Some of you read the title, “God Recycles,” and may feel an inward resentment due to all the people in the world that has made recycling a religion.

And if you don’t do it, you’re a bad person.

Others of you will read this title and think, “Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about! It’s about time someone bring God into recycling! Everyone should recycle!”

Seriously guys, chill out on the whole recycling bit. You scare me.

I intend to appeal to neither of these parties in particular. Instead, I will simply share with you a conversation I had with my daughters about how God uses people for His good.



Sometimes my daughters get their little hands on fake tattoos. The ones they had today was a rainbow with a dove above it, and another one that simply read, “God’s Law.”

They know the difference between real tattoos and pictures they put on their skin that easily wash off. They also know that their dad has two real tattoos. One of them is in the picture you see above.

Earlier today, my daughters were asking me about why I got my tattoo. We have had this conversation several times, and I am always eager to share with them the same reasons each time they ask.

I tell them that when I got the tattoo, I knew for sure that I wanted it for the rest of my life. Then I tell them that now I would rather not have it there.

Obviously, this confuses them. So this is how the conversation went:

Daughter: “But didn’t you want it for the rest of your life, Daddy?”
Me: “Yes, honey, but I didn’t know then what I know now. Now I like the skin that God gave me better than the ink that I have put on the skin God gave me. This ink will never go away.”
Daughter: “Can’t you get the ink out somehow?”
Me: “Yes, there are ways to do that, but that costs a bunch of money. But I don’t think I would want to do that anyway.”
Daughter: “Why not?”
Me: “Well, hun, I have had so many conversations with people about my tattoos. Some people like them very much. And when I get to talk to people about my tattoos, then I may be able to talk to them about Jesus. There have been many times that I have done that. So, I believe that God uses the things that we might have messed up at, or failed at, to bring people closer to Him, to bring US closer to Him. God uses our weakness and our failures to help us get closer to Him.”
Daughter: “You mean like recycling? God takes away what’s bad and replaces it with something good?”
Me: “[moment of silence] Yes, honey, that’s exactly right.”

I could have cried when she said that. “God takes away what’s bad and replaces it with something good.”

I used this moment to teach her that it is times like this when we know God speaks to us. We learn from Him because He reveals a truth to us that we otherwise would not have known. To this, my little girl smiled the kind of smile that reveals gratitude and joy in knowing that God really is close to His people and communicates with them.

I got a tattoo when I was 19. I would rather not have gotten it now, but I would never get it removed. God has used that as a way to connect with people I would otherwise have never connected with. It’s happened numerous times.



It’s your turn: What is something that you have done in the past, that you may have regretted, but can see that God has now used it for His good?

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Patience. It’s the one thing I hear that Christians want more of.

It seems like the prayer of every Christian. In fact, even people who do not believe in Christ speak of needing more patience.

There are a few major problems, though, with this idea of praying for patience. In fact, I am willing enough to stick my neck out and simply say that if we are praying for patients, we are praying for the wrong thing.

Please understand that patience is not something God magically gives. He does something all together different—and better.

Before I get to that, I thought I would share something with you to help set the stage. Below is a conversation I recently had with a friend with regard to this very subject.

Click HERE to read the full article.

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I have been thinking about my home a lot lately. I am trying to sell it.

In fact, I have a showing today. Thus, I have been praying and praying… hoping and trusting in the Lord that it will sell.

But every now and then, a thought creeps into my mind… what if it doesn’t sell? And . . .

I begin to worry

What is worry? Why do we worry?

I think if any one of us were given the choice of whether or not to worry, we would all choose not to do so. But unfortunately, worry is a common part of our lives.

Jesus has this to say about worry:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:25-34, NIV

This is a wonderful passage where Jesus takes our basic needs (i.e. food and clothing) and asks us why we worry about our provision for them.

There is a lot to unpack here, but I will focus on two main points.

#1. Worry is Unbelief.

Why does Jesus say “O you of little faith?” in verse 30? What does faith have to do with this?

Everything.

The entire reason that we worry is that we do not believe that God will take care of us.

He tells us – promises us – in His Word that if we seek His face, He will take care of us, that He will provide for our basic needs (vs. 33). And we should take comfort in what Paul says in Romans 8:28 that “…we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (NKJV).

Thus, despite what happens with my house, I can have faith that God is going to provide for me.

And if it does not sell, I can rest on the knowledge that “all things work together” for my good, regardless of whether or not I understand what that means.

This allows me to rest on the understanding that my perception does not necessarily equate with truth. Just because I perceive something to be good, doesn’t mean it is.

I might think that selling this house right now is the best possible scenario, but God, in His providence, truly knows what the best scenario is.

#2. Worry is Futile.

Jesus asks in verse 27, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

This is a simple but profound statement. What does worry accomplish? Nothing. When I ponder worry, I consider it to be synonymous with the word “futility.”

A survey of dictionary definitions led me to this interpretation of futility: an act with no useful or effective result.

Isn’t this what worry is?

It’s an act – something that we do – that produces zero result of anything. It is not helpful. It is useless and ineffective.

In fact, the best way I can describe futility is to look at one of its synonyms: fruitlessness.

Fruitlessness simply means to “bear no fruit.”

As children of the Living God, we are to “bear fruit in every good work (Colossians 1:10, cf. Romans 7:4),” by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells us in Galatians 5:22-23 that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Now think about what it means to be fruitless in this context.

If I am worrying, I am being fruitless.

Instead of worrying, I could be joyful; instead of worrying, I could be practicing love, kindness, goodness, and on I could go.

Listen: stop worrying. I mean it! Stop worrying . . . today!

Believe God and be fruitful!

For James says that faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26). And when we worry, we have neither faith, nor works of faith, only mere futility.

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I am always appreciative of these opportunities, because I count it a pure act of grace to preach God’s Word. That being said, it is also a passion I hold dearly. It is an act of worship for me. I truly feel closest to God in these moments.

I also know that God uses weak, wounded, and broken people who have been saved by His radical grace to edify others, as well as reach those who do not know Him. Therefore, I am using this blog post to provide a link to the podcast if you are interested in listening to it.

The message is on Reconciliation, taken from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. The main points are to be reconciled to each other, be ambassadors of reconciliation, and be reconciled to God.

Until I can figure out how to add a media player on this site, follow this link to download the message: Reconciliation (38)

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That’s the question I think many of you have wondered.

Honestly, it’s the question I have wondered also. “Am I there yet?”

That is, have I finally gotten over my blogging funk? I’m not sure.

Thing is, I really want to write. I have ideas to talk about, but that’s just it—I want to talk about them.



I love me some good conversation.

I’ll find myself talking with my friends about inspiration, interpretation, theology, life, culture, etc. I seem to do just fine in conversation, and in reality, I like it better that way.

So when it comes to writing, I’m really not sure why I’m so stagnant. I do, however, have a few ideas as to why.

1. I was overwhelmed with writing papers for school.
2. Life was very, very busy.
3. I was doing some editing in my book.

Of all the writing for school I had to do, I was kind of burned out. Actually, I dropped one class just so that I could do well at my other classes.

Hopefully I will be back to writing soon. It was so much easier when I was unemployed!

But for now, I’m going to try to just make it work. Therefore, I shall leave you with a question:

What are you reading right now and what have you learned the most from it?

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I’ve never taken a break (read: Sabbatical) from blogging the way I recently did over a month ago. It was something I was fighting but eventually gave in and took the break.

I believe it was something God was leading me to do, and I am glad that I did it.

The thing that made it so difficult was that there were things I wanted to write about, and ideas I wanted to develop.

But what baffles me now is that it’s been over a month and I have blogged only twice! Actually, it’s been nearly 2 months!

I don’t get it.

I love writing about things I think are important and worthy of thought and reflection and interaction with others. Namely, things pertaining to man’s problem, God’s provision, and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ intervenes.

Oddly, though, I have not written anything about this in the past nearly 2 months. Very #strange.

What’s even more strange is not that I haven’t written anything, but I haven’t really had the desire to write about anything.

Let me take that back, I have had the desire to be writing, but nothing has really prompted me to write.

I wonder what’s going on. Is it that I must “force” my writing out? That I must “make” myself write? Or is it that I am just in a time right now where my writing is “put on hold” to focus my time and energy on other important things?

Have you ever been in a “season” like this before?

What did you do? How did you evaluate? What happened?

If anyone still reads this blog (thanks, BTW), leave your response below!
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In my last post, I had mentioned that even though I was on a break from blogging, I was still working on a few things.

. . . Always working on things

That being said, I’d like to share with you what I have coming up real soon.



Remember the “T.H.I.N.C.” series I did for Demian Farnworth? It was a 5-part series on a Christocentric approach to reading the Bible.

What I have done is compiled all the posts into one concise book. Actually, I’ve done much more than that.

