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?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
September 18, 2012
“Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven.’” (Mark 2: 4, 5)
When my wife was critically ill after the birth of our first child she reached a crisis on a Friday morning at ten o’clock. Her eyes were moving back into her head and we thought we were losing her. While several doctors did a spinal tap to relieve pressure on her brain two precious sisters in the Lord had been burdened to pray for her that morning at ten o’clock – not knowing anything about her crisis. She pulled through the crisis and her life was saved.
While having her quiet time after returning from the hospital, she read the verses quoted above. It moved her to tears to realize that when she was too weak to pray for herself her sisters in the Lord were praying for her, and when the Lord saw their faith He ministered healing to her.
In our life span there are sure to be times when we will be too weak to pray for ourselves. That’s one reason it is wise to be in spiritual community with other believers who know the Lord and love Him and who know you and love you. If you had an accident or a sudden illness do you have anyone who would pray for you when you are too weak to pray for yourself?
The wisest man who ever lived wrote: “Two are better than one, because… if one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” (Ecclesiastes 4: 10, 11 NIV)
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Posted by Dick Woodward
September 12, 2012
“Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion…” (PSALM 103: 2 – 4 NIV)
The Old Testament people of God sang from the Psalms when they worshiped God. When they worshiped, sometimes they talked to God about God. Sometimes they talked to God about people, usually their own life. And sometimes they were not talking to God at all, they were talking to people about God: praising, praying, and preaching.
When we read the psalms we should always ask ourselves, “To whom was the author speaking and about whom was he speaking?”
The verses quoted above are from a psalm of prayer. But the strange thing is there is no petition in this prayer. The verb “to pray” literally means to ask. So we are not really looking at a prayer psalm but a psalm of praise and thanksgiving. The Psalmist’s soul is so full all he wants to do is praise the Lord in grateful worship.
What an example for us to pray with no “gimme” in our prayer. Does your soul ever get so full that all you want to do is thank the Lord for all His blessings? He begins by thanking God for his salvation. In the Gospels Jesus heals ten lepers and only one comes back to thank Him. Jesus asked the question “Where are the nine?”
Are you one of the 90% who never thank the Lord for redeeming your life from the pit of sin? Or do you want to be part of the 10% who thank the Lord for their salvation in grateful worship?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
September 9, 2012
“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9: 25-27 NIV)
We have now finished the Summer Olympics in London and here in America our version of football began last week. One of our American football teams has a slogan posted in conspicuous places around their training center. It is simply the three words: “Whatever It Takes!” The meaning: every member of the team pledges, “I will do whatever it takes to win!”
In the verses quoted above Paul is referring to the way Olympic athletes from his time trained and disciplined their bodies. They sacrificed whatever it took in discipline and preparation with one goal in mind: to win.
While they did this to win a prize that does not last we should train and discipline ourselves that we might win a prize that is eternal. As we run the race of our ministry we should have a strategy and a race plan. When we fight the good fight of faith we should have a fight plan. While we observe the way the athletes train and do whatever it takes to win we should do whatever it takes to win the real race and fight the real fight.
Are you willing to do whatever it takes to win the race and the fight today?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
September 4, 2012
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” (Psalm 19: 1, 2)
At the end of summer we approach the threshold of the explosion of beautiful fall colors. While you enjoy the explosion of color this year consider the words God speaks to us every fall.
Since that beautiful color is produced by the death of those leaves, the word God is speaking to many of us is that death can be beautiful. In many ways the most beautiful reality you and I encounter in our three or four score years on earth is the death of our Lord Jesus Christ that makes it possible for us to experience salvation and enter heaven.
Paul tells us the Gospel is that Christ died so we might live and now it is our turn. We must die so Christ might live through us (Galatians 2: 20). That means our death to ourselves can be beautiful.
Every spring our God speaks another word to us. That word is seen through all the resurrection around us as we see black trunks and branches of trees we thought were dead sprout to life and bloom.
The Latin root meaning of rehabilitation is “to invest again with dignity.” Do we have the faith to believe God can bring to life that which we thought was dead? Let’s apply that thought to our own life, to the lives of our children, and to secular people we know and love.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Autumn faith, death & life, faith, Galations 2:20, God's Word, Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus Christ, meaning of rehabilitation, Psalm 19, Resurrection, spirituality, Spring faith | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
August 31, 2012
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8)
The mercy of God withholds what we deserve and the grace of God lavishes on us countless blessings we do not deserve. As we appreciate what the mercy of God withholds and the grace of God bestows when we believe the Gospel, we should be filled with grateful worship of our gracious and merciful God.
When Jesus gave His Great Commission He instructed the disciples to wait until the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them before they obeyed His Commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1: 4, 5). After that happened to them on the Day of Pentecost, we read: “Great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). This use of the word “grace” means there is such a thing as the anointing, or the energizing unction of the Holy Spirit upon us as we serve Christ. I am using the word in that sense when I tell people that His grace outweighs my challenges.
Paul was declaring this dimension of grace when he wrote: “God is able to make all grace abound toward you so that you, always, having all sufficiency in all things may abound unto every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). This is the most emphatic verse in the New Testament regarding the anointing and energizing grace of God.
Check out the superlatives he uses in this verse: All grace – abounding grace – each and every one of you – he repeats all of you – all sufficiency – in all things – abounding unto every good work – always! According to Paul we should all be able to make the claim that His grace outweighs our challenges!
