Roots by the River

  This is a ministry letter written by my wife Bessie in 1974 for Inland Christian Laymen, now Community Christian Ministries (ccmbooks.org). It is good, so I am putting it out again: “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 Ja...

  Why pray? Christians do not pray enough. “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:7–8). Why do we need to pray when God already knows what we need? First, we should pray because God commands us to. We are to obey Him. “Rejoice always, pray continually , give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16–18). “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests . With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Eph. 6:18). The quality of our obedience is inextricably linked with the closeness of our walk with God. A major component of that walk is prayer. For a strong Christian life, look to the Lord continually. Seek His face. Pray the prayers of Scripture. God has chosen us to fulfill His will. He taught us to...

  All of this so far has had to do with the mobility of our firepower, or, in other words, our witnessing. But from the chapter on the offense we recall that our offense is directed with prayer in addition to preaching. We must be mobile here, also. Like the Word of God, prayer has no limitations. The limitations are in us. Prayer of intercession has greater range, accuracy, speed, and power than the greatest intercontinental ballistic missile we will ever produce. The prayer of intercession is one that agrees with God in His desire and purpose to win men to Himself. We can use as our guide the prayers of Jesus and of the apostles, both for Christian brethren and for those who are still under the command of the enemy. Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Let us ask for big things, things that we have never previously experienced. Mobility serves no purpose if we have no intention of going an...

  Another important means is the mobility gained through Christian books and literature sent via mail or passed from hand to hand. The ministry of moving Christian books, magazines, booklets, and Bibles is hardly being used at all. The Christian may be physically immobilized because of his profession or state of health, yet if he used Christian literature, he would not find the Word of God limited just because he himself was immobilized. The objective would be taken in near or distant places, though the Christian was absent. The giving and sending of books is just the beginning of fast mobile communication of the gospel. The internet can bring to anyone’s living room the most powerful preaching and teaching that is available today. Christian leaders are broadcasting the gospel of Jesus Christ on hundreds of radio stations and podcasts weekly. But this does not guarantee that people will be listening. A phone call, an emailed link, or a blog post to our friends would greatly incre...

  The British Army was defeated in France in 1940. If it had reached the coast and found that it was immobilized, it would not have suffered defeat only; it would have been annihilated. It was the British mobility at sea that saved the army at Dunkirk. If the Germans had been as mobile at sea as they were on land, they could have followed the British across the Channel. In this case the defenders were mobile, and the victors became immobile. In World War II, mobility was demonstrated in the existence and actions of the U.S. Third and Fifth Fleets. One component of the Third/Fifth Fleet (Under Admiral Halsey it was the Third Fleet. When Admiral Spruance was in command, it was the Fifth Fleet.) particularly exemplified mobility. This was the Fast Carrier Striking Force, Task Force 38 (or 58, under the Fifth Fleet) under the command of Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher. This force could move hundreds of miles overnight in any direction and strike hundreds of miles farther with the Air Grou...

  “And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover.” —Exodus 12:11 “But God’s word is not chained.” —THE APOSTLE PAUL, 2 Timothy 2:9 After four hundred years, some of which had been spent in slavery, six hundred thousand men of Israel, besides women, children, and possessions, moved out of the land of Egypt in one night. That is mobility! If we undertook the same feat today, we would use trains, planes, trucks, and ships. We would have better equipment, but we might not prove as mobile. Mobility as a principle of war is not absolute. It must not be measured against how fast we could move yesterday; rather it must be compared with the enemy’s mobility. We must move more quickly, farther, and for a greater period of time than the enemy. Mobility was defined in the statement of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, “I git thar fustest with the mostest.” The French of World...

  In February, my book Answered Prayer: The Faithfulness of God Made Manifest was released.  Here is the introduction I wrote for the book: "As I am writing this book and meditating on the Bible’s commands to pray, to thank God, and to intercede for others, and on the promises of answer to those prayers, I look back at my own history of answered prayer, and I wonder why I am not praying all the time, especially when I get such wonderful answers when I do pray. The answers are so good—I am just amazed. "The stories in this book reinforce the biblical teaching on prayer, the commands to pray, and the explanations of prayer. As you read these stories, you might apply them by praying for the believers in your city, that they would be convicted of sin and confess their sin to the Lord. I keep a list of all the churches in the two cities nearest me in my Bible. I regularly pray for the Christians in those churches. When Christians get back into the love and the joy of their salvat...

