Roots by the River

Here is another way. This time it is a prayer for the Christians at Philippi. “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11) It is also by prayer with some differences.

There are better ways to obey the commands of God than try, effort or will power. Here is one of the ways: “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” (Colossians 1:9-12) The Colossians end up having all of the characteristics simply because Paul had prayed for them to have them. They had no means of obeying them. They could not be filled with the knowledge of His will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding by any a...

Please pay clear attention to the words of Jesus. “If you love me, keep my commands...Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” (John 14:15;21) “...and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) Loving Jesus requires obedience to his commands. Discipleship requires obeying everything he commands his disciples. Here are a few of many commands: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34) “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38) “So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'...

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' and I said, 'Here am I. Send me!' He said, 'Go and tell this people: 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.'” (Isaiah 6:8-10) These few verses are quoted in the New Testament. The first is in Matthew 13 when Jesus says why he uses parables so that people would not understand. “This is why I speak to them in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.' In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ''You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear ...

Sex in Marriage #2 In the Bible there is much indirect reference to sex, much of it having to do with procreation in marriage. “Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, ‘With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.’” (Genesis 4:1) “He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.” (Genesis 16:4) “That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.” (Genesis 19:33) “Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.” (Genesis 21:2) Women have two strong instincts: 1. To be a wife 2. To be a mother Sometimes the mother instinct is so strong that the woman will marry just to have children. The mother instinct may be stronger than the wife instinct. With men, they also have two strong instincts: 1....

When I was a very young man, premarital sex was not common among Christian women or women from Christian families. During the same time I spent four years in the Far East. When the ship was in port, whether it was in Sasebo, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Manila, or Subic Bay, the first several blocks from the dock were several hundred prostitutes. Officers and enlisted men both participated in the sex business. But back home there were few pregnancies and few abortions. If some young woman got pregnant or was known to be promiscuous, she was avoided by the saints. In the late sixties, I was Sunday School superintendent in a church in Maryland. One of the teenage Sunday School teachers got pregnant. I met with her and found that she was repentant and forgiven for her sexual activity. She was not guilty of being pregnant. Only God creates children. I allowed her to continue to teach. The church got upset with me for that decision. There have been over 50 million legal induced abortions performe...

Here are a few facts about Korea. It is about the size of Utah with 45 times as many people. The first movable printing type made of metal was invented there in the late 1300’s. A phonetic alphabet with 24 letters was invented in 1438. Other first inventions were armored warships in the 1500’s, marine’s compass and a suspension bridge. Only 22 percent of the land is arable.   Recent Political history: Japan’s influence in Korea became strong in 1895. In 1905, Japan took control of Korea’s foreign affairs. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea as part of Japan. This continued until August of 1945. After Japan’s surrender in World War II, Russia invaded Korea as far south as the 38th Parallel. North Korea invaded South Korea in June of 1950. This was continued for an even three years, at which time a truce was signed but there has never been a peace treaty. The two nations are still at war 60 years later. Total military casualties dead, wounded, and missing for South Korea , United States, a...

In 1958 I became acquainted with J.C. Ryle. We received an anonymous gift of three one dollar bills from Lancaster, PA. Also in the envelope was a tract on Hell by bishop Ryle. Many years later while ministering in Taiwan, I was given a picture of J.C. Ryle with his own signature on the picture. More years went by when here in Moscow, a man was publishing hard back books of all of J.C. Ryle’s writings. I gave the man the picture with the autograph. He was grateful. I received free new books. This is an excuse to quote two quotes by J.C. Ryle on zeal. “It may be very true that wise young believers are very rare. But it is no less true that zealous old believers are very rare also.” – J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion, p. 147 “A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swal...

Beginning on Saturday, January 17, at 2:00 PM there will be a prayer meeting in my home. The primary reason for the prayer meeting is to intercede for the saints in Pullman-Moscow area, to get them back to their first love. The second reason is to ask the Lord of the harvest to send reapers into the harvest for the harvest is plenteous and the laborers are few. I and a few others are seeing the moving of the Spirit in regular conversations of men with no previous knowledge of the Gospel. If you are in range of my home, 114 South Howard St. Moscow, ID we encourage you to come. We do not want to run ahead of God nor do we want to run to catch up. We want the Holy Spirit to come down on every resident in the community. That is what happened in Jerusalem in Acts 1 and 2, in modern times in Wales 1904-1905, Korea 1907-1910, and New York City on Fulton Street in 1857. We will spend an hour together in prayer. Also on January 17 at 3:15 PM I will start an eight week teaching on personal e...

Community Christian Ministries has been in ministry in college towns since 1971. One of the main evangelistic efforts has been with God-called people working in and out of Christian bookstores. Because of the lack of enough evangelistic men or women, we have closed or given to other ministries seven of these ministries. We are still active in four university towns: Gunnison, CO; Logan, UT; Moscow, ID; and Pullman, WA. We are short of staff in all of those locations. We are looking for people who would like to join in this evangelism. If you have a heart for the Great Commission we would like to train you, unless you are already equipped. The evangelism will be mostly personal, not mass. The training would be in friendship and literature evangelism. This would be personally taught by Jim Wilson. There will be teaching on instant contact with unbelievers. There will be opportunities to put this teaching into effect. This training will be at Jim Wilson’s house, twice a week, beginni...