Christmas in the classroom (12/3/02)

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Todd Wood

Three months ago, I put my oldest son, Joshua, in the first grade of the local elementary school.  As my wife and I eat lunch with Joshua in the school cafeteria at separate times during the week, I am reminded of the incredible mission field only one block from my house.  When Joshua first had to fold his hands in prayer before all the school buddies at his table, it proved to be a fumbling embarrassment.  But since then there have been times where he prays clear and strong.  He is a witness.

And his daddy desires to be a witness, too.  This afternoon, I am again the art teacher in Joshua’s class.  We have been working on Christmas trees.  This is great because the true Christian can incorporate symbolism:  the triangular shape pointing to the Trinity . . . the evergreen pointing to everlasting life . . . the lights pointing to the piercing light of Christ . . . the star pointing to the birth of Christ . . . the tree itself pointing to the rugged tree upon which Jesus died to completely save us from sin and the wrath of God.

Recently while reviewing her papers, the teacher got caught up with my storytelling in the middle of an art class.  So she opened up a whole new freedom for me to come anytime for a period of storytelling.  My mind races with creative imagination.  Following the example of Christ, there is no better way to communicate truth in your neighborhood mission field than through a story.  And there is no better time as dads and moms to be gospel-proclaimers in our neighborhoods than this Christmas.  Spread the authentic “glad tidings”.

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Christmas tree hunting (12/4/01)

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Todd Wood

As we enter the month of December in Idaho Falls, let me share with you some of my Christmas musings of the past.  I will try to share a thought with you each day as we head toward Christmas.  May the Lord fill you with His peace this Christmas season.

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When I went Christmas tree hunting in one of our national forests about a week and a half ago, all the trees looked so full and beautiful from a distance.  Covered with snow, they looked really nice.  But when I got really close to these trees, I would notice twisted curves or deformed limbs.  When I shook the snow of these trees, then I could see the gangly branches, the open gaps, and the dry, brown needles.  It reminds me of how God sees beyond the nice external Christmas ornamentation of our lives.  “For the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

I could also use the Christmas tree illustration to explain why Christian people don’t want to get too close to each other.  There might be the revealing of a gap or gangly limb.  But that is where real ministry with each other begins.

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The Life Book

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Todd Wood

The Life Book

Publisher – The Gideons International:  Nashville, TN, 2013

The Gideons in Idaho Falls recently invited my wife and me to an annual November banquet at the Loft Reception Center, located on the highway outside of Idaho Falls.  It’s a great event.  The food is spectacular; I dined on salmon.  And the guests are unique; they are the pastors and wives of Southeastern Idaho.

At each table, gracious Gideons gave to us The Life Book, a special resource for Christian teens to give to other teenagers in the public schools.

I took it home and read the entire 109 pages.  I like it.  Readable ESV print.  In a KJV culture, this tool might be held suspect.  But then again, I think the different translation might be helpful to the curious.

Four students pencil in notes throughout the book.  At first, I considered them a disruption.  But the more I read, I realized how this cross-section from agnostic to believer captures what goes on inside of the modern teen mind.  Also, an adult leader named “Uncle G.” sprinkles in helpful commentary.

I am eager to make a free order of at least 1,000.  The goal is to assemble a core group of committed teenagers to saturate their schools in Idaho Falls with the life-giving Word.

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Love, Acceptance & Forgiveness

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Todd Wood

Love, Acceptance & Forgiveness: Equipping the Church to be truly Christian in a non-Christian world

Publisher – Regal Books: Ventura, California, 1979

Author – Jerry Cook

Jerry Cook went to heaven this year.  He was a major leader in the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.  This book happened to be his classic volume in explaining his philosophy of ministry.  His gift is teaching, and his tone is loving.

In his early years, he believed that people ministry could only be effective in small church, but this all changed as the church where he ministered grew to 4,500 people.

Here is a sample of his thoughts which caught my attention:

  • “Most preachers have so garbaged up the book of Revelation that they have nearly lost the whole thing” (63).  I chuckled when I read this.