I have updated, expanded, re-written, and re-formated the whole series.

What was originally 30 pages all together is now a 100 page book designed to help you meaning, context, and application from a Christ-centered approach to reading the Bible.

Here are a few things I’ve added:

• Extended Chapters
• “Think About It . . .” sections for every chapter
• Journaling space for each chapter
• Highly Compatible for Preaching Series
• Highly Compatible for Small Groups
• Bibliography
• Focus Bible verses

This project has been nothing less than thrilling. I am very excited for the release date of the book.

Quite a few people are already asking for copies. The book isn’t even published yet and a church is waiting so that they can order an entire shipment for their people.

The book should be published near the end of May. I was ready to publish it earlier, but a few respective people have agreed to read it, review it, and offer feedback before I publish. Their insight for the book will be extremely beneficial.

Check out some excerpts below:

“God the Father has only one way we are to come to Him, and that is through the person of His Son Jesus. Does life-change come by embracing a self-defined meaning of God? Of course not! We risk such an error, though, apart from seeing God in Christ through Scripture. Until we see Jesus center of the Bible, in every area, we will never understand God they way He has purposed for us to through Scripture. “

“When the Bible says that “faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17), do we think that it is speaking only to the one who does not believe? Christians also need to continually hear the word of Christ, through preaching, reading, and prayer, so that their faith may be added to.”

“Worshipping God is the only way to true-life change, because in it we are cognizant of our own sinful condition, God’s holiness, His love toward us in spite of our condition, and are intentional about surrendering to Him all attempts of self-help. Without worshipping through Scripture, we ignore the Savior who worked to the death of his body for the sake of our reconciliation to God the Father.”

“What I intend to do is suggest something better than a moralistic reading alone. If you are wondering whether or not I just compared an objection to reading Scripture other than moralistically to being nearsighted, I did. . . We think our efforts alone were used to fulfill the morality of . . . Scripture . . . This produces no faith, but only pride. It does not help us trust in Jesus’ work to be the Savior of our moral inadequacies.”

I have already received a hard copy to look over and edit. Everyone I show it to is excited about getting a copy.

As soon as it’s ready to be published, you will be one of the firsts to know.

Until then, stick around for more updates.
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My Last 30 Days: A Review

My time off of blogging has been very beneficial to me. At first I had no idea what was going to happen, but as time passed, I think I began to realize the purpose for my time off. I’ll share with you what I learned (among other things).

I needed the break

I was spending a lot of time writing, not only here online, but also on a few other projects. The break was good.

I was able to implement a devotional time I had fallen away from, which I am very thankful for. Currently I am reading through TableTalk: The Devotional Magazine and the Bible daily. Thanks to Daniel C. Wilson for referring me to the free 3 month trial.

I was able to spend some really good time with my children. This was really neat. We played a lot. The more you give yourself to your children, the more they want you and the more you want to give.

If you have children, please, please, please do not neglect them for the sake of your career. You will never get that lost time back.

What I learned about my blog

That it was not needed.

When I began my blog sabbatical it was very difficult for me to pull away from my computer and not write.

I actually experienced some withdraw: I wanted to check my reader stats, comments, incoming links, and other activities related to blogging.

After a while of not writing, though, I began to not even want to write. I did not think that was going to happen, but it did.

Actually, I came to realize that my blog isn’t even necessary. I believe this is one of the big things God wanted to teach me—that my blog could not even exist and things would be fine.

My response to this sobering truth is that I am thankful that God allows it to exist. I am thankful to use this as a vehicle of sharing the truth of God and His love for people. There were times when I sort of went away from this privileged task, and through my time away God has shown me my error.

I was holding this blog with a tight grip. What I think I am supposed to do is hold it tightly with a loose grip. What I mean is that I ought to be thankful for the gift God has given through it, but be willing and open to God’s Spirit should He choose to speak a certain thing through it, or lead elsewhere.

This was a great teaching for me. Humbling, but great.

What’s next?

Just because I wasn’t writing on the blog does not mean I haven’t been working on anything. I have. It’s a book based on a series of articles I wrote, hosted by Demian Farnworth. This should be published soon in a paper back book. Thanks to God I already have a church who wants to purchase an order for their entire church.

I plan on writing more books. During my leave, I realized how much I would enjoy writing books. My goal is to set up a writing schedule for personal book writing. I have a couple I am working on, but who knows when I’ll finish them.

