People Sharing Jesus

Sometimes in life we have nothing left but loose ends in exchange for a great deal of effort.  In Proverbs 6: 6-8 there is the analogy of an ant and its amazing work ethic.  I was given a Peanuts cartoon in which Snoopy contemplates the tireless energy of the ant and remarks, “I’d make a lousy ant.”  Destroy an ant mound and they will immediately begin the process of rebuilding.  The church I serve is moving into a rebuilding time.  This time includes an actual building program which meets some needs that have existed for at least ten years.  Anyone who has ever led a church knows that building buildings creates a  strange environment in the work of the Lord.  Just ask those guys under Ezra what problems they encountered in rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem.  It is almost inevitable that it will be a time of change and chaos.  It would be far easier just to tread water and make do with the structures as they are.  However, to do so in a community that is growing like ours would be sinful.  It would be “falling short of the glory of God.”  (Romans 3:23)

Maybe you have a time of change and chaos going on in your life.  It could be you are going through a difficult transition.  Maybe you are experiencing the hollowness of an empty nest, a broken friendship, a lost job, an unexpected loss, a broken heart, or any one of hundreds of possible changes that can come our way.  Start right now creating something new.  Start with some deep introspection and prayer.  Ask God’s guidance.  Seek the Spirit’s leading.  You can build the future one grain of sand at a time.  Don’t give up.  Just remember the ants.

Dan Wooldridge

Jesus once said, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”  Life happens fast.  We have encounters in life that are brief and could be easily forgotten.  Even the slightest encounter can have amazing significance.

Once when I pastored in Kingsville, Texas, God opened the door for me to have a bible study for a number of weeks with a group of football players from Texas A and I.  One of the most faithful attenders of that bible study was a young man named Mike Dyal.  Mike had a very successful career at A an I and went on to play pro football for the L. A. Raiders, the Chiefs, and the Chargers.  I later had the privilege of doing his wedding to a beautiful young woman from Kingsville named Lisa Maples.  I could mention many other names, but I do not know where these people are.  Mike lives in Kerrville with his wife Lisa and three children.

  During that period of weeks a totally unexpected thing happened.  A muslim student named Yusuf came by my office and wanted to pray.  He stated that he had come from Oklahoma to meet some other students from his home country of Nigeria.  He indicated that his source of financial support from Nigeria had been cut of by the changing politics in the country and its severe effect on his family.  Yusuf said, “I do not expect you to help me since you are a Christian and I am a Muslim, but I wondered if you would just let me tell you my story.”  He further stated that the Muslim students had told him to leave.  They did not want to share their limited resources with him.  After I prayed for him, I took him to rent a small apartment, and bought him groceries.  I also arranged a job for him.  In passing I asked if he would like to attend the bible study that night for the football players.   He jumped at the chance.  He looked a lot  like Akeem the dream who played for the Houston Cougars and then the Houston Rockets.  He was quite an interesting guest that night for the athletes.  He listened carefully as I talked of Jesus from the book of Romans.  On the way back to his apartment, he said that he wanted to become a Christian.  We pulled to the side of the road and he received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.  I still communicate with Yusuf from time to time.  He is an artist who works with pottery.  He regularly brings in students from schools by the bus loads to see his work and watch him perform his craft.  With each group he shares his testimony.  He has lived for quite some time in Oklahoma. 

With some lives we touch we know what God has done and is doing.  The question I often ask is “How much did God use us in ways we do not know?”

A final word to my readers.  With all my heart I pray that these stories of mine would awaken in you an awareness that life is filled with contacts and connections that God has designed to reveal himself to us.  Be wide awake!

Dan Wooldridge

Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, “Pray for my soul.  More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of therefore let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day . . .”

How long has it been since you have sensed a deep hunger for God to move through the prayers of his people?  I am continually aware of so many people in deep need.  There are no words I can say to lift their burdens.  I can only hope to speak a word from God.  I will not speak that word unless I am set aflame in my soul in the place of prayer.  Additionally I know that God works silently yet surely through prayer.  However we may fail or fall short, we must not fall short in the place of prayer.  Will you pray for me?  Will you pray for this great church?  Pray that God will raise up here an ever stronger lighthouse of grace and spiritual wholeness in this growing part of our state.  Pray for the broken and hurting hearts both within and outside the walls of our churches.  We must not simply do busy work.  We must serve in the power of His Holy Spirit.  The need is tremendous.  Pray.

    When you pray for me.  Pray for my wisdom.  Pray for spiritual vitality.  Pray for insights into the Scriptures and their applications to our needs.  Pray for a healthy balance of the use of time.  Pray that my mind will remain sharp enough to hold on to the hundreds of names, faces, and needs that come rushing past me week after week.  Pray that God will lead me to those who are ready to follow Jesus.

Dan Wooldridge

I have had a number of responses to my recent request for feedback.  I learned that I have readers around the state, the nation, and the world.  At least one asked for a change the page color because of difficulties with a bright screen.  In my own case, I am just the opposite.  I will investigate that option to see what possiblities exist.  As to content, the reviewers enjoyed both the personal insights and the theological notes.  It seems obvious that glimpses into my own life are quite popular.  That is good because it is easier to do those in print than in a sermon.  I will soon be back to blogging.  I have taken a break of recent to assess the feedback and to enjoy some family vacation time.

Dan Wooldridge

When my family came to Georgetown, our youngest was in the fifth grade, my hair was not gray, neither of our daughters were married, and the population sign said 14000 people.  In fifteen years we have gone from three unmarried children to three married children and six grandchildren.  They tell us that the population sign will likely be changed to 50,000.  The committee that worked with us and the congregation that welcomed us have also been touched by the winds of change.  Many people who were a part of the church in 1995 are now in heaven.  A number have moved on to other places of service.  By next summer we will have completed our second major building project.  Along the journey we have remodeled spaces and acquired properties to expand our campus.  In all of these endeavors the vision has been to reach people and make disciples.  Our discipleship focus has always included hands on opportunities involving missions projects here and around the world.  Our personal evangelism training is as much the spiritual growth of  those who reach out as it is about reaching the lost and unchurched in our community.  Hundreds have been trained to share their faith.  Thousands have prayed to receive Christ through ministries on and off campus.  The seed of the gospel has been scattered far and wide. 

Next summer we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Crestview Baptist Church.  I believe the greatest days of this church are ahead of us.  This church belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ and he has plans for us.

Dan Wooldridge

These are based on biblical teachings of grace as God gives it to us and as we share it with others.  In some instances these characteristics are based on biblical opposites that are illustrated in parables and events.

1. The perfectionist is never satisfied.   (The focus is how he or she relates with others.  To some extent all spiritual growth arises from a holy desire to grow nearer the Lord.  We should not become satisfied with our own sinfulness for instance.)

2. The perfectionist is critical of other people.

3. The perfectionist disrupts or ruins the fellowship of any church or organization he joins.

4. The perfectionist sets impossible goals for himself.

5. The perfectionist is an idealist.  That is he or she insists on a world that does not exist.

6. The perfectionist wants to be THE Best not his or her best.  (This explains number two in the list.)

7. The perfectionist values himself by what he does, has, or what he can obtain, rather than who he is.  (a child of God)

8. The perfectionist feels guilty if he rests or relaxes.

9. The perfectionist is project minded rather than process minded.  He cannot enjoy the trip because he is too focused on the destination.

10. The perfectionist has irremovable guilt.

11. The perfectionist can’t accept compliments or criticism.

12. The perfectionist doesn’t understand grace.  (He or she thinks like the elder brother in the parable of “The Prodigal Son.”  (Luke 15:25-32)

We recently revamped our website at Crestview Baptist.  I started this blog less than two years ago.  My hope for this site has been to extend the ministry the Lord has called me to by yet another means of touching lives.  I also have a vision of readers far beyond our community.  I personally know of people literally around the world who read this blog.  Parents with young people in college have referred their children to some of these posts as an encouragement in the face of secularism and its pressures forced on them by agnostic professors.  Lost people have come to know the Lord as a result of seeds planted here drawing them to further investigation.  Some have become regular listeners to on line bible studies and sermons.  What I do not know is your story?  Would you take just a moment to write me at dan@peoplesharingjesus.com    Tell me of some particular blessing you have received or of some issue you would like for me to address.  In preaching ministries you are keenly aware of the response and interest of people.  In writing ministry that is not so obvious.  Most people will not post comments.  Perhaps you would take a moment to write an email.  Did you realize, for instance, that nearly 180 articles are available on this site?  At the top of this post you will see a note about the previous blog which was a guest blog by our daughter in law written from India where she and our son are working to establish a Christian ministry through a Christian school.  As always serving the Lord leads to many unplanned and unexpected “interruptions” which sometimes teach us and sometimes reveal His power.  That is what this writing ministry is doing for me.  Take just a moment to let me know your thoughts.  I obviously won’t answer every note, but I will read them and learn more about what God may want me to do with this opportunity.

Dan Wooldridge

Though our experience with Hareesh, the man we were keeping who was trying to overcome a decade long addiction to drugs, didn’t end the way we hoped it would, we were blessed by the experience none the less. He is currently missing, after having denied our help and rejected the drug rehab facility we found for him in the city and offered to pay for. He left with just enough money for a bus ticket home two Sundays ago and he still has not arrived nor contacted his family about his whereabouts.

We continue to lift him up to our Father and trust that we did our part as best we could to help him find his way to the Truth.

