Roots by the River

“For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:34b-37). “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6). At several points in my life, I have been conscious of speaking words that were not gracious. Apparently, my heart had not been stored with good things, or the overflow would have been gracious words. I want to store my heart so full of good that the overflow will be always good.   Written November 1988. This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please jo...

This post is an excerpt from The Lordship of Jesus Christ by Bill Pape. The Devil defies God to deliver His people. He attacks God through the Christian, which is the only way he can attack God. Deliverance is by referring the whole matter confidently to the Lord. [When the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem and demanded surrender, saying that God could not deliver the city] Hezekiah, in effect, prayed, “Hear what the enemy is saying about You, O Lord.” The king frankly admitted that the enemy had had considerable success, but he saw equally clearly that the glittering victories over nations and their pantheon were not due to the greatness of the kings of Assyria, but to the littleness of the gods of the conquered peoples. “They were no gods, but the work of men’s hands” (Isa. 37:19). The prayer that began with a declaration of the greatness of God and continued with an exposure of the real nature of temptation now admits that human effort cannot devise a method of countering such a...

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-5, 9-14). This is the Christmas story according...

In the book of Isaiah, several chapters stand out in my memory. One of them is chapter five. Here are a few verses from it. It is God’s rebuke to Israel, 700 years before Jesus’ time on earth. “Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,     and wickedness as with cart ropes,  to those who say, ‘Let God hurry;     let him hasten his work     so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel—     let it approach, let it come into view,     so we may know it.’  Woe to those who call evil good     and good evil, who put darkness for light     and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet     and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes     and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine     and cha...

In the summer or winter Olympics every two years, we watch men and women making “every effort” to win a medal. Regardless of the event, this means the ultimate in mental and physical effort. The Bible tells us several times to make “every effort.” This is not the same kind of “every effort” that occurred in the Olympic games. How do we know? The difference is described in two portions of Scripture: “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to” (Luke 13:24). “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Galatians 3:3). In Luke, we are to make every effort to enter. Those who try are not able to enter. In Galatians, we began by the Spirit, but cannot finish by human effort. It is foolishness! We see that every effort is not human effort. It is not by trying. Every effort is a spiritual event, a grace and faith event. It is different f...

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David…to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:68-69, 74-75). This is part of Zechariah’s prayer when John, Zechariah’s son, was named. This part of the prayer is about the LORD Jesus. The second half of the prayer is about John. Notice the last portion quoted: “to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.” This is loaded and amazing. We are enabled to: ·        Serve Him ·        Without fear ·        In holiness ·        In righteousness ·        All our days This redemption, this salvation, is not just...

Today I want to bring to your attention several related passages that are clearly directed to individuals or households , not to the whole church. “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land” (Deut. 15:11). “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:13-14). “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27). “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15-16). We have managed to evade these clear teachings by delegat...

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:2). There are many ways of teaching both truth and falsehood. One of the most effective ways comes under at least three different names: memorization, grammar, and catechizing. Even when this effective way is used with the truth of the gospel, the teaching may not cause faith . When it does not cause faith, it is because some things are missing, generally in the teacher. These things are: 1) the power of the Holy Spirit, 2) love for the student, 3) preaching boldly, 4) preaching in the name of Jesus Christ, and 5) fear. “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘LORD, who has believed our report?’ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:16-17). “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers…that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctr...

This is a guest post from Brad Scheelke, manager of Oasis Books in Logan, Utah.  Greetings in our kind and merciful Father. “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God —that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). Let’s thank the Father often that because of Him we are in His Son. When you think of wisdom, what do you think about? Is it about how well or poorly you know the Bible? When you think of holiness, what do you think about? Is it about how consistently you obey God or how frequently you sin? This passage states that the person of Jesus Christ is our wisdom, holiness, righteousness, and redemption. It does not say that He has given these to us, but rather that He IS these for us. It does not depend on our performance, but only on whether we are in the Son. If we have Him, we have all these things. Therefore, let us boast (glory...

