Roots by the River

Here are two passages on forgiveness from the New Testament: “And said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:46-47). “…delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:17-18). Jesus said the first to the apostles and the second to Saul of Tarsus when he received Christ. Both commands include repentance, and both include forgiveness. The first is a command to preach repentance to unbelievers, and the second is a command to the apostles to turn the unbelievers from the power of Satan unto God. Two more passages on repentance are Acts 17:30 and 2 Timothy 2

Here are two very basic truths from the Gospel of John: “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31). “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). The first passage is what Jesus did and why He did it: “That you may believe.” The second is what we are to do and why: “All men will know that you are my disciples.” 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.

“‘You know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well’” (John 14:4-6). Jesus said they knew the where and the way . Thomas said they did not know where, and therefore they could not know the way. Jesus said the where is the Father and Jesus Himself was the way . If you know Jesus, you know the Father. People today do not know where, and they do not know the way. The where is the Father. The way is Jesus. Are we willing to tell people the where and the way? 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.

When Jesus spoke to the Jewish leaders in John 8, He told them that they were not followers of Abraham. They thought they were! But Jesus said, “If you were followers of Abraham, you wouldn’t be seeking to kill Me. Abraham didn’t do that.” He says, “You are of your father the devil.” Jesus said their religion was demonic—they were following the great Liar. If what Jesus said is true, then we should not be following our own views of the other religions in the world today. They are not only anti-God, they are anti-Christian. If a member of a Muslim family becomes a believer, his relatives are required to kill him. In these demonic groups, there is no tolerance for people becoming Christians. This is still happening today. When people survive, they are a great testimony to the power of God for goodness and kindness and love and peace, and they are either admired for this or hated for it. An almost unspoken belief of Christians in the western world is that people are Hindus because the

In the first thirteen verses of John 3, Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus was talking about. It was nonsense to him. When Jesus said verse fourteen to him, Nicodemus finally understood Jesus. Here it is: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up…” (John 3:14). The reason it made sense to Nicodemus was because he knew of the event that Jesus spoke of. People who had been bitten by a serpent could look at the bronze snake and did not die. Nicodemus knew the Bible story.   Here it is: “Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyo