Ray Woolridge

2013-03-23T13:12:00.003-06:00

“How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him.” (The Message)

When I think about all the blessings of God, and knowing God through Christ, I can be overwhelmed. I have been blessed by God with every spiritual blessing through Jesus Christ so I can be a blessing TO OTHERS.

I am chosen in him from eternity past, so that I can be holy and blameless. NO SHAME.
I am predestined by His love for adoption as his child. NO ALONENESS.
His purpose is my adoption, and my purpose is to live to praise His grace. PURPOSE for my life.
I am blessed by His glorious Grace: UNDESERVED. LAVISH. UNENDING.
I am redeemed by His blood. BOUGHT FROM BONDAGE TO MY FLESH AND THE WORLD. SET FREE.
All of my sins, past, present and future, are forgiven, because His grace is that rich and lavish. FORGIVEN.
He lavished His grace upon me, along with wisdom and insight, so that I could know the mystery of His will which is this: In Christ, all things, all people, all creation, one in Him, in heaven and on earth. UNITY.
I have an inheritance in Jesus. Guaranteed by the sealing of His Spirit. FUTURE GRACE.
I am predestined according to His purpose, which is that all things work according to His will. SECURE IN HIS WILL FOR MY LIFE.
I live to bring praise to His Glory. MEANING TO THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT.
I have heard His truth, the Good News, and I have believed in Him, SO I am sealed by His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guarantees my inheritance until I get full possession of it in eternity. SECURE NOW AND ABUNDANCE THEN.

March 1st Shame

2013-03-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

Today is March 1, 2013, the day the infamous “sequestration” begins. Today should always be a day which the American people remember as a day of shame, a day when political leaders on both sides of the aisle failed to govern. Politics is the art of the possible, and requires compromise. The President has steadfastly refused to negotiate and to compromise, and to give Congressional Republicans something for which they can vote. Likewise, many Congressional Republicans, without even serving one day in their lives wearing the uniform of our Nation, have put our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Guardians and Department of Defense civilians, in great harm by passing this harmful and foolish “sequestration” legislation. As I write this letter, I have never been more ashamed of our political leadership. It is often said by the President and by pundits, that our system is broken. No, our system is not broken, but the people who lead our system have failed. The American people decided to give us divided government. Divided government means compromise and prudence are a must. It is time for the President and for the Congress to set aside political agendas and do their most essential job, which is the defense of the Nation.

I am a retired US Army Reserve brigadier general, and also a Department of Defense civilian. Somehow, should furloughs actually happen, our family will muddle through and trust the Lord who is our provider, even if we cannot trust our political leadership who have broken faith with us. However, our deep, constant concern is for the 66,000 Americans in uniform serving in harm’s way in Afghanistan. Our family has three Soldiers deployed right now. Our oldest two sons are serving in Afghanistan in the Army, along with one of our nephews elsewhere in the Middle East. Congress and the President have failed our sons, and if these devastating and automatic budget cuts last long, our sons will not have the support they need, and their lives will be endangered. Contrary to foolish comments that the impact on DOD is not that great, one less aircraft carrier is in the Gulf, which means decreased support to our troops in danger. The United States Army, as the Army Chief of Staff said today, will not be able to train for upcoming deployments, increasing risk of mission failure and danger to our soldiers.

It is time to govern and lead. Should this impasse not be resolved, may the American people remember this day of shame, and punish both parties during the 2014 mid-term elections and beyond.

Sequestration and National Defense

2013-02-21T16:24:00.002-07:00

Letter I have sent to the President, the Vice President, Senator Bennet, Senator Udall and Congressman Lamborn

RE: Sequestration and National Defense

The time has come to govern, and to end the partisan posturing. As a retired United States Army Reserve Brigadier General, I fully understand the pressures of leadership and hard decisions. As I write this, I find myself disgusted with the inability of a divided government to execute its most basic core function: the national defense.

