January 28, 2014
“But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” (Matthew 14:30)
The Apostle Peter is the only man besides Jesus Christ who ever walked on water. Yet millions only remember that he took his eyes off the Lord and would have drowned if the Lord had not saved him.
We read that Peter’s magnificent faith was flawed. He saw the wind. Since we cannot see wind this actually means when he saw what the wind was doing, he lost sight of what Jesus was doing and he became afraid. The remarkable thing here is that when he kept his eyes on Jesus, he walked on water!
It was not until he was beginning to sink that Peter cried out this prayer. Two thousand years later, this remains a go-to prayer for us all through the many storms of life. Jesus taught that our prayers should not be long and we should never think we will generate grace with God by our many words. If Peter had prayed a longer prayer, the words beyond the third would have been glub, glub glub! When Jesus caught Peter by the hand He gave him the nickname, “Little Faith.” (I believe our Lord was smiling when He did.) He literally asked Peter: “Why did you think twice?”
While very ill the past two weeks many people have been recruited to pray for me. Yesterday it occurred to me that I had not prayed for myself. I then fervently pleaded this prayer that the Lord always answers: Lord, save me!
In your spiritual walk, don’t think twice and don’t be a “Little Faith.” Instead, learn to plead this prayer…and soon you will find your way through the stormy waves of life walking on water.
(Editor’s Note: As he recovers from a severe bronchial infection, Dick Woodward had a wee bit of extra assistance from his Blog Posting Elf getting his words online. Prayers appreciated!)
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 14, 2014
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (Psalm 139: 23, 24 NLT)
Jeremiah wrote that our heart is “… deceitful above all things…” He asked: “Who can know it?” Then he answered his own question by writing that only the Lord knows our heart. (Jeremiah 17: 9, 10)
Jesus described serious heart pathology when He taught: “For from within, out of a person’s heart come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness …” He then declared that all these evil things and more come from within our heart and not from outside influences. (Mark 7: 21, 22) Jesus agreed with the Proverb: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)
The Apostle Paul wrote: “When the Lord comes, He will … reveal our private motives.” Then we will receive praise, or the opposite. (1Corinthians 4: 3-5)
Consider the amazing wisdom of David when he prayed his Psalm 139 prayer that I label A Spiritual Cardiogram. To paraphrase and summarize, David was asking God to take the lid off his mind and show Him the thoughts that should not be there. Then he asked God to take the lid off his heart and show him the motives that should not be there because he wanted to walk, looking up, with eternity in his perspective.
We should not wait until judgment to have a spiritual cardiogram any more than we would wait for a heart attack before having a medical cardiogram. We should ask God to take the lid off our thoughts and motives now while we can address the challenges we find there.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 10, 2014
“And his name shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal removed.’” (Deuteronomy 25:10)
One Law of Moses stated that if a man died and had no son his widow could go to one of his relatives and ask him to marry her. If he refused to marry her she could subpoena him to court. If he affirmed that he was not willing to marry her, they had a ceremony: before the court she spit in his face and removed his sandal. He was then disgraced and boycotted in business. The man who obeyed this law, however, was called “a kinsman redeemer.”
This law is the background for one of the most beautiful love stories in all of inspired and secular literature: the book of Ruth. As a widow Ruth has the right to ask a man named Boaz to marry her. Although they meet and he shows her he loves her and would love to redeem her, she has to ask him to be her redeemer.
When we understand the ways this story relates to our redemption we will realize that we must personally ask the risen, living Christ to be our Kinsman Redeemer. To redeem Ruth, Boaz pays off all her debts and marries her. Our Redeemer pays all our sin debt through His death on the cross. Then, through His resurrection He enters into a relationship with us the New Testament describes as a marriage to Him.
We also read in the New Testament that He is standing at the door of our life showing us, like Boaz, that He loves us and would love to redeem us. Like Ruth we must have a “romance in reverse” individually proposing to Him, asking Him to be our personal Redeemer.