 

  • “All I take to read is a Bible and linguistic help—a Greek testament and lexicon perhaps. I take no commentaries. I don’t want my thinking restricted nor my preaching to be just a revamp of someone else’s ideas. A lot of pastors would save time and energy for everyone concerned if they’d just buy their people commentaries and tell them what page to read each Sunday instead of going the sermon route” (64).  This is a good way to start our study of the Biblical text, though I would not disparage the use of commentaries by other faithful expositors.

 

  • “Good preaching is opening the Word and communicating to the people what we see. That’s all it is. I do not need to be quotable. I’m not interested in being quotable. I want my preaching to be walkable” (65).  It’s is exegesis and not eisigesis, and let the exegesis bring us to life application.  We do not craft sermons for our own glory.

 

  • “Many pastors are trying to get the community into the church. I cannot conceive of that. How am I going to get a million people into my church? But I can conceive of getting the church into the community. That’s a simple matter. Just let the people go. They touch every cultural strata and they can plant seeds that will produce life” (77).  Excellent point concerning the church as the witness in the community.  Release the brothers and sisters to be the evangelists in the city.

 

  • “We do not appeal to families to support the church and its programs. Instead, we structure the church and its programs to support the family. We believe the family unit is central in God’s plan” (94).

 

  • “Our visitation program has the simplest structure in the world: you see the need, you meet it” (105).  I like it.  Simple.

 

  • “I believe a pastor needs to focus his ministry where his strength is. That is, he needs to operate in the area of his gifts and calling” (105).  This is very important to prevent burn-out.  A pastor should not try to be what he is not.

 

  • “The church-as-a-force is person-centered. If the big church stays person-centered, it will increase its effectiveness with its size. If it ceases to be person-centered, it will begin to die from within. The big danger that confronts a growing church is institutionalism. Organizations are forever trying to usurp the place of people, to minister by committee, to structure and channel and control and direct and swallow up people” (111).  The church is a living organism and not a mere business organization.

 

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A mighty tree cut down

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Todd Wood

Taken from today’s reading in The NKJV Daily Bible:

I was looking, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.  The tree grew and became strong; its height reached to the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of all the earth.  Its leaves were lovely, its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all.  The beasts of the field found shade under it, the birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it (Daniel 4:10-12).

This tree represents King Nebuchadnezzar in his full, prideful majesty.  But read on.  The tree got chopped.  The leaves stripped.  The fruit scattered.

God turned the king into a beast.  It reminded me of a recent play that my family watched– “The Beauty and the Beast” in Idaho Falls at the Civic Auditorium.

But the beast in Daniel 4 came to fully acknowledge the sovereignty of the one, true God:

For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation.  All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.  No one can restrain his hand or say to Him, “What have You done?”

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Famous Dave’s

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Todd Wood

My father took my boy and me to Famous Dave’s for a fun three-generational outing. It’s my youngest boy’s favorite place in town. He believes that it beats even Texas Roadhouse on the east side of Idaho Falls for rib taste and sauce zest. Likewise, my father enjoys Famous Dave’s for the more quiet atmosphere.

The place looks like a Rocky Mountain lodge. You step onto the porch, open the doors, and receive a greeting by a young man. Then a smiling hostess exhorts you to a wooden table by the warm fire. One of the waitresses gave us a hearty welcome. This is her night job. By day, she is our friendly bank teller at U.S. Bank, just down the road on Broadway.

The décor of the restaurant fits the log cabin motif: fishing, hunting, and logging, etc. It’s cozy. Perfectly situated for Idaho in the Inter-mountain West.

My boy ordered a half rack of baby back ribs. And my dad and I split the Tuesday “Feast for Two” special for $25. I was starvin’. Tearing into the platter with gusto, I used every sauce on the table. We dined like kings on the pork barbecue, bisque, ribs, chicken, broccoli, corn on the cob, coleslaw, and corn bread. Yet we couldn’t pack it all in our bellies, so we piled the leftovers into a to-go box. It made for a great lunch the next day.

If you are a carnivore with a hearty appetite, you need to visit Famous Dave’s on the west side of Idaho Falls, not too far away from the Eagle Rock fountain and the beauty of the Snake River.

