Roots by the River

  "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). "The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men'” (Isaiah 29:13). People have God-given escape valves to keep them from exploding. Laughter and tears are two of them. The mouth is another. The cure for a bad mouth is to keep good stored up in your heart. However, not everything that comes out of the mouth is from the heart. Some of what comes out of people’s mouths is just what they have been taught, whether true or false, like in Isaiah 29:13. This is why people can recite sound doctrine but lose their temper at home. The real person is the heart person, not the head person. We are two persons—the person ta...

  Merry Christmas! Roots by the River will return next week.

  Sometimes we will encounter another Christian or Christian group on the same battlefield. Will we oppose their presence, tolerate their presence, ignore it, or unite with them to win the battle? The question never really centers around the method of our group versus the method of the other group. The question is loyalty to the group versus loyalty to Jesus Christ. He commands both groups. For infantrymen not to accept the cooperation of tanks is not only stupid, it is disobedience to the one commander of both tanks and infantry. Our controversy is not with the other group— it is with Jesus Christ: “John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us’” (Mk. 9:38–40). Our determining factor is the person Jesus Christ. A man may not be with...

  Another way that pride is fostered is through the function of the unit. The method of warfare used in the particular unit becomes, so far as the men involved are concerned, the primary means of winning wars. For instance, the armor historian will tell of the heroic part that that unit played in winning World War II. In turn, we can find out how destroyers, submarines, the Navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, the Marine Corps, and the Army each won the last war. The pride and loyalty that are encouraged, the rivalry and competition that keep units sharp and on their toes, can and do backfire. After a few years in the service, the naval officer has been indoctrinated to such an extent that it is difficult to cooperate with the Army, even though aims are in agreement. The individual thinks his loyalty to the Navy is synonymous with loyalty to the United States. Unfortunately, the Army feels the same way. Strained cooperation results. Thus, the function of one’s branch can become ...

In the spiritual war the principle of cooperation is very important. First, it applies to each one of us individually. Most Christians are used to fighting (win or lose) their own spiritual battles. We are so used to fighting the spiritual war alone that when we come into contact with a fellow Christian in the same war at the same time or place, we find it difficult to cooperate and communicate. Cooperation is a prelude to concentration, and concentration is one of the keys to victory. It should be immediately apparent that the Christians have the advantage of a unified command. Furthermore, their commander is not too far removed from the situation to provide effective cooperation. Jesus Christ Himself experienced the temptations and difficulties encountered in this world, so He is close to our situation in the sense of personal experience. More important, He presently occupies a position close to all Christians from which He directs their cooperative efforts—that is, He dwells in ...

  In World War II, the United States narrowly escaped a crushing defeat because of neglect of a major principle of war: the principle of cooperation. Until the invasion of the Philippines on October 20–23, 1944, we had fought two separate wars in the Pacific: the advance through the Central Pacific and the Gilbert, Marshall, and Mariana Islands, and the war in the Southwest Pacific via the Solomons and New Guinea. The forces of the former were commanded by Admiral Chester Nimitz in Hawaii; the latter by General Douglas MacArthur in Australia. When these advances met in the Philippines, the two leaders had no superior short of the commander in chief, the president of the United States. The invasion was the responsibility of General MacArthur, with Central Pacific Forces filling a supporting role. The Seventh Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Kincaid was given to General MacArthur for the invasion and included units of escort carriers and old battleships, some of which had ...

  "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see yo...

  Surprise in warfare means more than “to cause wonder or astonishment or amazement because of something unexpected.” It means “to attack or capture suddenly and without warning.” The passage from Romans 5 clearly tells us that the love of Christ expressed in His death for us was unexpected. If the message is used with people who are dependent on their own effort or relative goodness, they will be “amazed.” If the messenger catches that man with his defense down, he will be “amazed” and surprised. In other words, he will be captured suddenly and without warning. Surprise may be increased even more if we combine the message with a surprise in time and place. To hear the gospel in a Sunday evening evangelistic church service is no surprise. It is even possible that the message itself will surprise no one in the audience. On the other hand, a personal testimony of the saving grace of Jesus Christ backed up with the Word of God will be an effective surprise when it comes from a line ...

The Old Testament hero Gideon learned the principles of war by revelation from God, and one of them was “surprise.” The account in Judges tells us that the amassed armies of the “Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers” (7:12). This force consisted of one hundred thirty-five thousand. Fewer than fifteen hundred got away. We can say that Gideon with three hundred men surprised the enemy and won a battle of annihilation. There are only a few elements with which surprise can be effected: time, place, and method, or any combination of the three. However, surprise also depends upon two additional and essential factors, namely, ignorance on the part of one commander, and intelligence on the part of the other. This ignorance may be natural (e.g., incompetence or inadequate security) or it may be induced (e.g., deception). Gideon’s victory, Hannibal’s victory at Cannae, the German invasion through the Ardennes in 1940, and th...

This post is an excerpt from Billy Graham's book The Secret of Happiness . Here is a spiritual law which is as unchangeable as the law of gravity: “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). We must get this fact firmly fixed in our minds: we live in an upside-down world. People hate when they should love, they quarrel when they should be friendly, they fight when they should be peaceful, they wound when they should heal, they steal when they should share, they do wrong when they should do right. I once saw a toy clown with a weight on its head. No matter what position you put it in, it invariably assumed an upside-down position. Put it on its feet or on its side, and when you let go it flipped back on its head. In our unregenerate state we are just like that! Do what you may with us, we always revert to an upside-down position. From childhood to maturity we are always prone to do what we should not do and to refrain from doing what w...