Roots by the River

Paul opens his letters with a prayer and ends his letters with a prayer. These sentences are not just salutations. They are prayers to God to give grace, peace, love, and mercy to the saints from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a real happening. Here are several prayers of salvation: Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24) Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty… For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I wil...

In recent months I have attempted to record some of the instances of answered prayer in my life, along with Scriptures also on prayer. This will hopefully result in a book on prayer. Since I am now 88 years old, I may not be able to finish it before I go to be with the Lord, so I have decided to post what I have already written on my blog. Very little has been posted on my blog recently, but I will be using it for that now as I write portions of the book.

"The fruit of the Spirit is... goodness ." (Galatians 5:22) "He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord." (Acts 11:24) Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit. He was also a good man. This is not surprising, since the fruit of the Spirit is goodness . The text says that a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Barnabas was in a witnessing, evangelizing situation. Goodness is a necessary characteristic of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. It is also a necessary characteristic of effective witnessing. To witness with the content of the good news without being good is to contradict with our life that which we are saying with our mouth. "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did" (1 John 2:6). If we are going to talk good news, we must walk good news. Witnessing in the Holy Spirit is an assurance that there will be no contradiction between our walk and our talk.