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
Leave a Comment » | 
faith | Tagged: Bible Study, death, devotions, eagles, faith, grief, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, lifestyle, love, prayer | 
Permalink
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
Leave a Comment » | faith | Tagged: Bible Study, confidence, devotions, faith, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, lifestyle, love, prayer, Psalm 23 | Permalink
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
Leave a Comment » | faith | Tagged: Bible Study, devotions, failure, faith, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, lifestyle, love, prayer, Psalm 23, restoration | Permalink
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
Leave a Comment » | faith | Tagged: Bible Study, devotions, faith, Hope, humility, inspiration, Jesus, justice, lifestyle, love, Mercy, prayer, pride | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 25, 2025
For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sins I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34)
When we sin, we need to look up and believe the first fact of the Gospel – the Good News that God forgives our sins because Jesus died for our sins. Then we need to look around, forgive those who have sinned against us and seek forgiveness of those against whom we’ve sinned. We also need to look in and forgive ourselves.
When we place our trust in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, we need to forget what God forgets and remember what God remembers. We are promised, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
After we confess our sins, our faith in God’s promise is flawed when we remember our sins as guilt baggage long after God has forgiven and forgotten our sins.
A Catholic Monsignor in Paris was told about a nun who talked to Jesus every night. When summoned to meet the Monsignor, he asked her, “The next time you talk with Jesus, ask Him this question: What sins did the Monsignor commit in Paris before he became a priest?”
Several days later the nun met again with the Monsignor. He asked her, “Did you speak with Jesus again, my child?” She replied, “Yes, your Reverence.” He then asked, “Did you ask Jesus my question?” The nun said that she had indeed asked Jesus his question. “And what did Jesus say?” The nun replied, “Jesus told me to tell you He doesn’t remember.”
As we receive by faith the inner healing of salvation, we must discipline ourselves to remember what God remembers and forget what God forgets.
Dick Woodward, from In Step with Eternal Values
Leave a Comment » | faith | Tagged: Bible Study, devotions, faith, Forgiveness, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, lifestyle, love, prayer | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 14, 2025
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love… I am nothing.” (I Corinthians 13:1-3)
The Apostle Paul composed an inspired poem of love in which he declared that the agape love of God should be the number one priority of spiritual people. In First Corinthians 13 he wrote that love is greater than knowledge and more important than faith.
Paul’s teaching about spiritual gifts in the previous chapter concludes with: “Earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I will show you a more excellent way.” (I Corinthians 12:31) Paul begins his great love chapter with his prescription for that most excellent way: “Let love be your greatest aim,” or “Put love first.”
A SUMMARY PARAPHRASE APPLICATION:
“If we speak with great eloquence or in tongues without love, we’re just a lot of noise. If we have all knowledge to understand all the Greek mysteries, the gift to speak as a prophet, and enough faith to move mountains, unless we love as we do all those things – we are nothing. If we give all our money to feed the poor and our body to be burned at the stake as a martyr, if we give and die without love, it profits us nothing.
Nothing we are, nothing we ever become, nothing we have and nothing we ever will have in the way of natural and spiritual gifts should ever move ahead of love as our first priority. Nothing we do or ever will do as an expression of our faith, our gifts, our knowledge, or our generous, charitable, unconditionally-surrendered heart is worthy of comparison, or can replace love as we live out our personal priorities in this world.”
Dick Woodward, from A Prescription for Love
Leave a Comment » | faith | Tagged: Bible Study, devotions, faith, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, lifestyle, love, prayer, unconditional love, Valentine's Day | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 11, 2025
“Love never fails.” (I Corinthians 13:8)
Human love is often based on performance. When we apply the love of Christ, our love is not based on the performance of those we love. That is what makes this love indestructible. The love of Jesus Christ is a tough, indestructible love because it is unconditional.
In wedding ceremonies, many couples make the unconditional vow: “…for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death us do part.” The living Christ, empowering the love Paul prescribes in 1 Corinthians 13, is the dynamic that makes that possible.
We can also make the application that these ways of love are irresistible, because they are inspirational. Peter, ultimately, could not resist the positive reinforcement of Jesus calling him a rock. I personally could not resist when my mentors prayed, imagined, dreamed, hoped and believed in my ultimate potential.
If you ask Christ to make your life a conduit of His love to your spouse, children, and those who are difficult to love – you may make the joyful discovery that they will ultimately find the love of Christ to be irresistible and inspirational. They will begin to believe what you pray, imagine, dream, hope and believe about and for them.
