Roots by the River

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! When He came to earth as a baby, Jesus 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, “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.

“We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children…. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:6-7, 11-12). Did you know that the Apostle Paul likens himself to a gentle , nursing mother and like a father who encourages and comforts ? Are you that kind of a father to your own children? Are you that kind of father to your spiritual children?   Written March 1994. This post coordinates with today's reading in the Same Page Summer 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.

According to the dictionary, joy and happiness are almost synonyms. Since Christians live in the English-speaking world, they are largely influenced by the world’s definitions. The cover story in the most recent issue* of National Geographic Magazine is “The Search for Happiness.” The subtitle is, “What we can learn from Costa Rica, Denmark, and Singapore—the most joyful places on the planet.” In each of these “happiest” places, the government has provided for people’s salaries, living, healthcare, and other physical provisions through high taxes. In other words, “happiness” is not having any responsibilities to be anxious about. That is the world’s view. There is a biblical solution to anxiety which is entirely different, and which the world cannot understand. It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These words are in the world’s vocabulary, but anybody who is not a Christian cannot have any of them as part of his life. I...

This is a post for those who are getting old or considering themselves old, from 65-100. Right now, I am 91.* I will be 92 in October. I have my own house, but I cannot live in it alone because of my physical inability to move around. One of my sons lives with me. All of us will have to make some adjustments. That includes money, relatives, your own ability and willpower to stay independent, etc. My advice is if physically and financially you can live independently, you should certainly do that. If you do, you will still need to have visits from your family frequently. You need your family. Even if you don’t need them to take care of you, you need them for the fellowship. The more fellowship you have, the longer you’ll live. If you can stay independent do it, but only if friends and relatives can see you often. In my case, I can’t walk, and I can’t do much physically. So, whether I like it or not, someone else has to get me up, get me showered, and get me dressed. I am blessed to have ...

  Several passages of Scripture have been in my meditation the last few weeks.* “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 brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:34b-37). “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6). During the last few months,* I have been conscious that my words have not been always gracious. Apparently, my heart has not been stored with good things, or the overflow would have been gracious words. I have confessed and now want to store my heart so full of good that the overflow will be always good.   * Written November 1988. This post coordinates with ...

  "Since you died with Christ…” (Colossians 2:20). "Since then you have been raised with Christ…" (Colossians 3:1). "For you died…" (Colossians 3:3). Although these sentences were written to the new church at Colossae, we believe they apply to all Christians, if they are true. They are either true or false. If true, they are past-tense certainties . They are not future, or conditional, or perhaps or maybe . They describe something that has already happened in us, and the commands that follow are predicated on those certainties. If Christians have trouble with the commands, it may be because they have trouble believing that they have died with Christ, or it may be because they have not died with Christ. (In other words, they are not Christians.) All future obedience is based upon the complete work of Christ which has taken place in us. Read Romans 6 a few times.   Written January 1989. This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the To the Wo...

What wealth of meaning and blessing when the words are combined: holy in Christ. Here is God’s provision for our holiness, God’s response to our question, “How can we be holy?” When we hear the call, “Be ye holy, even as I am holy,” it seems as if there is, and ever must be, a great gulf between the holiness of God and man. But in Christ is the bridge that spans the gulf—or better still—His fullness has filled it up. In Christ God and man meet. There the holiness of God has found us and made us its own, has become human and can indeed become our very own. To the anxious cries and the heart-yearnings of thousands of thirsty souls who have believed in Jesus and yet know not how to be holy, here is God’s answer: Ye are holy in Christ Jesus. Only listen to these words and believe. Repeat them, even a thousand times, until God’s light shines, until your heart is filled with joy and love and the words echo back: Now I see it. I am holy in Christ—made holy in Christ Jesus! - Andrew Murra...

This morning,* Bessie and I were reading John 15:15-21: "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.” We were impressed again with the either/or of belonging to Christ or the world. And it is the world that recognizes the difference and takes action. The question is, does the world recognize you as someone to love, or to hate? *Written November 1987. 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.

  "On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink’” (John 7:37). "Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water’ …. Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life’” (John 4:10, 13-14) This spring of water is an artesian well, a flowing well, “welling up to eternal life.” Welling up has a sense of leaping up . This well provides living water in quality and abundance so that streams of living water will flow from within the Christian. Notice in both texts that the person does not drink from this well. He does not have the well until after he drinks. "Indeed the water I give him will become in h...

  A few 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 her qualification is a true one. Her 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 the 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. In our society, we have compromised for so long we think we are following Christ when in reality we are following the evangelical American culture. This time, as you read through your New Testament, pay attention to the hard sayings of Jesus. Here is a plan to follow for the summer. Written February 1987.

  "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage, with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 3:16-4:2). "Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching" (1 Timothy 4:13). There was a time when there were very few Bibles, even in cultured lands. There were no printing presses, and most of the people were illiterate. If people received the Word, it was through the public reading of Scripture by people who could read and had the Scriptures. Now in the church today in this country, we can read, and we each own at least one Bible. A year ag...

In the last month,* I have been studying the New Testament, looking for teaching on salvation. I have been overwhelmed. It has caused me to wonder why people in evangelism (including me) always use the same few texts. It has also convinced me even more of the necessity of the distribution of New Testaments and Bibles. Evangelists and Bible teachers cannot possibly teach everybody everything they ought to know, even with internet, radio, television, and books. Learning from a teacher should not be a substitute for reading and studying the Bible. Teaching should always include an incentive to read and study for yourself. Here is a salvation text: “This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to ...

UGHH!! Here it is again, one of the most demanding times a student at the university must face—final exams. Without fail, they arrive sooner than expected (or wanted), and unlike taxes, finals come at least two or three times a year! It is a time that some find stimulating and rewarding, but for the majority of students it is a time that they could do without. It is a time of stress, lack of sleep, and headaches. This is especially true if you are one of those who haven't been preparing all along for this week. You find yourself with projects due that you haven't begun, books to read that are currently paperweights on your desk, and exams worth the majority of your grade, all staring you in the face. What do you do? At this point, you gut it out. Hopefully you will survive, and next time you will start preparing right from the beginning. Unfortunately, people often approach their lives in the same manner that they do the university, waiting for the last minute to prepare fo...

Have you noticed the series of listed troubles that are in 2 Corinthians? They are in chapters 1, 4, 6, 8, and 12. Have you also seen the comfort, thanksgiving, glory, rejoicing, grace, and strength in the same chapters? Please take a look and notice the connection. I will listen to what God the LORD will say; He promises peace to his people, His saints—but let them not return to folly. (Psalm 85:8) Written September 1992. This post coordinates with Friday and Saturday's readings 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 two greatest events in the history of the world are the creation of man and the redemption of man by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders sing about these two events in Revelation 4:11 and in Revelation 5:9-10. Both hymns start out the same: “You are worthy.” There are different reasons given: “For you created all things” and “because you were slain.” The first hymn is limited to the choir of twenty-eight. For the second hymn, the twenty-eight are joined first by upwards of 100 million angels, and then by every living creature everywhere. Let us thank and praise God for our creation and redemption.   Written April 1989. 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.

"May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ’s perseverance” (2 Thessalonians 3:5). We have all known of God's love and that our hearts should be directed into it. But we may not have known or thought of the steadfastness (RSV) or the perseverance (NIV) of Christ. What is it? And how was it shown, and how should our hearts be directed into it? Hebrews 12:1-4 answers all three questions: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the poi...

“Just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12). It seems to be a given from the Scripture that fathers encourage and comfort their children. It is part of common grace. However, in many cases fathers are not doing that. Here is a quotation from George MacDonald: “Like many Scots, while Phemy was his one joy, he seldom showed her sign of affection, seldom made her feel, and never sought to make her feel how he loved her.” Heather and Snow , George MacDonald Unhappily, in thirty-two years of ministering to high school and college-age people, I have found that the above description is an accurate description of many father-child relationships. If you are a father, please do not let it describe you.   Written April 1988. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word...

Loving Christians “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14). Christians love non-Christians. Non-Christians love non-Christians. It takes a Christian to love a Christian. In her autobiography, Climbing , Rosalind Goforth tells of an elderly man who was unsure of his salvation. He said, “I wanted to convince myself all these years that I’m going to heaven, but I can’t.” She asked him if he loved the Lord’s people. He said, “Oh, it’s my greatest joy in life to be with the Lord’s people on the Lord’s Day singing the Lord’s praises.” Then she pointed out 1 John 3:14 to him: “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers.” Love for the brothers is evidence of salvation. Consider the opposite. Suppose you brought a non-Christian to church. He would not feel comfortable. He might admire and respect Christians, but he wouldn’t love them like they love each other. ...

Obedience “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him” (1 John 3:6). “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:9-10). “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him” (1 John 5:18). We know we are saved because we are no longer living in sin. If it looks like we are living in sin, then there is no reason for others to know that we are Christians, and no reason for us to, either. “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands” (1 John 2:3). Obedience is not the means of salvation; it is evidence of our salvation. Are ...

“Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10). This confession is not a matter of the mouth only. People who do not have the evidence of the Holy Spirit say it in liturgies all of the time. “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” (Luke 6:45). To be continued on Monday.   Excerpted from Assurances of Salvation , available at ccmbooks.org and Amazon.com.