People Sharing Jesus

With all of the events of the last few days, I have been unable to blog.  My trip to Howard Payne was a blessing.  It was so great to meet a large number of fine young people who plan to serve the Lord in various ministries.   Howard Payne continues to be a very important school for ministers.   They are particularly noted for their work in Student Ministry.  They now offer a masters degree for those desiring to minister to students.  In our trip to Hardin Simmons for Thursday through Saturday morning, I was able to meet with the president of Logsdon and a large number of the faculty including retired faculty members.  It was a great experience.  It is noteworthy that quite a number of young women are seeking training in ministry at both Howard Payne and Hardin Simmons.  In both instances I discussed the possibility of short term courses in evangelism taught by myself and other evangelistic pastors and leaders in Texas.  When I was a student at Howard Payne in 1970 through 1974, we had a course taught by Dr. Perry Webb which was taught every night for five days.  Each session was two hours.  We received one hour of credit for the course.  To this day I remember that course as one of the most helpful courses that I ever had.  What made it so effective was that the teacher was coming from the field of mission and ministry with a vivid awareness of the daily realities of working with people.  He had been pastor at First Baptist Church in San Antonio, and he gave us strong encouragement about effective ministry.  I draw on the wisdom God provided through Perry Webb until this very day.  Pray for our young people.  We need God to raise up a new generation of leaders.

Dan Wooldridge

When I felt led of God to preach the messages under the heading, “A Jonah Moment”,  I had to ask myself “why these messages?”; and “ what will be the reaction?”  We live in a time when an amazing number of preachers are far more concerned with the marketability of their message than with its purpose.  I never want to bring a message that is intentionally negative, but the primary question should always be “Is it true?”  Was Jesus being negative when he called the religious leaders of his day “blind guides.”   Was He being negative when he called them “white washed tombs?”  Was Jesus being negative when he said to Peter, “Satan get behind me”?  The intent in all of these remarks by Jesus was positive.  They were words of warning.  They were words intended to lead to soul searching repentence and change.  It must have broke His heart to say such things.  It certainly makes my own heart heavy to challenge the frivilous approach to God’s Word that is all too prevalent in our day.  The purpose is positive though the message may be painful.   A great old evangelist of days gone by was named Vance Havner.  He used to say that people ought to be mad, sad, or glad after hearing a sermon.  He said the worst result would be indifference.  Interestingly he said a single group of people could hear the same message and respond in all of the above ways.  Great is the mystery of the proclaimed Word of God.

Dan Wooldridge

Sunday, I referred the religion professor at Princeton who has become an advocate for the rediscovery and application of gnosticism to religious discourse.  Her name is Elaine Pagels.  What I did not refer to is her motive.  She believes that the Bible as we have it is paternalistic.  She is delighted to try to bring the gospel of Mary to the forefront.  She is more than willing to sacrifice the truth on the altar of political correctness.  She is not alone.  At the core of this gleeful campaign is the desire to break the power of God’s authoritative Word and open the door to the modern sensibilities.  Gnosticism was against the Church as an authoritative body.  It thrived on the fringe of Christianity as a secretive society which laughed at the assertions of biblical faith.  Pagels and others find their true family in such a community and such an attitude.  No wonder Pagels sees her so called “discoveries” as a way to engage the skeptics of religion.  No one has to believe anything in particular to be a gnostic.  It is at its core the exaltation of the human mind.

Dan Wooldridge

Many scholars struggle with the miraculous implications of the prophecies in chapters 40 through 66 of Isaiah.  A notable example of their struggle is the calling of Cyrus of Persia by name.  If the Isaiah of chapters 1 through 39 did this, he did it 150 years before Cyrus arrived on the scene.  The predictive nature of prophecy is a stretch for those who are reluctant to believe in miracles.  When that predictive element includes names of those yet unborn, the challenge is even greater.  Josephus, a Jewish historian, records that Cyrus was shown Isaiah’s prophecy and was motivated to assist the Jews by his wonderment of their God and His servant Isaiah.  One thing is certain.  God used Cyrus for His purposes.

God is present in human history.  He superintends over the affairs of men.  It should not be a wonder to us that he also superintends over Scripture.  Take the book of Isaiah for instance.  Every scholar agrees that it changes in tenor with chapter 40.  Compare it to the whole of Scripture and you will find that it has 66 chapters as the Bible has 66 books.  The first section of Isaiah covers 39 chapters.  The Old Testament consists of 39 books.  The last section covers 27 chapters.  The New Testament includes 27 books.  The early chapters of Isaiah seem to focus on the history of Israel and their impending doom.  The latter chapters seem to focus on the Suffering Servant who is coming as a sacrifice for sin and a deliverer.  God hovers over history and over His Word.

God has the power to move men and nations.  Things may sometimes seem out of His control, but He will always have the last word.  He will move in spite of man’s evil and blindness to accomplish His purpose.  All men have an appointment with Him and not one of them will miss that appointment.

We never are more at peace than when we rely on God’s purposes and His provisions.  We should live for His glory.  Those who discover what God is doing in the world and join Him in his work will find in the end that life is overflowing with meaning.  We live in exciting days of discovery.  Those discoveries are revealing the world to be intricately and marvelously balanced.  The earth survives on a razor’s edge of fine tuning.  Paul said of Jesus, “By Him all things consist.”  This means that all things are held together by the Lord.  It would appear that Isaiah and scientific discovery would agree with Paul’s statement.

Dan Wooldridge

All around our nation we see the rise of the megachurch.  I must admit that it is exciting to realize that the largest churches that ever existed in the United States are in existence right now.   Crestview is a large church to the vast majority of American churches.  The overwhelming majority of churches have a Sunday attendance of less than one hundred persons.  The average attendance of all churches according to the last statistics I saw was less than 200 persons.  What simply must not be lost in the changing landscape of American Christianity is the enduring value of one on one ministry.  Whether a church is large or small there is a great need for those who know our name and care for us as individuals.  Ideally the church is made up of people who are ministers and not merely members.  For my own part I want desperately to know all of the people who are members of our church.  I want to know the children’s names as well as the adults.  I grew up in a church where the successive pastors knew my name and called me by name.  This had a profound impact on my spiritual life.  The larger the church the harder it is to be personally in touch with the congregation, but there is no real excuse for not wanting too.  I cannot imagine Jesus contenting himself to stand at a distance and speak to people.  He has modeled for us that being His disciples involves personal contact and personal ministry.  Judgement awaits the church that becomes merely another entertainment venue.  We cannot be Christ’s followers without following the model of a shepherd.  “. . . and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them.”  John 10:3

Dan Wooldridge

      Maybe I am just getting older and more sentimental, but this year Easter felt different to me.  I have never seen more first time guests in a series of Easter services than I did this year.  Many registered, but countless others did not.  I would conseratively estimate that we had 1500 on campus in the various Easter services.  There were a number of guests in the drama presentations as well as a large number of members.  We have seen big days at Easter in the past, but this year many guests made a point of speaking to me personally.  Several ask for details about the book I recommended.  Others stated their intention of becoming members.  In both morning services I had amazing eye contact with hundreds of people that I did not personally know.  They were listening intently and processing the message in their minds.  I am confident that much fruit will be produced from the services.

    On a sadder note, Sunday was the first time I ever saw people leave because they could not identify a place to sit.  There were some places, but late arrivers in some cases found them placed too awkwardly to proceed to and simply turned back to their vehicles and left.  Tommy and I have already discussed that we need parking lot greeters who will provide helpful information to make entering our facilities less threatening.  Should these kind of great days continue, we will need to think about how to provide additional seating or offer such things as rooms in which a video feed carries the service.  For those who read the blog and do not know, our sanctuary will seat 800 when tightly packed.  We had folks on the steps to the balcony and in chairs down the side aisles in the 11:00 AM service.  Though we had a great crowd at 8:30, we likely had some wait till 11:00 due to the rain.  Yes, it rained on Easter Sunday and a great crowd came anyway.  I think we could have packed more into the pews, but you really can’t force that issue.  The largest crowd I have ever seen in the sanctuary numbered over 1000.  It was the evening of the Sunday Don Piper came.

     Someday, the Lord may provide us the resources to build that 1400 seat sanctuary.  Until then we must think creatively about how to meet the needs of a growing community and a growing church.

Dan Wooldridge

In the movie, The Missing, Tommy Lee Jones points at his granddaughter and asks, “Are you afraid of dead things?”  Unfortunately  the world is oblivious to the fact that it is under the sentence of death.  Most people are spiritually dead in our world and oblivious of the fact.  Far from being afraid of dead things, most people do not recognize the deadness all around them.  Dead relationships, dead minds, dead emotions, and even a quite a few dead churches dot the landscape.  The glorious message of Easter is that dead things can live again.  There is new life in Jesus.  He who rose victoriously from the grave can raise us up to new life in Him.  America needs a resurrection in the worst way.  If real revival comes, it will be like life from the dead.   Several years ago the movie, Sixth Sense, portrayed a man who was dead and did not know it.  I am praying that God will first make people keenly aware of the spiritual death that surrounds them.  When that happens, I pray that they will see what wonderful news the risen Christ truly is.

