Roots by the River

“And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isa. 35:8-10). I am not sure how literal this is, but it sure sounds wonderful! If it is spiritual, then the Redeemed should be experiencing this joy. It is part of Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” This post coordinates with Saturday's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com . We would love to have you reading with us.

“Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar” (Isaiah 33:17). “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us” (Isaiah 33:22). Here are five wonderful attributes of God: King, beautiful, judge, lawgiver, and savior. Here are a few more qualities of His in relationship to believers: “The LORD your God is with you , he is mighty to save . He will take great delight in you , he will quiet you with his love , he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). This post coordinates with Saturday's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1-5, 9-14). This is the Christmas sto...

“ Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2:14-15). “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Gal. 4:4-5). This is what Christmas is all about. Jesus was uniquely born to uniquely die. That unique death was: ·        To redeem us ·        To give us full rights as sons ·        To destroy the devil ·        To set us free from the fear of death

God has given us different means for us to know the difference between right and wrong. They include the ten commands in Exodus 20, the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, and many other commands. There is no excuse for saying, “I didn’t know it was wrong.” He has also given us civil and criminal laws in Romans 13 and other people we should obey: our slave masters (1 Peter 2), our fathers (Ephesians 6), and our husbands (Ephesians 5), and, finally, He has given us a cleansed conscience (1 Corinthians 6:11). The difficulty with our conscience is that it cannot be trusted. Paul says it this way: “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Corinthians 4:4). There are several reasons for the conscience not working properly. • It has adjusted to the culture. “Everyone does it” or these are the “laws of the land.” • It has deliberately, willfully, not conformed to the Scripture. • It has been “seared as by a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4...

Yea thro' life, death, thro' sorrow and thro' sinning He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed: Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning, Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ. - Excerpt from St. Paul by FWH Myers

by Bessie Wilson "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people." Luke 2:29-31 When Simeon held the tiny Babe in his arms that day in the Temple and said these words, he said all that we need to know for our eternal salvation. How this salvation was wrought out in the days of his flesh, culminating in His sacrifice on Calvary, is the full story of the Gospel. But at the Christmas season the Babe captures our imaginations. The manger scene becomes a decoration, and the danger is that the wonder of the Incarnation may be lost under all the Christmas pageantry. What is the wonder of the Incarnation? The Eternal Christ "in the bosom of the Father" (John 1.18) entered the human race, born of the Virgin Mary. Who, being in the form of God…made Himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of me...