“If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land” (Isaiah 1:19). “If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea” (Isaiah 48:18). “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever” (Isaiah 32:17). Isaiah’s views of obedience and the result of righteousness are peace, quietness, and confidence forever.

“ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him” (Col. 2:6). We are to obey the same way we received Christ, that is, by grace through faith. Obedience is always from the heart. If it is from the head only, it might be by the act of will only, and therefore it will be by effort and not by grace. Before I became a Christian, I lived a life of “obedience” in that I did not use profanity or slang, smoke, drink, or have sex. I was impressed with my goodness (or lack of badness). I impressed my non-Christian classmates with my “goodness.” I did not impress the Christians. I had two strong attributes which also happen to be the primary attributes of Satan: ·        Arrogance: I was self-righteous and proud of it. Satan said, “I will be like the Most High.” ·        Lying: I lied very much. Jesus said of Satan that when he lies, he speaks his first language. I was being like the d...

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:1-2). “But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children” (Psalm 103:17). God’s everlastingness has been extended to us who believe. It includes everlasting joy and everlasting kindness. “His love endures forever” (Psalm 136). Thank God!

Two life-changing readings took place in my life in the Fall of 1955. The first was my second reading of Dynamic of Service . This book is a series of lectures on personal evangelism given by Paget Wilkes to fellow missionaries from several missions in Karuizawa, Japan, in 1920. I think that it is the best book on the subject. The second was reading and studying Acts 8, 9 and 10. This was brought to my attention by a missionary in Japan. The following is a piece of his teaching: In chapter 8, take the time to see how God led Philip to the Ethiopian and the Ethiopian to Philip. In chapter 9, God led Saul of Tarsus to Ananias and Ananias to Saul. Chapter 10 tells us how God led Cornelius to Peter and Peter to Cornelius. In each of these stories, the unbeliever was saved. God knew that each of them was ripe for the harvest. God led them to the harvester and the harvester to the ripe harvest. From a human point of view, each of them was an unlikely candidate for immediate salvation. ...

As you read through the book of Acts, look at every conversion, and see what happened right before it: what was said, who said it. The situations are the same today.     A long time ago, my duty in the Officer’s Christian Fellowship was the east coast of the United States. I went to an officer’s office at Fort Lee, VA, and stayed overnight, then I went on to Norfolk and Fort Bragg.    Forty years later, I was no longer on the staff of OCF, but I had to go to Denver. While I was in Denver, I checked in at the OCF offices. There was the same Air Force officer I had met in Fort Lee, retired now, a colonel. I had stayed in his house when he was a first lieutenant. He asked me, “Do you know what happened when you stayed overnight?” I said, “No, I just remember staying in your home.” He said, “You led the next-door neighbor to Christ.” I had no memory of it.    Ten years after that, I was speaking at a banquet at the Hotel Salisbury, and who was th...

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). “Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison” (Deuteronomy 29:18). John and Moses, fourteen hundred years apart, warned against turning to idols. The warning is needed today among evangelicals. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). This verse should be memorized by all Christians everywhere. Present-day turning to idols starts with relativism, then adjusting to the world to reach the world, then syncretism, then idolatry. This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com . We would love to have you reading with us.

Here are a few favorite verses of mine. “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4-6). “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).  “In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame unt...

“For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:17-19). "And you are to love those who are aliens." If we were to characterize all of history in all nations, it would be, "Hate the aliens." God's directions are contrary to the world's. On the whole, Christians do not hate aliens. They just ignore or avoid them. That is saying that neither do Christians love aliens. Please pray for an opportunity to love an alien.   Written August 1994. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com . We would love to have you reading with us.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). Somehow, we have known that faith and love remain. We have had our doubts about hope . Perhaps it is because we have placed a 21 st -century definition on hope . For instance, we may say something like, “I hope so,” meaning, “I wish it would happen, but it probably won’t.” To us, hope is wishy and doubtful. That is why it doesn’t sound like it belongs with faith and love. In the Bible, hope is not wishy; it is a sure thing. “God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Heb. 6:18-19). “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, w...

Example and imitation are not just the best means of teaching and learning: they are commanded in Scripture. “Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2-3). “Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Corinthians 4:16-17). “Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:32-11:1). “Don't let anyone look down on yo...

“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought…What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?” (1 Cor. 1:10, 12-13). This appeal is followed by information on the divisions in the church. These divisions were not on theology or ecclesiology. The quarrels simply were about loyalties to teachers . To our knowledge, the teachers were even in fellowship with each other. These loyalties were sins and were to be repented of and forsaken. They were the cause of the divisions, the disunity. Today, such loyalties are still one of the major causes of division in the church. However, today loyalty is a good word; it is considered a virtue. When it comes to following teachers, however, l...

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him” (1 John 3:18-22). There are two expressions in these few sentences, one seemingly disturbing, and the other reassuring. They are “whenever our hearts condemn us” and “if our hearts do not condemn us.” The second expression is the reassuring one. It is connected with confidence, answered prayer, and obedience. It is wonderful to be in a state where our hearts do not condemn us. However, with some of God’s people, the disturbing expression seems to be true more of the time. They have hearts that condemn them. There is something else, howeve...

One of the questions I have asked individuals over the last several years* is, “Do you want to be godly?” The question is probably counter-productive. The answers are hesitant, preceded by looking around the room. When the answer is yes, it is because that is supposed to be the right answer. Here are a few verses for meditation: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). It does not matter what the definition of “perfect” is. Whatever it is, it is “as your heavenly Father is perfect.” “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” (1 Peter 1:15). The same reasoning follows this command. It is because God is holy. “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children” (Ephesians 5:1). We are to imitate God in love and forgiveness. “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ” (Colossians 1:28). “For those God foreknew he also predestined t...

“The gifts and sacrifices offered were not able to clear the conscience” (Heb. 9:9). “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14). ''Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22). “Just as a man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him” (Heb. 9:27-28). “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). The first verse tells us of the inadequacy of Old Testament sacrifices. They were a shadow, not the reality. They did not work. The next three verses tell us that the death of Christ is effective in: ·        clea...

It has been several years since I taught on this subject. It is time for another reminder. If you are a normal, moral person, that is, not into drugs, sex, or alcohol, you are probably still guilty of stealing and lying. Today will be about stealing—not bank robbery, but just taking things that are not your own. This is described in Leviticus 6:1-7. Pay attention to the text. “ The Lord said to Moses: ‘ If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the Lord by deceiving a neighbor about something entrusted to them or left in their care or about something stolen, or if they cheat their neighbor, or if they find lost property and lie about it, or if they swear falsely about any such sin that people may commit—when they sin in any of these ways and realize their guilt, they must return what they have stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to them, or the lost property they found, or whatever it was they swore falsely about. They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of th...

“But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do ; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). “ Be perfect , therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). There are several common things in these two commands. First, they are not suggestions. Second, they are be commands, not do commands. Third, they are in each case related to the holiness and the perfection of the Father. We can assume that God does not command us to be something that He will not provide the means for us to be. Therefore, we should not think that these commands are impossible. If we think that way, then we are not believing or obeying God. We are following the suggestions of the Enemy. We can start obeying these commands by believing that it is possible to be holy and by wanting to be holy. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at ...

“Big words” normally mean lots of letters and a surplus of syllables. Here, I will use “big” to mean a word’s frequency of use and its influence on society. There are many wonderful words in the languages of the world. Some of these words have precise definitions like the word kind . Because of this preciseness, the word is not a “wide” word. There are other words that are “big,” “wide” and are not wonderful. Sin is one of those words. However, there is a word whose definition is “big,” “wide,” and it is still wonderful. That word is GRACE. Before I tell you about this word, let’s look at the various definitions of the word “definition.” The dictionary defines “definition” as: Definition #1: A statement of the meaning of a word or word group or a sign or symbol. Definition #2: The meaning of a word from the context of a paragraph or a story or a lecture. There are many such examples from the books of L.M. Montgomery. Here is one: “But an August afternoon, with blue hazes...