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
September 20, 2024
“…Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)
At the starting gate of their relationship with Jesus, two sets of brothers who were professional fishermen entered into a covenant with Him that came in two parts. Jesus challenged them: “You follow Me – that’s your part. I will make you – that’s My part. You follow Me – that’s your business. I will make you– that’s My business.”
When I was 18 years old my brother-in-law, Pastor John Dunlap, shared the Gospel with me. When I told him I couldn’t do what an authentic disciple of Jesus was required to do, he told me I didn’t have to do it by myself. Pastor John told me about this covenant Jesus established with Peter, Andrew, James and John. When I made the commitment to follow Jesus I entered into that same covenant.
Next month I will be 80 years old, and I have proven that if we follow Jesus, He will make us. In other words, if we keep our part of that covenant, we can trust Jesus to keep His part.
I strongly encourage you to consider entering into that covenant with Jesus. You don’t have to do all the things involved in following Him. Fact is you can’t follow Jesus in your own strength and resources. Your part is to make the commitment to follow Him and then trust Jesus to do His part. He won’t do your part, and you can’t do His part. But if you follow Jesus, He will make you into who He is calling you to be.
And if someone could show you what you will be doing in 20+ years you won’t believe it!
Dick Woodward, 21 September 2010
Editor’s Note: This week the blog posting elf is remembering her Uncle John who led her Papa to faith so many years ago when (in Papa’s words) his younger self was a zero with the circle rubbed out. Uncle John, however, had faith in what Jesus could do in & through Papa! And my Aunt Lolly had that same faith, too!
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Posted by Dick Woodward
August 20, 2024
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father…” (Luke 16:17-18)
The dictionary defines self as “the uniqueness, the individuality of any given person, which makes them distinct from every other living person.” In all its forms “self” emphasizes the sacred individuality God intended for every human being.
Robert Lewis Stephenson wrote: “Soon or late, every person must sit down to a banquet of consequences.” In the parable of the prodigal son, the banquet of consequences the son sat down to was the slop he was feeding hogs in a hog pen. That was just about as low as a Jewish boy could sink in this life. (Luke 15:11-24)
In the hog pen the prodigal son made the decision many people make while they are living in the hog pens of this world. He decided that he was not a hog. He might look, and even smell, like a hog. He might wish he could eat the slop he was feeding the hogs. But he was not a hog. He was a son, and he did not belong there, he belonged in his father’s house. He therefore made the deliberate decision to leave the hog pen and return to his father’s house and his father’s love.
Jesus described the decision of the prodigal son this way: “when he came to himself…” He came back to his self when he decided to return to his father’s love where he could be in the process of perceiving, believing and becoming the unique person his father wanted him to be.
Dick Woodward, from A Prescription for Your Self
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Posted by Dick Woodward
April 4, 2023
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
Have you discovered that, to the authors of the four Gospels, Easter is far more important than Christmas? Of the 89 combined Gospel chapters, 4 chapters cover the birth and first 30 years Jesus lived, while 27 chapters cover the last week He lived.
Why is the last week Jesus lived so important?
The obvious answer is during that week Jesus died and was raised from the dead. Have you ever wondered why the apostles changed their day of worship from the Sabbath (seventh) Day to the first day of the week? If you read carefully, they never call Sunday the “Sabbath.” They call it “The Lord’s Day” because that was the day Jesus rose from the dead. Every Sunday the Church gathers for worship is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because on the first day of the week Jesus demonstrated the absolute eternal value.
This is the greatest and most important eternal value: Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead for our salvation. The Good News is that when Jesus died on the cross, God laid on His only beloved Son all the chastisement we rebellious human beings deserve for our sins. In this way, God exercised His perfect justice while also expressing His perfect love.
The beloved Apostle John points to the cross and says: “Here is love. Not that we love God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.” (I John 2:1-2)
Dick Woodward, In Step with Eternal Values
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 24, 2020
“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 walked on water. Yet, millions of us only remember that he took his eyes off Jesus 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 means when he saw what the wind was doing, he lost sight of what Jesus was doing and was afraid.
The remarkable thing here is that when he kept his eyes on Jesus, Peter walked on water!
It was not until he was beginning to sink that he prayed this prayer – a model prayer today for all of us. Jesus taught that our prayers should not be long and we should never think we will generate grace with God by too much speaking. (If Peter had prayed longer, 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?”
Rick Warren took his entire congregation of twenty thousand people through the eight steps of “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 model prayer.
Pray Peter’s short prayer often and don’t think twice. Don’t be of little faith!
Lord Jesus, save me!
Dick Woodward, 25 March 2012
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Posted by Dick Woodward
November 22, 2019
“And it came to pass… that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:51)
The words “salvation” and “deliverance” are synonyms. The deliverance of the children of Israel as described in the book of Exodus is therefore also an allegory of salvation that demonstrates what we might call “A Principle of Deliverance” when God delivers people from addictions and sin today. Modeled on the dialogue between Moses and Pharaoh, Moses represents Christ and Pharaoh is the evil one.
For example, observe what Pharaoh says after Moses demanded the release of God’s people when God sent the first plagues: “You can go but do not leave Egypt.” (Exodus 8:25)
After a few more plagues, Pharaoh again agrees to release the people but he says: “Well, you can go, but do not go very far.” (Exodus 8:28) More plagues and Pharaoh says: “All right, you can go, but… leave your children in Egypt.” (Exodus 10:8-10) More persuasive plagues and Pharaoh says, “You can go, but leave your flocks and herds in Egypt.” (Exodus 10:24)
When people come to faith today the evil one will tempt them to practice their faith “in Egypt” as a worldly believer practicing the values of the secular culture. Then he will tempt them with, “You have come to faith but don’t go very far with your faith.” Then the temptation is to not let your faith pass on to your children.