For 28 years, I experienced the gradual and relentless onset of paralysis, which reduced me to a helpless, bedfast quadriplegic. During that time, I have learned much about the love of Christ from my wife, who is the most selfless, others-centered person I have ever known. In all these years she has never taken a day, weekend or vacation from her care of me. There are very few people in this world who know how I do what it means to be the recipient of the unconditional and indestructible love of Christ.
Dick Woodward, from A Prescription for Love
Leave a Comment » | faith | Tagged: Bible Study, devotions, faith, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, lifestyle, love, prayer, relationships, unconditional love | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 7, 2025
“The Lord is my Shepherd…” (Psalm 23:1)
God created you and me to be people who make choices. God very much wants to be our Shepherd, but we must choose to make God our Shepherd. We must deliberately choose to say, “baa!” and become one of the sheep of God’s pasture. Can you declare the first five words of this great Shepherd Psalm as a personal confession of faith? Can you confess, “The Lord is my Shepherd?”
People touch me as they describe the way the Lord came into their lives, made them lie down and say, “baa!” I am frequently concerned, however, when I fail to hear how that relationship is working in their lives today. One of David’s most remarkable declarations in this psalm is that the blessings provided by his Shepherd-God are in place ‘all the days of my life.’
Be sure to make the observation that David’s great profession of faith is not, “The Lord was my Shepherd,” but that “The Lord is my Shepherd.” When the Lord makes you lie down and confess, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” you are also confessing that you are a sheep. Sheep are completely helpless and hopeless without their shepherd.
Years ago I was out of bed at an early hour. When my wife asked why I was getting up at 4:30a.m., I told her what I read during my devotions: “When you wake up, get up, and when you get up, do something for God’s lambs.” She responded, “baa!” (She was reminding me that she and our five children are also God’s lambs.)
Psalm 23 is filled with sheep talk that shows us that God wants to hear every one of us say, “baa!”
Dick Woodward, from Psalm 23 Sheep Talk
Leave a Comment » | faith | Tagged: Bible Study, devotions, faith, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, lifestyle, love, prayer, Psalm 23 | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
February 4, 2025
“For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?” (2 Corinthians 2:2)
Every relationship we have is a two-way street. According to the Apostle Paul, whatever we send down that street comes back up the street and has a dynamic impact on that relationship. Jesus conveys this same truth with a positive spin when He teaches hypercritical people, “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:2)
This was a marketplace metaphor in the culture where Jesus lived. If you were selling oats and a fellow merchant was selling wheat, when you bought from each other you could request to use their bushel standard of measurement. Paraphrased, this means whatever standard you use when you give to another person in a relationship, they will use when they give to you.
We cannot control the weather, but we can control the emotional climate that surrounds us in a relationship. Communication is not only what is said but what is heard. It is not only what is said but what is felt. How does the communication you are contributing within a relationship make the other person in that relationship feel? If you’re sending negative waves into that other person’s life, is that likely to inspire positive waves in your direction?
Paul gave us another great teaching on this subject when he wrote, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for the building up of others, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29)
Dick Woodward, 05 February 2011
Leave a Comment » | faith | Tagged: Bible Study, communication, devotions, faith, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, lifestyle, love, prayer, relationships, Relationships & communication | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
January 31, 2025
“… But for this reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” (John 12:27-28)
When we have a vision, we must also have a plan. It has been said that without vision the people perish, but without a plan the vision perishes. Nehemiah not only had a vision to repair and rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, he had a plan to do it. As an enslaved exile his plan was to present his vision to the emperor for whom he was a cup bearer.
This was extremely dangerous because there was a death penalty for being sad in the presence of the emperor, or for bringing anything negative to the emperor’s attention while he was serving him. Nehemiah had the faith to pray and then present his vision to the emperor. The emperor showed empathy and compassion for Nehemiah. He not only approved his plan, he supplied everything needed to see the plan was followed to the letter.
Has God put a vision in your heart of what He wants you to do? If you have a vision, do you have a plan? In that context consider this formula for your vision:
vision + faith + sacrifice = miracle
If you have a vision and a plan to carry out the vision, are you willing to sacrifice for that vision? Are you willing to die for that vision?
Jesus had a vision and a plan. He was willing to sacrifice and die for His vision. He mandated that we follow His example. Regarding your vision and plan, are you willing to pray: “Father glorify Yourself and send me the bill. Anything Father, just glorify Yourself…”
Dick Woodward, 30 January 2010
Leave a Comment » | faith | Tagged: Bible Study, devotions, faith, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, lifestyle, love, planning, prayer, vision | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
4SpiritualSecrets 