Inaction by the President, Senate Democrats and House Republicans will cause devastating and possible permanent degradation to the ability of the Department of Defense to execute missions assigned by the Commander in Chief. Let there be no doubt in your minds. All of you are on the "blame line." All of you are responsible for enacting this foolish and automatic legislation. All of you will be blamed by the American people for your failure to act.

There is no doubt in any senior leader's mind that the DOD budget must be reduced as we wind down our involvement in this war in two theaters. However, the right way to do this is NOT through automatic budget cuts, political gamesmanship and grandstanding. As a voter, I am ashamed of all of you, and ashamed to see our nation wrenched through this debacle.

Further, I have "skin in the game." I am a disabled Vet, I have deployed, and my oldest TWO SONS are serving in the Army in Afghanistan as I write this letter. There is no doubt in my mind that my sons' lives will be endangered by your failure to act and act NOW! Lastly, I am also a government civil servant probably facing a 20% furlough pay cut for the remainder of this year, causing my family undue hardship in addition to the stress and uncertainty caused by our sons' service in the combat zone.

I urge you to take immediate action to prevent the March 2013 sequester that, in days, will force a cumulative 18% defense budget cut in one year, plus nearly a half-trillion dollars in additional defense cuts over the next nine years. I urge you to amend this foolish legislation and give the Secretary of Defense and Service Secretaries the leeway to manage their Service budgets in a reasonable manner.

Our nation is still at war. Our nation's unemployment level is near the highest in recent memory. I urge you to do everything in your power to forge an immediate, bipartisan resolution to avoid this unconscionable prospect.

Respectfully,

Ray Woolridge
Brigader General, US Army Reserve, Retired

All things work for the good?

2011-02-18T08:04:00.002-07:00

How do we understand that all things work out? Work out for what? Some people naively assume that everything is going to be fine, and then it isn't. Life can be random, brutish, nasty, short to paraphrase Hobbes. The relentless attack of disaster, disease, death can seem meaningless and brutally unfair. I am clinging to the truth that "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28)."

"In" all things God works. All things are NOT God's work. Some things happen because of stupidity, apathy, foolishness, risk-taking, or evil. The verse says that "IN ALL things God works for the good of those who love him...." I am clinging to this promise like a drowning man clings to a life raft in the middle of the Pacific. I have had my share of bad things happen. I choose to desperately believe that God has a purpose in all things and that He is going to work all things for my good. Imagine the great theologian and missionary falsely accused of crimes, appealing to the highest authority to avoid a kangaroo court rigged against him by unjust men. Socrates? No. Paul. Appealing to Caesar. Spending the next several years of his earthly life in prison awaiting his hearing before Caesar. We don't know if Paul ever got that hearing. We do know what he did in those years. He wrote more than half of the New Testament. The Bible says Paul welcomed all who came to see him and "boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ." No self pity. His master work which is changing lives even today. He changed my life even this morning! ©2011 Ray Woolridge

Terrified

2010-10-07T10:45:00.000-06:00

One morning I awoke to a rising sense of panic. The thought of the uncertainties of the future can be terrifying. What to do? Place my trust in the Lord and seek some light from His word.

In my times with God lately, working through the Old Testament book of Numbers, I have been reminded that:

I can listen to God's voice, just like Moses did, and I can speak to God when I have concerns. See Number 7:89.

I can draw near to God because Jesus is my perfect atoning sacrifice, given once for all of my sins. I don't have to fear death when I draw near. Compare with Numbers 4:20.

I belong to God, just as much as the Levites did. God says of me, "Ray is mine, for all of the firstborn are mine..." See Numbers 3:13.

I can bless people like Moses and Aaron blessed the Israelites in Numbers 6:22-26: "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."

God's presence is going to be with me. See Numbers 9:10-17

God's presence will lead me, and when I set out, God's enemies will be scattered. Look at Numbers 10:35-36. They were scattered when God's children entered and occupied the Promised Land.

God will give me manna daily to meet my needs. "Lord, I need spiritual food from you, and physical food from you as well!" Look up Numbers 11.

