Anna Wood's Blog (30)

Dear Man of God,



You’ve been given a great and fearful job by Almighty God. As I sit before you week after week, I hunger for spiritual meat. I can no longer stand a cotton candy diet. Teach me the deep things of God. I want the truth about myself: I am a sinner and all of my “good-deeds” are but filthy rags before the Lord. My efforts are nothing and will never be enough to take me to heaven. I need you to explain what you have spent so long studying. Tell me how to please Him, how… Continue

Deuteronomy 4: 24, “For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.”



Wildfires sweep across plains and through great forests devouring everything in sight. Man-made or God-made, all that is in the path of the fire catches fire and burns up: trees, animals, plants, humans, houses…the fire consumes it all leaving nothing but ashes in its path.



Hebrews 12: 29, “For our God is a consuming fire.”



God is love and He wants me to… Continue

What is biblical repentance? It’s hardly ever addressed in our pulpits so most of us don’t even know.



Repentance is not despair over having been caught doing something that I shouldn’t have been doing; it’s not being regretful that since I got caught there is now a price to pay; it’s not disappointment over the discomfort or inconvenience the consequences of my sin is now having on my life.



Genuine biblical repentance is measuring my sin against God’s holiness and being… Continue

(I realize that this is but a poor description of hell. It is not meant to be representative of reality but is, rather, meant to make you think. No words can adequately describe the torture that awaits those who make it there. Those who have spurned God–who heard the Word and yet rejected it–who spent their lives willingly engaging in sin–will spend eternity in hell, wishing that they hadn’t refused to come to Him in obedience. Unfortunately there are many in the church who believe that they… Continue

The church in America, as a whole, is more interested in fitting into the world than converting the world. We have become cowards. Those who stand up and declare God‘s ways will find themselves at odds with the very ones who should be supporting them.



The church is failing to live up to all of its holy potential and take hold of all of the spiritual blessings available to her because we are failing to do three things: study God’s Word with an eye towards doing His will, pray that… Continue

The modern Western church desperately needs to remember the message of the cross: that Jesus was not only crucified by men but that He was crushed by His Father. We’ve forgotten that our salvation was something so costly that only God could plan it and make it happen. We’ve acted as if God owes us something; we’ve lived as if He needs us! We’ve forgotten that He is the Everlasting Almighty God Who is and always was complete in Himself and that He has need of nothing for in Him everything exists… Continue

In Genesis 3: 15, God said to Satan, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”



Enmity: deep seated dislike, hatred, hostility or the quality of being an enemy.





Being in a state of enmity with God is deadly serious. If we choose to love the things of the world, we are choosing to hate the things of God. I John 2: 16 states, “For all that is in the world, the lust of… Continue

What comes to mind when you think about the death of Jesus on the cross?



Do you think about His suffering? His abandonment by His Father?



Do you think about the repeated beatings? Do you think about the whipping that He endured?



Do you recoil from the nails that pierced His hands and His feet?



Do you shutter at His pain?



Does the gross injustice of it all make you weep? Do you ache at the love that it took for the perfect, sinless, Son of… Continue

If your wife has suffered a miscarriage, you may be at a total loss as what to do or say. It is important that you don’t feel that it is necessary to make everything all better; you can’t make everything all better. Your wife has suffered a devastating loss and she is grieving. She needs time to process her grief. In the meantime, she needs you to just be there: hold her, listen to her, cry with her, ache for her. This was a child and your wife needs you to validate its very brief… Continue

When you are going through tough times, remember a few things



…even when you can’t see it, there is a purpose in your suffering



…God is not capricious but rather is completely trustworthy



…God also knows what it is like to suffer



…weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning



…nothing is forever…not even your pain



…God uses suffering to purify and strengthen us



…Proverbs records that if we faint in the… Continue