Dan Wooldridge

I stood at Andrew’s door tonight and talked to him.  It often occurs to me how strange it must be to have someone you have never met encourage you to follow the Lord.  I want all of the Andrews in this world to know that I would not bother them for no reason.  I do not visit for religious reasons, to grow the church, or to gain some kind of standing with God.  I cannot help but care about people because the Lord has been so kind to me.  Before I go to a door I pray that somehow the person who answers that door will sense the presence of God’s love.  After I go to a door I pray that the Lord will remind that person of the few moments we shared.  The world is sick of religion, but everybody needs relationships.  Without meaningful relationships life is lonely and empty.  I go to doors to offer relationships.  I offer myself and the wonderful church which I serve to become a caring community to the ones I visit.  I also offer the opportunity for a real, satisfying, and eternal relationship with Jesus Christ.  He is the reason I visit.  Jesus loves you, Andrew.

Dan Wooldridge

Over the years I have learned some fascinating things about religion.  I was in Brazil some years ago and was sharing the message of Jesus with a well educated bank executive in his office at the bank.  After sharing some basic truths from the story of Jesus and Nicodemas, I ask him if he was familiar with the story.  He replied, “No, I have never read the bible.  My church can excommunicate those who read the bible without the church’s supervision.”  I was appalled.  It never occurred to me that this kind of religious control existed.  I was only thirty at the time and still learning about the reign of fear that is carried on in our world under the guise of religion.

   My second experience was with a rabbi.  I was at a seminar where a rabbi was lecturing on Judaism.  Afterward I ask him to give me his interpretation of Isaiah 53.  First he pointed out that the Old Testament was not nearly so important to Judaism as it has become to Christians.  He talked about all of the other Jewish writings that needed to be studied.  Then he flatly stated that he strongly discouraged his people from reading Isaiah 53 so that they would not be “confused” by its contents.  I later learned that his attitude was widely held among leaders in Judaism.

I am so glad to be a part of a faith tradition that fearlessly looks at a text and allows it to speak to the heart with no absolute preconceptions as to what the end results will be.  Isaiah 53 is virtually impossible to read without thinking of Jesus.  If one knows the New Testament, it sounds as if it could have been tucked in the pages of the New Testament as easily as in a document that dates from 700 B.C.  It was this text that the Ethiopian was reading when Philip was led to him by the Holy Spirit.  John the Baptist must have had this text in mind when he exulted, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”  This text weaves together so much of the personal experience of Jesus that it must rank as one of the greatest prophecies of the Old Testament.  Here is a list of a few truths that it underscores.

1. That the Messiah would arise in an obscure, unexpected, unusual way.  “A tender root out of dry ground”

2.The messiah would not appear as one who was regal.  “no form or comeliness”

3. The messiah would experience rejection.  “despised and afflicted”

4. He would bear our infirmities.

5.He would be pierced and beaten.

6.His suffering would heal us.

7.He would be like a sacrificial lamb for wandering sheep.

8.He would be put to death.  “Cut off from the land of the living”

9. He would die as a criminal but be buried in a rich man’s burial plot. “He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich”

10. Death would not be the end of him.  “prolong His days”

11. He would be victorious. 

12. He would be in a position to intercede for us.

What a wonderful prophecy!

Dan Wooldridge

I have had surprising feedback from the message I brought Sunday night.  I called it “A Jonah Moment” and took it from Jesus referring to the response of Ninevah to Jonah and his reference to the sign of Jonah.  I then stated that like Ninevah we may be on the edge of disaster as a nation.  We may be standing at a “Jonah moment” in our history.  I then outlined six maxims that are commonly believed in our nation.  They are particularly believed among our young people and young adults.  I stated that even some of today’s preaching in churches caters to, rather than challenges, these maxims.  I will now state the maxims that I pointed out.

1. A New Gnosticism - One of the first great challenges to the Christian faith was called Gnosticism.  All of the elements of Gnosticism are present today.  Some bible scholars are nothing but modern gnostics and they are writing prolifically to propagate their message.                                                                                 

2. Materialism - We are in a mess culturally because of materialism gone mad.  It is even encouraged in subtle ways by many under the guise of Christian teaching.

3. Self-centeredness - This is not new, but it is now axiomatic.  Previous generations recognized this as less than desirable.  Many novels in the past exposed the fallacies of self-centeredness.  Now it is encouraged almost as a religious truth.

4. Universalism - All beliefs are of equal worth.  No truths are absolute.

5. Entitlement - We all deserve the very best.  The world owes us prosperity and security and someone needs to deliver it.

6. Feelings First - The way to decide if anything should be done is to trust your feelings.  Do what you feel no matter what.

I am praying about turning this message into a series of six messages.  I am studying my calendar to determine the dates.  Will you pray for me?  Let me know what you think.

Dan Wooldridge