Hareesh taught us many things. One night a week or two ago, I woke up at about 2:00 am to the smell of smoke. Not just cigarette smoke but the herbal stuff they mix here. It was coming from our bathroom. I sighed. Was this man really trying to get away with smoking in our bathroom? Chase and I have only one room and the three of us were sharing it. Though we searched him nightly, he was crafty and always hid things in his underwear and stashed pills etc. around the building to restock his underwear supply with. After waking Chase up so that he could confront Hareesh, I lay in bed thinking about the udder absurdity of this 30 year old man sneaking into our bathroom at 2 in the morning to smoke an “herbal cigarette.” Did he really think we wouldn’t notice?

I was instantly struck with the thought: he probably did think we wouldn’t notice. And at 2 in the morning, choked with smoke that was pluming out of the bathroom (who knows how many he smoked!), my very next thought was this: Isn’t that what we all do? We hide in our metaphorical bathrooms and shut the door real tight and hold to the sins we love most, hoping that our Father won’t notice. I don’t flatter myself that at 2am I had any thoughts of my own, so I was left with the conclusion that the Holy Spirit had whispered such a simple truth to me and it was my duty to consider what sin it was I was trying to hide from God.

Over the next several days I prayerfully considered what my “bathroom” sin currently was. I don’t’ mean to imply that I couldn’t think of a single sin I had committed, quite the opposite really. It was the sins I knew I was guilty of that kept clouding my view of the ‘bathroom’ sin I was searching for. It wasn’t until days later, while I was still asking Dad to reveal this sin of mine to me that a part of a song popped into my head:

Why are you striving these days?

Why are you trying to earn grace?

Why are you searching, as if I’m not enough?

I knew right away that this was my ‘bathroom’ sin, the sin I had been committing daily that I hid from God as well as my husband. I was “striving” as though my Father wasn’t enough. I was trying to earn something that, by it’s very nature, cannot be earned. I wish I could tell you that from that very hour I managed to shed such a foolish, controlling, nature, but that wouldn’t be true. I still catch myself struggling under the weight of all my striving and am learning that throwing off my burden has to happen on a rather regular basis. Such a simple truth, such a challenging task, such a wonderful God who is patiently knocking at my ‘bathroom’ door and telling me to come on out and leave my sin behind.

Meagan

The miracle of Camp Crestview continues.  A thousand children and 300 workers, over one hundred decisions for Christ and counting, Several thousand lives are touched, and that is just this year.  Keep praying!

Dan Wooldridge

While serving in Burma, our son shared with us by email that a conversation had begun between he and our daughter in law about getting married again.  Along with this conversation there was a dialogue about the limits imposed in one country as opposed to the freedoms available in the other.  So long as they were communicating by email and deeply involved in their respective places of service there was no resolution.  Each had experienced the strong pull of the needs of their respective ministries in Asia.  In April our daughter in law came home for a family wedding.  Our son also came home on a break from his work in Burma.  He left a number of his belongings there with every intention of returning and resuming his work.  Once they began to talk face to face he heard words such as “the use of theater to reach people in India”, and “the great need for teachers to train the large numbers who see English as a pathway to a better life”.  He also heard of the ease with which teaching English could lead to sharing faith in India as opposed to the situation in Burma.  A decision was made that he was needed in India. 

   Once that decision was made, the question of marriage was clearly before them.  Should they go to India as single adults and work toward a marriage in the future, or should they follow their hearts and marry in April even though this might be stunning to many family members who did not see this coming?  They decided to marry.  The wedding occurred in that same beautiful park where we spent a wonderful day before our son left for Burma.  It was a very relaxed and lovely wedding.  They asked me to conduct the wedding and I gladly did so.  I must say that the first time they married I was fearful and uncertain because of my concerns for where they seemed to be spiritually.  We loved them both so much that I knew that standing in their way would only hurt our relationship.  At this second wedding, I had a deep peace and a sense that God’s grace was upon them and His purpose was being served.  I frankly do not know how any marriage makes it without the Lord.  It is not enough just to be a Christian.  Jesus needs to be the unseen, but very real, presence in the lives of those who share life together as husband and wife.  My wife and I came to a place of deep peace and gratitude for what God was doing.  Only God could bring about such a thing.  There really are many things in this world that only God can do.

At the wedding I used the words to an old song as a poetic touch.  These are some of the lyrics to the song “After All” made famous by Peter Cetera.                                                 

 Well, here we are again;

  I guess it must be fate.

  We’ve tried to make it on our own,

  But deep inside we’ve known

  We’d be back to set things straight.

  After all the stops and starts,

  We keep coming back to these two hearts,

  Two angels who’ve been rescued from the fall.

  After all that we’ve been through,

  It all comes down to me and you.

  I guess it’s meant to be,

  Forever you and me, After all.

Now they serve the Lord in India as husband and wife.  Please join my wife and I and Meagan’s parents in praying for them as they continue in their journey of faith.

      God is love.  (1 John 4:8)

Dan Wooldridge