiah?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: confessing our sins, confession, faith, Forgiveness, Isaiah 53, Jesus Christ, religion, The Good News | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
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