October 5, 2012
“‘Who told you that you were naked?’ the LORD God asked.’” (Genesis3:11)
We have confessed, climbed and conserved to apply the jet pilot’s compass. We must now apply the most critical points on his compass and ours. Just as the jet pilot must communicate with his carrier, we must communicate with God.
We all know that we can communicate with God through prayer. In the familiar story from the book of Genesis we learn that God communicates with us and He wants us to know that He communicates with us.
In a psychiatric hospital a man told his psychiatrist that he was Napoleon. The psychiatrist asked him “Who told you that you are Napoleon?” The man responded, “God told me.” The man in the next room shouted, “I did not!”
In Hebrew the question God asked is literally: “Who made you know that you were naked?” You may be uncomfortable telling people that God told you to make a decision like a career change. Would it be more comfortable to say God made you know that you were to make a certain decision? Do you believe God can make you know what He wants you to know and do?
It is exciting to know that we can communicate with God through prayer and even more exciting to know He communicates with us. Just as the last two points on the pilot’s compass are the most critical, it is critical for us to be in two-way communication with God.
God communicates with us in many ways but the most important is when we are reading His inspired Word. We should open the Bible with this prayer: “Let all the voices be stopped. Speak to me Lord, Thou alone.”
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Posted by Dick Woodward
September 22, 2012
“Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him…a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12)
The wisest man who ever lived wrote that we were not meant to fight our battles alone. We need community. Jesus told us that He is where two or three of us get together in His name (Matthew 18:20). When Jesus said that, He was not consoling us for poor attendance at a prayer meeting. He was giving us a prescription for an intentional dynamic we call a small group.
For nearly the first 300 years of Church history it was illegal to be a Christian. That forced the Church to meet in small house churches. Today we have many large churches. The only way to have meaningful interaction with other believers when you are part of a mega church is to meet in small groups. Here at the close of the Church age all over the world the Church is again meeting in small house churches
Perhaps this is what Solomon meant when he wrote that a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Not only is a cord or a cable of three strands very strong; when cord number one is you, cord number two is another believer, and cord number three is our God – you have the cord that is not quickly broken.
The Old Testament calls this “Hesed.” The New Testament calls this concept of community “fellowship” or “koinonia.” When you are part of that threefold cord you are “wrapped in a bundle of life with the Lord your God.” (I Samuel 25:29 Berkeley)
Have you personally discovered one of the greatest dynamics in the Bible? Or do you believe you don’t need anybody because you can handle anything that comes your way and you can handle it alone?
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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
June 20, 2012
“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:2)
Paul declared that the greatest virtue of a servant of the Lord is faithfulness.
The story is told of a man who was told by God to push against a huge rock as his primary work for a lifetime. The man did that and exhausted, burned out and discouraged told the Lord that rock had not moved a centimeter. The Lord responded that He had not told the man to move the rock, but to push against it. He made the observation that pushing against the rock had given him a strong healthy and muscular body. God knew all along that only He could move that rock.
This leads to an acrostic based on the word push. It goes like this:
P- Pray
U– Until
S– Something
H– Happens
I am now living in by 82nd year of life. One of the observations I have made in my long life is that God is our Mentor. He is always teaching us and He is fiercely committed to the proposition that we are going to grow spiritually and in every other way. He deliberately assigns us tasks that are not only difficult but impossible knowing that those tasks will grow and mature us into a faithful servant He can use to do through us what only He can do in this world.
Another observation without which I could not function as a human being or especially as a pastor is what I call four spiritual secrets. They are that I’m not, I can’t, I don’t even want to but He is He can He wants to and He does.
So push and pray until He does work through you.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
April 25, 2012
“Is Christ divided?” (1 Corinthians 1:13)
In the great prayer our Lord prayed for His Church (John 17), Jesus asked His Father, not once but five times, that we all might be one. In light of that great prayer priority of our Lord, is it not an evidence of the work of the evil one when we consider all the “sects and insects and isms and spasms” that say they are His true Church today?
The risen, living Christ can be known by His followers today. One of the favorite ways the authors of the New Testament identify the authentic followers of Jesus is when they refer to them as being “in Christ.” When His Church in Corinth was hopelessly divided the Apostle Paul asked that church a very appropriate question: “Is Christ divided?”
If thinking people really track with the authors of the New Testament would they not think it strange if people profess to be in Christ and then cannot agree on anything? There is, however, a supernatural oneness or agreement among people who are truly in Christ today.
Many decades ago when African American believers were petitioning white churches in the southern part of our country to integrate I discovered that it didn’t matter whether the people in my church were born in northern or southern United States. What mattered in my congregation was whether or not they were born again. Christ does not feel more than one way about civil rights. Neither will we if we are born again and in Christ.
Paul concludes the second chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians by claiming that we have the mind of Christ. If we in fact do have the mind of Christ we will agree.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: civil rights, corinthians 1 13, Faith in God, Jesus Christ, John 17, One in Christ, prayer, prayer of Jesus, Saint Paul, theology | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
April 20, 2012
“He leads me beside the still waters.” (Psalm 23:2)
Most people associate the still waters of David’s Shepherd Psalm with peace. However, if you do some research you will find that when a sheep drinks from a stream of water that stream must be as flat and still as a mirror or the water will go up the snout of the sheep. The authentic application of this metaphor is therefore that the still waters mean our great Shepherd leads us to the places just suited for us.
In 1979 I resigned from a large church and accepted a call to a small church that had just begun. After being in the small church for a year I went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota because of weird symptoms I was experiencing. After nearly a month of studies, the doctor who directed my program misread my file. Thinking I was still in the large church, when he gave me the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis he told me I needed to go to a small church in a small town. I told him that I had already been in a small church for a year. I was to learn to be fulfilled with doing less and doing it better.
As my symptoms persisted and I was confined to a wheelchair a group of men helped me build a house that accommodated my physical challenges. One of them made a stained glass window with two words on it. Near the entrance for 26 years those two words have been “Still Waters.” Those two words are not just a label for my home but also my ministry – in this location I have accomplished the most fruitful work of my life.
Can you write those two words across what God is doing in your life right now?
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: church, Divine Providence, Faith in God, prayer, Psalm 23, spirituality, Still Waters, Trusting God | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
March 30, 2012
“… the just shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4)
The prophet Habakkuk lived in one of the most difficult times in Hebrew history. God gave him a prophetic message to preach when the Babylonians were about to conquer God’s people. The watchtowers were manned with soldiers who were listening for the dreadful sounds of the Babylonian army. This little prophet had witnessed the terrible ways the great Prophet Jeremiah was treated when he preached his message. Being a simple choir director he could only imagine how he would be treated if he assumed the role of a prophet.
He therefore came up with a very clever literary form. He proclaimed that he was going to build a spiritual watchtower and ask God all the difficult questions that were on their hearts at that time. Questions like, “Why will you use a people more sinful than we are to chasten us?” He told them that when he heard from God he would tell them what God said in answer to these and other questions. His literary form was like a talk show in which he was the host and God was the Guest being interviewed.
God’s answer was that the wickedness of the Babylonian would be their undoing, but the just would live by their faith. Originally this meant faith in the prophecy of Jeremiah that they would return from the Babylonian captivity. By application these seven words, which are quoted three times in the New Testament, were used to inspire the great protestant reformation.
People say God does not speak today as He did then. The truth is we do not listen for God as this prophet did. Do you have a spiritual watchtower? Do you listen for God and expect to hear from Him?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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!
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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