Roots by the River

  How I love Thy law, O Lord Daily joy its truths afford; In its constant light I go, Wise to conquer every foe.   Thy commandments in my heart Truest wisdom can impart; To mine eyes Thy precepts show Wisdom more than sages know.   While my heart Thy word obeys, I am kept from evil ways; From Thy law, with Thee to guide, I have never turned aside.   Sweeter are Thy words to me Than all other good can be; Safe I walk, Thy truth my light Hating falsehood, loving right.              - A favorite of Jim's from the Scottish Psalter

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). The basic unit of civilization is the family. Jesus’ statement, “Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst” describes a family. That is the basic assembly. The family is the basic church. The father is the pastor. We are to honor our parents. This is quoted in Ephesians 6:1-2. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’—which is the first commandment with a promise.” Honoring in this instance is obeying. There is a promise attached to it: you will live long on the earth. We all have parents. They might not be Christians; they might not be alive; they might be divorced several times. They might not be good parents. We are to honor them, not because they are honorable, but because they are our parents . Respect has nothing to do with the person respected. He does not need to be respectabl...

"If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own" (John 7:17). "The golden rule for understanding spirituality is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get it by obedience. If things are dark to me, then I may be sure there is something I will not do. Intellectual darkness comes through ignorance; spiritual darkness comes because [there is] something I do not intend to obey."  -  Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22).   Compiled August 1991. 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.

“There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16-19). Let's look at these things the Lord hates again. Arrogance is number one on the list. God is concerned about high self-esteem. “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought” (Romans 12:3). Lying is numbers two and six. "A lying tongue" is speaking of a habitual liar. "A false witness" is perjury—lying under oath. Murder of innocent people is number three. This murder is a special kind of murder, including abortion. Premeditated evil is number four. Immediate, unpremeditated evil is number five. Sowing discord among brothers is number seven. Although these are all very common today, it is the last I would like to draw to your attentio...

There are promises in the Bible which are conditional. When we do not receive the thing promised we often come to false conclusions. It does not occur to us that we have not met the conditions of the promise. Yet this is the most obvious explanation. For example, “For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” (John 4:37,38).   If we do not reap we conclude that we are sowers. This is a false conclusion. The Lord clearly said, “I sent you to reap.” If we were sowers we would also be reapers, as the following true statements from the Word indicate. “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6). We can add a legitimate extension to this: “He who sows nothing will also reap nothing.” If we reap nothing it is not because we are sowers but because we are not sowers. The harvest is i...

Everyone has experienced loneliness to some degree sometime in life. And yet, for many, loneliness is not an occasional problem but a characteristic of their lives. It begins early. As children, they are shuttled off to daycare centers. They don’t know if they are loved and accepted by their parents. The time that they do spend with their parents reinforces this impression. As they grow, the need for love and affection doesn’t go away—it grows with them. The longer this need is unmet, the surer it is that they will seek to meet it elsewhere. One of the first places they go is to the opposite sex. This results in the loneliness of an unhappy marriage, or the loneliness of promiscuity. When people are lonely, it is amazing what kind of company they will seek. For some, their companions are two-dimensional. Many seek a friend in the electric chatterbox or online. Some attempt to smoke their loneliness out by getting high…while others prefer the method of attempting to drown it in al...

  “‘What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, “Son, go and work today in the vineyard.” “I will not,” he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, “I will, sir,” but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?’ ‘The first,’ they answered. Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him’” (Matthew 21:28-32). Jesus here is not teaching the merits of delayed obedience. He is teaching repentance for both the person who initially refused and the one who promised to obey. It seems to be easier, however, for those who know they are disobedient to repent than for those who ...

There are things in this life that we desire very much. They are legitimate desires. They are more than desires on our part; they are promises on God’s part. Desires or promises, they are listed in a beautiful way in Isaiah 58:11: "And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire with good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." There is a hitch to this promise of continual guidance and spiritual refreshment. It is an "iffy" promise. Here are the "ifs": "If you take away from the midst of you the yoke (slavery), the pointing of the finger (accusation) and speaking wickedness (vanity KJV, boasting), and "if you pour yourself out for the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday" (vv. 9-10). Earlier in the chapter, we find that God will answer when we cal...

"When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. ‘Where did this man get his wisdom and these miraculous powers?’ they asked. ‘Isn't this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother's name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.' And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith” (Matthew 13:53-58). The people in Jesus’ hometown were amazed, but not positively so. They knew his power and authority were true. They did not like it. When they asked, "Where then did this man get all these things?" they did not want to know the answer. The question was accusative. They took offense. And because of their lack of faith t...