Do you believe the grace of God can outweigh your challenges today?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
August 25, 2012
When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)
The word we use most in this life is, “Why?” and the word we will use most in the next world will be, “Oh!” The Providence of God is like a Hebrew word: we have to read it backwards. By the Providence of God I mean that God is in charge and the events of our life have meaning. Sometimes it is as if we are on the inside of a woven basket. All the threads that come up on the inside of the basket represent the way we see the things that happen to us, which seem to have no meaning or pattern at all. If we could just get out of that basket, on the outside we would see beautiful woven patterns.
Job is the biblical example of a man who tried to sort out, by looking inside the basket, what appeared to be the tragic meaninglessness of his life. It was not until he looked up and saw all his tragic circumstances from God’s perspective that he was moved from asking, “Why?” to exclaiming, “Oh!” (Job 35: 1-7; 40-42)
In Psalm Eleven, verse three, the Psalmist asked a question: “If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?” The NIV version of the Bible has a footnote that suggests this alternate reading: “When the foundations of your life are breaking up, what is the Righteous One doing?”
My wife and I have made that question a knee jerk reaction to the events of our life as they happen. As a result, although we’re not on the other side yet we are already saying, “Oh!”
Will you confront the challenges you encounter daily with that same question?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Divine Providence, faith, Faith in God, meaning of Life, Psalm 11:3, religion, spiritual questions, spirituality, Why God? the suffering of Job | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
August 17, 2012
“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29)
Communication is one of the greatest challenges we have in our life. Whether it is in our marriage or in any of the relationships we have in our work and interactions with people on a daily basis, we find ourselves challenged by communication.
It takes courage to communicate because those who communicate with us often say things we need to hear but may not want to hear. And we must say things people do not want to hear but need to hear. In many ways when we communicate we face…
A Porcupine’s Dilemma
What’s a porcupine to do,
When faced with cold weather?
When the dark clouds can be construed,
Only as bringing a storm and nothing better,
For in a world of naught but porcupines,
Who among us should be so inclined,
To choose to envelop the other in ourselves,
Despite the threat of our sharp, prickly ends,
Is warmth so inviting,
Its promise so binding,
That a dozen pricks should be a necessary step,
In finding solace once the sun sets,
You see, in the end,
The coin flips between comfort and company,
Does the porcupine seek comfort in its kin,
Only to find pain through some sadistic irony?
Such is the porcupine’s dilemma,
As the wind begins to howl,
Should he enter his kindred’s embrace and suffer,
Or isolate himself and huddle down?
(attributed to: Vishal Bala)
We can be controlled by the fear of being stuck and isolate ourselves into a lonely self imposed solitary confinement. Or, as courageous communicators, we can be controlled by the Holy Spirit and communicate very carefully—like porcupines embracing—and minister grace to our hearers.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
August 11, 2012
“My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You…” (Psalm 5:3)
What would you think of a concert violinist who played a brilliant concerto and then instead of granting an applauding audience an encore, fervently tuned his violin? Spiritual people over the centuries believed that we should not play the concert of our day and then at night tune our instrument when the concert has already been played.
Do you wake up holy in the morning? I mean, before you have had your coffee, are you spiritual? Most people do not wake up holy. I believe it is possible for spiritual people to wake up holy, but if we will be honest I believe many of us will confess there are times we do not wake up that way.
George McDonald, a mentor of C.S. Lewis, wrote: “With every morn my life afresh must break the crust of self gathered about me fresh, that Thy Wind-Spirit might rush in, shake the darkness out of me and rend the mesh the spider devils spin out of my flesh, eager to net my soul before it wake, that it may slumber us lie and listen to the snake.”
That is an eloquent and accurate description of the way I sometimes awaken. When I wake up listening to the snake I need to ask God to break the crust of self that has gathered about me fresh, shake the darkness out of me and then do something about my flesh. My flesh is my human nature, unaided by God.
Do you sometimes wake up listening to the snake? When you do, let George McDonald show you what to do about your unaided human nature.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
July 31, 2012
“I am the vine, you are the branches.” (John 15:5)
The apostles had been in awe of the profound words and miraculous works of Jesus. In their last retreat with Him, Jesus essentially said that the key to His preaching, teaching, and supernatural ministry is that He and the Father are one. The Word of the Father was spoken on earth and the work of the Father was accomplished on earth through Him because He is one with the Father. He then taught them that after His death and resurrection, if they would be at one with Him His Word would be spoken and His work would be done on earth through them.
While they were in a garden, He pulled down a vine, which had many branches loaded with fruit, and said: “I am the Vine and you are the branches.” In this metaphor the fruit does not grow on the vine. The fruit grows out on the branches because they are properly aligned with the Vine. The branches can bear no fruit without the Vine and the Vine can bear no fruit without the branches. If the Vine, Jesus, wants to see fruit produced, He must pass His life-giving power through the branches, the apostles.
Jesus wants to see this fruit produced far more than the apostles want to be fruitful. By this inspired metaphor, He was actually teaching two propositions: “Without Me, you can do nothing” and, “Without you, I will do nothing.”
It is the plan of God to use the power of God in the people of God to accomplish the purposes of God according to the plan of God. Jesus is a Vine looking for branches.
Are you willing to be one of His branches?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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