So many other good things to learn from God's Word...Keep studying and applying!

Suffering and Pain

2010-07-06T17:53:00.000-06:00

Great article about suffering. I can really relate. Can you?

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/07/02/suffering-and-glory/

Now that's Army Strong!

2010-07-06T17:51:00.000-06:00

Take time to look at this amazing two part video featuring the new greatest generation.

http://armystrongstories.com/blogger/chris-lecron/amazing-video-of-combat-heroism-from-july-4th-2009-afghanistan-25th-infantry-division/

Debating and Relating to an atheist

2010-07-06T17:50:00.000-06:00

Good article by a rabbi who has debated famous (or infamous) atheist Christopher Hitchens many times. Mr. Hitchens is being treated for cancer and needs our prayers. Love the attitude and generosity of spirt in this article as Rabbi David Wolpe describes his interactions along the debate tour.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/02/AR2010070202450.html?wpisrc=nl_pmopinions

Hard Times

2010-06-21T09:41:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking lately about hard times, and am convinced that we are soft. We have been lulled into complacency by modern convenience, a pill or therapy for every ache, 24 hour distractions on 500 channels, most of us having a warm place to sleep, what we in the military call "three hots and a cot."

When trouble comes our way, we are shocked, surprised, offended even. We rail at the circumstances, blame the government, curse the Almighty. How unusual our attitudes are. How counterproductive. How unhistorical. And for the Bible-believing Christians among us, how unbiblical.

Back in the old days, trouble was expected. Hobbes said "The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." People longed for heaven because of how horrible life was. People expected to suffer and were not surprised because suffering was common.

When the Apostle Paul embarked on one of his missionary journeys to encourage new believers and strengthen new congregations, he proclaimed the following message: "We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22)."

Now that is not your typical self-help, feel good sermon. That is raw meat, painful to hear but a good dose of reality.

We: all of us, believers, leaders, apostles, are together going to face hardships. We are in it together. Paul's bio is replete with suffering, hard work, rejection, stoning, and more.

Must: hardships are normal, required and not an option. An expected state of life.

Go Through: We go THROUGH them, not over them or under them. This life is a journey of hard times. Psalm 23 talks of the dark valleys of life. This "going through" requires endurance.

Many: Expect many hardships. If you get less than many, all the better and thank God.

Hardships: Tribulations. Trials. Tests of faith and character. Life is about continual problem solving. We have got to get over the modern conceit of asking "Why is this happening to me?" As if the whole cosmos revolves around you and me. Instead, a better question to ask is "Why not me?"

To Enter the Kingdom of God: There is a sense of the Already and the Not Yet. What we have recieved and what is yet to come. Of the impartial fulfillment of God's promises. Paul gave this saying to believers, whom God had saved, healed, gathered into congregations, appointed as elders, and taught the Faith. Paul is not saying that we are saved by sufferings. Paul is saying that we are going to suffer, but that in the end, in eternity, God's ultimate reign will be realized and we will look back and say it was all worth it. ©2010 Ray Woolridge

New Post on God's Good News

2010-06-11T17:14:00.000-06:00

Yes, friends, I've been off the net a while but I'm trying to get back to regular blogging. This has been hard to do since I've been on the road 8 of the last 9 weeks. But hang in there with me, lots of good stuff to come. By the way, check out the new gadget on my blog which is a great explanation of God's Good News for all of us. In Him, Ray

Selfish

2010-05-11T11:41:00.002-06:00

I don’t want to risk appearing to be too hard on other cancer survivors. Let me say, however, constantly during my cancer struggle, I have been selfish. To be fair, this is the most natural response to a drastic, life-threatening diagnosis.

