by Andy Wood on January 10, 2010
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged Me,
I will sing of Your strength,
in the morning I will sing of Your love;
for You are my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.
Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
My goodness and love will follow you all the days of your life,
and you will dwell in My house forever.
I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession. [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on December 12, 2009
(The Twelve Ways of Christmas, Part 4: The Way of Waiting)
For Scotty Thomas, Christmas was cruel. What other word can you use to describe living in a house where Dad enforced a hard-nosed rule: Christmas presents were for Christmas day?
“But can’t I open just ONE?” Scotty would ask.
“No,” his dad would say, smiling.
“I think I know what this one is,” Scotty would say, shaking a wrapped present under the tree.
“Think all you want,” Dad would reply. “You may be right. You may be wrong.” Inevitably for Scotty, it was a little of both.
Like any good 8-year-old, Scotty also had razor-sharp radar for any kid who seemed to get a better deal. Jeremy Walker got to open the give from his sister a day early. Jeff Dunaway opened family gifts the weekend before Christmas day. But Scotty’s appeals landed on stone.
As Scotty grew older and wiser (age 10 now), he became more sophisticated in his approach. If he couldn’t win by appeal, he would conquer by steal. Scotty set out on a mission to find hidden “treasures.”
Snooping through his dad’s workshop and in the attic, Scotty hit the mother lode a full 10 days before Christmas. A new bicycle, video games, a skateboard, some table games, a basketball, a couple of posters for his room, a wristwatch… this was going to be an amazing Christmas.
It turned into the worst 10 days of Scotty’s young life. [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on December 4, 2009
(The Twelve Ways of Christmas, Part 2: The Way of Worship)
Jason Strong hates Christmas.
Well, at least this part of it.
And on this quiet Monday afternoon, he lies face-up on the stage floor, staring at the blackened ceiling of the church building he calls home, wishing it would all just go away.
Jason’s a twentysomething worship leader at a contemporary church. On his more philosophical, argumentative days he can tell you all the reasons why worship music should reflect today’s culture, not try to recreate the culture of Lawrence Welk. “Dude, nobody drives to work listening to pipe organs on the radio,” he loves to say. And they certainly don’t at Ovation Church, either.
But Christmas is a problem. “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Joy to the World” tend to make lead guitarists feel a bit out of place. And at Ovation, even the youngest of adults starts pining away for the Christmas traditions of their childhood.
Ugh.
In the spirit of the season, Jason and the band try to cooperate. But honestly, he feels like a fool – leading a band of square pegs into jolly-round holes. What the heck is “Excesis Deo” anyway? And don’t even get him started on “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”
But there’s a back story to Jason’s simmering frustration. [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on August 23, 2009
“I’m not a smart man – but I know what love is.”
-Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump
Attending a Christian worship service is a very different kind of experience for many different kinds of people. For me on most weekends, it’s Game Day. All hands on deck. Because of the responsibilities I have, it’s something of a 90-minute rehearsal taking place in my brain – rehearsing sermon points, announcements, and service order points that will unfold in a matter of seconds – all under the theme, “What comes next?”
This weekend was no different in that regard. We had three services with lots of moving parts, and I was tracking with all of them. And yet for reasons I have yet to understand, I was surprised to find my heart stirred by special faces in distant places. I found myself so aware – so drawn – so surprised by love – at one point during one of the offertories, all I could do is sit there and weep.
In short, I was beautifully startled by the people who attended the services in my West Texas church this weekend. [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on June 25, 2009
“The time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way” (John 4:23)
For centuries Christians have broken fellowship and broken God’s heart in the name of worship. We have argued over form, anguished over the opinions of others, and attacked those who looked or acted differently. Meanwhile in Heaven, the search goes on…
When you can sit at the feet of Jesus and rivet your attention to him, even when life is incredibly distracting around you… [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on May 12, 2009
Let my lips pour out praise,
Let my tongue sing of your promise,
Let my soul live that I may praise you.
(From Psalm 119:171-172, 175)
(Note to self)…
When you’re stymied by writer’s block,
slowed by illness,
sleepy emotionally, or
stressed by unfinished business,
go back to the basics.
God is – I’m His.