  The Bible speaks of the sins of whole nations in many places. Here is one of them:  “This is what the Lord says: For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath…” (Amos 2:6). Scripture also speaks of the sins of cities (e.g., Amos 1:3, 6). Jesus spoke of judgment on Chorazin and Bethsaida in Matthew 11:21 and of possible judgment on five of the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 2 and 3. The collective sins of the people brought about these judgments. The people of the Church today are not known for confessing their sins. We are even less known for confessing the sins of the whole church or city or nation as Daniel did in Daniel 9: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kin...

  The Scripture says there are certain gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. I am a teacher and an evangelist—but I am an evangelist by obedience. I may have the gift also, but it is certainly obedience. The Great Commission says, “ All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20). Just by being a Christian, I am an evangelist. Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me,” and He said, “Make disciples of all nations.” That means all Christians who obey Jesus Christ are evangelists. They are to make disciples of all nations. They are also to teach these disciples to obey everything that Jesus commanded. Just by obeying that, I am an evangelist and a teacher. If you are an obedient Christian, you...

  “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:42-43). There seem to be two reasons for this unwillingness to confess Jesus Christ: fear and love . It is the fear of men instead of God and love of the praise of men instead of the praise of God. The fear anticipated something bad happening in the future, i.e., being “put out of the synagogue.” The love is past tense. They already knew what it was like to be praised by men, and they liked it. they wanted the pleasant things from men and did not want the unpleasant things from them. In other words, they were concerned about the opinions of the world and, in this particular instance, that part of the world that controlled the existing church.

Many years ago, I was talking with a young woman, and I asked her what she thought of Jesus. Her reply was a good answer but qualified with this phrase, "but I don't think he was very polite." The more I read the Gospels, the more I am convinced that her qualification is a true one. The problem was that, to her, politeness was a high virtue, and since Jesus was not polite, He was not perfect. Many of us, like this young woman, interpret Scripture in the light of our cultural mores . We do this because obedience to the text as it is might mean crossing or offending our Christian and secular friends. The issue is clear in a place like India or Japan where the religious culture is so opposite to the claims of Christ. If a person does not follow Christ there, he knows he does not, and he knows why. In our society, we have compromised for so long that we think we are following Christ when in reality we are only following the evangelical American culture. One good way t...

  Non-Christians and the powers of darkness out­number us along the whole front in the spiritual warfare. We can make advances along this front by using two-by-two concentration. This is necessary; however, it may not bring a decisive victory. In order to win a decisive victory, we must seek the will of God to determine the decisive points. Then: ·    Christians along the whole front will con­centrate on prayer for the decisive points. ·   The physical transfer could be made by taking time off and traveling to the decisive point. This would weaken portions of the front temporar­ily, but no more so than when Christians take leave under ordinary circumstances. When Jesus gave the Great Commission, the apostles were not sent immediately to the uttermost parts of the earth. They were told to remain together in Jerusalem until they were “endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Notice the elements of concentration: ·    They were all together. ·...

Concentration was so importan t to Paul that he wrote on one occasion: “When I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia” (2 Cor. 2:12–13). Paul passed by an open door for lack of help. Many of us wish we had an Apostle Paul to travel with, not realizing how much the leader also needs the close follower. Without his helpers, Paul was not greatly used in Athens or Troas. When the earth­quake occurred at midnight in Philippi, it was not Paul alone who prayed, but Paul and Silas. There are many other instances in the Bible where concentra­tion proved important to the gospel ministry. If you find that you are scattering your witness in “dogfights” or the enemy is using concentration on you because you insist on taking the whole ship or base or city alone, then you need a partner. You may be partly effective in your lone w...

  Now let us see how the principle of concentration applies to spiritual warfare. “After these things the Lord appointed other sev­enty also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest” (Luke 10:1–2). In the chapter on the offensive, we concluded that the offense in winning men to Jesus Christ is carried out by preaching and prayer. In the Luke passage, we see that Jesus sent His disciples out to preach in concentration. He also told them to pray in concentration: “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:19–20). This is effecti...

