Roots by the River

When we received Christ, we died to sin. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Rom. 6:1-2) Since, then; you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col. 3:1-4) Since these things are so, God also tells us to "rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips" (Col. 3:8). We are told to put anger away. That does not mean in a month or a week. It means now. It is not possible to put it away if it is likely that you are not a Christian. Other things should disappear besides anger. "Put to death, therefore, whatever belo...

Dear Friend, I wrote much of the following several weeks ago, but I was not sure it was kind enough, so I decided not to send it until I looked at it again. It is abrupt, so it might sound unkind. You get this preamble to prepare you for what is an expression of love for you (the right kind of love). I ache for you! You are hurting and the freedom from fear and hurt is freely available to you now. Much of your problem with God is caused by your teachers; in this case, a teacher with Reformed convictions. The distinctives of different systematic theologies do not give saving truth. Systematic theology is the wrong way to find truth about God. You get some truth and some falsehood in each of them. Which one of these is right? On the distinctives, none of them! There is common, saving truth in all of them. What do I believe? The common, saving truth! I certainly am not Reformed, Arminian, Dispensational, Lutheran, Charismatic, etc. The rest of your problem is you. None of the prob...

Dear Friend, A few days ago, our computer ate some of our incoming messages. We can't find them, so I am writing this because if yours was one of them, you might wonder why I did not answer it. Since I am writing anyway, I will add a few thoughts in a different vein. • You want to be a Christian. • Somehow you think the Gospel is true, even while you are rebelling against God for sending Jesus to the Cross. • You may be seeing a quality of life that you do not see in others and which you want to have. • You may desire Heaven. • You may be concerned about judgment. • You may have read biographies of Isobel Kuhn, Amy Carmichael, Corrie ten Boom, Patricia St. John, or Lilias Trotter. These were women of faith whom I respect very much. If you haven’t read them, I would encourage it. The best way of learning is by imitation. There may not be many people alive that you would like to imitate. So imitate people who are no longer alive but who are in Heaven. In your search,...

Dear Friend, Thank you for your long letter. The more I know you, the more likely I will say what applies to you. There is a reason that I am sure that you will be a Christian shortly. It is from Jeremiah 29. It is speaking of Judah at the end of 70 years of captivity, but I think it applies to all seekers. Verse 13: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” You described your search for God as starting around age 12, and then later you said, “I still wanted to be a Christian; it simply began to occur to me that prescribed methods were not working.” The methods you say you used were not prescribed in the Bible. They are standard prescriptions in all the world’s religions. They were duties you were doing, religious duties. You were reading to read, a duty. You were also reading critically. You were not reading to receive. Romans 9:30-10:4: “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness tha...

Dear Friend, Your letter was very encouraging to me. I did not expect that my teaching and answering your problems would help. Your not praying or reading the Gospels explains a lot. You have said several times that you want to be a Christian, but did not do two of the things that are causes of faith. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the preaching of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Of course you have not had faith. You have not gone to the source. Becoming a Christian is not an exercise of reason or intellectual answers. It is about a moral problem; it is a sin issue. You could have all of your questions answered to your satisfaction, and still you would not be a Christian. Part of this belief, this trust in the completed work of Christ, is repentance from dead works to serve the living and true God. This turning from sin was the basic command in the prophets, of John the Baptist (Matthew 3:1-2), Jesus (Matthew 4:17), Peter (Acts 2:38), and Paul (Acts 26:20). Here are a few ...

Dear Friend, I hope the books I sent to you were of some help. In my letter, I said that you did not need the peripherals in order to become a Christian. They do not change your need for redemption or the truth of 1 Corinthians 15:1-5: "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve." First, I wish to comment on your struggle with depression and guilt. The feelings of guilt can be absolute or relative or false. Leviticus 5:17 describes guilt absolutely, unrelated to the conscience, and Romans 14:23 describes relative gu...