Yet, I believe it to be as natural as it is morally wrong. Selfishness runs deep in our psyche and in our moral DNA as a race. All world religions rail against selfishness and self absorption, as do almost all ethical systems. A cancer diagnosis triggers the instinctive visceral fight to survive, which leads one to fortify the inner person with a “self barricade.” Spend a few weeks obsessing about every ache, pain, treatment, hope and fear, and the walls easily go up, to the exclusion of the needs and want of significant others. This self-centered tendency is too easy when your life consists of alternating bouts of physical pain and mental terror. Human beings are by nature selfish creatures. Cancer can make this tendency more pronounced as I can attest. While this selfish tendency is at work in me every day, it seems that every few years, I have to be reminded.

Two decades ago while stationed in Bavaria, a young woman asked me “what did you learn in Ranger School?” The question caught me off guard. I didn’t want to answer flippantly. It would have been too easy to answer “I know how to set up an L-shaped ambush…or I can produce a five paragraph field order in the rain while hypothermic (I was a winter Ranger!).” But I told her the most important lesson I learned: Ranger School taught me that I am selfish. She was speechless, surprised and we changed the subject.

I had shared with her a deep secret that at that point three years after Ranger training, was still hard to verbalize. In my day, at the end of each of the three phases of Ranger training, squad mates rate each other in a confidential peer evaluation. This Darwinian process works with brutal efficiency. Sometimes, the weakest Ranger is “voted off the island” and transferred to a new squad. To be “peered” out of one’s squad was the ultimate ignominy: to have been evaluated by fellow Rangers and found sorely lacking in merit, ability and worth. I was “peered” out of my Ranger squad at the end of the Mountain phase of Army Ranger School. The Ranger Instructor told me that if I didn’t get it together, I would not graduate, and that during the next phase, I would have another chance to prove that I could earn the coveted Army Ranger tab.

During some moments of brutal self-evaluation, I recalled a defining moment from a ten day patrol mission that probably influenced the peer vote. One day, or perhaps one evening (didn’t matter, night and day during Ranger School is all the same!), our squad halted after a long movement up and down the Tennessee Divide, each carrying hundred pound rucksacks, eating two C-rations and sleeping only an hour or two per day. When a Ranger squad halts, the first priorities are to establish security and clean weapons, lest the enemy get the edge. Everyone set about doing what they had been taught. Everyone but me. I dropped my ruck sack, set my weapon down, ignored my duty, sat on my “fourth point of contact” and began to devour a C-ration. I didn’t care what I was supposed to be doing, I was hungry and I was going to eat. I can still taste that "John Wayne" bar. Selfish.

I am thankful that by God’s grace, I was able to barely graduate from Army Ranger School. I wear the tab of an Army Ranger not because I was so ‘high-speed’ back in those days, but only because for whatever reason, God blessed me to be able to endure and improve enough to graduate, and surrounded me with some good Ranger buddies to take up my slack. I don’t deserve the glory for that.

Thinking about my behavior these past few years while undergoing six surgeries, a bout of chemotherapy, and then radiation treatment, I have been selfish and self absorbed. My long-suffering wife, may she be ever praised, has with great patience and forbearance, put up with me on those days when I went straight to our room, lay on the bed and watched television for the rest of the day. Lord, bring these memories to mind when I lapse into what is natural and easy, so that I may “choose the harder right over the easier wrong.”
©2010 Ray Woolridge

Generations

2010-05-09T07:58:00.001-06:00

My great grandfather E. Cliff Wooldridge was a Confederate soldier paroled in 1865 at Appomattox, Virginia. My great great great grandfather was Captain Joseph Wooldridge, who fought in the Revolutionary War as part of the Continental Army. Joseph was son of Thomas Wooldridge, grandson of John Wooldridge the blacksmith, father of Edmund Wooldridge, grandfather of E. Cliff Wooldridge, great grandfather of Eugene R. Woolridge, Sr., my grandfather. Wow. This line of ancestors got me thinking and praying about legacy and generations and led me to pen this prayer for my children and all who come after, paraphrased loosely from Psalm 129, with the hopes that a new generation of faithful service to God and country may be raised up:

"May the generations of my family not be those who mock or disbelieve. May they be those who are believers. May they not be oppressors of the righteous. May they gain victory over the oppressors, may the Lord cut them all free from the cords of the wicked. May they walk in the glorious freedom of the Sons and Daughters of God! May they love Zion, God's dwelling place! May they be heavenly minded and earthly good. May what they touch their hands to prosper. May the Lord God be glorified in what they say and do! May they be saved from all their transgressions. May they not be the scorn of fools!" ©2010 Ray Woolridge

Unmistaken Child?

2010-05-04T09:57:00.000-06:00

One night recently I watched “Unmistaken Child”, a PBS documentary that featured beautiful scenery, devoted disciples, the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism and reincarnation. The movie follows the relentless pursuit by Tenzin Zopa, young disciple and devoted Tibetan Buddhist monk. Tenzin Zopa searches high mountain valleys to find a very young boy, aged one to one and one-half, believed to be the reincarnation of his spiritual master, Lama Konchog, who died at 84 in 2001. It is a fascinating combination of astrological signs, spiritual sleuthing, portents found in the lama’s cremation fire (direction of the smoke, bone turned into pearl, etc), a boy born in a certain valley whose father’s first name was “A.” Tenzin Zopa walked in hope from village to village in search of the child expected to be the one. A certain boy in a certain family is found. Investigation and certification by monks and the hierarchy leads to confirmation by the Dalai Lama, and the separation of a 3-4 year old boy from his family, in order to live the rest of his life in a monastery, and to grow up and receive worship and honor from the devoted. This child is renamed Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, and expected from an early age to grow into his role as the new lama. The young boy is told by the Dalai Lama to be “faithful to the teachings.”

The entire program was fascinating, alien, disturbing, pagan, brutal. Viewing the reactions of the common people especially was interesting, many with enraptured faces, tears and joy. Villagers react with hope and thankfulness that their village was chosen, and that their family produced the chosen one. To see this boy give scarves to these villagers, now his worshippers, to see him touch their foreheads, was disturbing. I noticed a slight parallelism to an unknown couple in an obscure village in Israel, giving birth to the Messiah, and to a journey by Magi more than two thousand years ago.

Let me say that not all religions are the same. This is a myth of the academy and of comparative religions. All religions have family resemblances and surface similarities. Under the surface, stark differences exist.

I also admit that I have biases, as we all do. Watching this through Western, Christian eyes, I saw an ancient pagan system playing out, with a family willingly but sadly bereft of their beloved son. I saw Buddhist, and Hindu, themes of karma and reincarnation. I saw superstition and ancient sooth-seeking, subjective confirmation of prophecy, hopeful worship by ordinary people. I also saw some good ethical teaching. This young lama is already blogging on the Internet at the age of 6 to devoted followers worldwide, some of whom already ascribe their dreams as having been sent from him.

My prayer the morning after this video was “Lord, Lord, Jesus, You are more than a lama. When You were on the earth, you were the Incarnation of Almighty God himself, but You are God. You said nothing about reincarnation but only of rebirth spiritual. You gave hope that all men and women could be your disciples, and be born in God’s image, with the potential to be full, and live fully in the Holy Spirit of God.” May we all seek Christ, and God’s kingdom in our lives, with the same determination and devotion of the monk who sought the child: relentlessly, selflessly, hopefully. ©2010 Ray Woolridge

Me-Monster?

2010-04-25T14:36:00.002-06:00

Wow, check this out...really makes you think. Brian Regan is a funny guy and makes a good point (but don't know if he knows what a good point he makes)...Are you a Me-monster?

Sleep is over-rated

2010-04-14T04:54:00.000-06:00

Working God's night shift in the House of the Lord. Lifting up holy hands in the house of the Lord. Doing what the saints will be doing for eternity. Forsaking the temporary for the eternal. Focusing on the eternal one, not dwelling on what is passing away. Psalm 134 says:

Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who minister by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and praise the Lord! May the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth bless you from Zion. Amen.

Why not me?

2010-04-05T15:10:00.003-06:00

Bending over to pick up a shampoo bottle, the shock got me somewhere between L1 and L5: instant electric jolt of painful lower back attack, then cramps, then slowly rising to steady myself, like a arthritic seventy-five year old man lifting an eighty pound rucksack, mouthing “ow ow ow ow….” Unexpected pain, twenty-four hours of soreness, alleviated by ice packs, powerful drugs and no unnecessary movement. I admit it: I enjoyed having others run my errands and bring me drinks, but I did not enjoy the insufferable stiffness. I longed to play basketball, run without pain, easily rise out of a chair. An episode that reminds: suffering is part of life. It is not a question of “if” but a matter of “when.” Paul wrote the letter to the Christians in Rome and included a curious expression in verse 3: “…we rejoice in our sufferings.” I think I have glossed over that expression hundreds of times in my life, without it ever causing a reaction. Until yesterday.

I want to argue with Paul. “Paul, speak for yourself, but as for me, I don’t rejoice in my sufferings. I fight my sufferings, resist them, deny them. I consider them alien invaders to my safe middle-class existence. Isn’t life supposed to be safer, healthier and happier?” 1960’s schoolteachers taught us, and we all believed, that SCIENCE was making everything better: longer life, less disease, a pill for every ache and pain, no bad breath or b.o. Now we see the lie of a scientific utopia unmasked. Life expectancy is longer in some rich nations but people still suffer. Illness still advances. We still die painful deaths every day. We fight our sufferings and rage at deity by saying, “Why me? Why am I suffering? Why did you give this illness to me?” Paul’s approach is curious and counterintuitive. “REJOICE IN YOUR SUFFERINGS.” As if to say, “Don’t ask ‘Why me?' Ask ‘Why not me?’” Expect to suffer and be surprised when you don’t.

“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…”

This is Paul’s theology of suffering and pain, and it is fast becoming my theology. Pastor Kelly Williams spoke about this at length yesterday with insightful reminders from Romans 5: “Suffering is not the obstacle or the enemy of happiness. It is not the thing preventing happiness….Suffering is the vehicle God uses to get me to hope. Once I feel hope, I feel happiness.” But it all begins with suffering. There is spiritual algebra at work:

Suffering =>Endurance=>Character=>Hope

Paul is not like the guy singing, “Don’t worry…be happy” as if to ignore suffering in a “Pollyannaish” way. Neither is he the beaten masochistic who says “thank you sir, may I have another?” No, to Paul, suffering is the rock in the shoe that gets us walking in a different way. Suffering produces godly character which leads to hope. This hope does not let us down, because this hope comes packaged with God’s love poured to overflowing in our hearts through the Holy Spirit! ©2010 Ray Woolridge

Easter...God's Resurrection power still at work

2010-04-03T15:55:00.000-06:00

Only because of the God's resurrection power at work in me can I write something like this. I have nothing good in myself, apart from God, nor any power of positive thinking, more extraordinary DNA or family history of positivity. The only explanation I have for this is God has done this in me. This is my testimony, written out today to a friend who inquired about how I am doing:

...thanks so much for continuing to lift me up in prayer. Your prayers are being answered. Even though my left ear was totally removed last month because another melanoma was spotted in January, there is today no evidence that this cancer has spread anywhere else in my body. I am strong, encouraged and growing in the Lord, and hopefully planning and anticipating many, many more years of service to God, my family and our nation. I am thanking our Lord for this cancer. This is not a journey I would have chosen. It is a painful, difficult, frightening thing to be told that you have a dangerous cancer that could kill you. The treatments are grueling, the physical, emotional, spiritual, financial costs are high. However, not because I am deeper or more mature than anyone else, but only because of God's grace at work in my life can I say, "thanks Lord for giving me cancer." It is my "furnace time (like three young Hebrew men who stood against an evil king and ended up in the fire)." This is my opportunity to identify in small measure with the sufferings of Christ. It is my time to prove that I really believe God is in control. I believe in God's sovereignty, so who am I to impudently say "God, you sure you know what you are doing by permitting me to have cancer?" Thru this journey, I have received many gifts. I have returned to my first love with Christ. I have been refocused into investing in Him and in my family. I am not taking even one day for granted. I am sharing my story of joy amidst trial with as many people as I can, thru speaking and writing on my blog (www.raywoolridge.blogspot.com). So, keep the prayers coming...Easter blessings to you all!

A song at midnight

2010-04-03T08:56:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite devotional writers is Frances Roberts. This gem taken from "Come Away My Beloved":

"In the night of spiritual battle, there I shall give you fresh revelations of myself."
"I shall make your midnight a time of great rejoicing, and I will fill the dark hour with songs of praise!"

Something to ponder and live out this Resurrection Weekend, while we remember the sights of our Savior dying on the cross, the lostness of a weekend not knowing, and then the amazement of His Resurrection.

End of time

2010-04-01T09:51:00.001-06:00

Fears of the end of time and Armageddon. Mayan prophecies of 2012. Leading to the Collapse of civilization, expected to be like “Mad Max beyond Thunderdome”: images of an urban dystopia. The Revelation to John the Apostle shows the believer’s view of the end of time. How blessed are those who see the devil, the beast and the false prophet thrown into the lake of fire. How blessed are those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, who are not condemned by the deeds they have done. How blessed are those who see the new heaven and the new earth, who dwell with God and see Him face to face, who have every tear wiped away, who have no more death or mourning or crying or pain, who drink without cost from the spring of the water of life, who live in the New Jerusalem with the Lord God Almighty and with the Lamb. Longing for this. For all of this. Come, Lord! ©2010 Ray Woolridge

April's fools....

2010-04-01T09:42:00.001-06:00

Re-reading the Gospel of Matthew in which the first three chapters give a bird’s eye view of eighteen hundred or so years of the history of Israel and then about thirty years of Jesus’ life. Beginning with the genealogy of Jesus Christ. A land and a people subjugated two-fold, by Rome and by Herod, the ruthless, non-Davidic king. Murder of Bethlehem's innocent toddler boys. Reminded of the stories of people following the leadership of the Almighty. The Patriarchs in Jesus’ family tree. Abraham who picked up and moved when Yahweh commanded him to move. Isaac, Jacob, on to David and Solomon. The tree ends with Joseph, a good man, who protected Mary, and listened when she said something like, “Look, I know this is sketchy, and I shouldn’t be pregnant, but this unexpected baby is from God.” The mysterious Magi, traveling in quest of a vision, a journey almost but not quite like looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or even expecting Jesus’ tomb to be empty on the third morning. Really, who among us does that? We don’t chase rainbows, and we see people die and don’t expect them to rise again. Three chapters filled with people listening to dreams in the middle of the night, seeking signs in the stars, considering counsel from ancient sages, remaining open to the breath of the Spirit, even to suspension of disbelief and logic. No longer making life decisions by what makes the most worldly sense but by the voice of God. Joseph fled to Egypt with his young family because an angel appeared to him in a dream. Then Joseph brought his family home to Nazareth after an angel spoke to him in a dream. Then 20 some years of silence in the record. Finally, John the Baptizer breaks onto the scene, to prepare the way of the Lord. The way of the Lord is not our way. The way of the Lord is counterintuitive. Make straight paths for Him. “Lord, may I listen today for the voice in the night, the intangible dream, the warning from your angels, the signs in the sky, the divine interruption of your Spirit into my rational material world!” ©2010 Ray Woolridge

Junior humility

2010-03-31T13:06:00.000-06:00

“…in Washington, you are never too senior to be junior”

