Roots by the River

Next, spend time in the Word . “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.” [1] “ The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.   “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.   “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord , my...

Another aspect of walking in the light is spending time with the Lord every single day, in the Word and in prayer . We will look at prayer first. Get into the habit of praying. I am not a very good prayer when it comes to setting aside time and praying for an hour straight. I am much better at praying all the time. If I’m walking, running, or sitting, if I’m driving, if I’m thinking, I talk to God. Mostly I talk about people. I don’t talk to God about myself much, unless I’m in trouble. Years ago, InterVarsity staff member Bill Steeper said, “It was a wonderful thing when I got myself off my own hands.” He turned himself over to God. Corrie ten Boom said the same thing to me. She was riding in the back of a car one night on a dangerous road. The driver was going way too fast, and she was terrified. She decided to spend the time interceding for other people. When she prayed for others, her fear disappeared. “ And so it was , after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lo...

“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). Even in a well-lit room, there are shadows. Outside it is brighter, but there is darkness out there, too. As I look out the window from my desk, I see an apple tree with six inches of snow on each branch. That tree is “white as snow,” but even it is in darkness because the sky is overcast. David prayed in Psalm 51:7, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;   wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all . “ 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). The word purifies means “keeps on cleansing.” It is a continuous washing. Walking in the light means that as soon as you sin, you are aware of it, you confess it, and it gets cleansed. The result? We have fellowship with one another. ...

By Bessie Wilson “We have this treasure in earthen vessels,” Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:7. Looking at the passage before this, we see he has likened the light of the gospel coming into the heart to the light of creation. “For it is the God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”  It is light with a purpose. The face of Christ is illumined to us, not in visions necessarily, but in our coming to recognize that the Christ of the Gospels is indeed the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour. This then is our treasure, the personal knowledge of Jesus Christ as He comes to make His home in our hearts.  Paul says “earthen vessels,” and this represents our bodies, or more specifically our whole lives. When I was in Japan, I was amazed at the talent of the Japanese with their flower arrangements or ikebana as it is called. What I noticed was that the perfection of the flowe...

“The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him” (2 Corinthians 2:6-8). This may be the man spoken of in 1 Corinthians 5. If not, he is still a man who has been under church discipline. This discipline has worked, and the man is repentant. What is the instruction to the church? ·        Forgive him. ·        Comfort him. ·        Reaffirm your love for him. Why? So that he will not be “overwhelmed with excessive sorrow.” We do not see much church discipline today. When we do, we do not see the restoration of the repentant man as described above. Not to do this is sin on the church’s part. The church is made up of individual Christians who do the forgiving, comforting, and loving. This post coordinates with...

“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 Corinthians 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, in the church. Today, they are still one of the major causes of divisions. However, today loyalty is a good word; it is considered a virtue. When it comes to following teachers, however, ...

Dear Friends, That’s good news about your toddler learning to run. Give her lots of love. It’s impossible to love a child too much. It is possible to let her do whatever she wishes, but it is not possible to give too much love. The more love, the more response there will be to instruction. In His Love, Jim Wilson Want to know how to give lots of love to your children? Read Saturation Love by Jim Wilson here .

You may have experienced or witnessed Christians or pseudo-Christians who have divided the body of Christ. The Bible speaks to us about them in several places. “They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.’ These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit” (Jude 18-19). “Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” (Titus 3:10-11). “I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people” (Romans 16:17-18). “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one a...

A few years ago, I was talking with a young Christian woman. We were talking on the subject of sin and confession, and I mentioned that Christians do not have to sin. “ Be ye therefore perfect , even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect ” (Matthew 5:48). She brought to my attention that 1 John says that everyone sins. Yes, it does. It also says, “Do not sin.” God commands us to not sin—in other words, He has made it possible to not sin, because God does not command us to do impossible things. God will also forgive us if we sin and confess, but He has made it possible for us to obey His command: “ My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin” (1 John 2:1). How is this possible? It is very simple. Avoid temptation. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Positively obey God (by keeping His positive commands, e.g. to rejoice always, in everything give thanks, etc.). Keep your sins confessed up-to-date so that when the tempter comes, you do not have unc...

Dear Jim Wilson, in order to live in peace and harmony, it is essential for all religions to respect one another and seek common ground while reserving differences. Unfortunately, some religions claim that only their beliefs are true and others are false. As a result, there are endless and unnecessary disputes and wars. As I have been taught, there is only one God in this world, who has representatives in the diverse religions: Jesus in Christianity, Muhammad in Islam, Buddha in Buddhism… Their mission is the same: to help people improve themselves. If everyone accepted this point of view, these diverse religions would be tolerant towards one another, and the whole world would be really blessed.  I always enjoy your preaching, and I often find surprising similarities between Christianity and Buddhism in it. For example, similar to what the Bible says (everyone is a sinner), Buddhism teaches that everyone was born selfish and nobody is perfect. Therefore, everyone must look after hi...

“In the aftermath of the murderous assassination of Charlie Kirk…there are a number of things that still need to be said. “This is a sea change moment. People had already noticed a vibe shift recoil that was starting to develop, resulting in lesser things like Brexit or the reelection of Donald Trump. But all of that was chump change compared to what is quite possibly going to be happening now. We have before us the prospect of making the vibe shift permanent. I believe that history will show that Tyler Robinson, if he is convicted of firing the shot that killed Charlie Kirk, will also be revealed as the man who put a bullet in the neck of progressive leftism. “But only if . . . “One of the most important principles of war is pursuit . General Meade was the capable Union general at Gettysburg, whose leadership there secured a victory over the Confederate forces. But because he failed to pursue, the war went on for two more years. He won the battle when he could have won the war…”  ...