March 25, 2012
“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 of us only remember that he took his eyes off the Lord and would have drowned if the Lord had not saved him.
We read that his 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 was 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 he prayed this prayer that is a model prayer for us all. Jesus taught that our prayers should not be long and we should never think we will generate grace with God by our much speaking. 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” and 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 this word “salvation” we will frequently pray this model prayer.
Pray this three word prayer of Peter often and don’t think twice. Don’t be a “Little Faith.”
Lord, save me!
Leave a Comment » | 
Uncategorized | Tagged: apostle peter, celebrate recovery, daily prayers, faith, Faith in God, Jesus Christ, model prayer, prayer, Saint Peter, salvation, spirituality, walking on water | 
Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
March 21, 2012
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness…It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.” (Matthew 5:13 NIV/NLT)
When Jesus told His disciples that they were the salt of the earth there are several ways to interpret and apply this metaphor. We find a clue to my favorite interpretation when we realize that our word “salary” is made up of the two root words “salt money.”
Twenty centuries ago the Roman Empire wanted to control the population of the world. They knew that no human being can live without salt. So, they controlled the salt of the world. They actually paid their slaves in cubes of salt. This is where we get the expression that a person is not worth their salt.
This means Jesus was teaching that secular people do not have life. His disciples have life and they are the way the secular people of this world can find that life.
Years ago a missionary statesman said that when missionaries live in a compound in a foreign country with a fortress mentality they are like manure: they stink! It’s only when God spreads them around that they do a little good. Similarly, when the followers of Jesus meet together they are like salt in a saltshaker. The only way they can have a salt influence is to come out of that saltshaker.
One way our Lord brings us out of the saltshaker is that we must make a living. Be challenged by the reality that your workplace can be God’s way of placing you next to secular people who need life. Realize that you are not only there to make a living…
You are there because they need the salty impact of your life.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Christian faith, Faith in action, Faith in the workplace, fruitful ministry, Jesus Christ, Jesus Sermon on the Mount, Love of neighbor, Matthew 5:13, religion, Salt, salt of the earth, spirituality | Permalink
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?
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: 2 corinthians 1, 2 Corinthians 1:4, apostle paul, comfort in sorrow, compassion, faith, Faith in God, finding comfort in God, hurting hearts, Jesus Christ, perspective in suffering, Saint Paul, spirituality | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
March 6, 2012
“When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’” (John 5:6)
The Apostle John describes a pathetic scene that confronted those who approached the Temple as they entered the city of Jerusalem in Jesus’ day. There was by the Sheep Gate the Pool of Bethesda. A great multitude of weak and sick people lay in the porches surrounding that pool given the superstition that when the waters in that pool rippled the first one to get into the pool would be healed.
When Jesus came upon that pool He moved among these weak people until he found one man who had been there for 38 years. He was paralyzed and Jesus asked him the remarkable question quoted above. The man might have thought that question ridiculous since he had been faithfully lying beside the pool for 38 years.
We may well ask the question “Why did Jesus heal just this one man?” It may be that Jesus healed this man because he had given up on the Pool of Bethesda.
Today there are millions of people who are sitting beside “Pools of Bethesda” that cannot heal them. Like Solomon, some people try money, knowledge, painting the town red and not withholding from their eyes anything they see that they want. People try success, power, social status and everything but the spiritual for their healing.
Do you want to be made well inside your heart? Give up your “Pools of Bethesda” and ask the risen, living Christ to lead you to your healing. Get into His Word and become His disciple indeed.
Go beyond the sacred page and meet the Living Word and He will heal you.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: apostle john, Faith in God, Healing ministry of Jesus, healing power of God, Jesus Christ, John 5:6, modern pools of bethesda, pools of Bethesda, spirituality | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 17, 2012
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind…” (Jeremiah 17: 9-10)
In this passage of Scripture God gives us all a spiritual cardiogram. According to the prophet Jeremiah, our heart is not only desperately wicked, but above all things our heart is deceitful. We can pay a professional therapist thousands of dollars to help us understand our deceitful heart. But according to Jeremiah, the reality is our heart is so deceitful only God is qualified to understand it.
