Pastor Steve Wood

Christianity and Education

Steve — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:44:48 +0000

This week it is my great joy to host African leaders from 8 different countries. In all of my trips to Africa I cannot remember ever seeing a public school. They exist I just have been in places where the church and the school are one. Just as you would expect a pharmacy in a supermarket these days in the US, so is the expectation in the churches in west Africa to also be a school. Heartbreaking are the stories shared about the plight of students in public schools in Africa.

Here is a quote from the ActionAid website, “In Nigeria school age girls are mostly out of school for several reasons including school based violence, cost of education and child marriage/pregnancies. It is confirmed that girls who are unable to pay school levies are made to take the option of having sex with teachers in exchange. A number of these girls get pregnant and drop out of school. Some are forced to get into marriages, thereby miss out on education. Our Transforming the Education of Girls in Nigeria (TEGIN) project and Promoting Rights in School (PRS) initiative are used to address the barriers stopping girls from going to school.”

Praise be to God that Methodism has always linked education and literacy as a primary expression of the social and evangelical gospel of Jesus Christ. Every Methodist Church I have ever been to in Africa is also a school bustling with activity, learning, and hope every weekday. I thank God for this expression of ministry and for all the help for boys and girls to learn well and be affirmed as loved children of God! Thank you Jesus for the opportunity to make a difference in the great gift of education.

Christianity and Education is a post from: Pastor Steve Wood

God is Great, Jesus is the King!

Steve — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:44:38 +0000

Hebrews 9:22 says there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. When we say Jesus gave it all we really need to stop and think about what was involved in “All”, it was his very life. This is Holy Week and certainly it is deserving of additional time and attention in our devotional life and practice of discipleship. Today is Wednesday where Jesus cleansed the Temple and gave a very specific teaching around the things that would unfold going forward including the very destruction of the Temple that he and his disciples were seeing in that day.

I thank God for Jesus who chose to give his life for a greater purpose, the purpose of you and me. As our students, staff and community enjoy spring break I simply pray that the real presence of the risen Christ would awaken them in a new way to the power of God’s love for them and us. I pray that our community and world would come to know the only one worthy of all glory, Jesus Christ. Thank you Jesus for your gift and love, and thank you Jesus for our great church and school. Amen

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” Ephesians 1:7 NIV

God is Great, Jesus is the King! is a post from: Pastor Steve Wood

Stop and Worship

Steve — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:52:20 +0000

Psalm 95: 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Worship of God three in one is the work of the people. It is our mission and purpose. There is nothing else in all of this life that will bring us into fellowship with God and satisfaction with our life.

God is faithful to clear the calendar through the cross of Christ to meet with us anytime, anyplace. Only He is worthy of our praise. Take time today to stop, not slow down but stop, and worship your creator, sustainer, and redeemer and be intimate with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May God be praised!

Stop and Worship is a post from: Pastor Steve Wood

Love Never Fails

Steve — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:46:44 +0000

There is no end to the love of Jesus Christ and no one is beyond His redeeming love.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails (1 Cor 13:4-8).
What Paul is telling us in these passages is that love is not so much a feeling as it is an action. Love can’t be lost, or fallen away from, because it is active and unconditional. Jesus said, If you love me keep my commandments, not, if you love me be all warm and fuzzy. He told Peter, If you love me, feed my sheep (John 21). Love is action.

The best news of all is that Love never fails. Love endures through every circumstance and lasts forever. It is not down trodden or beaten. It is not defeated or dejected. Love is in the hope of a Samaritan that passed by and did a good deed. Love is in the forgiveness of a brother or sister, not seven times, but seven times seventy.

Nothing can stop the power and action of love. Nothing that is, unless you choose not to have it, live it, or share it. People fail, systems fail, structures fail, but the love of God never fails!

God put His love in action for us by sending His son to die for us while we were still sinners (Rom 8:5). Today, as disciples of Christ, we must also put our love for others in action. We can’t love them into Heaven. We can’t love them to Jesus. We can’t love them to salvation. BUT, we can put our love in action by sharing with them the love of Christ and letting Him do the rest.

There is simply no more loving thing we can do.

Putting love in action,

Pastor Steve

Love Never Fails is a post from: Pastor Steve Wood

The Best News of All

Steve — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:59:27 +0000

The Gospel of Luke Chapters 1-2 are quite simply among my favorite passages of all. God declares His love by taking on flesh and piercing the hopelessness of mankind in the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is among many things the opportunity for us to take advantage of the love that conquers all things by embracing Jesus Christ as Lord and the answer to all that threatens us both temporally and eternally. ‘The late John Wesley, after a long life of labour and usefulness, concluded his course in perfect peace and holy triumph. A short time before his departure, when a person came into his room he tried to speak to him, but could not. Finding his friend could not understand him; he paused a little, and then with all his remaining strength he cried out, “The best of all is, God is with us.”‘ (from The Biblical Illustrator)

Merry Christmas to you and yours as we pause and reflect on this greatest gift of all. The best of all is, God is with us!

The Best News of All is a post from: Pastor Steve Wood

A Thankful Heart

Steve — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:34:46 +0000

Psalm 100:4-5, (NIV)
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

How good is God to bless us this day (and every day that we awake to His creation and His beauty) with the opportunity to live with the God of all creation, the author and sustainer of life? It is really good and thus very important to keep our focus on our God who loves us who is always bigger than our circumstances. A heightened focus is especially meaningful during the Thanksgiving holiday season.