In the Great Commission, there are two phrases which are often missed. 1. “As you go, make disciples”. The word is not go ; it is as you go . 2. “teaching them to obey everything” “As you go.” Christians are “going” all the time. It is “as they go” that making disciples takes place. It is not a special event; it is a continual event meant to happen throughout the course of your normal, daily life. You are meant to be making disciples as you go. "Teaching them to obey everything." In the Great Commission, the Apostles were commanded to do three things: Make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey everything that Jesus commanded His apostles. These new Christians were taught to obey everything . That includes making disciples, baptizing, and teaching everyone to obey. Therefore, all Christians are commanded to make disciples, baptize, and teach obedience. Every Christian is an evangelist, just by being Christian. Here are the ingredients of evangelism: • ...

Dear Friend, Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. (Psalm 19:13) This is wonderful. If I am kept from willful presumptuous sins, if they do not get control over me, I will not be guilty of great transgression. From what you have told me, you have been guilty of great transgression. This did not happen all of a sudden. The enemy had been feeding you with little annoyances for many years. Some of them you confessed, and some of them you did not confess. These temptations occurred in your home, at work, in school, with your family, and in church. God, in His goodness, kept using you for His glory even when you had lost the joy of your salvation. After a while, the Enemy set you up with a big temptation. You may have kept your integrity in many ways. The Enemy knew that temptations in those areas would not have worked. The devil is not omniscient, but he got to know you. His object is to d...

Dear K, Thank you for coming by to see me. I think I can help, or rather know that God can, and maybe God will use me to help you. You know God and know the Scripture, but somehow your knowledge does not get applied in such a way that you are delivered from your obsessive/compulsive life. Your earthly desire has not been met. It may be the cause or the result of your obsessive/compulsive life. In any case, it has not been a help to you. You have a lot of "why" questions. They turn out to be accusatory "whys" more than requests for information, explanations, or reasons. If God gave you His information, explanation, or reason, you would not think that it was satisfactory. As you say, you have good "insight" about your problem. That insight has not been enough, however accurate to give you the will or the power to act on that insight. • God is the God of hope, not of despair. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you tru...

Dear K, If, in fact, there is more than one way to Heaven, then evangelical Christianity cannot be one of them. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:27). Salvation cannot be both free and cost something. Evangelical Christianity is simple and free . All others are very complicated and not free. Christianity is simple, free, and present tense. “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). The words hears , believes and has are all present tense. The phrase “will not be judged” is future tense, and “he has crossed over from death to life” is past tense. “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousne...

Dear K, It is evident that your eyes are open and that you desire light. It also seems evident that although you are getting a glimmer of light, the light does not yet make sense to you. I am going to quote a few Bible verses on light. “I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:17-18) “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor. 4:4) “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'” (John 8:12) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in...

If you died today, do you know where you would go? Heaven Hell Don’t know. Don’t care. Do you know why? Everyone is born with a malignant disease. There are no vaccinations or shots; there is no chemo or radiation that can stop it. There is no cure in sight. It is called sin. Its basic characteristics are rebellion and selfishness. Most of the men here have had problems with one or more of the following: Parents Wives Girlfriends Lying Rage Sex Drugs – pot, cocaine, heroin, meth, etc. Homelessness Joblessness Prison – gangs or threats It is easy to think that these symptoms of the sin-disease can be stopped by willpower, education, rehab, or prison. But they can be stopped only be receiving Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. There is something more basic than these awful symptoms. Jesus speaks of it more than all of the other problems. “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tr...

Dear S, Thank you for your good letter of a month ago. It seems that you have misunderstood several things in the material I sent to you. Because of your misunderstanding, you have drawn conclusions that have led you to despair. I hope I can help your understanding and consequently change your conclusions from despair to joy and hope. The material does not say either “each will find ‘God’ in his own way” or “it all goes back to praying”. In fact, it says the opposite of that. Here is the way: 1) The way is Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). 2) The way is a gift. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But, because of his great love for us, God, w...

Dear D, Thank you for your letters. You say that you are reading and praying all day, but that you feel that you are still missing something and that you do not know what it is. Here is a possibility. You are filling your head up with much spiritual information. That is not the same as filling up your heart with God’s truth. That is why you lost it when your locker was broken into. In Luke 6:43-45, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 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.” “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? 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 bring...

One of the Psalms that has defined my life is Psalm 91. I have already claimed the first and last verses. Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, ...

Dear S, Thank you for your letter. I suggest you read The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel and Basic Christianity by John Stott. The Bible is God’s history of sinful man and God’s solution for sin in man. God has not changed. There are miracles today. They are not reported in the newspapers or in secular textbooks. I am personally acquainted with some and have read from qualified sources of hundreds of others. There are also fakes; I know of them, too. Again, miracles are not the subject of the Bible, nor are they the important subject today. Let me quote Jesus after He fed the 5,000. "Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill'” (John 6:26). Here is a statement of St. Paul recorded in the New Testament: "Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdo...

Dear D, I have in front of me a copy of A History of Christianity by Kenneth Scott Latourette of Yale University Divinity School. I quote from the preface: If it is complained that this is not an 'objective' approach, it must be remembered that pure objectivity does not exist, even in the natural sciences. One is either for or against Christianity: there is no neutral or strictly 'objective' ground. Reason has a legitimate place. We must employ it in testing what are presented to us as facts and in searching for other facts. But truth is not attained by reason alone. The insight that is born of faith can bring illumination. Faith is not credulity and if that which is called faith ignores reason it does so to its peril. But uncritical confidence in reason as the sole or final criterion is a blind act of credulity which may be even more dangerous than a faith which disdains reason. Throughout the chapters which follow is the conviction that the faith which is stimulat...

Dear D, It was a pleasure to receive your letter and a great delight to read it. People have wanted to see God for a long time. They cannot, not because of their human limitations but because if they could see Him, He would not be God. He would be another idol, a creation of man. There are Christians who fit your description. Some of them are not true Christians. Millions of Christians are not rigorous in the reasoning because they have just been saved out of hatred, idolatry, murder, drunkenness into having joy, peace, forgiveness and forgiving. They want others to join them. These are much better ways to arrive at truth than logic and reasoning: • Revelation: Man is not a cause, but he has been a recipient. • Empiricism: Theory, experiments of the theory. The results, fact or not fact. • Observation: This has the difficulty observing facts from a biased position. This bias does not change the facts, but it might change our perception of the,. • 1 Corinthians 2:12-15: The...

Dear D, Thank you for visiting with me on Sunday. If you are willing, I hope to have you meet with my sons. All three can handle biblical questions. They are also Christians by faith, as are their children. They have had all of the questions you ask, given to them and maybe asked by them. Their education has only been secular. They have had no Christian education. They are strong-willed, but the fruit of the Spirit governs their lives. I do not expect their answers to convince you. I do expect you to see intelligent, educated people who do not close their eyes to problems, but are not skeptics. You may also see why I gave up, many years ago, answering questions like yours. It seems that you think your skepticism is a moral high ground. However, you have identified yourselves with many people who are not skeptics - they are dead sure of their positions. You do not seem to be skeptical of their absolute certainties. You may think that they have reasonable answers. If so, side with ...

Dear B, You said, "When a Christian sins, God still likes him as well as loves him." If by “like” you mean “is pleased with,” then no. However, I do not think like means “is pleased with.” I do not use the word like . God does not use the word. Even if it meant “is pleased with,” the answer is definitely not yes. Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God , just as you are doing, that you do so more and more . (1 Thess. 4:1) So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him . (2 Cor. 5:9) There is only one type of forgiveness. God forgives our sin when we receive Christ. He forgives the sins that we commit after we receive Christ when we confess them. He already paid for them. You also said, “Many Christians express the view that God loves them but does not like them; that is, that God has their best interest in His heart, but He is displeased on a day-to-day ...