Roots by the River

As soon as I sin I get disciplined, chastised by God. When God disciplines me, He takes away my joy. Why does He do that? He does so, to bring my disobedience to my attention so I will repent and confess. Let’s suppose God did not discipline me. Every time I sinned I would have more joy in the Lord. It is true that …where sin increased grace increased all the more (Romans 5:20). That did not mean …shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? (Romans 6:1) NO! God takes away my joy so I will admit my sin in repentance, be forgiven and have restored joy. This descent continued for three years. Yes, I confessed some sins during those years, but my state was gradually down hill. This is really a 6-step event. The first thing I do is sin, disobey. The second thing is I get disciplined. The third thing is I lose my joy. Now God takes away my joy by discipline when I sin, in order to get my attention so I will confess and repent, be forgiven and have joy again. Well, my joy started dow...

God disciplines believers. If you are without discipline, you are not a believer. It says in Hebrews 12:8, You are illegitimate children and not true sons. When you are disciplined it is not pleasant. That is the only biblical reason to lose your joy--the discipline of God. So, when you get disciplined, you say, "Boy, I'm so miserable; I might not be a Christian." Maybe that proves you are. Have you ever known anyone who seems to get away with murder and it doesn't bother them? Then you step out of line one little fraction and you get disciplined fast? It's because the Lord loves you. It is not pleasant. However, if you pay attention to it and respond to the discipline, and confess your sin, you are blessed and the joy returns. (An excerpt from How to Maintain Joy in your Life , p.3&4).

We would like to think there are other reasons for people losing their joy. One of the reasons we would like to think that people lose their joy is temptation. “Boy, if you went through the temptation I went through, you would not have joy either.” But the Scripture says: Count it all joy when you fall into divers (many different kinds of) temptations (James 1:2 KJV). Temptations are no reason to lose your joy. You say, “Well, if you were persecuted like I am persecuted, you would lose your joy.” What does the Bible say about that? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness ‘sake” (Matthew 4:10 NKJV). You say, “But I just lost my mother.” And the scripture says, Do not sorrow, as others who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13 NKJV). The scripture also says, Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, rejoice (Philippians 4:4 NKJV). The normal Christian life is a life of joy. The reasons we lose joy, we think are circumstantial. “If you were in these circumstances, you woul...

Last summer I printed the following post: So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6, 7 NIV) Years ago a friend of mine told me he was not into evangelism because the more converts he had, the more backsliders he had. Of course that is not a reason to hold back on evangelism, but it makes us wonder why it sometimes seems to be so. Here is a major reason. The new Christian often is not taught to live the Christian life the same as he was taught to receive Christ. He is taught a different way of living than he was taught of receiving. That is why he falls. The new Christian received Christ by grace through faith. He did not receive Christ by “try” or by “effort.” He is not to live by “try” or by “effort.” He is to live by grace through faith. In other words, the Christian life should be like being born again every day. (An excer...

Let’s look at the 32nd Psalm: Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night ‘our hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgression to the Lord’ and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” There are two conditions here. One is where the person’s sins are covered, are forgiven, where he confesses his transgressions to the Lord. The other is when he keeps silent. David says his bones wasted away through groaning all day long when he kept silent. Have you ever felt like that, like you are just wasting away, that you are groaning all day long, that your strength is sapped as in the heat of summer? Or the King James Version says, “dried up, the drought ...

For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son…Romans 8:29 (MV) Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in it lust…Romans 8:12 (NKJV) But now that you have been set free from sin, and become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life…Romans 6:22 (NIV) These texts tell us that we should be like Jesus Christ. He did not save us so that we could sin; rather He saved us so that we would not sin. One of the biggest problems a Christian has is what to do with sins in his life. How do you handle sin? It just seems to be endemic that Christians sin and they sin far more then the Bible allows for them to sin. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin…1 John 2:1 (NIV) The Bible does not command sin. It commands the opposite. What I am talking about in this article is not the major solution to sin in the Christian’s life, but part of God’s solution. It is more...

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…Romans 3:23 (NIV) The definition of “sin” is “missing the bull’s eye of the target.” The Glory of God is the bull’s eye. All of us have missed it. We have fallen short of God’s glory. “Falling short” needs forgiveness. However there are clearer and stronger words. Here are a few of them with the Bible references. Rebellion and Arrogance : For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king. 1 Samuel 15:23 (NIV) Wicked : Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed , you were sanctified , you were justified in the na...

Although I was not conscious of it, I was alive when Herbert Hoover was elected President of the United States. From my kindergarten year into my senior year of high school, Franklin Delono Roosevelt was President. I remember where I was when he died in 1945. I marched in Harry Truman’s inauguration in 1949. I was in the Korean War when Truman fired General MacArthur. Since then I have been very conscious of all of the Presidents and remember certain events, good and bad, in of their presidencies. My conviction, looking back on all of these years, is not that the American people have collective wisdom in electing the next president, but that we have a maximum of two terms for any one president. Rather than great wisdom in the people it looks (without being cynical) like there are other factors not in any order of precedence. Gender, race, age, looks, money, principles, location, political party, social status, education, intelligence, knowledge, truth, and lies. The most important deci...

Here is a very short parable. “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?” Luke 6:39 (NIV) That is all there is to the parable, two short rhetorical questions. The answers are in the questions. Jesus was not talking about physical blind men. The parable referred to spiritual blind guides teaching spiritually blind followers. The pit is not a hole in the ground. It is the lake of fire. The blind guides are the Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens of this world!