Roots by the River

Douglas Wilson Credenda Agenda Vol. 10 No. 2 Rumor thrives in two environments. The first is obvious. When men who love to wag the tongue are so undisciplined that they refuse to confirm what they pass on, the ninth commandment is clearly broken. The environment is that which is established by the lying tongue. The world has always contained many who have loved to live in this way—and Christians condemn all such gossip, slander, libel, and wild speculation, particularly when it has to do with a "ruler of your people" (Acts 23:5). But another breeding ground for rumor exists as well, and this is why we have seen such a remarkable explosion of astounding reports in recent years. This environment for rumor is created when the courts of justice have been hopelessly compromised and corrupted, and have been turned aside from their ordained and appointed use. When this happens, it means that those who have reasonable grounds to make an accusation are prevented from doing so b...

When we read rumors and stories on the internet, we do not know if they are true. Here are my comments. First, the Scripture: “ One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Deut. 19:15). “Surely God is good to Israel,      to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;      I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant      when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles;      their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens;      they are not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace;      they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity;      their evil imaginations have no ...

“ In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed ” (Dan. 7:13-14). When Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man, He is referring to this person. The Jewish leaders knew what He was saying and did not like it. “ Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory ” (Matt. 24:30). “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoe...

I’d like to “read” to you the 73 rd Psalm. Surely God is good to Israel,      to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;      I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant      when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles;      their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens;      they are not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace;      they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity;      their evil imaginations have no limits. They scoff, and speak with malice;      with arrogance they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven,      and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to them    ...

We are approaching the time of year when we give special attention to the events that took place 1,970 years ago. This attention is given by Christians at this time because by these events we have received forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among the sanctified. The three events were Jesus’ crucifixion, His burial, and His resurrection. “From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’” (Matthew 16:21-22). “When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.’ And the disciples were filled with grief” (Matthew 17:22-23). Peter rebuked Him, then later...

God’s kind of righteousness is not passive. It has a positive effect on society. “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13) and “you are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). Righteousness is not to be ineffective. Salt that is not salty is good for nothing. Light that is hidden is not light. Men do not praise God for bad deeds in the lives of Christians. These are principles which I would like to amplify further in a more radical way. There are two events in biblical history which take these truths to two opposite extremes. One is the destruction of Sodom, and the other is the minor defeat of Israel at Ai. The stories are found in Genesis 18-19 and Joshua 6-7. In the first case, God had promised the safety of a very wicked city if there were found in the city ten righteous people. In the other case, God allowed the defeat of a righteous nation by a wicked city because there was one unrighteous man in the camp. Thirty-six other men were killed because of this man’s unrighteou...

Dear Joe, Before I continue, I want you to know that I have always loved you and respected you. This love and respect have been separate from your performance; nevertheless, it is real. The following are perceptions of mine. I do not think they have been automatic causes in your slowing down in your journey toward God, but they have had some effect. ·        You are competitive. ·        You have been a perfectionist in the past. ·        You have been a subject of flattery in the past. ·        You have had a desire for wealth in the past. ·        You were not spiritually ready when you got married, nor did you catch up after you got married. If these perceptions are true, so what? You and your wife have had thousands of incidents in your life together that seem more important than these six thoughts. Whether she wanted...

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church” (Eph. 5:25-29). Note the last verse. The KJV says “nourishes and cherishes.” In Ephesians 6, Paul says that children are to be nurtured and admonished . Wives are to be nourished and cherished . Children are to be nourished and admonished. You must admonish your children. You must cherish your wife. You may not admonish your wife. If there is some moral infraction on her part, then you should handle it in the light of Galatians 6:1: “Brothers, if someone is caught in...

Some time ago, I received this question: “Why did you start your own church when you moved to Moscow? I am working in ministry in my church, but I am considering being a pastor. How do I know if I should leave this church to start my own or stay and keep trying to minister to the people here?” We came out to Idaho from Michigan to spy out the land in February 1971. In October ’72, fifteen months after we arrived, I was asked to substitute at the Grange church, which my family had been attending. In the meantime, we had been holding an afternoon house church in our home. In 1976, we shut down the afternoon house church because we did not want to compete with Community Evangelical Fellowship, the Moscow church that we started from the Grange in September 1975 because the congregation there was growing. The Grange grew and divided/planted again in 1976. I pastored both churches in Pullman for one year until another pastor was able to join us. The other church I pastored until I retir...

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:5-8). “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicke...

“Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns” (Jeremiah 4:3). The Lord’s instruction to Judah through Jeremiah was spiritual instruction. He wasn’t speaking about farming. The Bible is wonderful in its clarity, and we can be awfully obtuse in our understanding. We do not operate like good farmers. We are like a three-year-old child who plants a bean and digs it up every day to see if it is growing. We have a Jack-and-the-Beanstalk view of sowing. We expect a giant plant the next morning. We are impatient for the harvest, so we are impatient in our sowing. We sow in unplowed, undisced, and unharrowed ground. We sow in weeds. We sow in the rocks and on hard ground. We wonder why no harvest. The harvest is dependent on sowing, which is dependent on us. It is also dependent upon the ground. The kind of ground is, in a sense, dependent on us. “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among the thorns” speaks of the need for cultivation. Good, soft ground with no rocks and no...

“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. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:1-4). It looks as if the time has come. The sound doctrine that cannot be endured is simple, basic, true, and shows up in verses like the following: “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:...

1 Timothy 1:15:          “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.” That means pay attention . “Christ Jesus…” Who He is!       “…came into this world to save sinners…” The only reason for His birth in Bethlehem. “…of whom I am the worst.” This is not false humility. This is an inspired statement.     “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life.” One of the specific reasons why God saved Paul is given here: Paul was the worst of sinners. When you are witnessing to someone who wants to believe, he may say that he is too bad and that Christ will not have patience with him. That is not true because Christ had already exercised unlimited patience for the worst of sinners. Christ’s unlimited patience for Paul is an example for those who would be...

“It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to a song of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:5). It may have been always so, but at present we seem to have plenty of songs from many fools. We also seem to be short on wise men. The greatest shortage, however, is in heeders . A heeder is one who listens (pays attention) and obeys what he has heard. James said it this way: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). In my early Christian life, I memorized many verses of Scripture. I succeeded in deceiving myself . I was not obeying; I was not heeding. I thought I was spiritual. Being a listener is a dangerous position to be in. There are many good teachers of the Word. There are many more listeners. They flock to good teachers. The teacher should not be pleased that he has many listeners, unless he is going to teach them how to be heeders . This is one of the clear requirements in the Great Commission: “…teaching them to obey every...

Some time ago, I received this question: “Someone told me that I am emotionally dependent. Is that like being addicted to someone? What is the cure for emotional dependency?” You may be emotionally dependent, obsessive, or “addicted” to someone, but you should not think in these terms. As soon as you define yourself that way, you have hindered the cure. You end up focusing on the problem. Here is the solution. It requires some homework. ·        Think of yourself as a child of God. ·        “ His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). Believe it. ·        Realize where you are in Jesus Christ. Read Ephesians 1:13 through chapter 3 and Colossians 1 and 2. Do not think about doing . Think about being . Look at what these passages say you are in Christ. ·     ...

“Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up” (Romans 15:2). I want. I need. I desire. I deserve. These are much different expressions than he needs or she needs . We think in terms of another person’s needs if they are negative, as in, “He needs a spanking,” or “He deserves to go to Hell.” Both of these may be true, but the text is speaking about what pleases and builds up the other person , rather than what pleases us . We see the same in a different way in Ephesians 4:29: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” What we do and what we speak should be only for the other person’s benefit, not for our own. 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.

“I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness” (Romans 6:19). Notice that righteousness leads to holiness . “To rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:74-75). Jesus is our “enabler.” He does not enable us to continue in sin, but the opposite, holiness and righteousness. He does this all our days. Righteousness is purity that comes from God when we receive Jesus Christ. We are cleansed from our sin. Holiness is also pure. However, it does not cleanse us. It does not take place until after we are clean. Holiness is not getting dirty. Holiness starts out being clean by the righteousness that comes from God. Most of my life has been spent getting people righteous with the gospel a...

  “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). Notice the word “completely.” Apparently, it is possible to be completely humble and gentle. We see it Philippians 2:5-7 as well: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” ·        Made Himself nothing. ·        Humbled himself and became obedient to death. ·        Even death on the cross. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” We are to be humble, completely humble, just like Jesus. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Get into the humility harness with Jesus. Thi...

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. Blessed is ...

Every day, I come across verses of Scripture I want to preach, proclaim, shout, or sing. Here is one: “An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin” (Psalm 36:1-2). This is such a good description of the sinfulness of the wicked. The wicked man cannot see, much less hate his own sin. The reason is that he flatters himself. This is the ultimate expression of selfishness and self-conceit. 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.