A final attempt at keeping a person addicted to the slavery of sin is to “Leave your flocks and herds in Egypt,” or don’t let your faith affect your pocketbook.
The principle of deliverance illustrated in the book of Exodus is: Never, never, never compromise with evil and remain enslaved and addicted in your “Egypt.”
Dick Woodward, 23 November 2013
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Posted by Dick Woodward
September 18, 2018
“Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” (1Timothy 4:16)
Although it seems contradictory to the ethical teachings of the Old and New Testaments, the Apostle Paul is coaching Timothy to join what we may call the “Me First Club.” While we are trying to understand humility as taught in the Bible and learning to love our neighbors as ourselves, the very sound of a “Me First Club” seems to generate loud screeching discord.
If we think about it, however, there are places where we are instructed by our Lord Jesus to put ourselves first. For example, in the opening verses of Chapter 7 of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus teaches us that when it comes to judging we should join the “Me First Club.” Showing a great sense of humor Jesus taught that we should not be looking for tiny specks of sawdust in the eyes of others when we have plank-sized logs in our own eyes. His priority was that we are to first get the logs out of our own eyes, and then we will see clearly to help others with the tiny specks in their eyes.
Paul instructs Timothy that before he challenges others to apply the Word of God to their lives that they might experience salvation, he is to first apply the Word of God to his own life and experience salvation himself.
In areas like salvation and judging are you willing to say “Me First?”
Dick Woodward, 15 September 2010
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 15, 2017
“…whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:26)
I have suggested in my two previous blogs that if you want to find the blessedness and comfort Jesus promised to those who mourn in His second beatitude, you should ask the right questions and listen to God’s answers. My third suggestion is implied by Jesus as He gave an excellent answer to Martha when he asked, “Do you believe this?”
My suggestion is that you believe God’s answers to the right questions. When we ask, listen, and believe, the death of someone we love is like an investment in the world to come. We have simply bought shares in heaven, increasing our motivation to be there in the eternal dimension with Christ and with them.
A devout surgeon I know says that the word we use most in this life is “Why?” However, the word we are going to use most in the next world will be “Oh!”
An old hymn I don’t hear much anymore proclaims:
“Friends will be there I have known long ago.
Joy like a river around me will flow.
Yet just a smile from my Savior I know,
that will be glory, be glory for me!”
The Bible is filled with God’s answers to the right questions. When we believe those answers we will discover the blessed state Jesus promised those who mourn in one word: salvation. Salvation and the comfort He promised can begin right now and last forever if we ask, listen, and believe!
Dick Woodward, 17 December 2010
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Posted by Dick Woodward
March 25, 2016
“God put the wrong on Him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.” (2Corinthians 5:21, The Message)
So what is the biggest weekend in the Church year all about? What does it mean to you and me personally? In the verse above the Apostle Paul answers that by putting the Good Friday message in a nutshell.
Because of what happened on Good Friday God has offered to put all of our wrongs on Jesus, and in exchange put all that is right with Jesus on you and me. That’s the best offer we’ll ever have. All we have to do accept the offer is believe it!
In 1949 while doing social work in Pittsburgh, one night a man asked if he could speak with me. As we sat in the darkness outside a closed recreation center he told me that near the end of World War II he was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. While still under fire he saw a chaplain crawling from one wounded man to another. This chaplain apparently had something very important he said to those men. He hoped the chaplain would make it to him, but after taking several hits the chaplain stopped moving.
He said since then he had been wondering what it was the chaplain had to say to those men. After watching me for a couple of months, he told his wife he believed I could tell him the important message that chaplain shared with those wounded men. Building on the witness of that chaplain, I was able to share the Good Friday message of Jesus with that WWII soldier.
This Easter do you have a Good Friday message for dying people? Do you have a message for people who are going to live?
Dick Woodward, 26 March 2013
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Posted by Dick Woodward
December 11, 2015
“Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which is translated, God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)
The essence of the Christmas that was can be described by the word “incarnation.” The biblical word ‘carne’ is the Greek word for ‘flesh.” When we consider the Christmas that was, we find ourselves face to face with the incarnation – the miracle that God decided to make human flesh His official residence for 33 years. We date time from the first Christmas because human flesh became God’s address when Christ was born in Bethlehem.
Asked who Jesus is, a little boy answered, “God with skin on.” That’s good theology! When Jesus was born, one of His names was “Emmanuel,” which means God with us.
The Bible also frequently uses the word flesh to mean ‘human nature, unaided by God.’ God knew that our human nature desperately needed supernatural aid. The essence of ‘incarnation‘ when applied to the Christmas that was, demonstrates the reality that we needed God to do something for us that we could not possibly do for ourselves. On that first Christmas Eve God intersected human history with what we might call “The Great Intervention,” that we might experience salvation.
If you carefully read the first chapter of Luke, you will discover that God told a priest what He was going to do and the priest did not believe Him. God responded by shutting the priest’s mouth. Zacharias had the greatest sermon to preach, but lost the opportunity because unbelief shut his mouth.
God told some wise men what He was doing. Those wise men asked the question, “Where is He?” They traveled far searching for Him until they found Him. When they found Him, they worshiped Him and gave gifts to Him.
Dick Woodward, A Christmas Prescription
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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