I once had the immature belief that if you showed me someone I could understand you would be showing me someone I could love. In my experience of more than sixty years as a pastor I have met people I understood pretty well but found it very difficult to love. I now have a more mature belief.
In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John we read that Jesus told the apostles to lift up their eyes before they looked upon the fields (people) of this world. He was teaching them that if we look at people through the lenses of the way God sees them we will never meet anyone we cannot love because God loves them all. He loves them so much He became a man and died for them.
Beginning with those who live under the same roof with you, and moving out from there, are you willing to lift up your eyes and get God’s perspective on the people who intersect your life before you look at them? That can revolutionize your relationships!
This is true because you will never see or meet anyone God does not love whom Christ cannot love through you.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: God's love for all, Gospel of John, Jeremiah 17, Jesus Christ, love of God and others, love of Jesus Christ, prophet jeremiah, revolutionized relationships, Spiritual cardiogram, Spiritual hearts | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 14, 2012
“So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” (Luke 10:36)
Jesus was the absolute master storyteller of parables – stories that illustrated His teachings (in Greek Para = “alongside of” and Ballo = “to throw.”) A lawyer asked Him the question: “Who is my neighbor?” In response Jesus told a parable about a man who was mugged and left half dead. When a priest saw him he passed by on the other side of the road and did not get involved. A Levite, or Temple assistant, who traveled that road did the same thing. Then a traveling Samaritan came down the road. When he saw the helpless man he gave him all the first aid he could, put the man on his animal and took him to an inn where he paid for his care. Jesus then asked the question quoted above.
This parable presents three philosophies of life. The mugger’s philosophy of life was: “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours will be mine as soon as I can take it.” The religious professionals in the story believed: “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours.” The philosophy of the Samaritan was: “What’s yours is yours and what’s mine is yours any time you need it.” That is obviously the philosophy of life Jesus was teaching by His parable answer to the lawyer’s question.
May I ask you to get real and ask yourself which of these three philosophies of life and neighbor are yours? Do you believe people are to be exploited for your personal gain? Do you not want to get involved? Or are the people who intersect your life an opportunity for service?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Faith in God, Good Samaritan parable, Jesus Christ, Love of Jesus for real, Luke 10, parables, philosophies of life, Teachings of Jesus | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 10, 2012
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)
The mercy of God withholds from us what we deserve and the grace of God bestows on us all kinds of wonderful blessings we do not deserve. Grace is also the dynamic we must receive from God to do what He calls and leads us to do. This is the most superlative verse about grace in the Bible.
It tells us that God is able to make all grace, not just some grace, abound toward us and not just trickle in our direction. Then we may have all sufficiency, not just some sufficiency in all things, not just some things. We are then equipped to abound, not just do our duty, as we do every good work He leads us to do, and not just the works we like to do, ALWAYS!
Twice in this verse Paul emphasizes the reality that this grace is for you – not just for the pastor or the missionary – but you! Is this grace a reality in your journey of faith?
I once heard Dr. A. W. Tozer preach on this verse. After he read the verse there was an eloquent pause and then he said, “Sometimes you cannot help but allow the thought that God oversold the product in the New Testament!” He then preached a powerful message challenging us to believe that God has not oversold His grace but we need to learn how to access His grace.
The hymn writer wrote, “The favor He shows and the joy He bestows are for those who will trust and obey…”
That is a good place to start.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: 2 corinthians 9, 2 Corinthians 9:8, A.W. Tozer, amazing grace, apostle paul, Grace of God, Jesus Christ, journey of faith, Mercy & Grace, mercy of God, new testament | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 3, 2012
“If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” (John 7:17)
The Apostle John records the claim of Jesus that His teaching is not merely the teaching of another Rabbi coming down the pike. His teaching is the teaching of God. If we want to prove that, we must choose to do what He is teaching. When we do it we will know it. The doing leads to the knowing according to Jesus. The intellectually sophisticated person usually claims: “When I know it I will do it.” Jesus told us when we do it we will know it.
That profiles what we call “discipleship” and “apprenticeship.” These two words are actually synonymous. A disciple is literally “a learner who is doing what they’re learning and learning what they’re doing.”
I once heard the vice president of a large shipyard explain to the business community of Norfolk, Virginia how they had just been given another contract to build yet another large aircraft carrier. He said he could answer their question in one word: “apprenticeship.”
He explained that a college student takes in huge amounts of information and then regurgitates that information periodically. After doing that for four years they are given a piece of paper that says they’re an educated person. But often they cannot actually do anything. He explained that at the shipyard they put a person in the classroom for two weeks and in the shipyard for two weeks. After five years the graduates of their apprenticeship school build large aircraft carriers.
Have you been apprenticed in your journey of faith? Are you apprenticing others in their faith journey?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Discipleship, faith journey, faith journeys, Jesus Christ, John 7:17, journey of faith, learning by doing, Spiritual apprenticeship, Teaching of God | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
January 31, 2012
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you…?” (1Corinthians 6:19)
All over this world there have been, there are now, and there always will be temples in which people worship their god. The Old Testament believers had the Tent of Worship which was followed by the Temple of Solomon where they worshiped the true and living God. However, in the New Testament there is a concept that was revolutionary and is not fully understood or appreciated by the people of God today: that the body of a believer is the Temple of God.
When we understand the Gospel of the New Testament we realize two vital truths: there is something to believe and Someone to receive. We are informed that the risen, living Christ is patiently standing at the door of our life and He is knocking on that door. We’re promised that if we will hear His voice and open that door He will come into our life and have a relationship with us (Revelation 3: 19-20). The Apostle Paul is telling us that when we experience that miracle our body becomes the Temple of God.
This presents a great challenge to all believers who have received the living Christ into their life in the form of the Holy Spirit. Wherever we go we take that temple with us. We might say that we are “A Temple on Wheels.” Everywhere we go and every time we find ourselves associating with people the beautiful reality that we are the Temple of God should bring a divine presence to all those relationships.
How should the reality that we are a Temple of God impact all our relationships?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: apostle paul, Divine Presence, I Corinthians 6:19, Jesus Christ, Relationship with God, Temple of God, temple of the holy spirit, Temple on Wheels, vital truths, Worship God | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
January 27, 2012
“For if I make you sorrowful then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?” (2Corinthians 2: 2)
In this verse the Apostle Paul is telling us that relationships are a two-way street. Whatever we send down that street comes back up that street. Paul could have learned this from Jesus when he spent three years with Him in the desert of Arabia (Galatians 1: 15-20).
Jesus taught this same truth when He used a marketplace metaphor. In the marketplace if another vendor bought produce from you and you suspected his bushel measurement was inaccurate, you could ask him to go get his bushel measurement when you sold to him. In this way Jesus was teaching that whatever measure we use in giving to people they will use that same standard in giving back to us (Matthew 7 1-5).
By application, Paul and Jesus were teaching that in our marriage and family if we make people unhappy we will find ourselves living with unhappy people who were made unhappy by us. I knew a wise pastor who did a lot of marriage counseling. He wrote a little poem that had this line in it: “You can’t control the weather or rainy days but you can control the emotional climate that surrounds you.”
If you can surround yourself with unhappy people because you make them unhappy consider how much better it would be if you made those same people happy. Another wise pastor said that with Jesus the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things.
The bottom line is do we want to be surrounded by happy or unhappy people? What are we sending down the two-way street of our relationships?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: apostle paul, bushel measurement, faith & family, Faith measures, galatians 1, Jesus Christ, marriage counseling, St. Paul, the Golden Rule, two way relationships | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
4SpiritualSecrets 