Roots by the River

“But where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20). My extra-biblical reading does not follow any pattern, but there is a lot of history in it. The history includes ancient and modern, Asian and European, African and South American. Whenever or wherever history occurs, it is a story of increasing sin. This would be depressing if it were not for our assurance that grace increases all the more. A history book can glorify the actions of men so the sin does not sound as bad. That, however, is only sugar-coating the story. The real blessing is that God assures us that grace is more abundant than sin . In addition to reading history, I find another reminder of the increase of sin. That is my daily contact with people who are in sin or affected by the sin of others. Again, I am grateful for the over-abundance of grace. It is this over-abundance of grace that gives us victory and triumph. “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us s...

“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit” (Psalm 147:4-5). These are two of many verses which speak in a limited way of God’s unlimited power and knowledge. Here are a few more: “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:6, 9). “He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’” (Matthew 8:26-27). God commanded the inanimate. There were no ears to hear, no volition to decide, no reason to consider, and yet the stars, the wind, and the waves obeyed. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading pl...

“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the Enemy” (Psalm 107:2). “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, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24-26). “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (Romans 6:20-22). “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death...

“Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples” (Psalm 96:1-3). Sing, praise, proclaim, and declare. In order to declare His glory, we have to know what it is. Words alone will not do it. Experience will be part of it. “Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth” (Psalm 96:6-9). Splendor, majesty, strength, glory, worship, and holiness are a few of the words. Ask for the experience. 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 To...

Are you fearful of death? Or ready for it? Or glad for it? Most people just ignore it, knowing it’s going to happen, but not now and not soon. Sometimes we don’t have a choice. On September 26, 1950, when I was 22 years old, I was with the Navy in the Sea of Japan off the coast of Korea. The gunnery officer spotted some box cars on a railroad siding near the shore. The captain decided to close the range and destroy them with gunfire. We were at battle stations. My battle station was in the gunnery plotting room one deck below the main deck on the port side of the ship. I was the officer in charge of gunnery plot. I received a telephone call from my boss, the gunnery officer. He ordered me up to the main battery director above the bridge, where he was stationed with the range finder. I objected, because we were at general quarters (preparing for battle), and it is a court-martial offense to leave your battle station when the ship is at general quarters. He ordered me to come up anyway...

“ Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:1-3). St. Paul was concerned about people deceiving other people away from the simplicity that is in Christ. All (or at least most) denominations of the Christian church have made salvation in Christ a little more complicated than the Bible makes it. Rather than drawing attention to all of these complications, I thought I would go through the Gospel with simple, biblical words. God God is . God is love. God so loved the world. The world was the object of His love. The expression of His love is giving. What He gave was His only-begotten Son. He gave what was most valuable to Him. Sin came into ...

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18). “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20). You may have wondered what my eschatology is. I do not often speak about it. These few words summarize my anticipation: hope; purifies; encourage; “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” This keeps me from differing with the saints on the order of events at the end time. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a...

In Zechariah chapters 12-14, there are about 17 references to “that day.” Here are a few of them. “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. ‘On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land’” (Zech. 13:1-2). “On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter. The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name” (Zech. 14:8-9). “On that day HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the LORD's house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar” (Zech. 14:20). Let us look forward to that day . This post coordinates with today's reading in the T...

“And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5 KJV). “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21). “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13). “They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians 1:9b-10). The common theme in these verses is waiting . We are to ...

Here is an all-inclusive verse of Scripture. It was written to the Thessalonians, but I think it means us, too. “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). The God of peace Himself—wonderful. Sanctify you completely—that means us. He will make us completely holy. Spirit, soul, and body—we are tripartite. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Rom. 12:1). This tells us that our bodies are living and holy sacrifices. Both of the texts teach us that our bodies will be holy. God Himself will make them holy, and we are to present them as a holy, living sacrifice. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading pla...

“As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long—though I know not how to relate them all. I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign LORD; I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone. Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come” (Psalm 71:14-18). I came across this paragraph in 1979 when Bessie and I were in Vancouver, BC. It has been my life verse since then—the next generation! As I look at Christian history, it seems to be history that only takes care of the present generation, not the next one. The seventeenth century in England and Scotland was a time of revival until there was a Christian king after the glorious revolution of 1688. The next two generations were of great moral...

 One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 68:11: “The Lord announced the word, and great was the company of those who proclaimed it.” The Lord announced the word, and a great company proclaimed the word. It was a great company then; let us pray that it will be a great company now. “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’” (Matthew 9:37-38). Pray and proclaim and pray for more proclaimers. 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.

Here is a thought put together by the following verses: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:10-14). “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). “For those God for...

This post falls under the category of Philippians 3:1: “ It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.” Fear and worry have a few common characteristics. ·        They are opposites of trust in God. ·        They are present feelings based upon future unknown events. ·        They are based on lies from the father of lies. ·        They are common because worry is a form of fear. ·        Both fear and worry do not come from God. ·        They are both sins against God. Here are a few related Scriptures: “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, a...

“Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?’” (Ezekiel 14:2-5). “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord . Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (1 Peter 3:15-16). Do you see the parallel? · “These men have set up idols in their hearts.” (Ezekiel, NIV) · “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” (1 Peter, NIV) · “Enthrone Christ in your hearts.” (Knox) · “Sanctify the Lord God in your heart.” (KJV) · “Set apart, in your heart, high and lifted up, Jesus Christ as Lord.” (Irene Webster-Smith) Worship begins in the heart. Idolatry is in the heart long before a physical idol is made. Worship of Jesus ...

Years ago, I heard comparative definitions of mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting what I deserve—Hell. Grace is getting what I do not deserve—Heaven. Here are both words in a sentence or two: "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy , made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:4-5). "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy . He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace , we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7).

There are five objects of our love in Scriptures. ·        Love GOD (Matthew 22:34-40). ·        Love our neighbors. ·        Love our wives. ·        Love the brothers. ·        Love our enemies. That is a comprehensive list. The quality of love is also comprehensive. ·        With all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. That is a lot of love. ·        Your neighbor as yourself. If we loved one neighbor as much as we loved ourselves, he would be getting much love. ·        As Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25). ·        As Jesus loved us (John 13:34). ·        As God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked (Luke 6:3). That is very much love.

  “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again’” (Luke 24:5-7). “And who through the Spirit of Holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:4). “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). The risen Christ is why we are here.

Jeremiah prayed, “I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). Paul wrote, “Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law” (Galatians 5:18). “If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm” (Psalm 37:23). “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps” (Proverbs 16:9). I thank God for these wonderful truths. I thank God for His daily directing my steps from my earliest days as a Christian until today. I have no idea where I would be today if this were not true. “Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you” (2 Thessalonians 3:1). 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...

“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 of 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).   Written August 1991. 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.