In a day and time where humanity is lured to pay more attention to Black Friday than to Good Friday, we are the Body of Christ whose voice resounds loudly through our thanksgiving that the grace of God through His Holy Spirit is still very much alive and at work in the world. Stop and take a moment to give thanks for what God has given you today, don’t be tempted to classify it good, bad, or even ugly, just give thanks for the fact that whatever you are in or about, God is there and at work from a posture of love for you! Happy Thanksgiving and celebrate that God is with us in and through Jesus Christ!

A Thankful Heart is a post from: Pastor Steve Wood

Progress Not Perfection

Steve — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:11:33 +0000

So what is the one thing? The one thing that brings you satisfaction like no other thing? Money, Fame, Prestige, Notoriety, Family, Faith, Marriage, Service? I guess the list could go on and on. However, it occurs to me that where we spend the majority of our time MUST be tied to what we value and seek in terms of satisfaction. The wisest of the wise wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:24, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work…” NIV.

Our work must have a Kingdom impact that is transforming life for the better to really be satisfying in my opinion. What does that mean? It means that we are doing something meaningful enough to contribute to the well being of humankind and have generational impact according to cultural norms. However, Jesus and meaningful Christianity adds to that the infinite value of having eternal impact that redeems and closes the loop in understanding our ultimate purpose in life to glorify God in our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

So how do we get our arms around making that happen? The same way one eats an elephant! A fellow board member shared an interesting article from the Harvard Business Review May 2011 issue (p.72) that I think is an excellent idea that is practically helpful. Professors Amabile and Kramer write of their discovery of a progress principle: “Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work. And the more frequently people experience a sense of progress, the more likely they are to be creatively productive in the long run.”

Progress is the key. Do you realize how potentially influential we can be just by helping our coworkers and friends grasp a hint of progress in their work on a daily basis? At the end of the day, there is nothing like feeling like a person who has made progress in meaningful work. let’s get contagious in sharing that kind of encouragement in helping others lay claim to the inch by inch progress we are making in the name of Christ for the transformation of the world!

Progress Not Perfection is a post from: Pastor Steve Wood

Fruitfulness

Steve — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:01:07 +0000

Of all the facets involved in living as a disciple of Jesus Christ, which is the greatest differentiator in terms of effectiveness? According to Dr. Lovett Weems and the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary it is fruitfulness. Dr. Weems and Tom Berlin of the Floris UMC in Virginia have written an engaging book appropriately entitled, “Bearing Fruit” that speaks to the reality that fruitfulness is an infinitely better metric marker than faithfulness. The rationale is that fruitfulness includes faithfulness but also captures the biblical mandate of multiplication when it comes to being disciples of Jesus Christ who are making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Throughout the Gospels Jesus emphasized the metric of fruitfulness and was redundant in his teaching that, “we will know a tree by the fruit it bears.” Disciples of Jesus are like trees or fruit bearing plants; we either live in fruitfulness or we don’t. Corporately, churches are charged with the same behavioral metric which means that a ministry of presence is good, as is a posture of faithfulness, but the Great Commandment and the Great Commission are measured behaviorally by the fruit born of the effort. Jesus did not go to the cross to grant us a license to live in apathy or ineffectiveness. In fact, Jesus went to the cross for the cause of maximum effectiveness as we live and love in His resurrection power and in Him through the Holy Spirit.

May God set our face towards fruitfulness! In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Lord, let it be so! Amen

Fruitfulness is a post from: Pastor Steve Wood

Back to School

Steve — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:49:06 +0000

It is a beautiful sight and brings new meaning to the term, “Back to School.” While we race around here making sure our kids have all new stuff to go back to school with everything in hand that one could possess, to see these kids who are so excited that this year for them is so much better.

They all have one uniform to wear to school, though 90% are hand me downs. They all have A pair of socks and A pair of shoes to wear (that is correct, just one pair of each). And finally, they will all get one meal this year at this school in the bush of Northern Nigeria, the only meal most will get all day long.

God is good, even when life isn’t perfect. Contact me and I’ll help steer you where you can make a difference bringing life, love and help as you live out this beautiful verse in Matt 25:37-40,

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
NIV

Back to School is a post from: Pastor Steve Wood

Learning to Accept God’s Love

Steve — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:14:25 +0000

Give thanks indeed! The love of God is a magnificent gift as proclaimed by the writer of 2 Chronicles. But is not a static love but rather a dynamic love that really invites a response. To give thanks is a valid response but God’s real intent is that we would receive His love through the presence of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Body of Christ at work in the world.

It occurs to me as I write this from Camp Meeting at Lake Lanier amongst singing, preaching, teaching, and fellowship that it would be an awful mistake to know about God’s love but never learn how to accept it. That’s right, accepting God’s love to the extent that God desires is a learned behavior and requires our response.

God’s love is both proclaimed and tendered in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But we are only bystanders to the real benefit of that love is we just acknowledge this fact. By making Jesus both Christ AND Lord we open the door for the Holy Spirit to deliver “every good and perfect thing” into our lives, families, and circumstances. The biggest obstacle? That would be busyness!

In the name of Jesus Christ feel free to stop doing long enough to BE. Be available to stop and behold the beauty of God at work. Be open to allow God to pour grace, redemption, hope and forgiveness into your soul and spirit. And finally, be willing to let the love of God transform you and lift you up, be a lover of God in the present tense rather than rely on a faint memory of what once was.

Psalm 136 reveals the right kind of response when 26 times the writer stops to proclaim that God’s love endures forever and that he is personally experiencing the benefit thereof and enjoying immensely what it means to learn to accept that love. Lord, let it be so for you and me! Amen.

Learning to Accept God’s Love is a post from: Pastor Steve Wood