Also, I am going to continue writing here. I really enjoy sharing thoughts and interacting with others. I am amazed that I still had a consistent flow of readership while taking a 30-day leave.

Thank you so much for reading what I hash out from the clutter in the closet of my mind. I really appreciate you. All of you.

There’s a snap shot of what my past 30 days were like and what I’m doing as a result.

See you again soon.

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Well, I won’t tell you everything, but I will tell you this: stop blogging for a while. I suppose it’s been about a year that I’ve been thinking about this. I don’t really know what triggered it, other than God—plain and simply put.

In the past year, while I would pray in quiet time, I’ve had this re-emerging thought to break from blogging. You heard me right: a year. Well, here in the past six months it has been happening more. Moreover, the past three months has been even more intense.

Thing is, when I usually hear from God about something to this degree, I sense a pretty strong conviction. This time, it’s been very subtle and almost silent. When I pray, it doesn’t matter what I’m praying about, this thought will “introduce” itself into my mind. It’s not a strong voice, and it’s not overwhelmingly convicting. But it is persistent. This may be the softest God has spoken to me that I am aware of.

I feel like I want to hang on and continue writing. I’m not finished with my “Cross” series in the “Resources,” and I just got this new theme. But I have been having this come up in prayer the whole time, so it’s nothing new. Part of me wants to push it away… the voice, that is. But this morning’s prayer time sealed the deal for me. While I was praying, it happened again, but this time permeated a lot of my prayer.

It’s really odd to me to make this decision because this website is like my baby. I’ve been blogging now for over two years. Actually, I think I’m pretty close to three years now. I remember when I only got about 1-3 readers per day. Then I was excited when I got 6-10 readers per day! Now, it just blows my mind that I’m pulling in anywhere from 125-225 readers daily! There are many other blogs much more popular than mine, but I am just overly blessed that God would use my hashing out of the clutter in the closet of my mind for some way to glorify Him and draw people unto Him!

I know a few other bloggers who’ve done this, and it seems as though they came back just as strong. I don’t know how this is going to go, I just believe that it’s time for me to put my blogging to rest for a little while. How long? I’m not sure. But I feel like I’m supposed to commit to something. And to that, I have told God that I will not blog for 1 month. Yikes! This is going to be difficult. Very difficult for me. For all I know I will loose all my readers. But this is one of the problems… you see how I just made it about me?

Sorry I’ve taken you through such a disorderly post, but I believe that I owe to you what’s going on with me with regard to this website and blogging. Please pray that God will have His way in my heart during this time. I have no idea what it’s going to look like, whether I should entrust this site to someone for the time I’m gone, or just lay it to rest for a while. I don’t know. I don’t sense a particular call to any certain person to keep the content up, but again, this thought is concerned only with the productivity of “my” site. Again, I just made it all about me.

I’m just following Jesus the best I can… just too bad it took me a year (or better) to respond to this particular call.

I know this is sudden, but thanks to all of you for keeping up with this website. I am truly grateful. If you feel led to send a message or email to me, that’s fine. I probably won’t be on this website much though, but emails are welcome.

All your prayers are welcome and encouraged.

Yours truly,

—Jonathan Woodward.

My Blog Sabbatical from Jonathan Woodward on Vimeo.

Lately I’ve thought about our sojourn here on earth as followers of Christ. It can be quite the battle at times.

One of these battles is struggling between two identities. That is, an identity of the world, or an identity found in Christ.

If we remain identified without Christ, our hearts are forever frustrated and our plans to satisfy self are never quenched. In order to identify with Christ, we must die to self and the world. We can’t live fully identified with both kingdoms.

In my ponder I came across a poem I wrote a couple (like 4) years ago. Yes, I was a poet and you didn’t even know it. I thought I’d share it with you today.

It is about how someone tries to live with one foot in the Kingdom of God with the other foot in the world, and trying to find identity in both. In short, this is a futile attempt, and very frustrating.

Yoked or Unyoked?

Cock-a-doodle do
two men in a shoe.
Which one is walking?
Does anyone have a clue?

One tries to step
while the other one snoozes.
One tries to snooze
while the other one looses.

Complaining and grumbling,
falling and stumbling.
I wonder if either of them
know how many ants they are crushing?

Day after day
and night after night,
trying to figure out
which one is right.

After all this confusion,
I’ve come to a conclusion.
Neither of them know
what the other one is doin’.

Working together
while staying apart
is like trying to do this:
Sneeze, Cough… and Fart!

And there you have it! This is what will happen to you if you try to live for both the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of God!

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