A Goody From Woody

I’ve been reading the headlines this morning. Nothing new! Conflict and riots in Yemen, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain, Iran and celebration of 250,000 in Cairo, Egypt.

And on the home front—Wisconsin folks battle it out—unions vs. conservatives who want to stop spending.

Bottom line—our world is in a terrible state—wars, civil disobedience, cruelty and evil deeds on every front around the globe.

As I reflect on these things I am reminded of a worse situation than all this. It is the spiritual state of every person around the globe. The reason the world is a mess is because each person around the globe has a fallen heart—a sinful heart.

If you would like to know the secret to living through these perilous times listen, listen, listen to these words in Ephesians 2 from The Message translation.

You can have God’s peace and joy and comfort as the world falls apart at the seams.

1-6 It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
11-13 But don't take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God's ways had no idea of any of this, didn't know the first thing about the way God works, hadn't the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God's covenants and promises in Israel, hadn't a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
14- The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over.

If Jesus solves our problems—sinners who desperately need a Savior—then He is also the solution to world problems.

Don’t fret—live in peace with God and pray that the world would come to know their Savior.

God Bless,
Woody


P.S. You may want to check out the ABC eNews (Association of Biblical Counselors.) Leaders Unite to Launch the Biblical Counseling Coalition.

During the past year, over two-dozen leading pastors, biblical counselors, and Christian educators have been prayerfully discussing whether the time is right to launch a new coalition of organizations, leaders, and participants in the biblical counseling movement. Those leaders are excited to announce the official launch of the Biblical Counseling Coalition (www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org).

Pastor Steve Viars, the President of the BCC Board of Directors, captures the BCC’s purpose.

“The BCC is all about promoting relationships and providing resources. There are many tremendous organizations and individuals involved in the biblical counseling movement. The BCC seeks to connect such men and women in a way that creates a natural and healthy synergy. We believe that together we can accomplish more.”