After enjoying our meal, we drove to the east side of town and shopped at Sportsman’s Warehouse. Go figure. The two businesses go hand in hand with each other.

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The Epistles of John

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Todd Wood

The Epistles of John

Publisher – William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1978.

Author – I. Howard Marshall

I really enjoyed Marshall’s commentary as I was preparing messages from the book of I John.  He is a conservative force amid biblical commentary, who stands strongly upon the penal substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But whereas many of my commentaries are Calvinistic in orientation, Marshall presents a Wesleyan Arminian view.  And to the reader’s delight, he sprinkles phrases from the Methodist hymnal throughout this commentary.  It will cause you to sing.

The book is worthy of your purchase.

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First John

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Todd Wood

First John

Publisher – Kregel Publications:  Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1979 (1984 reprint)

Author – Robert S. Candlish

The volume is dense, a thick 577 pages.  And yet this is quite typical of a preacher’s devotion in the 1800’s to the Bible book that he would immerse himself in study.

Many might find Candlish to be too wordy, but within this book you find prayer and devotion that pours from the heart.

For instance, let me provide one quote in the leaping of Candlish’s heart as he expounds upon the words “Jesus Christ the righteous” in the opening of I John 2.

Jesus!  The name is ointment poured forth; fragrant, precious.  He is called Jesus because he saves his people from their sins.  Jesus!  my Savior! my Jesus! saving me from my sins, from myself!  Art thou indeed my advocate with the Father,–standing by me, pleading for me,–by thy Spirit pleading in me,–when, in spite of my firmest purpose not to sin, and my closest clinging to thee that I may not sin, I must still, under the pressure of sin besetting me, cry, Unclean! undone! Then indeed may I hold on walking in the light, and with a sinless aim, if thou art with me.  Jesus, save me from my sins!

Christ! the Anointed! whom the Father anoints through the Spirit; whom I also, through the Spirit, in sympathy with the Father, humbly venture to anoint! his Christ and mine!–with thee, O Christ, as my advocate with the Father;–with thee, True Mediator,–Revealer, Reconciler, Ruler,–Prophet, Priest, and King;–I will not, amid all that is discouraging in the experience of my remaining darkness, despair of yet becoming all that he who is light and who dwelleth in light would have me to be; all that thou art, O Christ!

One need not add anything to Jesus Christ.  To have Jesus Christ is to have everything.

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The Epistles of John: An Expositional Commentary

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Todd Wood

The Epistles of John: An Expositional Commentary

Publisher – Bob Jones University Press: Greenville, South Carolina, 1991

Author – D. Edmond Hiebert

Dr. Hiebert is not a well-known individual, but don’t let this cause you to pass over his commentaries. He provides superb, exegetical notes. His command of the Greek language, the various grammars and lexicons, New Testament introductions, and commentaries is extensive.

Hiebert writes, “This expositional treatment of the Epistles of John seeks to delve into the inspired riches of these letters to aid in their study by the diligent student. The quoted English text is that of the familiar King James Version, but the interpretation is based directly on the Greek. Although the commentary is based on a study of the Greek text, it is intended also for students who may not be proficient in their knowledge of that language. The portion under consideration is always first quoted in English with the Greek text, in transliteration, added in paranthesis. As needed, the various aspects of the Greek text are treated to bring out the fuller significance of the Johannine message. A detailed outline of these epistles, setting forth their contents, appears before the beginning of the exposition as a guide to the unfolding of the message.”

I highly recommend Hiebert’s commentary as a handy tool to add to your workshop for crafting expositions faithful to the biblical text.

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Guns N Gear – grand opening today

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Todd Wood

Today is the grand opening for Guns N Gear in the Snake River Landing on the west side.

Long anticipated.  The Idahoan’s dream.  Responsible self-defense.  Showcase guns.  Indoor shooting range.

It is all here at this place in Idaho Falls.

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Walk inside.  Things are sleek. Sophisticated.  State-of-the-art.  And friendly staff is there to help you with any questions.

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The business highlights our constitutional right to bear arms.

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Check out their facebook page.  And happy shooting.

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