Insight

A Fraction of the Action

by Andy Wood on October 21, 2009

in Esteem, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, Principle of Increase, Principle of Legacy, Words

arrow puzzle“You have a role in all this,” Dave told me.

“This” is the church he now serves as pastor, the people he loves daily and weekly, the legacy of faith he is building in this eastern New Mexico town.

Dave went on (this is my paraphrase):  “You were there at a time in my life when I thought ministry was over, that I had nothing left to offer, and that nobody wanted me.  You helped me see the possibilities of how God could continue to use me.  So every time the Lord does something good here, you have a fraction of the action.”

I was humbled and blessed by his insight.  But I also know I am not alone. [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Don’t Confuse Me With the Facts – Infuse Me With the Truth

by Andy Wood on September 18, 2009

in Insight, Life Currency

I had a head-on collision with the facts this week.  Must not have been wearing a seat belt.  Brain belt, either.  The sad truth is, I took in the sights and the sounds, the data and the details, and accepted them at fake value.  (Hmmm.  If I keep this up, maybe I should get a job in journalism.  But I digress….)

Make no mistake about it – facts are important.  If your baby has a 102-degree fever, you’re $68.32 in the hole at the bank, or Congress is about to mortgage your great-grandchildren, that is meaningful information.  The problem isn’t a shortage of information, and the solution isn’t to bury our heads in the sand.  What matters is what we do with the information we have.

Still in something akin to panic mode, I got a gentle news flash from the Lord:  [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The Perfect Form and the Perfect Storm

by Andy Wood on August 7, 2009

in Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, Principle of Legacy, Turning Points

Seven or eight years ago, I was taking a shuttle from the Founders Inn Hotel on the edge of Regent University down to the shoreline in Virginia Beach.  It was just the driver and me, and to make conversation, I asked him, “Do you know where London Bridge Baptist Church is?”

“Sure,” he said.  It’s not far from here.  You know somebody there?

“No.  But I went there on my very first mission trip.”

“Why would anybody,” he wanted to know, “come to Virginia Beach on a mission trip?”

That night I didn’t know how to answer him – this man who lives in the shadow of Pat Robertson and CBN, Rock Church, and a host of other citadels of Evangelicalism.  Today I think I do.  It was the Perfect Form.

The Proposition

“Mission ‘73” it was called.  I caught a glimpse of an announcement in our church bulletin.  A youth choir mission trip to Virginia Beach, VA, for students who had completed the ninth grade or older.  Hey, I loved to travel and barely made the age cutoff, so I was sold!  I was still a spiritual newbie, and didn’t really know very many people.  But I was undeterred.

Mark Stone, the pastor of London Bridge at the time, was an old friend of my pastor.  We would go to this crossroads of vacationers, military personnel, and growing suburbanites and conduct Backyard Bible Clubs, help lead out in a church revival, and witness along the Boardwalk and beach along the Atlantic.

The Cast

I was among the youngest – and spiritually greenest –of the 64 or so to go on this adventure.  I was surrounded by people who were older, more established, and way more sure of themselves.  I certainly can’t remember them all, but the list included: [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Memo to My Mind

by Andy Wood on August 4, 2009

in Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, Principle of Abundance, Principle of Freedom

Dear Foggy Little Brain,

As you start your day, I want to remind you of some very important truth to shape your thinking…

  • You are no longer under condemnation (Romans 8:1).
  • You are free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
  • Your flesh has been dealt with (Romans 8:3).
  • The Holy Spirit will enable you to fulfill the requirements of God’s Law (Romans 8:4).
  • The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6).
  • Those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8).
  • You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit (Romans 8:9).
  • Your body may be dying, your spirit is alive because of His righteousness (Romans 8:10).
  • The Holy Spirit will also give life to your mortal body (Romans 8:11).
  • You have no obligation to the flesh (Romans 8:12).
  • You must put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13).
  • You are a child of God (Romans 8:14 16).
  • You are no longer a slave to the world, the devil, and the flesh (Romans 8:15).
  • You have received the spirit of adoption, so that you can go into God’s presence and say, “Daddy!” (Romans 8:15).
  • You are an heir of God, and a joint heir of Christ (Romans 8:17).
  • The present suffering you may be experiencing is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to you (Romans 8:18).
  • Your body will be redeemed one day (Romans 8:23).
  • You don’t pray alone.  The Holy Spirit will is helping you (Romans 8:26).
  • The Holy Spirit is interceding to the Father for you (Romans 8:27).
  • God causes all things work together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
  • You are predestined to be conformed into the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29).
  • You have been called, justified, and glorified (Romans 8:30).
  • God is for you – who can be against you (Romans 8:31)?
  • No one can bring a charge against you, because you are God’s elect (Romans 8:33).
  • In all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37).
  • Nothing – nothing – can separate you from God’s love (Romans 8:35 39).

As you go about your day, remember the banner under which you live, and the grace on which you stand.  I’ve read to the end of the Book… You win!

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The Day God Shocked Me When He Showed Me Where to Find His Will

by Andy Wood on July 27, 2009

in Five LV Laws, Following Your Passion, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase, Turning Points

dream“Then I told them about the desire God had put into my heart.”

-Nehemiah 2:18

Today it seems little.  Important, yes, but H-O scale.  But on that day, it was larger than life – even larger than health.  And a lesson awaited that was life-changing.

From the time I was 15 years old, I knew that God was leading me to be a pastor.  I also knew there would be a pathway to get there, and five years later, I was still on that pathway.  I was about the graduate from college.  For a year I’d had the privilege of serving at my very first church, full-time in the summer, and on the weekends during school.  The people there were gracious and really patient.  It had been a wonderful experience.  Now, as I was about to graduate from college, both the church and I were preparing to move on.

