September 7, 2013
“My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up.” (Psalm 5:3)
In one sentence in this beautiful psalm David twice emphasizes the reality that he will pray to his God in the morning. There are three directions of life we must master. We must learn to look up. We must learn to look in until our Lord shows us things we need to know about ourselves. Only then are we prepared to look around in all our relationships.
Anytime we are having difficulty in our relationships with spouses, children, parents or those who are outside the home we should always ask ourselves if we have looked up and looked in sincerely. Knowing ourselves as God wants us to know ourselves is crucial preparation for relating to others.
Smart people are very often right and so they sometimes think they are always right. It is very difficult to live with those who think they are always right. In the same way it is difficult to relate to those who think they never sin. When God helps us look in and see ourselves as He sees us it gives us a humility that is a tool we need to face our relationships.
What would you think of a concert violinist who plays a beautiful concerto solo and then instead of an encore comes out and tunes her violin? In the same way we should not play the concert of our day and then tune the instrument of our lives.
We should begin ‘in the morning’ tuning our lives through our prayers to God as the Psalmist directs us, so that we can look up, look in and then look around.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
July 19, 2013
“It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” (1 Corinthians 15:44)
Have you ever seen a dragonfly with its double wings moving like a helicopter from one flower to another? This amazing creature actually begins its life under water. For about two years it exists as a shellfish with a long narrow body like a knitting needle.
If you did a cross section on that shellfish you would find that it has two respiratory capacities. With one it can absorb oxygen from passing water through its body like other shellfish; however, it has another respiratory system that will one day breathe air.
When the two years of its underwater life have ended it rises to the surface of the water, moves to where land begins, dries its magnificent wings in the sun and then begins the second dimension of its existence.
The Apostle Paul writes that we are also designed to live our life in two dimensions and God has provided a body for us to live in each place. He has given us a body so we can live on earth and a body so we can live in heaven. Paul labels our earthly body “a natural body” and our heavenly body “a spiritual body.” He then identifies a third spiritual value: A spiritual body is a greater value than a natural body.
Since I have spent several decades trapped in a quadriplegic body I really resonate with Paul when he declares that a spiritual body is prepared for me. How I look forward to that spiritual body that will not have the limitations of my present body. With great joy I anticipate the spiritual body God has prepared and Christ has made possible for me.
Do you value your spiritual body?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
July 13, 2013
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)
According to C. S. Lewis, “Life was not meant for pleasure only, nor for ease, but for discipline. Not for temporal, but for eternal values; not for the satisfying of a life here on earth, but for the development of a life for heaven.” He also wrote that “the clergy have been set aside and trained to look after what concerns us as creatures who are going to live forever.”
Some believers live as if their life span is everything and eternity is nothing, while some live as if eternity is everything and their life span is nothing. Some are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good while some are so earthly minded they are no heavenly good. As in everything there is a need for balance, but there are many Scriptures that exhort us to be more heavenly minded and to hold eternity’s values in view while we live out our lives here on earth.
One eternal value is that the invisible is a greater value than the visible. A reason for this is described in the verse above. What is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal. The Old Testament prophets were called “Seers” because they saw the unseen God and many things God wanted them to see and then share with the people of God.
God is a Spirit and a spirit is unseen. We are told in the Scripture that faith is the evidence of that which we cannot see. Do you value that which you cannot see more than what you can see?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
July 10, 2013
“Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You.” (Psalm 73: 25)
The author of Psalm 73 has a problem. He envies the wicked because they always seem to prosper while God is forever chastening him and putting him through hard times that grow his character. The Psalmist becomes a great model for us as he takes his problem into the sanctuary where the Lord shows him the end of the wicked. That changes his attitude toward the wicked from envy to pity and compassion.
How would it affect your outlook on life if God permitted you to spend five minutes in hell — or in heaven? Both experiences would probably make you an evangelist.