He has designed and purchased,
created and redeemed
the right to a life
– my life –
poured out,
singing,
lavishly living in praise.
Creativity flows from where worship goes.
And nobody animates tired souls like the Living God.
by Andy Wood on March 27, 2009
Five days of creation. Five days to speak a universe and earth into being. But for the first five days, as God created the stars and planets, the sea and land, and its teeming life, there was no one to speak back.
True, the angels brought Him praise, and creation tacitly spoke of his glory. But a voice was missing. A voice of intimacy, of image reflected. A voice of will – of determined love. A voice of faith and surrendered strength.
Day six. The climax of it all came when God breathed into the man the breath of life, and he became a living soul.
Imagine the Father’s delight as He introduced Adam to a universe of discovery. To show him the bumblebee or the giraffe, the caterpillar or the butterfly, the lion and the lamb. To see the childlike wonder in the grown man’s eyes as he witnessed this living Artist’s canvas for the first time. [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on March 3, 2009
Carrie and me going over her vows on her wedding day.
It took more than 25 years, but I finally met Jesus at a wedding. And when I did, I made peace with weddings in general. I’d like to tell you how.
For years I have made the statement that I’d rather do a funeral any day than a wedding. Yeah, yeah, I know that sounds twisted, vile, and patently un-American. But from a ministry perspective, there’s no comparison. Unlike weddings, at the funeral:
- The family will actually listen to what I have to say.
- Nobody has spent years fantasizing and obsessing about how this will be the perfect day.
- The cost, even with caskets and cemetery plots, is usually less.
- Long-term success is assured – deceased persons don’t have a 50/50 chance of changing their minds at a later date.
- Prospective candidates aren’t inundated with supermarket magazines modeling the latest casket fashions.
- There are no attendants who are required to buy swishy dresses or rent tuxedos.
- People don’t “experiment” by cohabitating with the casket for a year or two to see if there’s a fit.
- Photographers don’t roam freely about the service, or dominate the entire reception.
- Expenses can be offset by life insurance. (Try telling your insurance agent you need wedding coverage.)
- People actually give some thought to life after the ceremony.
Simply put, marriage is made in heaven, but weddings (aka American Idolatry) are made in hell.
An Idea Born of Necessity
All that changed a couple of years ago, however, when I was doing premarital counseling with two couples who had a similar problem. [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on October 8, 2008
Sometimes people do profound, powerful, healing things because they see the light. Sometimes they do it because they feel the heat.
Imagine for a minute that you’re part of a crew of thousands, sent by no less than the king of a global power, to do the most important assignment of your life. Your job is to rebuild the temple of God.
For seventy years your people have languished. All your life, you’ve heard the stories.
The land.
The promise.
The covenants.
The city. Oh, the city!
And there on a mount called Moriah, you’ve heard about the most splendid, most glorious instrument of the worship of God. Envisioned by the Sweet Psalmist of Israel, and built by his son, the wisest of kings ever to occupy the planet, this masterpiece was destroyed.
Your fathers came clean with you. They owned up: they’d screwed up miserably. And there was nobody to blame but themselves.
But today’s a new day, [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on July 15, 2008
Our family keeps an oral tradition of famous lines spoken by somebody. Today’s edition comes from Joel, when he was about seven or eight:
“Daddy, when you die, can I have all your tapes?”
++++++++++++++++++++++
I want to be like Abel.
Not so much the rock-upside-the-head part. I’m talking about legacy.
Hebrews 11:4 contains a fascinating description of Abel’s life: “By faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.”
Here’s a guy who could be famous for the things he never did:
He never preached a sermon.
He never started a church.
He never wrote a book.
He never engaged in an argument to defend the faith.
He never had his name plastered on the side of a building.
He never had a wife or children, much less succeeding generations.
He never was elected to any office.
He never fought for a cause or a nation.
He never was on TV, or interviewed by the press.
He never had God give him a song (all rights reserved, of course).
He never made a YouTube video.
He never made a financial fortune, that we know of.
He never rescued anybody in distress, except maybe for a sheep or two.
Yet long-dead, Abel still speaks. And so can you and I. It’s what the LifeVesting Principle of Legacy is all about:
[click to continue…]