Have you ever done that?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 3, 2014
“Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12, NLT)
According to Moses, we should realize that life is like a game of Monopoly. We all begin with the same amount of currency. When we begin a new year we are given 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week and 8,760 hours a year. You often hear the remark: “I haven’t got time for that!” This implies that we are not given the same amount of time. It would be more accurate to say: “I don’t value that activity enough to spend some of my time in that way.”
The dictionaries tell us a value is “that quality of any certain thing by which it is determined by us to be more or less important, useful, profitable and therefore desirable.” We all have a set of values. We spend our time on the things we consider important, useful, profitable and desirable.
When we ask God to teach us how to spend our time He will challenge us to consider the values of Jesus Christ. One of the many reasons He became flesh and lived among us for 33 years was to show us how to live. He did that by presenting us with a set of values. As we read the four Gospels and follow Jesus every time He models and teaches a value, that spiritual discipline will revolutionize the way we spend our time.
I challenge you to ask God, “How should I spend my time?” I also challenge you to let the values of Christ revolutionize the way you spend your time in 2014.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
October 9, 2013
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
I’m indebted to E. Stanley Jones, a missionary who served in India for 50 years, and his superb daily devotional, In Christ, for showing me the importance of this phrase in the New Testament. I highly recommend his book which highlights the use of this phrase by all the New Testament authors.
According to Dr. Jones, when we think about being “in Christ,” we should realize that Paul was not talking about being in religion. Few people have been more into religion than Paul before he met Jesus. Paul was so religious he fervently persecuted followers of Jesus, sure that he was pleasing God by trying to snuff them out.
It is possible to be in religion, but not be in Christ. It is possible to be in church, and not be in Christ. We can be in doctrine, or theology, and not be in Christ. We can be in the ministry and not be in Christ. We can be committed to Christ, and believe a lot of things about Christ, and still not be in Christ.
To be in Christ locates us in a Person, right now.
Unless we are ‘in Christ’ it’s like we have a powerful engine in our automobile but we cannot find our ignition key that turns the engine on. Being ‘in Christ’ is the ignition key, opening us up to experience “all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places.” (Ephesians 1:3) Paul essentially writes: I live because Christ lives in me and I live in Christ.
Just as you sometimes cannot find the keys to your automobile, have you misplaced this critical spiritual key – are you living by and in Christ?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
June 20, 2013
“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chronicles 20:12)
A large convoy of ships was on elaborate maneuvers. The flagship at the center of the convoy signaled a hard right turn for the entire convoy. The commanding officer of a large cruiser missed the signal from the flagship. His cruiser was not in line with that right turn. The cruiser thrashed around, hopelessly out of formation. There was chaos on the bridge of the cruiser when the standard Navy signal came from the flagship: “What are your intentions?” The skipper of that cruiser flashed this return signal: “My intentions are to buy a farm!” (In the Navy, there is a fast track that makes admirals out of captains and there is a slow track that sends captains into retirement. When a captain makes a mistake like that one, he might as well make his retirement plans).
The cause of Christ is moving through this world like a convoy, in perfect formation, supernaturally synchronized by the Holy Spirit. The risen, living Christ is the Flagship at the heart of that convoy. Jesus Christ is sending signals to that convoy all the time. If you have your eye on the Flagship and you get your signals from Him, you will be in formation and part of His great work in this world. If you do not have your eye on the Flagship and you miss His signals, the work of Christ will move on without you, while you thrash around, out of formation, never a synchronized part this magnificent convoy.
Servants of the Lord must keep their eye on the Flagship and not get their signals from their culture, but from the risen, living Christ.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
June 12, 2013
“… work out your salvation… for it is God who works in you.” (Philippians 3: 12)
The Bible is filled with paradoxes. A paradox is something that appears to be a contradiction, but when examined closely, you discover there really is no contradiction. There are times when a paradox is not a contradiction because the two propositions stated by the paradox could both be true; they could be both complementary and supplementary. They are often resolved when you realize that it is not either/or but both/and.
THE ELEVENTH STEP: Keep moving.