So said the Army general as he began his remarks following the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense. It got me thinking about every promotion I have gotten in life. Think about how many times you have been promoted. Once the promotion party ended, and you were left with your thoughts, did you think for a minute, “all right, now I have arrived?” I’ll admit this thought has occasionally crossed my mind. Advanced from kindergarten to first grade, junior high to high school, junior associate to associate, second lieutenant to first lieutenant, whatever, every promotion has brought next challenges, new problems, some joys, and the question of “am I glad I was promoted?” Promotions do not solve problems…promotions present you with new problems to solve. In my last two promotions, I have been reminded in stark, humbling detail: in this life, I am never too senior to be junior to someone. Even at senior rank, military officers are under authority and must submit to their seniors. Even four star generals must follow orders of their civilian leaders. This realization creates humility, especially when you realize that authority is both a protection and a moral necessity. The Scriptures teach that I am to be submitted both to God and to the authority of the God-ordained, legally constituted, civil authorities. ©2010 Ray Woolridge

Bitter or Better?

2010-03-29T08:03:00.000-06:00

What is it going to be for you today? Are you going to become bitter, and more self-reliant? Or are you going to accept brokenness as a gift and become Better and more God-reliant? The choice is yours...©2010 Ray Woolridge

The Gift of Cancer, Part II

2010-03-23T15:26:00.000-06:00

I view my cancer walk as a gift, not a curse. Romans 8:1 says "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." I believe this promise applies to me. I have seen this is so many ways since 2004. Cancer has brought many good things into my life. I'll explain more fully in the days ahead, but things like the gifts of:

Perspective. Patience. Priority realignment. Mortality awareness. Compassion. New friends. An opportunity to suffer and identify with those who suffer.
©2010 Ray Woolridge

Praying the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian

2010-03-22T12:46:00.000-06:00

From a Fourth Century Christian and in use today by our Orthodox friends, especially during Lent:

O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth and faintheartedness, lust of power and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For Thou are blessed unto ages of ages. Amen

Gift of cancer

2010-03-22T12:39:00.001-06:00

“I am thanking God for the gift of cancer.” In my case, it has been the gift that keeps on giving. There have been lots of emotions and reactions to that statement. Some folks have gasped, others stood speechless. One or two has seemed to marvel. Don’t marvel, folks, I put my pants on one leg at a time.

It is counterintuitive to say that cancer is a gift. Curse, yes! But gift? Never.

Now, just so you know, I would not have chosen cancer. This cancer journey has been perhaps the hardest thing I have ever faced, harder even than West Point, Army Ranger training, or serving as a church planter to start a new congregation with no money, no members, no land and not much help from the sponsoring congregation.

But today, I am thanking God for the cancer that He chose for me. I am thanking Him for the good things that have come into my life. I am still unclear as to why it took nearly six years to arrive at this point of radical acceptance. I have wrestled, complained, fretted, campaigned, sought control, and finally after a continual cancer “beat down”, I have given up and am accepting that I have had cancer, it has spread locally, it has not so far as we know metastasized to distant organs, but it has cost me precious time, pay, aggravation, pain, inconvenience, 10-12 lymph nodes and an ear. Today I am fine with all that.

I am no super-saint. I am not at any higher spiritual plane to be able to say things like this. I am merely a follower of Christ, walking by faith, leaning on my Savior day by day, getting grace from him for the challenges of each day. I am a believer in God’s sovereignty. I have always said “God is in control” but I have not always understood the implications of that statement. For some reason, God has seen fit to permit me to develop a life-threatening condition that is seeing a five-fold increase in America today. Melanoma has been on the rise. Why? Perhaps we baby boomers spent too much time in the sun without sunscreen? Who knows. The point for me is that if God is in control of my life, then for his own reasons, He has permitted this disease to come my way.

I also believe that God puts natural laws into action and allows them to run without divine interference, most of the time. I believe God has done, and will do, miracles in which He suspends natural laws, for reasons of His own. I believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ literally occurred. I believe that while at times God supernaturally and sovereignly heals people of disease, he does not always choose to do so. I also think God created the universe and put gravity and entropy into action. When natural laws like these two interact, sometimes mutations and aberrations can occur. Philosophically and perhaps biologically, I think diseases like cancer arise from this type of interaction.

Today, I am thanking God for this gift of cancer and for the gift it has become. More on that in the future…©2010 Ray Woolridge