  “I git thar fustest with the mostest.” - attributed to Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” – The Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 18:20 General Forrest was neither a West Pointer nor a War College graduate, but he knew the principles of war, and he knew how to apply them. Although it is doubtful that he used the double superlatives in the above quotation, the statement does emphasize several truths. In this one short sentence we find four principles of war, and others are implied: Git— offensive; thar— objective; fustest— mobility; mostest— concentration . The one word “mostest” leads us to the subject of this chapter: concentration. Neither Alexander the Great nor Julius Caesar could have conquered the then known world if he had neglected concentration. Occasionally in the history of warfare a new meth­od comes to light that seems so effective or is such a surprise to the enemy that its users are strongly tempted to depe...

  Giving should not be legalistic (e.g., tithing only). Nor should it be anti-legalistic (anti-tithing). Jesus spoke to both of these when He said in Luke 11:42, "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone." Do not neglect tithing. Tithe lovingly, ungrudgingly, and not legalistically. Consider the tenth a minimum, not even thinking of it as your own money. Take it off the top of your income and give it to one or more of the areas mentioned above. It could be seen as “better stewardship” to give to a corporation which has an IRS-approved, non-profit, tax-deductible status. However, if you are giving in order to get , the blessing of the Lord will not be in your giving. Another difficulty with restricting your giving this way is that the widows, orphans, and aliens may not be approved by the IRS. T...

Love has first priority in the Bible. It is the most important and most comprehensive fruit of the Spirit. It is the first commandment, and it is the second commandment. All the other teachings of the Bible fit into it. God is the source of all love, and He expresses His love to the world by giving. Giving is preached much more than it is practiced. Perhaps this is because the preaching is prompted by the desire to receive rather than the desire to give. Many churches and radio and television programs teach giving by encouraging people to give to their ministry. The emphasis is, “You are to give so that I can receive.” It is a veneer to hide covetousness. Another reason giving is taught more than practiced is that we are not taught how to give lovingly by example. If godliness were widespread, it would not be necessary to teach giving. People would give themselves and their money, rather than giving their money instead of themselves. They would also give their money to the right ...

  False teaching/false doctrine comes up several places in the New Testament (e.g. 1 Timothy 1:18-20 and 1 John 4:1-3). The doctrine Paul talks about in 1 Timothy 4:16 is not false teaching, and it is not the distinctive beliefs of various denominations. This doctrine is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we know? It is saving teaching—“You will save yourselves and your hearers.” Obviously our different secondary doctrines and practices cannot all be right. Some are not important. We have used the word “doctrine” and our secondary teachings to create divisions among saved people. To my knowledge, the Bible does not use “doctrine” that way. Read Romans 14. It is the primary doctrine of the gospel that saves and sanctifies and is, consequently, of ultimate importance. "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by...

  What remains if the decisive blow has been struck? We must occupy the land. We must proclaim the emancipation to Satan’s captives. We must declare the means of freedom, the gospel, the defeat of Satan, and the victory of Christ in His death and resurrection. We participate in that ancient victory, for its proclamation is still unfinished. It is still news that many captives have not heard. The offensive in the spiritual war is to be carried out by two very basic means: preaching and prayer. Preaching, when done in the power of the Holy Spirit, is an engagement on the spiritual plane. Other powers are in conflict besides the speaker and the listeners. In 2 Timothy 2 we can see four participants in the conflict: the Lord’s servant, the opponent, God, and the devil. “Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to every one, an apt teacher, forbearing, correcting his oppone...

  Whether the offensive is directed against the whole front or against one segment of the enemy army, “in either case it should be well understood that there is in every battlefield a decisive point, the possession of which, more than any other, helps to secure the victory by enabling its holder to make proper application of the Principles of War. Arrangements should therefore be made for striking the decisive blow upon this point” (Antoine-Henri Jomini, Jomini and His Summary of the Art of War , The Military Classics series, ed. Lt. Col. J.D. Hittle [Harrisburg: The Stackpole Co., 1947[, Article XXXI). There are two things that determine a decisive point. The first is the relative importance of that point compared to the rest of the front. The second is the feasibility of taking that point. If it is not important, it is not decisive. If it is important but not feasible to take, then it is not decisive. This is very important. Be alert for teaching on the decisive point in succee...