Roots by the River

“I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen” (Romans 9:1-5). “Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Roma...

“So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened” (Romans 1:20-21 RSV). The increasing decadence that is described in the last half of Romans 1 has its start by a choice described in verse 21: they did not honor or give thanks to God . All idolatry and immorality start here. Although this was written about people who had only natural revelation (and they were without excuse), how much more inexcusable are those who have special revelation and have been redeemed. Thanksgiving is the basic means of praising God. It is, for our benefit, a means of avoiding a critical and complaining spirit. "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV). This post coordinates with today's reading in the Same Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, pl...

“But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:20-21). Do you have a calling? Yes! What is it? To this you are called: Do good. Suffer for it. Take it patiently. If we do good, suffer for it, and take it impatiently , this is not commendable before God. Two out of three is not good enough. Christ, in His suffering, left us an example that we should follow in His steps. We are to imitate Jesus in His goodness, sufferings, and patience. The book In His Steps was written more than 100 years ago. It is a novel about a group of people who wanted to follow Jesus by asking the question, “What would Jesus do?” The fallacy in the book is that it took imagination to come up with the answer. The answer is in the text— do good, suffer for it, and take it patiently. We already know what Jesus would do. He has already ...

“Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” - Paul the Apostle, in chains, before King Agrippa and Governor Festus, Acts 26:8. God is God! He created the universe and every microscopic part of it. “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him” (Psalm 115:3). I’m with Paul. I think it is incredible that anyone thinks God raising the dead is incredible. God is God! 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.

Recently,* I was talking with a 20-year-old Christian college student. In the conversation, I asked him if he talked to unbelievers about the gospel. He replied that he did not know any unbelievers. I live in the Northwest, which is probably the least churched part of the country. But there are a lot of Christians here. I have asked this question to many of them, and they come up with similar answers. Generally, they do know some unbelievers, but they do not talk to them about the gospel. One of the reasons they give is that they don’t have the gift of evangelism. Evangelism is not restricted to those who have a gift. It is a command to believers— go into all the world and make disciples of all nations . This has nothing to do with gifts. It has to do with knowing the Father through the Son. It has to do with believing that the gospel is true and that unbelievers are lost. I ask these Christians if it is true that unbelievers are lost. They say yes. The next question is, “Do you...

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). This statement is either true or false. Peter said it to the high priests Annas and Caiaphas after he and John had spent the night in jail, after seeing the church grow by two thousand, and after they had healed the cripple in the name of Jesus. He said it in answer to the question, “By what power or what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed” (Acts 4:8-10). “Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John re...

Jesus told many stories. Some of them were parables, as in the lost sheep and the lost coin (Luke 15:1-10), the tenants in Luke 20, and the ten minas in Luke 19. Jesus also told true stories like the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. We also have stories of real encounters with people: Nicodemus in John 3, the rich young ruler in Mark 10, and the woman at the well in John 4. Let’s look at one of the true stories: “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in...

“ But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Galatians 4:4-6). The first Christmas happened so that we might receive the full right of sons. Thank God. We talk about the shepherds and the wise men. They were the first human witnesses of this event “when the time had fully come.” There were other witnesses of the birth of the Son of God: “Su ddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘ Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests’” (Luke 2:13-14).   This was not a select choral group of twenty-four angels singing four-part harmony. This was a great company of the Heavenly Host. My guess is ten thousand times ten thousand, or one hundred mil...

“They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. ‘We are going up to Jerusalem,’ he said, ‘and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise’” (Mark 10:32-34). Jesus said this on his last walk to Jerusalem. This was near Jericho where Blind Bartimaeus was healed and saved, where Zaccheus was saved, and where the rich young man refused to be saved. The prophecy was fulfilled one week later. The disciples were not paying attention. They did not hear the clear gospel. This is the same gospel that Peter preached a few weeks after the resurrection where 3,000 were saved in Acts 2. It is the gospel defined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-...

“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’” (Matt 28:18). Here we have commands from the supreme commander, the one with all authority: “ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (vv. 19-20). When Jesus was on earth, the people saw His authority: 1.     To teach (Mark 1:22). 2.     To cast out demons (Mark 1:27). 3.     To forgive sins (Mark 1:10). 4.     Over the wind and the waves (Mark 4:41). 5.     To raise the dead (Mark 5:41). 6.     To heal the sick (Mark 5:30). 7.     To not let the demons speak (Mark 1:34). 8.     “I have authority to lay it down [His life] and authority to take it up again” (John 10:...

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me— put it into practice . And the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9). This is comprehensive: everything you have learned, received, heard, or seen. Paul said something similar to the Corinthians: “I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church…Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so a...

“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20). It is relatively easy to teach and to learn the commands of God. These commands are made up of sentences that can be memorized. The Christian church has been teaching the commands for centuries. I will now misquote verse 20: "and teaching them all of the commands I commanded you." Here is it corrected: "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." I cannot teach obedience to commands as easily as I teach commands. But that is what we are told to do. How can I teach obedience? By being obedient myself. Paul did not hesitate to teach obedience this way: “Even though you have ten thousa...

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 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 9:36-38). Even without a revival, the harvest is plentiful. The shortage is in harvesters. More people apparently are ready to enter the kingdom than there are people ready to help them in. The instruction is to pray that God would send more people as workers into the harvest field. To pray that prayer should not be too difficult to do. Please pray for the many Christians who are living mediocre Christian lives. They might have many unconfessed, willful sins and also hidden, great transgressions. “Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression” (Psalm 19:13). Please pray for the overwhelming convicting p...

“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, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt. 6:31-34). This has been a favorite portion of Scripture for over forty years. It tells us, in effect, that God made us with stomachs. He knows we need food. He made us without fur. He knows we need clothes. The pagans do not seem to know this about God, so they worry. Do we want to copy the pagans when we know God? There are two requirements laid on us: ·        Don’t worry. Worry is sin, for it is unbelief in God’s faithfulness. ·        Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. This is trust in God’s fait...

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8-10). This verse tells us what you were and what you are, and from this we have two assignments: 1. Live like what you are (goodness, righteousness, and truth). 2. Find out what pleases the Lord. How do we live like children of the light? By grace! We are saved by grace. We live by grace. We are forgiven by grace. We obey by grace. How do we find out what pleases the Lord? First, want to know what pleases the Lord. Second, read the Bible looking for truths to obey by grace. Third, pray for spiritual acumen when you are reading the Bible. 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.

This is a chapter from The Heart by Bessie Wilson. You can find  The Heart on Amazon, Audible, ccmbooks.org/bookstore, and the Canon+ app. “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20). What is it that helps us set our hearts at rest in His presence? The preceding verse (verse 18) establishes the context: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” The immediate context is that if we see a brother in need and we have no pity, the question is, “How can the love of God be in us?” Years ago, just after Mother’s Day, a friend (the wife of a pastor) told me that her young daughter had defied her and gone to a public park. She was wondering how to handle this when the child returned. My friend had been folding clean laundry and was about to take it to her daughter’s room when...

Jesus said, “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29). This teaching in the New Testament is not taught often in the Christian churches today. Here is Paul’s teaching on the same subject: “I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that i...

Have you ever noticed that you have told the gospel with great clarity (with or without apologetics) to a very intelligent person and that after you have finished this clear presentation, he had no idea what you were talking about? Here are a few biblical reasons why this is: “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:14). They cannot understand because they do not have the Spirit. “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 Corinthians 4:4). They cannot see because they have been blinded by the evil one. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not...

“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...