April 8, 2025
“….Blessed are the merciful … Blessed are the pure in heart …” (Matthew5:7&8)
Jesus begins His greatest discourse with a “checkup from the neck up.” He teaches eight beattitudes that can make His disciples salt and light and His answer to what is wrong with this crazy world. These eight attitudes come in pairs. The third pair is to be merciful with a pure heart.
One scholar writes these blessed attitudes are like climbing a mountain. The first pair takes us halfway up the mountain and the second pair takes us to the top of the mountain. The third pair takes us half way down the other side of the mountain.
The profound simplicity of Jesus is asking the questions “When people are filled with righteousness that takes them to the top of the mountain what kind of people are they? Are they Bible experts who throw the book at people?” No! They are filled with mercy (which is unconditional love) and while they love in this way they are pure in heart.
To be pure in heart is only understood when we research the Greek word used here for pure. It is the word from which we get our word to be catheterized. It means that as disciples are merciful, they have a catharsis through which everything that is not the unconditional love of Christ is removed from their hearts.
If you want to be one of the solutions of Jesus in this world, hunger and thirst for what is right and you will find that love is right and right is love. Be a conduit of God’s love and you will become the salt and light of Jesus.
Dick Woodward, 13 April 2010
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Posted by Dick Woodward
April 4, 2025
“…they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
The exceptional longevity of an eagle means it is seldom ill. When it does get sick, however, it goes to the highest elevation it can find, lies on its back, and looks directly into the sun. This sun treatment often restores the health of the eagle. When the ultimate illness comes to an eagle, it climbs to the highest possible elevation and looks into the sun for an entire day. When the sun goes down that evening, the eagle dies.
Have you ever seen an eagle disciple of Jesus Christ die? The first time I intellectually believed the Gospel was when I watched my mother die. She died as an eagle follower of Jesus, looking right into the Son. The godly pastor with us had seen scores of saints go home, but said he had never seen anything like what he saw that night.
At the age of 49, my mother left behind six daughters, five sons and a husband. She spent the last two hours of her life with her family, but she was already in Heaven, talking to Jesus. She often said she never had any peace. We had a little house of about 1,300 square feet with 13 people living in it, so you can understand why she had precious little peace or quiet. In those last hours she kept saying, “Oh, this peace, this peace!”
I believed intellectually at her death, but I did not become a disciple of Jesus Christ for several years because I knew believing involved a commitment. My mother always challenged me, “If Jesus Christ is anything to you, Dick, He is everything to you; because, until Jesus Christ is everything to you, He isn’t really anything to you.” My life was changed forever because she lived and died as an eagle disciple of Jesus Christ.
Dick Woodward, As Eagles: How to Be an Eagle Disciple
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Posted by Dick Woodward
April 1, 2025
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6)
What is the basis of the unquenchable faith of David? What gives him the assurance that all the blessings he has described (in Psalm 23) will be experienced all the days of his life and forever?
The word Selah, found frequently in the Psalms of David, can be interpreted: “Pause and calmly think about that.” If we pause and calmly think about it, we realize that all through Psalm 23, David presents his Shepherd as the great Initiator of their relationship.
It is the Shepherd Who gets David’s attention, then makes him lie down and say, “baa,” confessing that he is a sheep and the Lord is his Shepherd. It is his Shepherd Who makes David lie down where the green pastures are and then leads him beside still waters. It is David’s Shepherd Who uses His staff when David strays from Him, and drives him into the paths of righteousness that restore his soul. It is God, the Good Shepherd Who initiates these interventions in David’s life.
As David walks through the valley of the shadow of death, his confidence is not in his own extraordinary ability as a warrior to see himself through that valley. His confidence is clearly in his Shepherd. As David walks through a dark and scary valley, he is looking to God for protection and provision. He knows his Shepherd will personally anoint him with oil and keep that cup running over within him.
The source of David’s confident faith is clearly seen in the way the New Jerusalem Bible translates this verse: “Kindness and faithful love pursue me every day of my life.” It is also expressed in the hymn, “I Sought the Lord,” written by George McDonald.
“I find, I walk, I love, but Oh the whole of love
Is but my answer, Lord to Thee.
For You were long beforehand with my soul.
Always, you have loved me.”
Dick Woodward, from Psalm 23 Sheep Talk
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 28, 2025
“He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness…” (Psalm 23:3)
Failure is one of the most feared and dreaded experiences in life. The fear of failure drives millions of people all day long. There are many ways to fail. We can fail in our work, in our marriage, or as parents. We can fail personally by feeling we’re not living up to our expectations or our potential. We can fail morally.
When we fail what do we do about it?
The third verse of Psalm 23 gives us a prescription for failure. David knew what it was to fail. When he needed restoration, he tells us how his Shepherd God restored him when he wrote: “He leads me in the paths of righteousness.” David had already written that his Shepherd leads him to still waters.
When David uses the word “lead” for the second time he uses a Hebrew word that means God “drives” us into the paths of righteousness.
What David is telling us here is that when we need restoration, we should not seek a cheap or an easy one. Rehabilitation means “to invest again with dignity.” He was implying that his restoration was a matter of being driven into the paths of righteousness for some time – perhaps even for years. God used those paths of righteousness to restore David’s soul and give him an opportunity to invest again with dignity.
By application, when you fail and need restoration let our great Shepherd-God lead you into the paths of righteousness that will truly restore your soul.
Dick Woodward, 28 March 2009
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 25, 2025
“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 the fact that he took his eyes off Jesus and would have drowned if the Lord had not saved him.
We read his magnificent faith was flawed. He saw the wind. Since we cannot see wind, this actually means when Peter saw what the wind was doing, he lost sight of what Jesus was doing and he was afraid. The remarkable thing here is when he kept his eyes on Jesus he walked on water!
It was not until he was beginning to sink that he prayed the prayer that should be a model prayer for all of us. Jesus taught that our prayers should not be too long. We should never think we will generate grace with God with many words. If Peter had prayed any longer, his words would have been overtaken by water (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?”
Rick Warren took his entire congregation of twenty thousand people through the eight steps of what is called “Celebrate Recovery.” When asked why, his response was: “Because we are all in recovery. What do you think the word salvation means?” When we truly understand the meaning of the word salvation, we will frequently pray this prayer.
Lord Jesus, save me!
Dick Woodward, 25 March 2012
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 21, 2025
“…And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
The prophet Micah asked an important question. In effect his question is: what are the divine requirements of God? What does God expect, require, demand, and command from me? Micah gives us three answers to this question.
His first answer is that we should do justly. In other words, we should be a conduit of justice. We should stand up against injustice anytime and anywhere we see injustice. Since we live in a world that is filled with injustice this could be dangerous. Jesus Christ did this and it got Him crucified.
Micah’s second answer is that we should love mercy. Mercy is unconditional love. This is the chief characteristic of the love of God. David believed that the mercy and unconditional love of God would pursue him all the days of his life.
Micah’s final answer to his question is that we are to walk humbly with our God. Humility has consistently been a characteristic of the great old souls we have known in this life. C.S. Lewis wrote that pride is the mother of all sins, and we read in the Proverbs that God hates pride. We can see why God would hate pride because God hates sin.
Are you willing to be the person Micah profiled? There is a sense in which we cannot become a just, merciful and humble person through our own efforts. But these three answers give us a profile of the person God wants us to be.
Are you willing to let God give you the grace to be that person?
Dick Woodward, 20 March 2011
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 18, 2025
“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 this third Psalm he is facing the greatest crisis of his life. His son, Absalom, has turned the entire nation against him and has driven him out of Jerusalem into the wilderness where David hid from King Saul when he was a young fugitive. His situation is so desperate many people said even God cannot help him. But in this psalm David explains how he knows God is there for him; he is not having a panic attack, so he gives us this prescription to prevent us from having 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 slept, he awoke alive because the Lord sustained him. He then declared in the future tense that he will not be afraid of the thousands of people who want 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 a 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.
Dick Woodward, 18 March 2012
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 14, 2025
“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)
These familiar words of consolation and exhortation are found in the context of a great calamity described by the psalmist. Many believe this calamity is prophetic and relates to the great and terrible Day of the Lord. By application these words, and other words of consolation in this psalm, can be related to any calamity we experience as the people of God.
The hymn writer declares this calamity to be a total devastation. In the midst of this devastation he exclaims, “God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in times of trouble.” Since Hebrew is not as precise as Greek, the New American Standard Bible offers helpful alternate readings in the margins throughout this psalm. The alternate reading offered here consoles us with the thought that God is a present help to us in our “tight places.”
The helpful alternate reading presented alongside verse 10 is “Relax, let go and prove that God is – and what His will is. He is God and He wills to be exalted among the nations and in the earth.”
When you find yourself experiencing calamity, be still long enough to experience these great realities: God is God, He is here for you, and He can help you in the tight places of your calamity. So, relax, let go, and prove Him. Then ask yourself how your response to your calamity aligns with what He wills; that He might be exalted among the nations and in the earth through the way you live your life here on earth for His Glory.
Dick Woodward, 13 March 2009
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 11, 2025
“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 hear it said that believing is seeing. “When I see it, I’ll believe it” is the way some would put it. In the verse quoted above David clearly writes that we believe first and then our belief leads us to see 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 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 saw from the living room chicken gravy on the dining room table, those things were the evidence of the object he could not see. He could now believe there was chicken in the kitchen, and he would have it for dinner.
David tells us that after the believing that leads to seeing, all we must 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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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 7, 2025
“Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven...” (Matthew 6:9-13)
The verb form of the word ‘to pray’ literally means “to ask.” Prayer is more than just asking, but asking God for something is often the heart of a prayer.
The message of the Bible frequently sifts down to just two words: God first. From Genesis to Revelation, the bottom-line interpretation and application of the commandments, character studies, allegories, parables, psalms, sermons, Gospels, Epistles and teachings of Jesus is simply “God first.”
The prayer Jesus taught us begins with that God-first emphasis when Jesus instructs us to begin by asking God that His name, the essence of Who and what He is, might be honored and reverenced because we are offering our prayer(s) to our heavenly Father God…
Prayer is not a matter of us persuading God to do our will. The very essence of prayer is an alignment between our wills and the will of God. Prayer is not a matter of us making God our partner and taking God into our plans. Prayer is a matter of God making us His partners and taking us into His plans…
We are not to come into our prayer closets or into our corporate worship prayers with a ‘shopping list’ and send God on errands for us. When we pray, we should come into the presence of God with a blank sheet of paper and ask God to send us on errands for Him.
Dick Woodward, A Prescription for Prayer
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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