Because I was a July graduate, and had blown through college in three years, I decided to lay out a year before going to graduate school.  When the church caught wind of it, they were delighted to meet with me on a Sunday night and offer me a full-time position.  They offered me more than twice what I had ever made in a year (if I told you how much it was, you’d laugh).  I said it sounded good; just let me take the week and pray about it, and I’d let them know the next Sunday.  I left town that night assuming that the next year of my life was set.

Just one slight problem.  [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

What I Learned a Half a World Away

by Andy Wood on July 18, 2009

in Insight, Life Currency, Photos, Turning Points

I expected to learn some things and be reminded of some things when I made my first trip to Thailand.  I was not disappointed.  To put an exclamation point on our trip, here are some things I learned along the way…

humidityYou may think you know what humidity is, but you’re wrong.

My wife had one unending childhood adventure.

Churches everywhere are made up of humans, with human needs, human potential, and human flaws.

Pastors may not speak the same language, but the leadership issues they face are the same worldwide.

smilesIt’s amazing the trust you can gain with a sincere smile. [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Hanukkah Hams Goes to College

by Andy Wood on June 23, 2009

in Consumers, Gamblers, Insight, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos

sleeping-studentOkay, you students of all things gloriously stupid!  Time for another round of Hanukkah Hams.  In case you’ve missed previous episodes, a Hanukkah Ham is a reminder of what can happen when unlicensed people are left free to drive an imagination without supervision.

What better place to discover colossal displays of “what-were-you-thinking” than in the hallowed halls of academia?  I once had a college professor that said, “College is the only place where people don’t want to get their money’s worth.” See if these true stories, drawn from the actual testimonies of college professors, don’t restore your hope in the future of America.

Remember, friends – these people will be managing your nursing home.  Or running your country. [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Discerning the Priceless from the Plastic

by Andy Wood on June 19, 2009

in Allocating Your Resources, Consumers, Enlarging Your Capacity, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, Love, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, LV Stories, Money, Principle of Increase, Principle of Legacy

money-trash1Things got a little weird that day at the Taco Bell in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.  A customer tried to pass two 1928 five-dollar bills as cash to pay for his meal.  The clerks had never seen such old money before, presumed it to be counterfeit, and called the police.  Here’s the sad part – as currency, the cash was legit.  As collectors’ items, they had to be worth way more than a bean burrito combo or a chalupa.

What a waste, right?  Right up there with Esau, selling his birthright for a bowl of peas. Or the prodigal son, wasting his inheritance on a never-ending party.

But another part of my brain wants to defend our fast food shopper.  After all, maybe he was hungry, and that was the only cash he had.  Maybe he had no idea what he had!  I’ve learned that if you don’t know the value of what you possess, it really doesn’t matter to you what you waste it on. Esau and the prodigal learned that, too – the hard way.

Anyway, what’s so different about the taco king?  [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Confessions of a Self-Pidiot

by Andy Wood on June 8, 2009

in Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Waiting

jackassA couple of weeks ago I asked an associate to pick me up me a cup of coffee when he went out for an afternoon break.  He did.  Since I take cream and sugar in my coffee, I looked all over the church for some form of sugar to put in it, and couldn’t find any anywhere. Even though there were at least three people who could have helped solve the problem, I didn’t ask for help.  I just poured out the coffee.  It felt better to feel sorry for myself than it did to solve the problem.

Self-pity stinks.

I wish I could tell you that this was the first time I had ever felt sorry for myself, but I’m sure you’d know better.  Truth is, at times I’m something of an artist at it.  Given the right mood, the right circumstances, and just the right amount of self-absorption, I can not only feel sorry for myself, I can influence you to do something to “make” me feel that way.

Like the time in Mrs. Trimble’s class in fourth grade when I kept whining and crying, “Nobody likes me.  Nobody!” [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

When Your World is Dark

by Andy Wood on June 5, 2009

in Insight, Life Currency, Love, LV Cycle, LV Stories, Tense Truths, Uncategorized, Waiting

candle-smokeTense Truth:  Jesus, the Light of the World, will sometimes allow us to experience seasons of darkness in order to teach us to trust Him, not guarantees.  But He warns us not to turn back to that other kind of darkness – a world of evil or self-initiated “light” in order to find quick-fix relief.

First I’ll give you the pieces, then I’ll put them all together.

  • A couple of weeks ago I was having lunch with a friend and he made a profound statement: “When your world is dark, the temptation is to turn deeper into the darkness for relief.” So true. And yet it makes about as much sense as digging your way out of a hole.
  • Someone once asked me if I’d ever had a midlife crisis. I blurted out instantly, “Yeah, I’ve had about a dozen of ’em.”
  • I’ve noticed a recurring pattern lately. I’m dealing with a significant number of professional men, all of whom could be classified as successful. In fact, they’re geniuses at what they do – so good, they can do it without a lot of thinking. And yet they’re bored, restless, or even depressed. Before my very eyes, they’re starting to act dead-before-they-die. In fact, my most common deep spiritual advice to them is, “You’re not dead yet!”
  • Have you ever noticed that people who are living “in the darkness” are also the loudest to predict a dark future? Wonder if that’s just a coincidence?

More than once somebody or something has rocked my Zippity-do-dah world and faith and, for lack of a better way of describing it, “turned the lights off.”  What’s ironic is that it didn’t happen because I’d screwed up or was somehow running from God.  In fact, the darkness happened while I was pursuing the Lord and, by all accounts and purposes, growing. [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →