Roots by the River

Here is a link to a Spring Seminar I did in 2008 on "How to Be Free From Bitterness."

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Cry out, ‘Save us, God our Savior; gather us and deliver us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, and glory in your praise.’ Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Then all the people said ‘Amen’ and ‘Praise the Lord.’” (I Chronicles 16:34-36) This is the first even in the Bible where three things happened and were recorded in worship. It is the return of the Ark of the Covenant to the City of David. The three things are: 1. Music 2. Singing 3. Thanksgiving David may have been the bravest man in the history of the World. He may have been the greatest general in History. He may have been the greatest musician and the greatest poet, and he was a man after God’s own heart. We see David making music earlier in I Samuel 16:18 and in vs. 23. Look for thanksgiving in the Psalms and in Paul’s letters.

Here is another “if”: “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“ (Colossians 2:20 ESV). “If” this is true, why are you living as if you still belonged to the world? “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1) “If” this is true, set your hearts and minds on things above. “If” has a consequence of “then” or “therefore.” “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5) In the Lord Jesus Christ, Jim Wilson

“If” is not a certainty. Sometimes people think it is. “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matthew 5:29-30) This “if” is not so. The “right eye” or the “right hand” do not cause sin. “If” they did, it would be a good trade to get rid of the cause. “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” (Mark 7:21-22) Jesus does not say “cut out your heart .” He says clean your heart. “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god…” (Psalm 24:4) “He did not discriminate between us and the...

This was preached at our wedding in 1952 and we put it into practice: “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.” (Deuteronomy 11:18-21) I memorized the following two years before our wedding: “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2) We considered our children to be “faithful men”. Before Douglas was born, Bessie and I decided that if one of us corrected a child, that correction would not be contradicted by the other....

“If” is not a certainty. Sometimes people think it is. “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matthew 5:29-30) This “if” is not so. The “right eye” or the “right hand” do not cause sin. “If” they did, it would be a good trade to get rid of the cause. “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” (Mark 7:21-22) Jesus does not say “cut out your heart .” He says clean your heart. “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart , who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god…” (Psalm 24:4) “He did not discriminate between us and the...