The Psalmist goes on to write: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength (reality) of my heart and my portion forever.” By this he means that God is the great Reality in this life. Jesus said the same thing when He prayed: “This is eternal life that they might know You the only true God and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)
When we have a revelation of eternal reality we will realize that the things we leave when the Lord calls us home are not worth living for while we are here. As Peter considered the great Day of the Lord in which every material thing will be dissolved he asked the question, “Since everything will be dissolved in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?” (2 Peter 3:11)
The answer to Peter’s question is that we should be people who know God and make Him known in every nation. This is how we hasten the coming of that great Day of the Lord.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
June 28, 2013
Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.” (Hosea 6:3 NLT)
When I first came to faith and for the first few years as a pastor I struggled with the concept of knowing God personally. I struggled until several spiritual heavyweights mentored me in this dimension of my faith journey. They helped me by shaking everything down to three simple propositions that were basic, yet absolute.
The three propositions are: God is there, God is real, and God is personal.
I have not struggled with the proposition that God is there. My mentors challenged me to think about all the ways God responds to our many prayers to Him. As proclaimed by Hosea I found that when I related myself to God He responded by relating Himself to me. That inspired me to believe that He is not only there but He is very real when I relate to Him and make contact with Him there.
Over time as I shared the intimate dimensions of my personal, private and even secret life with Him I affirmed the glorious reality that God is personal and I should believe Him when He tells me He knows the number of hairs on my head at any given moment. I should also believe Him when He tells me He has a plan for my life that when followed will make me an original person distinct from every other living person.
Are you pressing on to know the Lord? If you are, I offer you these three propositions that can help us all know the Lord when we believe them.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
June 20, 2013
“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chronicles 20:12)
A large convoy of ships was on elaborate maneuvers. The flagship at the center of the convoy signaled a hard right turn for the entire convoy. The commanding officer of a large cruiser missed the signal from the flagship. His cruiser was not in line with that right turn. The cruiser thrashed around, hopelessly out of formation. There was chaos on the bridge of the cruiser when the standard Navy signal came from the flagship: “What are your intentions?” The skipper of that cruiser flashed this return signal: “My intentions are to buy a farm!” (In the Navy, there is a fast track that makes admirals out of captains and there is a slow track that sends captains into retirement. When a captain makes a mistake like that one, he might as well make his retirement plans).
The cause of Christ is moving through this world like a convoy, in perfect formation, supernaturally synchronized by the Holy Spirit. The risen, living Christ is the Flagship at the heart of that convoy. Jesus Christ is sending signals to that convoy all the time. If you have your eye on the Flagship and you get your signals from Him, you will be in formation and part of His great work in this world. If you do not have your eye on the Flagship and you miss His signals, the work of Christ will move on without you, while you thrash around, out of formation, never a synchronized part this magnificent convoy.
Servants of the Lord must keep their eye on the Flagship and not get their signals from their culture, but from the risen, living Christ.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
June 12, 2013
“… work out your salvation… for it is God who works in you.” (Philippians 3: 12)
The Bible is filled with paradoxes. A paradox is something that appears to be a contradiction, but when examined closely, you discover there really is no contradiction. There are times when a paradox is not a contradiction because the two propositions stated by the paradox could both be true; they could be both complementary and supplementary. They are often resolved when you realize that it is not either/or but both/and.
THE ELEVENTH STEP: Keep moving.
The Scriptures tell us we can miss the will of God because we are in a hurry and God is not. When that is the case, we need to wait on the Lord (Selah). There are other times when we miss the will of God because we are sitting on our apathetic and indecisive immaturity, demonstrating our lack of faith and courage, and the Lord moves on without us. These two apparently opposite concepts are really not contradictory. It is not either/or, but both/and. The truth is we sometimes need to wait on the Lord and at other times need to keep moving.
We have an adversary who does not wish us well. His first strategy is to make us into lazy, indecisive, apathetic, spiritual wimps, who miss the will of God because we lack the faith and courage to follow the leading of the Lord. If that fails, he will turn us into obsessive, compulsive workaholic movers, shakers and doers who miss the will of God because we are out-reaching His will for our lives, running far ahead of the Lord.
Obviously, we all need balance to discern and do the will of the Lord.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
June 10, 2013
“Then he blessed him there.” (Genesis 32:29)
THE TENTH STEP: Learn to wait on the Lord.
