Roots by the River

“For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Notice three things: study, do, teach. In the Christian church, we have studiers and teachers. We can study and acquire information. We can teach and impart information. We can get As on our knowledge. The strong point of the three is the doing . Doing validates the studying and validates the teaching. Teaching biblically is not just imparting information. The neglected phrase in the Great Commission is the one on teaching: “teaching them to do all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20). Jesus gave the commands. We do not command. We teach obedience to His commands. We are not to teach information without teaching obedience. If we are to follow Ezra's example, we are to study, obey, and teach to obey.   Written February 1989. This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you ...

Repentance is turning from evil and turning to God. “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the LORD gave to you and your fathers for ever and ever” (Jeremiah 25:5). “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:10). “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20b). “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19). “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21). Repentance is caused by the kindness of God and godly sorrow. “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” (Romans 2:4). “G...

Repent was a favorite word of the prophets. Preaching repentance was the major task of John the Baptist. “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’” (Matthew 3:1-2). “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’” (Matthew 4:17). The Apostle Paul also emphasized repentance: “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20). In Revelation, the Apostle John stated that “the rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or...

1 Chronicles 28 records David's charge to his son Solomon. It is great! “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with whole-hearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (v. 9). Notice that the reason for whole-hearted devotion is that the Lord searches every heart , and the reason for a willing mind is that the Lord understands every motive behind the thoughts .   Written March 1985. 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.

The Christian church as we know it started at Pentecost about two months after Jesus rose from the dead. There were three thousand new members that day. The last few words they heard before they passed from death to life were these: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’ And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation’” (Acts 2:37-40). The first of these final words was repent . One chapter later, another two thousand people were added to the church. A key sentence in that message was “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins ma...

“He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it ” (Titus 1:9). This sentence is a part of the qualifications of an elder in a church in a town in Crete. The elder is to encourage and refute. In order to do this properly, the elders must hold firmly to the message. We find other qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:2, like "gentle" and "not quarrelsome." The reason I bring this up is the requirement to refute the opposition and yet not be quarrelsome. We see a statement in 2 Timothy 2:4 which confirms this teaching: "and the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him, he must gently instruct.” There is increasing opposition today to sound doctrine and to Christians. Christians must refute those in opposition, but they must do it gently , kindly , and without quarreling .   ...

This is written for Christians who are perfectionists and have lost their joy. First, perfectionists are created. They do not get there by training. If they did, I should now be a perfectionist: I went to a college run by perfectionists, a military college—U.S. Naval Academy. The Academy had four years to make me a perfectionist and did not succeed. I was born something else. Second, it is a good thing that God made perfectionists and many of them. As a result, all man-made erected things from houses to airplanes are put together right. Third, problems occur. Students in university dorms are put together in the same room. One of them is a perfectionist. The other is a slob. Both of them were born that way. One of the two is unhappy. Which one? Fourth, perfectionist standards are not virtues. Unfortunately, some perfectionists think they are. Fifth, besides all of the good qualities of a perfectionist, there are difficulties that he is not aware of, or if he is he does not kn...

“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it’” (Amos 8:11-12). I have no idea whether this prophecy has ever been fulfilled in any specific sense, i.e., time and place in history. It may have been fulfilled fifty years after Amos when the Northern Kingdom was destroyed. The Southern Kingdom had two revivals, both related to reading the Scriptures. One under Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:14-33) and the other under Ezra (Nehemiah 8). The famine today is not in the unavailability of Scripture. In Josiah’s day, there was only one copy, and it had not been looked at for several generations. We have the Scriptures, and we do not read them daily. There is spiritual decay in the land.   Written September 1988. This post c...

  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...

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12). We know this command applies to us today because the Great Commission says, "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." We are to be taught to obey , and we in turn are to teach to obey . The command here is to "rejoice and be glad." My personal experience in contact with other Christians is probably wider than most Christians, but still limited. Keeping this in mind, I know very few Christians who count themselves blessed when they are insulted and falsely accused of evil because of their stand for Jesus Christ. I do know Christians who get angry and want to fight back. Let us make decisions now that will determine right actions if and when this occurs.   Written July 1990. T...

The last sentence in Ezekiel is, “And the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE." What a wonderful name for a city! Jesus, when he came to earth as a baby, fulfilled the prophecy recorded in Matthew 1:23: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel (which means 'God with us’).” Then in Revelation 21:3, there was “a great voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself will be with them.’” Finally, we have the promise in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you." At least three of these texts are speaking of God's close relationship with His church. They speak of His faithfulness in His imminence. Thank God!   Written November 1990. 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 Toth...

In the last few days,* my time with the Lord has been in the Psalms. Psalm 145 made me pay attention this morning. Here is part of it: "Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness” (vv. 3-7). “They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made” (vv. 11-13). Notice that no one can fathom God's greatness. That is an ...