Roots by the River

“I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you,” Psalm 119:11. There is a kind of Bible study that goes beyond reading, synthetic Bible study, Bible memory, group Bible study, Old Testament references in their context and subject studies. Meditation is more mystical and practical. That may sound like a contradiction. Let me tell you what it is not. It is not looking for some deeper, hidden meaning. It is not looking for a codified arrangement of the text, or numerology. And it is not saying the plain meaning of the text that we got from our previous reading and studying is not the right meaning. We probably got the right meaning and we can repeat it back. We know the text! What, then, is this kind of Bible study? Well, it is not our understanding; it is where we understand it. Do we understand it in our heads or do we understand it in our hearts? Most study ends up in head knowledge. In other words, if we were given a lab examination on what we had...

“It was 1904. All Wales was aflame. The nation had drifted far from God. The spiritual conditions were low indeed. Church attendance was poor, and sin abounded on every side. “Suddenly, like an unexpected tornado, the Spirit of God swept over the land. The churches were crowded, so that multitudes were unable to get in. Meetings lasted from ten in the morning until twelve at night. Three definite services were held each day. Evan Roberts was the human instrument, but there was very little preaching. Singing, testimony and prayer were the chief features. There were no hymnbooks, they had learned the hymns in childhood; no choir, for everybody sang; no collection, and no advertising. “Nothing had ever come over Wales with such far-reaching results. Infidels were converted; drunkards, thieves and gamblers saved; and thousands reclaimed to respectability. Confessions of awful sins were heard on every side. Old debts were paid. The theater had to leave for want of ...

In the early 1950’s Dawson E. Trotman wrote of a visit to Germany in 1948. It is in the booklet The Need of the Hour (copyright 1957, 1975 by the Navigators): I invited fifty German fellows to meet with me for three days, and twenty-five of them came. I talked to them every evening for three hours beginning to lay before them the Great Commission and the idea that I felt Germany not only needed to hear the Gospel, but that Germans themselves needed to obey the Great Commission by sending missionaries. I gave them the opportunity to ask questions during the meetings and every once in awhile a hand would go up. I was trying to lay upon their hearts the very thing the Lord laid on the hearts of the disciples when He told them to go to every creature, make disciples of every nation, start in Jerusalem and go to the ends of the earth. One German spoke up, “But, Mr. Trotman, you don’t understand. Here in Germany some of us right in this room don’t even have the Old Testament; we on...

In 1927 E.W. Kenyon wrote The Wonderful Name of Jesus (copywrite 1998, Kensington's Gospel Publishing Society). The following is the first paragraph of the book, followed by the fourth chapter,(I have left the punctuation as it was published): Several years ago I was holding meetings in a city in Tennessee. One afternoon, while giving an address on “The Name of Jesus” a lawyer interrupted me, asking: “Do you mean to say that Jesus gave us the ʻPower of Attorney ʼ the Legal Right to use His Name?” I said to him, “Brother, you are a lawyer and I am a layman. Tell me–did Jesus give us the ʻPower of Attorney?ʼ He said, “If language means anything, then Jesus gave to the church the Power of Attorney.” Then I asked him, “What is the value of this Power of Attorney?” He answered, “It depends upon how much there is back of it, how much authority, how much power this Name represents.” Then I began the search to find how much power and authority Jesus had. It might be ...