The Scriptures tell us we can miss the will of God because we are in a hurry and God is not. When that is the case, we need to wait on the Lord (Selah). There are other times when we miss the will of God because we are sitting on our apathetic and indecisive immaturity, demonstrating our lack of faith and courage, and the Lord moves on without us. These two apparently opposite concepts are really not contradictory. It is not either/or, but both/and. The truth is we sometimes need to wait on the Lord and at other times need to keep moving.
We have an adversary who does not wish us well. His first strategy is to make us into lazy, indecisive, apathetic, spiritual wimps, who miss the will of God because we lack the faith and courage to follow the leading of the Lord. If that fails, he will turn us into obsessive, compulsive workaholic movers, shakers and doers who miss the will of God because we are out-reaching His will for our lives, running far ahead of the Lord.
Obviously, we all need balance to discern and do the will of the Lord.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
April 2, 2013
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
This past weekend many heard the Good News that Jesus died and rose again for our sins that we might live forever in resurrection power with Him. Have you ever heard of the Gospel in reverse? The verse I quoted above sounds like a funeral dirge because it begins with Paul’s announcement that he is crucified with Christ.
But, actually in this verse Paul exclaims three times that he lives! He lives by faith in the Son of God. He lives because Christ lives in him, and he lives because he is crucified with Christ. To summarize and paraphrase, in this verse Paul is declaring the Good News that Christ died so he might live and now it’s his turn. Paul must die so Christ might live His life through Paul.
When our holidays roll around we hear that it should be Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter every day of the year. If you want to have a perpetual Easter, realize that what was true of the Apostle Paul can be true for you and me.
Jesus consistently challenged His followers to take up their cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9: 23). In addition to the literal meaning this could have had in that culture, by application to take up your cross daily means to “crucify” all the personal hopes, ambitions and plans you had for your life asking Him to have His will for your life.
Christ died that you might live. Now it’s your turn.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
February 26, 2013
“And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work…For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.” (Philippians 1:6; 2:13, NLT)
When Jesus met two of the apostles for the first time He asked them the question: “What do you want?” They were disciples of John the Baptist and John had instructed them to follow Jesus. They were following behind Jesus as He walked down a road. Jesus turned and asked them this question when He saw them.
Following Jesus can have a dynamic impact upon the way we answer that question. We often have a flawed “want to” when we meet Jesus. But as we follow Him He heals those flaws in the desires of our hearts. I remember a college student who met Jesus and was following Him for some time. As she expressed her excitement about the changes in her life she exclaimed, “I wonder where my want to went to!”
As we follow Jesus we discover that when He shows us what we should want we need more than just knowing what we should want. We need the power to do what we should want to do. As a pastor over many decades, I have been intrigued by the importance of this question. Why do some people earnestly desire to do the will of God while many others are apathetic?
According to Paul, it is God who gives us the unflawed “want to” and the dynamic power to obey Him and do what pleases Him. Would you like to follow Jesus and wonder where your “want to” went to? Begin every day by letting Jesus ask you, “What do you want?”
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Posted by Dick Woodward
February 19, 2013
“… but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better…” (Luke 10: 42)
Every time we meet Mary, the sister of Martha, she is at the feet of Jesus. The verse above describes her at the feet of Jesus hearing His Word. Martha is frustrated because Mary is attending the Bible study while she herself is doing all the serving. Jesus sides with Mary because she has chosen the number one priority that day.
In the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of John the brother of these two sisters has died. When the Lord arrives too late to save their brother both these sisters greet Him with the same words: “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” However, when Mary spoke those words we read that she prostrated herself at his feet showing that she accepted His will.
In the next chapter of the Gospel of John a banquet is described at which their resurrected brother is the guest of honor. Mary was there worshiping Jesus at His feet. She anointed His feet with perfume that was worth a year’s wages. What would it mean if you worshiped Jesus with your annual income?
This Mary is a great example for all of us as she is at His feet hearing His Word, accepting His will, and worshiping Him. If we will not merely read our Bible but hear His personal word to us at His feet when we do, we will find His will for our lives. If we continue to follow Mary’s example we will be at His feet accepting His will.
And those who follow the example of Mary will find themselves worshiping Him forever with costly worship at His feet.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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