It takes more faith to wait than it takes to be active. God’s guidance prescription for what we call Type A personalities like Jacob is to wait on the Lord. Jacob was missing God’s will for his life because he was always running ahead of God. He was a make-it-happen, mover, shaker and doer. Read the story of Jacob in Genesis, chapters 25 through 32, and Paul’s commentary on that story in chapter 9 of Romans. As you read how God crippled Jacob so he could crown him with His will for Jacob’s life, you will see what I call, “The Cripple Crown Blessing of Jacob.” When a man is crippled what else can he do but wait on the Lord?
Sometimes on our journeys of faith, God puts us in a holding pattern. We are like commercial airplanes when they are directed by the control tower to circle the field while waiting their turn to land. In the book of Psalms, the word Selah is found in 73 places. The Amplified Bible’s paraphrase for that word is, “Pause, and calmly think of that.”
As He leads us God frequently places Selahs in our lives. Sometimes what God does in our life while we’re waiting can be more important than what we’re waiting for. He may want us to pause and calmly think about our priorities, our vision statement and mission objectives and other issues as we experience His will for our lives. When you encounter one of the Lord’s Selahs and find yourself in one of His holding patterns, ask yourself what God wants you to pause and calmly think about. And, never put a question mark where God places a period in your walk of faith.
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Posted by Dick Woodward
June 8, 2013
“A person’s steps are confirmed by the Lord.” (Psalm 37:23 Berkeley)
THE NINTH STEP: Look for confirmation as you seek God’s will.
At times on our journeys of faith when we come to a fork in the road there is no verse of Scripture that tells us to go to the right or to the left and we have no prompting or leading of the Spirit. We do our best to make the proper choice, while acknowledging the hard reality that we simply do not know which direction is the will of the Lord. Having done everything we can to discern the will of God, we journey down one side or the other of that road.
The verse quoted above means we should sometimes move forward into what we perceive to be the will of God, praying and looking for a confirmation. That confirmation may be positive or negative. If everything works out and the direction we have chosen obviously has God’s stamp of approval on it, we can say God has given us a confirmation of His will. We have the conviction of God saying to us, “This is the way, walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21) We see evidence of the reality Jesus described, that when He calls His sheep to follow Him, He goes before them. (John 10:1-4) After we commit to a direction, we see evidence that the Living Christ has gone before us and prepared the way for us.
Sometimes, the confirmation is negative and the results are the opposite of those just described. When that happens, we should be humble enough to go back to that fork in the road and choose the other direction. We see an example of this in Acts chapter 16 when Paul wanted to go into Asia and was directed instead by illness into Philippi.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: decision making, faith, Following Jesus Christ, humility, knowing God's will, prayer, Psalm 37:23, religion, Spiritual Discernment, spirituality, Trusting God | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
May 7, 2013
“So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” (Exodus 32:24)
After the greatest miracle in the Old Testament delivered the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt they went around in circles of unbelief for nearly 40 years. Moses went up on Mount Sinai several times interceding for them with God. While he was there the people became so corrupt they made a golden calf, which was an Egyptian idol for God. They were going to return to Egypt behind this idol proclaiming that this God deserved the glory for bringing them through the Red Sea and out of Egypt!
Moses confronted Aaron who was the spiritual leader responsible for them. He asked Aaron, “What have these people done to you?” I quoted the reply of Aaron. While Exodus 32 tells us Aaron skillfully created the golden calf, his response to Moses was that he threw their gold in the fire and out came this calf!
Life is a banquet of consequences and every one of us must eventually sit down and eat the banquet we have accumulated. Our capacity for following the example of Aaron is almost infinite. We can rationalize until we convince ourselves that we put a lot of gold in the fire of life and somehow there came out this calf. Denial (‘de Nile’) is not just a river in Egypt. We often elect to swim in denial until we are far from reality.
We need to deny our denial, confess and be mature enough to accept the responsibility for what we have contributed to our personal banquet of consequences.
Will our choice be reality and responsibility or to swim in denial?
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Posted by Dick Woodward
